Great Ages of Man - Early Islam

200 Pages·1967·32.2 MB·English

by  Desmond Stewart

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EARLY ISLAM
TIME
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THEARTOFSEWING
THEOLDWEST
THEEMERGENCEOFMAN
THEAMERICANWILDERNESS
THETIME-LIFEENCYCLOPEDIAOFGARDENING
LIFELIBRARYOFPHOTOGRAPHY
THISFABULOUSCENTURY
FOODSOFTHEWORLD
TIME-LIFELIBRARYOFAMERICA
TIME-LIFELIBRARYOFART
GREATAGESOFMAN
LIFESCIENCELIBRARY
THELIFEHISTORYOFTHEIJNITEDSTATES
TIMEREADINGPROGRAM
LIFENATURELIBRARY
LIFEWORLDLIBRARY
FAMILYLIBRARY:
THETIME-LIFEBCX3KOFTHEFAMILYCAR
THETIME-LIFEFAMILYLEGALGUIDE
THETIME-LIFEBOOKOFFAMILYFINANCE
GREAT AGES OF MAN
A
History of the World's Cultures
EARLY ISLAM
by
DESMOND STEWART
and
The Editors of TIME-LIFE BOOKS
TIME-LIFE BOOKS, NEW YORK
TIME-LIFEBOOKS
FOUNDER: HenryR. Luce1808-1967
Editor-in-Chief: HedleyDonovan
ChairmanoftheBoard: AndrewHeiskell THE AUTHOR: Desmond Stewart is a British
President: JamesR.Shepley writerwhoformanyyearshaslivedandtraveled
Chairman,ExecutiveCommittee: JamesA.Linen widely in the Middle East. He completed his
CroupVicePresident: RhettAustell studies as a classical scholar at Oxford in 1948;
ViceChairman: RoyE.Larsen in the same year he received an appointment as
ProfessorofLiteraturefromtheIraqiMinistryof
MANAGINGEDITOR:JerryKorn Education, and subsequently taughtin Lebanon.
AssistantManagingEditors: DavidManess, HehascontributedarticlesonMiddleEasternaf-
MartinMann,A.B.C.Whipple fairs toBritishandAmericanpublicationsandis
PlanningDirector:OliverE Allen theauthorof TheArabWorldand Turkeyinthe
ArtDirector: SheldonCotler Life World Library. He has also written a
ChiefofResearch: BeatriceT.Dobie number of novels.
DirectorofPhotography: MelvinL Scott
SeniorTextEditor: DianaHirsh
AssistantArtDirector: ArnoldC Holeywell THECONSULTINGEDITOR:LeonardKrieger,
PUBLISHER:JoanD-Manley ProfessorofHistoryatColumbiaUniversity,was
GeneralManager: JohnD McSweeney formerly Professor of History at Yale. Dr. Krie-
BusinessManager: JohnStevenMaxwell geristheauthorof TheGermanIdeaoffreedom
SalesDirector:CarlG Jaeger and The Politics ofDiscretion and co-author of
promotionDirector: PaulR,Stewart History, written incollaborationwith John Hig-
PublicRelationsDirector: NicholasBenton ham and FelixGilbert.
GREATAGESOF MAN
SERIESEDITOR: RussellBournc THE COVER: The title page of The Quintet, a
DeputyEditor:CarlottaKerwin
collection of Persian poems, shows angels sur-
AssistantEditor:BetsyFrankel
EditorialStaffforEarlyIslam: roundinga medallion inwhich each poem's title
TextEditor: WilliamLonggood is ornately inscribed.
PictureEditor: JeanTennant
Designer: NormanSnyder
AssistantDesigner: LadislavSvatos
StaffWriters:SamHalper.EdmundWhite ThefollowingindividualsanddepartmentsofTimeInc.gave
ChiefResearcher: PeggyBushong valuableaidinthepreparationofthisbook;EditorialProduc-
Researchers: JacquelineBoel,SigridvonHuene. tion, Norman Airey: Library. Benjamin Lightman. Picture
AliceBaker,CarolIsenberg.JamesMaHood, Collection. Doris O'Neil; Photographic Laboratory, George
KayeNeii.NancyC.Newman,PaulaNorworth, Karas; Time-Life News Service, Murray J. Gart; Correspon-
HimilceNovas,RheaPadis,ArleneZuckerman dentsMariaVincenzaAloisi(Paris),BarbaraMoirandMargot
ArtAssistant: AnneLandry Hapgood(London),AnnNatanson(Rome),ElisabethKraemer
and Lexi Blomeyer (Bonn), Traudl Lessing (Vienna), Helga
EDITORIALPRODUCTION Kohl (Athens), Charles Lanius (Istanbul) and Andrzej Glo-
productionEditor: DouglasB.Graham wacz(Cracow),
Assistant: GennaroC.Esposito
QualityDirector: RobertL Young © 1967TimeInc.Allrights reserved.
Assistant: JamesJ.Cox PublishedsimultaneouslyinCanada.Reprinted1974.
CopyStaff: RosalindStubenberg(chief), LibraryofCongresscataloguecardnumber67-27863.
BarbaraHulls.FlorenceKeith Schoolandlibrarydistribution by
PictureDepartment: DoloresA.Littles,JoanLynch SilverBurdettCompany.Morristown,NewJersey.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
A Messenger from God
lo
1
PictureEssay: 'THE PROPHETS PROGRESS" 21
2 Five Pillars of Faith 30
PictureEssay: DESERTSANCTUARIES 41
A
Time of Conquest 52
3
PictureEssay: REACHESOF EMPIRE 65
4 The Golden Age
78
PictureEssay: AMUSLIMSLIFE 89
An Art of Many Peoples loo
5
PictureEssay: CRAFTSMEN'STREASURES 111
6 The Scientist-Philosophers 120
PictureEssay: A PERSIAN BESTIARY 131
7 From Spain to Sumatra 140
PictureEssay: PATTERNSOF AN ENCHANTEDPALACE 149
A
8 Durable Religion 162
PictureEssay: ISLAM'S MAGICCARPETS 171
Chronologies,183
Bibliography,acknowledgments, 186
Creditsandartnotes, 187
Index, 188