Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia

by Josef W. Meri (Editor)

Medieval Islamic Civilization examines the socio-cultural history of the regions where Islam took hold between the seventh and sixteenth century. This important two-volume work contains over 700 alphabetically arranged entries, contributed and signed by international scholars and experts in fields such as Arabic languages, Arabic literature, architecture, art history, history, history of science, Islamic arts, Islamic studies, Middle Eastern studies, Near Eastern studies, politics, religion, Semitic studies, theology, and more. This reference provides an exhaustive and vivid portrait of Islamic civilization including the many scientific, artistic, and religious developments as well as all aspects of daily life and culture.

For a full list of entries, contributors, and more, visit www.routledge-ny.com/middleages/Islamic .

Genres: History, Islam

878 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2005

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent continuation of volume 1.

To copy my review of that volume:
Very useful for drive-by research. Some stuff is just hard to figure out from more scholarly work, like what books looked like and what coins were called and whether people were drinking tea yet (this book says no, but hell, I can't imagine the Middle East without tea so it's coming into my novel regardless!). I went through this book a page at a time and waited for words and dates to jump out at me. If I were actually looking for a particular entry or definition, I don't know that this encyclopedia is more useful than Google, but for unguided browsing, it's been very useful.