"The reading public's interest in Islam and Islamic civilization has never been higher or more significant. So the need for a nuanced, comprehensive narrative history of Islam in its classical age that is both very learned and accessible has never been greater. With Islam in the Middle Ages: The Origins and Shaping of Classical Islamic History, Michael Bonner and Jacob Lassner deliver a work that is breathtaking in its depth and scope and exacting in its attention to detail and the problems of intepretation. Here are two gifted scholars at the top of their form, in command of the primary sources and in control of various methods of social-historical and religious-historical study required to provide the reader with a narrative history of Islam in its classical age. It is necessary reading for the public, students and scholars." -- Ross Brann, Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies Cornell University "There is no doubt that Jacob Lassner and Michael Bonner are two of the currently most adept historians of early Islam. In Islam in the Middle Ages they have successfully and very accessibly given an account of the origins and early development of classical Islamic civilization, including insightful discussions of the major cultural components of the polity. Particularly striking is the deft way they have informatively charted their course through the maelstrom that currently roils the historiography of early Islam; Lassner and Bonner have fairly assessed the situation and given a succinct account of how the historian might reasonably move forward. Their book should soon become a standard text for courses in Islamic history; I expect to adopt it for my own, undergraduate course in Islamic Origins." -- Sidney H. Griffith, Professor at the Institute of Christian Oriental Research in The Catholic University of America
JACOB LASSNER is Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Professor of
Jewish Civilization at Northwestern University. He specializes in
medieval Near Eastern History with an emphasis on urban structures,
political culture, and the background to Jewish-Muslim
relations.
Michael Bonner is professor of medieval Islamic history in the
Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, MI. He received his PhD in the Department of Near Eastern
Studies, Princeton University, in 1987. His recent publications
include Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practices (2006)
and Poverty and Charity in Middle Eastern Contexts, co-edited with
Amy Singer and Mine Ener (2003). He has been a Helmut S. Stern
fellow at the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities
and professeur invité at the Institut d'Etudes de l'Islam et des
Sociétés du Monde Musulman, École des Hautes Études en Sciences
Sociales, Paris, France and of Chaire de l'Institut du Monde Arabe,
also in Paris. He was director of the University of Michigan Center
for Middle Eastern and North African Studies in 1997-2000 and
2001-2003, and acting chair of the Department of Near Eastern
Studies in 2007-08.
This fresh look at the first four centuries of lslam is a valuable
introduction to the subject. . . . The story is told clearly and
insightfully, with relevance for the nonspecialist reader.
*Saudi Aramco World*
Lassner (emeritus Jewish civilization, Northwestern U., Illinois)
and Bonner (Medieval Islamic history, U. of Michigan-Ann Arbor)
boil down the extensive temporal, geographic, and cultural breadth
of Islam into an overview for general readers of the religion
during the Middle Ages of Christian Europe. Most of their treatment
is chronological, describing such stages of the history and Arabia
on the eve of Islam, the Prophet's mission in Mecca and Medina, the
ummah becomes an Arab kingdom, Alids versus Abbasids and Shi'ites
versus Sunnites, and the end of the formative period of Medieval
Islam. The final section explores various aspects of the religion,
including the Qur'an and its commentators, the formation of Islamic
law and legal tradition, and Islamic theology and popular
religion.
*Reference & Research Book News*
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