This is a fascinating, broad-ranging survey of the rich
history and culture of the Muslim world, featuring primary
documents from the era of Muhammad to the present, newly revised
and expanded to include recent dramatic events. The Muslim world is
tremendously rich and diverse, yet few Westerners are familiar with
the writings and teachings of a culture that is at the forefront of
world events. In their insightful anthology "The Middle East and
Islamic World Reader", historians Marvin E. Gettleman and Stuart
Schaar have assembled a broad selection of documents and
contemporary scholarship to give a view of the history of the
peoples from the core Islamic lands, from the Golden Age of Islam
to today. With carefully framed essays beginning each chapter and
brief introductory notes accompanying over seventy readings, the
anthology reveals the multifaceted societies and political systems
of the Islamic world. Selections range from theological texts
illuminating the differences between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, to
diplomatic exchanges and state papers, to memoirs and literary
works, to manifestos of Islamic radicals. This anthology spans the
distance from Tunisia to India through writings by such key figures
as the early Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun, Turkish founding father
Kemal Ataturk, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, and the Iranian
revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The readings chart the
effects of the Islamic world''s interactions with outsiders - from
the invasions of Central Asian nomads and crusading Europeans in
the Middle Ages, to European colonization in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries - as well as its own internal evolution,
through accounts of peasants, urban workers, and the experience of
Muslim women. This newly revised and expanded edition covers the
dramatic changes in the region since 2005, and the popular
uprisings that swept from Tunisia in January 2011 through Egypt,
Libya, and beyond. "The Middle East and Islamic World Reader" is a
fascinating historical survey of complex societies that - now more
than ever - are crucial for us to understand.
關於作者:
Marvin E. Gettleman is the coeditor of the best-selling
anthology Vietnam and America. He is emeritus professor of history
at Brooklyn Polytechnic University. Stuart Schaar is Professor
Emeritus of Middle East and North African History at Brooklyn
College of the City University of New York.