Life In The Medieval Muslim World

Specifications

8" X 10"; 96 pages; Library Binding

Interest/Age Group

Grades 6+

Special Features

Glossary; Bibliography; Guide to Further Reading; Web Sites; Sources for Quotations; Index

About the Series
At its high point, from the end of the eighth century to the middle of the thirteenth, the Dar al-Islam— the Abode of Islam—stretched from Spain to the borders of India. This period is often called the Golden Age of Islam. What made it a "golden age," however, was not merely its geographic reach (the borders of Islam would continue to expand) but the contributions this vibrant era made to world civilization. United by a common tongue, Arabic, and a devotion to their holy book, the Qur’an, the diverse peoples of the Middle East—Arabs, Turks, Persians, and others—created an urbane, cultured society that brought new light into a dark world. The Roman Empire had long since expired. The knowledge and skills of the ancient world lay buried among its ashes. It would take Muslim scholars, physicians, poets, musicians, architects, mathematicians—lovers of learning and the arts of all kinds—to unearth the treasured knowledge of the past and build upon it.

There often was conflict between the Dar al-Islam and Christian medieval Europe. Yet there was also a great deal of peaceful interchange between the two in many ways, to the lasting benefit of European civilization. And, at various times and in various places in the medieval Muslim world, Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived side by side in an atmosphere of tolerance seldom found elsewhere in the past. In the present, too, we can find much to learn from both the successes and the struggles of the Dar al-Islam in the Middle Ages.