Book Review

Bennison, A. K. (2014). The great caliphs: The golden age of the 'Abbasid
Empire. New Haven
[etc.: Yale University.

Bennison Amiras The Great Caliphs examines on her book the

contradiction that all people know is that Islam disrupt or cut the flow of
western civilization from Roman Origins to its later European and American
appearances. In fact, Dr. Amira Bennison examines the long trajectory of
the Islamic civilization had took in the Mediterranean. Also, she identify the
Abbasid Empire that took time from 750 to 900 CE as the decoder of the
Roman and the Greek culture. However, the book is considered as the best
way to discover the culture of the Islamic Empire in all the periods that
took place. The book contains six chapters, and each chapter covers
interesting topics such as: The legacy of the caliphate, Politics, social
history, scientific commitments.
It is very known that the Muslim world delighted a brilliant age of
financial and social accomplishment in the four centuries after the passing
of the Prophet Muhammad. People attract thoughtfulness regarding the
way that Islamic states were considerably more progressed and edified
than Europe. While it is positively appropriate to put a question in these
simple presumptions and call attention to that in a few innovations,
transport building and sword-production for instance, the general
population of Latin Christendom were quickly outperforming their Muslim
neighbors, there can be undoubtedly in many ranges of pre-modern day
human action, the Muslim world demonstrated a colossal assortment and
essentialness of accomplishment. In general, the book tend to succeeds in
achieving its goal. This is the accomplishment Amira Bennison's book
looks to portray and enliven. She begins off with a section sketching out
political history, which she takes from the most punctual days of Islam up
to the season of the Crusades. It is truly the Abbasid caliphate from 750 to
around 900 that structures the center of this enthusiastic and engaging
work. The author used the word Abbasid a lot in her book so that she can
easily put us in the vision of this period and recognize the names in that
period. It is especially fascinating to understand and learn more about the
Abbasid period (750-1258) when Islam is recognized by its most intense
disciples and also by its Western depreciators as a framework related with
the pursuit for doctrinal virtue and predominance against non-Muslims.
The author indicates well how focal urban life was to the Abbasid domain
from Iberia to India, with Baghdad at its heart, and with it every one of
that urban areas can offer: discussion, books, schools, poetry,
performance and luxurious merchandise. There was an incredible
mindfulness among researchers and rulers that from Baghdad could be
tackled the forces of east and west, the Near East and Asia, the
Mediterranean, the sciences of Europe. In fact, the book treats a lot of
domains that were not happened in the Abbasid period. However, the
whole text were about Spain, the Umayyad, and the North Africa in
general. The author deals in her book by bringing a research on some
Islamic cities like Samara in order to describe the wonderful political and
urban history. One leaves away with the feeling that in spite of the fact
that caliphates did not keep going long politically, they lastingly affected
financial and social development in the Mediterranean. The Fatimids and
the Umayyads prepared a background to protect commerce program, and
more certainty amid minorities regarding independence, which just started
to waver with the decay of the caliphates. In the last section, the author
swings to the intellectual life. She focuses on the immense assortment of
social practices, from the investigation of the Qur'an and the beliefs of the
Prophet which shape the establishments of Islamic law, the Sharia, to the
development to decode works of Greek science and prescription into
Arabic.
The Great Caliphs will be a great source for researchers and
students who tend to learn about the Islamic civilization and the long
trajectory that it took in the Mediterranean. All in all, its parts tend to give
a lot of important informations that cover some interesting topics like
politics, the legacy of the caliphate, art and so one. Therefore, one should
have at least a background on the history of the Islamic civilization before
reading this book because it contains a lot of difficult words that person
might not know.
This book is clearly composed, in light of a wide and different scope
of sources and offers a convincing yet nuanced comprehension of the
civilization of the Abbasid authority. However, the political history is
fundamental however delivering with names and points of interest which
will be new and most likely forgettable to numerous readers. Also, the
footnoting of the book is not rich and does not seek to real contributions or
commitments in the field. It would have been so much useful to have a
large footnoting that contains valuable information to make the reader
seek to understand some concepts. Still, she has an engaging style and a
method for utilizing short concentrates from unique Arabic sources to
bring specific elements. In a book of this size it is inescapable that a few
parts of this incredible civilization will be dealt with decently carelessly
however it will be the main port of call for anybody searching for a
prologue to the 'brilliant period of Islam'.