A Concise History of the Middle East

Theology • 123 and tooled-leather bookbindings. You have doubtless seen some "oriental" carpets. Most of the genuine ones were w ...

124 • 8 ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION His writings influenced a major theologian named al-Ash'ari (d. 935). Though trained as a Mu'tazili ...

Theology • 125 Ahmad ibn Hanbal H istorians differ on Ahmad ibn Hanbal's (780-855) place of birth. Some state that he was born i ...

126 • 8 ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION spread to Central Asia, Anatolia, southeastern Europe, India, Indonesia, and Africa south of the Sa ...

Conclusion • 127 mosques and the design of refreshing gardens, and the formulation of lofty theological and philosophical ideas. ...

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NINE Firearms, Slaves, and Empires Because we tend to equate the history of the Middle East with that of the Arabs, we assume th ...

130 • 9 FIREARMS, SLAVES, AND EMPIRES and protected themselves with plated armor and walled castles. The states that successfull ...

The Mamluks • 131 jar al-Durr the new sultan—one of the few times in Islamic history that a woman has ruled in her own name—but ...

132 • 9 FIREARMS, SLAVES, AND EMPIRES army or the bureaucracy. In remote Middle Eastern areas—the Central Asian steppes (home of ...

\ BYZANTINE BLACK EMPIRE 1 onstantinopjp "^ Aoqut TRANSOXIANA •sHiiiHiijaift) \j Il-Khanids I Turkish Principalities . ' I ' I ' ...

134 • 9 FIREARMS, SLAVES, AND EMPIRES The Decline of the Mamluks In time, however, favoritism replaced advancement by ability, t ...

The Mongol Il-Khanids • 135 would seek him in Ethiopia. Driven by this strange combination of hope and fear, the popes of this e ...

136 • 9 FIREARMS, SLAVES, AND EMPIRES (r. 1304-1317), which supports a dome 250 feet (75 meters) high. This mausoleum stood in w ...

Gunpowder Technology • 137 empire to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Then, leaving the Middle East, he turned against In ...

138 • 9 FIREARMS, SLAVES, AND EMPIRES Carlo M. Cipolla's Guns, Sails, and Empires shows how the development of gunpowder weapons ...

The Ottoman Empire • 139 (1) Osman I (ca. 1280-1326) I (2)0rhan 1(1326-1360) I (3)Murad 1(1360-1389) I (4)Bayezid 1(1389-1402) | ...

140 • 9 FIREARMS, SLAVES, AND EMPIRES westward from their ancestral lands in Khurasan to escape from Mongol invaders in the thir ...

The Ottoman Empire ••• 141 Osman's iqta at Sogut may have been tiny, but it was well situated on a hill overlooking Byzantine la ...

142 • 9 FIREARMS, SLAVES, AND EMPIRES O rhan (1288-1360) was the son of Osman, founder of the Ottoman dy¬ nasty. He took over th ...