To accompany the existing Index of Terms, Brill has prepared an Index of Subjects, intended as an extra aid when using the Encyclopaedia of Islam. The sheer amount of information contained in the EI, and the fact that the entries are given in their Arabic form, require a good deal of searching on the part of the user, which the Index of Persons can only partially alleviate. The Index of Subjects aims to lighten the user's work by providing a guide to the EI in the form of a thesaurus. Entries are given in English and are followed by the titles of the relevant EI-articles, as...

The 20 years' caliphate of al-Ma'mum began as a stormy period in Middle Eastern history; after the comparatively peaceful reign of his father Harun al-Rashid, the caliphate was plunged into violent civil warfare in both Iraq and Arabia, involving the sons of al-Rashid, rivals for the supreme authority, and various other sectarian rebels and aspirants for power. Yet once peace was secured and the caliphate lands united once more, al-Ma'mum's reign settled down into one of the most exciting and innovative of the mediaeval caliphate. The Caliph himself was a highly cultivated man who possessed a...

Abu'l-Fa l Beyhaqi, a secretary at the court of a number of Ghaznavid rulers in eastern Iran and Afghanistan in the early middle ages, is a most perceptive, as well as intriguing, commentator on the history of the Islamic Near East. The surviving volumes of his massive project, dealing in depth with the years 1030-41, combine astute criticism and wry humor with an unobtrusive display of mastery of the learned literature of the time, both in Arabic and Persian. Through a deft manipulation of different styles, and timely introduction of the authorial voice as a framing device to bring a sense...

Abu'l-Fa l Beyhaqi, a secretary at the court of a number of Ghaznavid rulers in eastern Iran and Afghanistan in the early middle ages, is a most perceptive, as well as intriguing, commentator on the history of the Islamic Near East. The surviving volumes of his massive project, dealing in depth with the years 1030-41, combine astute criticism and wry humor with an unobtrusive display of mastery of the learned literature of the time, both in Arabic and Persian. Through a deft manipulation of different styles, and timely introduction of the authorial voice as a framing device to bring a sense...

Abu'l-Fa l Beyhaqi, a secretary at the court of a number of Ghaznavid rulers in eastern Iran and Afghanistan in the early middle ages, is a most perceptive, as well as intriguing, commentator on the history of the Islamic Near East. The surviving volumes of his massive project, dealing in depth with the years 1030-41, combine astute criticism and wry humor with an unobtrusive display of mastery of the learned literature of the time, both in Arabic and Persian. Through a deft manipulation of different styles, and timely introduction of the authorial voice as a framing device to bring a sense...

This collection of studies on the Arab-Persian medieval Islamic world focuses on historical, religious, cultural and literary aspects of the region from pre-Islamic times to the 15th century. Topics include the Arab caliphate and the successor dynasties, and Muslim perceptions of other faiths.