The evolution of the Arab empire is one of the supreme narratives of ancient history, a story dazzlingly rich in drama, character, and achievement. In this exciting and sweeping history—the third in his trilogy of books on the ancient world—Tom Holland describes how the Arabs emerged to carve out a stupefyingly vast dominion in a matter of decades, overcoming seemingly insuperable odds to create an imperial civilization. With profound...

A history of the rich and diverse civilizations over fifteen centuries of Islam seen through its greatest cities.

Islam is one of the world's major religions, and in ancient times, the Islamic world was one of the world's major societies. This title provides a sweeping look at the important contributions people of the Islamic world made to learning, architecture, trade, the military, and religion. Readers will learn about the “birth” of Islam through the height of Islamic rule, life in the Ottoman Empire, and the culture's decline. Coverage of architecture,...

When Nardeen's home is stormed by angry men frantically in search of something - or someone - she is the only one who manages to escape. And after the rest of her family is left behind and murdered, Nardeen sets out on an unyielding mission to bring her family's killers to justice, regardless of the cost...

For approximately six hundred years after the death of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, the Muslim community formed a cohesive state called the Caliphate. This book follows the four distinct Caliphates (Rightly Guided, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid) through their periods of leadership, to the state's prolonged downfall at the hands of the Seljuqs and the Crusaders, and its ultimate defeat by the Ottoman Empire. This text includes a focus on contributions...

"In 1119, the people of the Near East came together in an epic clash of horses, swords, sand, and blood that would decide the fate of the city of the Aleppo--and the eastern Crusader states. Fought between tribal Turkish warriors on steppe ponies, Arab foot soldiers, Armenian bowmen, and European knights, the battlefield was the amphitheatre into which the people of Eurasia poured their full gladiatorial might. Carrying a piece of the true cross before...

Today's Arab world was created at breathtaking speed. In just over one hundred years following the death of Mohammed in 632, Arabs had subjugated a territory with an east-west expanse greater than the Roman Empire, and they did it in about one-half the time. By the mid-eighth century, Arab armies had conquered the thousand-year-old Persian Empire, reduced the Byzantine Empire to little more than a city-state based around Constantinople, and destroyed...

Discusses the history of the world from an Islamic perspective, explaining the evolution of the Muslim community while recounting the history of the Western world with respect to Islamic events and interpretations. "We in the west share a common narrative of world history -- that runs from the Nile Valley and Mesopotomia, through Greece and Rome and the French Revolution, to the rise of the secular state and the triumph of democracy. But our story...