CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
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The Abbasid Caliphate: A History
Illuminating account of the most influential force in the Muslim world from the eighth to the 13th centuries
GLOBAL FIRST: The Great Mosque of Samarra, completed in 851 by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil, was at the time the world’s largest
TONY BURKE speaks to JOEL McIVER, co-author of the biography of bluesman John Mayall
A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
New releases from Javon Jackson, IZE Trio, and Mal Waldron Trio
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself
EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
WHY should anyone so much as glance at this academic, albeit fairly abbreviated, history of a religious-political entity which ceased to exist hundreds of years ago?
That’s a question addressed by Tayeb El-Hibri in this scholarly evaluation of the Abbasid dynasty and, in so doing, he constantly emphasises the valuable insights to be gleaned from such a study and the contemporary geopolitical relevance of the caliphate concept.
It is fair to say that a number of present-day Islamic and Islamist movements draw inspiration from the Abbasid caliphate as much as their reductionist view of the foundation society under the Prophet Mohammed.
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