Amira K. Bennison
Autore di The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the 'Abbasid Empire
Sull'Autore
Amira K. Bennison is senior lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Opere di Amira K. Bennison
Etichette
Informazioni generali
Utenti
Recensioni
Liste
Statistiche
- Opere
- 5
- Utenti
- 142
- Popolarità
- #144,865
- Voto
- 2.9
- Recensioni
- 2
- ISBN
- 19
Bennison delivers on that front; while their Andalusian involvement is given prominent place, as is indeed appropriate, their Maghribi heartlands are given centre stage. Unfortunately, the Almoravids' Saharan and Sahelian domains receive little attention, but our author cannot be faulted for that, being at the mercy of sources that lose interest in southern affairs after the early years of the Almoravids.
Organizationally, the book devotes a chapter each to a narrative history of each empire, focusing on the politcal scene, followed by thematic chapters about society, economy, religion and ideology, and art and architecture. It was a pleasure to read.
If Bennison has a thesis, it's that the Almoravids and Almohads weren't simply puritanical fanatics from the tribal fringe; while indeed coming from the fringe, they absorbed and adapted cultural and political forms from the past and created new syntheses, integrating the western Maghrib into the Islamic mainstream in the process.… (altro)