Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The unification of large parts of the Mediterranean the Middle East and the Indian Ocean by the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates was a cultural technological and economic as well as a political achievement. The use of the Arabic language played an important role: throughout the Islamic world the Koranic prayers were recited and written in Arabic and believers shared a common body of family and civil law. Islam revitalized old cities and founded new ones. Both Medina and Mecca attracted a huge number of pilgrims each year while Damascus became the first Islamic capital under the Umayyads greatly enlarged by successive caliphs. Under the Abbasids the capital shifted to Baghdad the first planned capital city to be built by Muslims. The Islamic world’s great cities includ- ed Basra Alexandria Fustat Cairo Tunis and C?rdoba. The urban gravitation of Islamic expansion was sustained through the creation of agricultural surplus achieved by bringing new land under cultivation and reviving existing regions of production. (SP)