A history of the rich and diverse civilizations over fifteen centuries
of Islam seen through its greatest cities.
Islamic civilization was once the envy of the world. From a succession
of glittering, cosmopolitan capitals, Islamic empires lorded it over the
Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and swathes of the Indian
subcontinent, while Europe cowered feebly at the margins. For centuries
the caliphate was both ascendant on the battlefield and triumphant in
the battle of ideas, its cities unrivaled powerhouses of artistic
grandeur, commercial power, spiritual sanctity, and forward-looking
thinking, in which nothing was off limits.
Islamic Empires is a history of this rich and diverse civilization
told through its greatest cities over the fifteen centuries of Islam,
from its earliest beginnings in Mecca in the seventh century to the
astonishing rise of Doha in the twenty-first.
Marozzi brilliantly connects the defining moments in Islamic history:
from the Prophet Mohammed receiving his divine revelations in Mecca and
the First Crusade of 1099 to the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and
the phenomenal creation of the merchant republic of Beirut in the
nineteenth century, and how this world is continuing to change today.