Amira K. Bennison is a Reader in the History and Culture of the Maghrib at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Magdalene College.. She is author of The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the 'Abbasid Empire (2009) and co-editor (with Alison L. Gascoigne) of Cities in the Premodern Islamic World (2007).
"Every scholar of the Islamic West should read this. Most
importantly, the book is free of the various biases that have up to
now conspired to marginalise the history of these two important
medieval dynasties: these are dynasties which deserve to be studied
in their own right, and not as mere appendages to Islamic or
European history. Bennison does them justice in a book that will
certainly remain for some time the standard English-language
treatment of the subject." -- Brian A. Catlos (University of
Colorado at Boulder), The English Historical Review
"Bennison bases her book on three particular premises: that the
Almoravids and Almohads should be considered major contributors to
Islamic civilization more broadly; that they were in many ways
quite distinct groups and should not be lumped together simply as
two examples of Berber empires; and that the relationship between
Andalusia and Maghrebi parts of their empires was much more complex
than has often been presented. She succeeds on all fronts over the
course of the book, and gives a sense of the scale of the
Almoravids' and Almohads' achievements together with the
complexities of their distinct endeavors." -- Harry Munt, Times
Literary Supplement
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