Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh CenturyOUP Oxford, 2010 M06 10 - 576 pages James Howard-Johnston provides a sweeping and highly readable account of probably the most dramatic single episode in world history - the emergence of a new religion (Islam), the destruction of two established great powers (Roman and Iranian), and the creation of a new world empire by the Arabs, all in the space of not much more than a generation (610-52 AD). Warfare looms large, especially where operations can be followed in some detail, as in Iraq 636-40, in Egypt 641-2 and in the long-drawn out battle for the Mediterranean (649-98). As the first history of the formative phase of Islam to be grounded in the important non-Islamic as well as Islamic sources Witnesses to a World Crisis is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand Islam as a religion and political force, the modern Middle East, and the jihadist impulse, which is as evident today as it was in the seventh century. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 George of Pisidia | 16 |
2 Two Universal Chronicles | 36 |
The History of Khosrov | 70 |
The History to the Year 682 and the Khuzistan Chronicle | 103 |
5 Supplementary Roman Sources of the Seventh Century I | 138 |
6 Supplementary Roman Sources of the Seventh Century II | 163 |
The West Syrian Tradition | 192 |
11 Early Islamic Historical Writing | 354 |
12 The Life of the Prophet | 395 |
13 Historians of the Middle East in the Seventh Century | 419 |
The Great Powers Arabia and the Prophet | 436 |
Arab Conquests | 461 |
A New World Order | 488 |
Conclusion | 517 |
| 531 | |
Other editions - View all
Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in ... James Howard-Johnston No preview available - 2010 |
Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in ... James Howard-Johnston No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
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