Abbasids

The purpose of this work is to provide a political narrative of the Abbasid dynasty during the 11ᵗʰ and 12ᵗʰ centuries showing that the caliphs were key figures in the political-cultural arena rather than impotent puppets as we have often portrayed them in the secondary literatu…

Under the Umayyads, Muslims came into direct contact with Turks in their homeland which lay east of Khurasän and Transoxania. However, after the Turks had submitted to the Islamic state, the Caliphs, in particular the Abbasid Caliphs, began to employ them in various roles such a…

This study analyzes early Islamic historical accounts (ca. AD 750-1050) of encounters between the Arabs of the Jahiliyya and the formative Muslim community, and the Sasanian kings and nobility as a reflection of the issues and concerns affecting the Muslim elite class of the `Ab…

This dissertation examines the impacts of apocalyptic expectations and movements through a historical study of the fourth Civil War and the Reign of al-Ma'mun from 193 AH/808 CE to 218 AH/833 CE. Most studies of this period have looked at religiosity and apocalypticism as periph…

Problem. Normative Islamic tradition has come to understand the Qur'an as the inimitable and uncreated word of God. And, unlike Moses' Tawrat or Jesus' Injil, which were corrupted by later generations of Jews and Christians, the message that Muhammad received is believed to have…