Richard Bulliet Islam the View From the Edge Review
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Sep 28, 2015 Azzam To'meh rated it actually liked it
Very well-researched, though a bit besides academic, the book details the lives of Muslims in non-so-Muslim Persia, and how the edge stabilizes. Giving an business relationship of Islamic history that is not focused on the governmental center, he demonstrates the importance of scholars in easing the transfer and forming the Muslim community in mixed religious cities; a model which I heard an American Muslim scholar depict as like to that happening in the U.Southward. as we speak. All that remains to be seen; as for Very well-researched, though a fleck besides academic, the volume details the lives of Muslims in non-then-Muslim Persia, and how the border stabilizes. Giving an account of Islamic history that is not focused on the governmental center, he demonstrates the importance of scholars in easing the transfer and forming the Muslim community in mixed religious cities; a model which I heard an American Muslim scholar describe as similar to that happening in the U.S. every bit we speak. All that remains to be seen; as for the book, it remains a great extraction of a historical pattern. ...more
Professor Richard Bulliet has written a often uneven just generally interesting and stimulating volume.
"Islam, the view from the edge" is an attempt to correct what Bulliet calls "the view from the heart". "The view from the center" begins with the Holy Prophet's call to Islam and his institution of the showtime Islamic state, passes through the rightly guided caliphs, the Umayyad and the Abbasids and is a record of conquests and the comings and goings of kings and caliphs. Merely this picture te Professor Richard Bulliet has written a oft uneven but generally interesting and stimulating book.
"Islam, the view from the edge" is an endeavour to correct what Bulliet calls "the view from the middle". "The view from the center" begins with the Holy Prophet's call to Islam and his establishment of the first Islamic country, passes through the rightly guided caliphs, the Umayyad and the Abbasids and is a record of conquests and the comings and goings of kings and caliphs. But this picture tells us piffling about the gradual winning of hearts and minds across the vast areas conquered by the Arabs in the proper noun of Islam. How did this come about? How did the process announced to the common people and how did these people at the "edge" of Islamic social club create a detailed picture of their religion when such a picture was neither available in the Quran nor provided by church or state? The answer to these questions is "the view from the edge".
The volume is based primarily on biographical dictionaries and family unit histories from the region effectually Nishapur in northeastern Islamic republic of iran. The author's own life-long report of Islam is used to provide a layer of commentary and explanation to this material. Bulliet paints a detailed movie of how the Arab conquest was followed past an initial stage of slow growth of converts to Islam till a critical mass was reached (over ii hundred years afterwards!) and at that place was a stage of explosive increment in conversions until, finally, the process of new conversions slowed downwardly again. He speculates a bit about the psychological profile of those who convert to a new idea when its rare to do and then versus those who bound on the bandwagon when it has become fashionable to convert, versus the hard-cases who go along to agree out when most of their peers have converted. This process is not unique to conversion to Islam: something very similar happens when people adopt a new engineering science or any other new thought. What he considers striking in this story is the lack of dictation from the "eye". He claims that the Umayyad caliphs had fiddling interest in doctrine and fabricated no attempt to create a standard theology of their own (this may be true of Muavia, but arguable when it comes to Abdul Malik onwards). Instead, the local converts used a variety of sources to learn what the new faith expected them to practice. Bulliet highlights the function of "hadith transmitters" in this phenomenon simply also shows how the expectations of the locals and their feel of their ain ancestral religions colored this procedure. He specially emphasizes the of import role the Khurasanis later played in creating the madrassa system and thus stabilizing and unifying Islamic theory all over the Middle East (in his version, the Arabs apply little or no pressure at whatsoever stage). There is information too about the function of the Sufis and of the popular storytellers. His groundwork equally a historian of technology likely plays a role in his theories about cities that outgrew their food supply, which he claims were already falling autonomously long before the Mongols arrived to terminate off the job.
Professor Bulliet thinks that by the 14th century, the "edge had created a center". The religious understandings that developed had get the "great tradition" of Islam. retroactively projected dorsum to the fourth dimension of the prophet, this center at present set a standard confronting which new "edge developments" were measured. The new border developments in India, East Asia and Africa connected to be locally influential, simply these new edges develop inside a broader Islamic customs, which slowly but steadily pulls them in towards the (now well defined) central orthodoxy.
The book is an interesting business relationship of how this orthodoxy took shape in 1 influential area in Khorasan and Bulliet clearly thinks information technology offers insights into what may have happened in other parts of the Islamic globe. But information technology has its weaknesses. For example, professor Bulliet expects his readers to exist more than than a niggling familiar with the broad course of Islamic history. And the volume veers between broad generalizations and very specific histories somewhat haphazardly. Finally, his account of the evolution of Islam at the edge is interesting, simply the conclusion that something like is still going on is contradicted by his own account of the growth of madrassa orthodoxy (a phenomenon with which the before community obviously did not have to contend). Professor Bulliet is convinced that whatever its final shape, the shape of "the answer" in the Muslim world will be a religious one ("Islam is the solution") and non a relegation of religion to the personal domain by "secular modernity". But he seems to take no interest in discussing WHY this should be and then? What (if anything) is uniquely different about Islam? Perhaps he is one of those who feel that "secular modernity" is a failure everywhere, therefore bound to fail in Islamic lands too? or is something special about Islam? either he has not considered this question or he finds information technology uninteresting. Merely even so, the book is an interesting viewpoint about Islam and its history. ...more
"Islam, the view from the edge" is an attempt to correct what Bulliet calls "the view from the heart". "The view from the center" begins with the Holy Prophet's call to Islam and his institution of the showtime Islamic state, passes through the rightly guided caliphs, the Umayyad and the Abbasids and is a record of conquests and the comings and goings of kings and caliphs. Merely this picture te Professor Richard Bulliet has written a oft uneven but generally interesting and stimulating book.
"Islam, the view from the edge" is an endeavour to correct what Bulliet calls "the view from the middle". "The view from the center" begins with the Holy Prophet's call to Islam and his establishment of the first Islamic country, passes through the rightly guided caliphs, the Umayyad and the Abbasids and is a record of conquests and the comings and goings of kings and caliphs. But this picture tells us piffling about the gradual winning of hearts and minds across the vast areas conquered by the Arabs in the proper noun of Islam. How did this come about? How did the process announced to the common people and how did these people at the "edge" of Islamic social club create a detailed picture of their religion when such a picture was neither available in the Quran nor provided by church or state? The answer to these questions is "the view from the edge".
The volume is based primarily on biographical dictionaries and family unit histories from the region effectually Nishapur in northeastern Islamic republic of iran. The author's own life-long report of Islam is used to provide a layer of commentary and explanation to this material. Bulliet paints a detailed movie of how the Arab conquest was followed past an initial stage of slow growth of converts to Islam till a critical mass was reached (over ii hundred years afterwards!) and at that place was a stage of explosive increment in conversions until, finally, the process of new conversions slowed downwardly again. He speculates a bit about the psychological profile of those who convert to a new idea when its rare to do and then versus those who bound on the bandwagon when it has become fashionable to convert, versus the hard-cases who go along to agree out when most of their peers have converted. This process is not unique to conversion to Islam: something very similar happens when people adopt a new engineering science or any other new thought. What he considers striking in this story is the lack of dictation from the "eye". He claims that the Umayyad caliphs had fiddling interest in doctrine and fabricated no attempt to create a standard theology of their own (this may be true of Muavia, but arguable when it comes to Abdul Malik onwards). Instead, the local converts used a variety of sources to learn what the new faith expected them to practice. Bulliet highlights the function of "hadith transmitters" in this phenomenon simply also shows how the expectations of the locals and their feel of their ain ancestral religions colored this procedure. He specially emphasizes the of import role the Khurasanis later played in creating the madrassa system and thus stabilizing and unifying Islamic theory all over the Middle East (in his version, the Arabs apply little or no pressure at whatsoever stage). There is information too about the function of the Sufis and of the popular storytellers. His groundwork equally a historian of technology likely plays a role in his theories about cities that outgrew their food supply, which he claims were already falling autonomously long before the Mongols arrived to terminate off the job.
Professor Bulliet thinks that by the 14th century, the "edge had created a center". The religious understandings that developed had get the "great tradition" of Islam. retroactively projected dorsum to the fourth dimension of the prophet, this center at present set a standard confronting which new "edge developments" were measured. The new border developments in India, East Asia and Africa connected to be locally influential, simply these new edges develop inside a broader Islamic customs, which slowly but steadily pulls them in towards the (now well defined) central orthodoxy.
The book is an interesting business relationship of how this orthodoxy took shape in 1 influential area in Khorasan and Bulliet clearly thinks information technology offers insights into what may have happened in other parts of the Islamic globe. But information technology has its weaknesses. For example, professor Bulliet expects his readers to exist more than than a niggling familiar with the broad course of Islamic history. And the volume veers between broad generalizations and very specific histories somewhat haphazardly. Finally, his account of the evolution of Islam at the edge is interesting, simply the conclusion that something like is still going on is contradicted by his own account of the growth of madrassa orthodoxy (a phenomenon with which the before community obviously did not have to contend). Professor Bulliet is convinced that whatever its final shape, the shape of "the answer" in the Muslim world will be a religious one ("Islam is the solution") and non a relegation of religion to the personal domain by "secular modernity". But he seems to take no interest in discussing WHY this should be and then? What (if anything) is uniquely different about Islam? Perhaps he is one of those who feel that "secular modernity" is a failure everywhere, therefore bound to fail in Islamic lands too? or is something special about Islam? either he has not considered this question or he finds information technology uninteresting. Merely even so, the book is an interesting viewpoint about Islam and its history. ...more
Apr 21, 2020 Elwing rated it actually liked it
The style of writing is a bit boring but it's worth it. The perspective offered in this volume gives farther depth to our understanding of muslim history and nowadays.
The all-time way to become most this volume is to read it afterward you've read a book about muslim history as a whole. The style of writing is a bit tedious but it's worth information technology. The perspective offered in this volume gives further depth to our understanding of muslim history and present.
The best fashion to go about this book is to read it after y'all've read a book about muslim history every bit a whole. ...more than
The all-time way to become most this volume is to read it afterward you've read a book about muslim history as a whole. The style of writing is a bit tedious but it's worth information technology. The perspective offered in this volume gives further depth to our understanding of muslim history and present.
The best fashion to go about this book is to read it after y'all've read a book about muslim history every bit a whole. ...more than
January 03, 2012 John rated it liked it
Bulliet argues that Islam's growth and development in the 9th-14th centuries was affected, if not primarily driven, by activity away from historical centers. The force of Bulliet's argument lies in his primary source research of Islamic teachers and leaders in Iranian localities, every bit he demonstrates the influence that the Iranian "edge" had on Islam's development during this period of fourth dimension and the unique qualities of Iranian Islamic practise that allowed for its influence. After the 14th centu Bulliet argues that Islam's growth and development in the ninth-14th centuries was affected, if not primarily driven, by activity away from historical centers. The forcefulness of Bulliet'due south statement lies in his primary source research of Islamic teachers and leaders in Iranian localities, as he demonstrates the influence that the Iranian "edge" had on Islam's development during this period of time and the unique qualities of Iranian Islamic practice that immune for its influence. After the 14th century, he argues, the Islamic institutions that are formed out of Iranian influence stabilize. This book is an important contribution to the field of Islamic and Middle East history, however it is non very accessible to those outside of academia, as information technology is a wearisome read and requires a solid foundation in Middle East and/or Islamic history. ...more than
Dec ten, 2012 Manon rated information technology it was amazing
One of the few academic books that I have been unable to put down. Bulliet gives a fascinating wait at the evolution of Islam not in terms of bully caliphates and mighty thinkers, but past looking at the circuitous social textile of Farsi gild. An accented must-read for anyone interested in the history of Islam or the Eye East in full general -- although some of his claims are difficult (read: incommunicable) to prove and must therefore be taken with a grain of idea (i.e. the different correspondenc One of the few bookish books that I accept been unable to put down. Bulliet gives a fascinating wait at the evolution of Islam non in terms of peachy caliphates and mighty thinkers, merely by looking at the complex social fabric of Persian lodge. An absolute must-read for anyone interested in the history of Islam or the Eye East in full general -- although some of his claims are difficult (read: incommunicable) to prove and must therefore be taken with a grain of idea (i.e. the different correspondence betwixt different pottery styles and different legal schools), the perspective he employs volition change your life. ...more
Nov xxx, 2016 Maria Freeman rated it did not similar it
I had to read this for schoolhouse and could not get through very much of it. Information technology is written in a disjointed way that made it difficult to follow every bit information technology would bounce betwixt showing actual historical documents that told a story and analyzing these documents and the deeper meaning behind them. I would agree with Bulliet's master point that Islamic culture is shaped from the edge and through interactions with other religions and new converts merely I ended up gathering the main ideas from class discussion sin I had to read this for school and could not get through very much of it. It is written in a disjointed way that made information technology hard to follow every bit it would bounciness betwixt showing actual historical documents that told a story and analyzing these documents and the deeper meaning behind them. I would agree with Bulliet'due south main indicate that Islamic civilization is shaped from the edge and through interactions with other religions and new converts but I concluded up gathering the principal ideas from form give-and-take since I could not read this volume. ...more than
Jan 08, 2009 John rated it actually liked information technology
Of import for students and scholars, Bulliet frames the development of Islamic history through who and what constitutes "the edge" of Islam. Important for students and scholars, Bulliet frames the evolution of Islamic history through who and what constitutes "the border" of Islam. ...more
Offset two chapters were great - all about the hadith and how information technology is a result of questioning by non-Arab Muslim converts. After that information technology got too specific and rather boring.
Sep 13, 2012 עדית (Edith) rated information technology actually liked it
Though in modernistic times with technology the difference between center and edge has blurred. Perchance that is the scholar'southward intention. Though in mod times with technology the difference between center and edge has blurred. Perhaps that is the scholar's intention. ...more
Mar 04, 2013 Mohammad rated it it was amazing
Bulliet is peradventure the best living historian on the Middle Due east. Each of his insights is gold.
Richard Westward. Bulliet is a professor emeritus of history at Columbia University who specializes in the history of Islamic society and institutions, the history of technology, and the history of the function of animals in human being order.
Richard grew upwards in Illinois. He attended Harvard University, from which he received a BA in 1962 and a PhD in 1967.
Several of his books focus on Iran but deal likewise with the
Richard Westward. Bulliet is a professor emeritus of history at Columbia University who specializes in the history of Islamic social club and institutions, the history of technology, and the history of the part of animals in human club.Richard grew upwardly in Illinois. He attended Harvard University, from which he received a BA in 1962 and a PhD in 1967.
Several of his books focus on Islamic republic of iran merely deal also with the larger Muslim earth, including The Patricians of Nishapur: a Study in Medieval Islamic History (1972), Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History (1979), and Islam: the View from the Edge (1994). His books on a broader view of Islamic history and society include Under Siege: Islam and Democracy (1994) and The Example for Islamo-Christian Culture (2004). His book (1975) brings together his interest in the histories of technology, animate being domestication, and the Middle East, dealing for example with the pregnant military advantage early on Muslim armies gained from a slight improvement in the pattern of cloth camel saddles. He would return to the history of animal domestication with his Hunters, Herders, and Hamburgers: The Past and Time to come of Human-Animal Relationships (2005).
He is the author and editor of books of more general interest likewise, including The Columbia History of the Twentieth Century (editor, 1998), The Encyclopedia of the Mod Center East (co-editor, 1996), and The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History (co-author, 1997). He has besides written several novels which draw on his knowledge of international politics and the Center E, and is a promoter of the validity of comics equally an fine art class.
His first fiction book, Kicked to Death past a Camel (1973), was nominated for an Edgar for "Best First Mystery". His other fiction includes Tomb of the Twelfth Imam (1979), The Gulf Scenario (1984), The Sufi Fiddle (1991), and The One-Donkey Solution (2011).
Bulliet's commentaries and opinion pieces on the Middle East have appeared in such newspapers The Guardian, New York Times International, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
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