Search results for ""Author Michael Brett""

This is a new history showing the significance of the empire to Islam and the wider world. From the 10th century to the end of the 12th century, the Fatimid Empire played a central, yet controversial, role in the history of Islam. This definitive account combines the histories of Isma'ilism, North Africa and Egypt with that of the dynasty. By relating it to the wider history of Islam, the Crusades and its theocratic counterparts in Byzantium and Western Europe, Brett shows the full historical significance of the empire. Topics covered include: the work of Ibn Khaldun; the relationship of tribal to civilian economy and society; the formation and evolution of the dynastic state; the relationship of the dynastic state to economy and society; and, questions of cultural change, specifically Arabisation and Islamisation. It is a full narrative history of the Fatimid empire for students and academics of Islamic studies, Middle Eastern studies and history. It comes with an overarching emphasis on the three key themes studied on Islamic Studies courses: empire, authority and religion, and the interaction between them. It covers everything from political, military and cultural events to the arts, learning and knowledge. It offers a sweeping geographic scope: follows the expansion of the empire into Asia, Africa and Europe. Confused about who's who? You can find lists of the rulers, dynasties and genealogies for quick reference* Helpful features for students include chronologies, timelines, glossaries, guides to further reading and boxed inserts with brief essays that give more detail about special events, key people and more

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Explores how the conception of Africa and its history has changed over time and narrates the story of this vast continent over the past 10,000 years. Africa is a huge continent, as large as the more habitable areas of Europe and Asia put together. It has a history immensely long, yet the study of that history as an academic discipline in its own right is little more than fiftyyears old. Since then the subject has grown enormously, but the question of what this history is and how it has been approached still needs to be asked, not least to answer the question of why should we study it. This book takes as its subject the last 10,000 years of African history, and traces the way in which human society on the continent has evolved from communities of hunters and gatherers to the complex populations of today. Approaching that history through its various dimensions: archaeological, ethnographic, written, scriptural, European and contemporary, it looks at how the history of such a vast region over such a length of time has been conceived and presented, and how it is to be investigated. The problem itself is historical, and an integral part of the history with which it is concerned, beginning with the changing awareness over the centuries of what Africa might be. MichaelBrett thus traces the history of Africa not only on the ground, but also in the mind, in order to make his own historical contribution to the debate. Michael Brett is Emeritus Reader in the History of North Africa at SOAS.

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The Berbers provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the Berber-speaking peoples.

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