The Present Writing the Past: How Biographies and Narratives Reframed the Abbasid Caliphate
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I was listening to an episode of the History of Byzantium podcast (specifically Episode 57 – Why did the Arabs win? Part 2: In the Shadow of the Sword) and there was an interesting discussion about the early biographical narratives of Islamic history. Tom Holland, as many of us probably know, is a rather controversial figure. He isn’t a scholar, his works are mainly in the realm of pop-history, and many of his claims do veer into territories of Orientalism and just bad history. However, I think there is some merit to questioning the authenticity of certain biographical depictions of early Islamic history.
The Present Writing the Past: How Biographies and Narratives Reframed the Abbasid Caliphate
The Present Writing the Past: How Biographies…
The Present Writing the Past: How Biographies and Narratives Reframed the Abbasid Caliphate
I was listening to an episode of the History of Byzantium podcast (specifically Episode 57 – Why did the Arabs win? Part 2: In the Shadow of the Sword) and there was an interesting discussion about the early biographical narratives of Islamic history. Tom Holland, as many of us probably know, is a rather controversial figure. He isn’t a scholar, his works are mainly in the realm of pop-history, and many of his claims do veer into territories of Orientalism and just bad history. However, I think there is some merit to questioning the authenticity of certain biographical depictions of early Islamic history.