Classical Arab Islam

The Culture and Heritage of the Golden Age

by Tarif Khalidi

About the Book:

    This book, a milestone of Islamic scholarship, calls attention to those aspects of Arab Islamic culture that excite modern controversy. Professor Khalidi examines the classical period, when the basic cultural patterns of Islamic civilization were established, the various branches of religious and nonreligious scholarship defined, and the religious life-styles had become embedded in the subconscious of an ancient society. The topics covered are:

The Foundations

God and His Community

Islamic Paideia

Attitudes Towards the past

The Mystic Quest

The Place of Reason

The World of Nature

The Governance of the Umma

Ibn Khaldun--The Great Synthesist

Past and Present in Contemporary Arabic Thought

About the Author:

    Tarif Khalidi is Sir Thomas Adams Professor of Arabic, Cambridge University. Educated at Oxford University and the University of Chicago (Ph.D.), he is the author of Islamic Historiography and editor of Land Tenure and Social Transformation in the Middle East.

Reviews:

A thoughtful book, and one that will repay reading. . . . Here there is both spirit and sense. . . . Recommended strongly for undergraduate reading lists was well as for general libraries.

—Choice

Students will find this book stimulating and the bibliographical essay a useful guide to the literature relevant to each lecture.

—Mesa Bulletin

A significant contribution to Western understanding of the Arab World.

—The Middle East Journal

Publication date: 1996

Bibliographical essay; glossary; index

Size: 6 x 9 (15.2 x 22.9 cm); 158 pages

CIP L.C. 84-070416

ISBN 978-0-87850-047-5 (hardbound) $19.95  (Out of print)

ISBN 978-0-87850-048-2 (paperbound)  $16.95  Buy it at Amazon.com!