Table of Contents

1:The matrix of the Muslim world: the near East in the early seventh century
2: The Birth of the Islamic State
3: Conquest and division in the time of the Rashidun Caliphs
4: The Umayyad Caliphate
5: The early 'Abbasid Caliphate'
6: The Middle 'Abbasid caliphate
7: The structure of politics in the Muslim commonwealth
8: The Buyid confederation
9: The Kurds
10: The Hamdanids
11: Bedouin political movements and dynasties
12: Early Islamic Egypt and the Fatimid empire

About the Author

Hugh Kennedy is Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of St Andrews.