This section of al-¿abar¿'s History covers the eight-year reign of al-Mu¿täim (833-42), immediately following the reign of his elder brother al-Ma'mun, when the Islamic caliphate was once more united after the civil strife and violence of the second decade of the ninth century A.D. Al-Mu'tasim's reign is notable for the transfer of the administrative capital of the caliphate from Baghdad north to the military settlement of Samarra on the Tigris, where it was to remain for some 60 years. This move meant a significant increase in the caliphs' dependence on their Turkish slave guards. Al-Mu¿täim's reign was also marked by periods of intense military activity along the northern fringes of the Islamic lands: against the Byzantines in Anatolia; against the sectarian Babak and his followers--the "wearers of red," the Khurramiyyah--in northwestern Persia; and against the politically ambitious local prince Mazyar in the Caspian provinces of Persia. These episodes take up the greater part of al-Tabari's account of al-Mu¿täim's reign, and he has provided graphic and detailed narratives of the respective campaigns, including valuable details on military organization and tactics during this period.
A comprehensive update of the classic study that delivers both a passionate plea and strategies for teachers, parents, and community organizers to give working-class children the same type of empowering education and powerful literacy skills that the children of upper- and middle-class people receive.
Examines how liberal society enables racism and other forms of discrimination.
This section of the History of al-¿abar¿ covers the caliphate of Müammad al-Am¿n, who succeeded his father, H¿r¿n al-Rash¿d on March 24, 809, and was killed on September 25, 813.The focus of this section is a single event, the civil war between al-Am¿n and his half-brother al-Mäm¿n. Before his death, al-Rash¿d had arranged for the succession in a series of documents signed at Mecca and deposited for safekeeping in the Ka'bah. Al-Am¿n was to become caliph; al-Mäm¿n was to govern Khurasan with virtual autonomy from Baghdad. Al-Am¿n could neither remove his brother from office nor interfere with his revenues or military support. Furthermore, al-Mäm¿n was named as al-Am¿n's successor, and al-Am¿n was forbidden to alter the succession. If either brother violated these conditions, he was to forfeit his rights.It soon became apparent that the good will to carry out these arrangements did not exist. Disagreement broke out when al-Am¿n insisted that many of the forces that had accompanied al-Rash¿d and al-Mäm¿n to Khurasan return to Baghdad. When the majority of army commanders obeyed the new caliph's orders, al-Mäm¿n was enraged and countered with measures to secure his position. Angry letters were exchanged, with al-Am¿n pressing his brother to make concessions that al-Mäm¿n regarded as contrary to the succession agreement. By March 811, military conflict was imminent. Al-Amin demanded that certain border districts be returned to the control of Baghdad. When al-Mäm¿n refused, al-Am¿n despatched an expedition to seize the districts.Al-Am¿n's resort to force ended in disaster. Al-Mäm¿n's forces, led by ¿¿hir ibn al-¿usayn and Harthamah ibn A'yan, quickly closed in on Baghdad. In a siege lasting over a year, Baghdad suffered extensive damage from the fighting and from bombardment by siege engines. Gangs of vagrants and paupers, organized by al-Am¿n into irregular units, fought a kind of urban guerrilla war. But, with Tahir and Harthamah enforcing the siege and with most of al-Am¿n's associates having switched their loyalties to the winning side, the caliph was forced to sue for terms. These were worked out among representatives of al-Am¿n, Tahir, and Harthamah. However, when the caliph boarded the boat that was to take him into Harthamah's custody, troops loyal to Tahir assaulted and capsized the boat. Al-Am¿n fell into the Tigris, was apprehended, and was executed that night on orders from Tahir. Thus ended this phase of the civil war. Al-Mäm¿n was now caliph.Al-¿abar¿ i's history of these years includes accounts by participants in the event, diplomatic letters betweenal-Am¿n and al-Mäm¿n, Tahir's long letter toal-Mäm¿n on the circumstances of al-Amin's death, and a dramatic eyewitness account of al-Am¿n's last hours. Also noteworthy is a 135-verse poem describing the devastation of Baghdad. The section ends with a series of literary anecdotes on the character of al-Am¿n.
This volume opens when the caliph al-Man¿¿r has just defeated the rebellion of Müammad the Pure Soul in 145/762-3 and is now securely established in power. The main concerns of the remaining thirteen years of his reign are the building of his new capital at Baghdad, on which al-al-¿abar¿'s text contains details not previously published in English, and his efforts to have his nephew ¿Is¿ ibn M¿s¿ replaced as heir apparent by his own son Müammad al-Mahd¿, a maneuver that required all his political skills.The circumstances of al-Man¿¿r's death in 158/775 are described in vivid detail, and this section is followed by a series of anecdotes, some serious, some humorous, most vivid and lively, that illustrate his character and habits.The last section of the volume describes the reign of al-Mahd¿, more pious than his father but also more liberal and open-handed. Along with routine administration, space is devoted to the bizarre intrigues that accompanied the rise and fall of the vizier Ya'qub ibn Dawud and the mysterious circumstances of the caliph's own death in 169/785, followed by a short collection of character stories. In addition, the volume also contains important information about warfare on the Byzantine frontier and in Khurasan.A discounted price is available when purchasing the entire 39-volume History of al-¿abar¿ set. Contact SUNY Press for more information.
The contents of this volume are extremely significant: The specific events in this earliest period set precedents for what later became established Islamic practice. The book deals with the history of the Islamic community at Medina during the first four years of the Islamic period--a time of critical importance for Islam, both as a religion and as a political community. The main events recounted by ¿abar¿ are the battles between Müammad's supporters in Medina and their adversaries in Mecca. ¿abar¿ also describes the rivalries and infighting among Müammad's early supporters, including their early relations with the Jewish community in Medina.
Schelling's masterpiece investigating evil and freedom.
This book deals with the meaning of a science rooted in the sacred, the metaphysical foundation of such science, its contrast to modern science and its pertinence to some of the major issues facing humanity today. In the first part, the author turns to the fundamental question of the multiplicity of sacred forms. He discusses why it is necessary in the contemporary world to treat sacred science in the context of diverse religions. He also deals with the importance of sacred science in providing a meaningful study that would remain religiously significant of religions themselves.
This book is designed so that writers, teachers, and students can begin to incorporate the insights of linguistics into their study of communication and writing. It has two main purposes. One is to demystify some of the most worthwhile and powerful linguistic theories that illuminate written discourse. Basic linguistic principles and theories are outlined. The primary purpose is to present a way in which these theories can be developed into practical techniques and methods for dealing with the writing and editing of texts. Oriented toward users-people who are seeking methods to improve their writing-the book contains numerous examples and exercises. Topics covered: the linguistic study of language; the cognitive processing of information; using non-traditional grammars; achieving cohesion and coherence; creating global coherence through macrostructures; and the pragmatic and sociolinguistic parameters of written communication.
An Ocean Without Shore is a study of Ibn Arabi, known in Islam as al-Shaykh al-Akbar, the Greatest Spiritual Master. In the introduction, Chodkiewicz provides a good deal of documentation for the often heard claim that Ibn Arabi has been the most influential thinker in Islam over the past seven hundred years. He shows that this has been true, not only among the intellectual elite, but also among the common believers. He explains why a few Muslims have considered Ibn al-Arabi the greatest heretic of Islam, while for many others he is Islam's greatest spiritual teacher.In the main body of the book, Chodkiewicz demonstrates that Ibn Arabi's writings are firmly grounded in the Koran. In doing this he also shows that Ibn Arabi's Koranic roots run far deeper than has heretofore been imagined. He explains that principles of Ibn Arabi's Koranic hermeneutics with unprecedented clarity, and in bringing out the primary importance of the Shaykh's magnum opus, The Futuhat Makkiyya, he solves a good number of riddles about the text that have puzzled modern readers.Chodkiewicz's work shows how, for Ibn Arabi, the iniatory voyage is a voyage in the divine word itself.
The Qur'an and Its Interpreters introduces the Western reader to the Qur'an as Muslims have understood it.The record of the Qur'an in the community as a force shaping the life of Muslims can be most clearly discerned through the vast literature of interpretation known as tafsir. This multivolume work is based on a large number of tafsir sources, representing all the major religious schools and stages of Muslim history for the last one thousand years. It will cover the entire Qur'an.This first volume consists of an introduction to the science and sources of interpretation of the Qur'an and the first two surahs of the Qur'an. The treatment is comprehensive and thorough. While the work is based entirely on primary sources, this volume includes a substantial bibliography of works on the Qur'an in Western languages.The Qur'an is the word of God as it was revealed to the prophet Muhammad, interiorized by the community, then shaped into an earthly book whose original archetype is with God. Dr. Ayoub concerns himself not with the history of the Qur'an, but with the way it was collected and fixed into an official codex, the recension of which has voiced the community's prayers and devotions, set its legal norms and moral standards, and occupied its best minds for more than thirteen hundred years.
This volume presents the first book-length study in English of the concept of Buddha nature as discussed in the Buddha Nature Treatise (Fo Xing Lun), attributed to Vasubandhu and translated into Chinese by Paramartha in the sixth century. The author provides a detailed discussion of one of the most important concepts in East Asian Buddhism, a topic little addressed in Western studies of Buddhism until now, and places the Buddha nature concept in the context of Buddhist intellectual history. King then carefully explains the traditional Buddhist language in the text, and embeds Buddha nature in a family of concepts and values which as a group are foundational to the development of the major indigenous schools of Chinese Buddhism. In addition, she refutes the accusations that the idea of Buddha nature introduces a crypto-Atman into Buddhist thought, and that it represents a form of monism akin to the Brahmanism of the Upanisads. In doing this, King defends Buddha nature in terms of purely Buddhist philosophical principles. Finally, the author engages the Buddha nature concept in dialogue with Western philosophy by asking what it teaches us about what a human being, or person, is.
The present volume of al-¿abar¿'s monumental history covers the years 255-265/869-878, the first half of the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Mütamid in S¿marr¿. Although the decade was one of relative calm in the capital, compared with the anarchy of the years immediately preceding, danger signals were flashing in territories adjacent to the imperial heartlands. Chief among them was the revolt of the Zanj, the narrative of which occupies the bulk of the present volume. A people of semi-servile status, the Zanj, who were based in the marshlands of southern Iraq, were led by a somewhat shadowy and mysterious figure claiming Shi'ite descent, 'Ali b. Muhammad. Their prolonged revolt against the central authorities was not crushed until 269/882.Al-¿abar¿'s account of these momentous events is unique in both the quality and the quantity of his information. He himself was present in Baghdad during the years of the revolt, and he was thus able to construct his story from reports by numerous eyewitnesses. The result is a detailed narrative that brings alive for the modern reader the main personalities and engagements of the revolt.
This book takes a fresh look at Socrates as he appeared to three ancient writers: Aristophanes, who attacked him for his theoretical studies; Plato, who immortalized him in his dialogues; and Aristotle, who criticized his political views. It addresses the questions of the interrelation of politics and philosophy by looking at Aristophanes' Clouds, Plato's Republic, and Book II of Aristotle's Politics-three sides of a debate on the value of Socrates' philosophic life.Mary Nichols first discusses the relation between Aristophanes and Plato, showing that the city as Socrates' place of activity in the Republic resembles the philosophic thinktank mocked in Aristophanes' Clouds. By representing the extremes of the Republic's city, Plato shows that the dangers attributed by Aristophanes to the city are actually inherent in political life itself. They were to be moderated by Socratic political philosophy rather than Aristophanean comedy.Nichols concludes by showing how Aristotle addressed the question at issue between Plato and Aristophanes when he founded his political science. Judging Plato's and Aristophanes' positions as partial, Nichols argues that Aristotle based his political science on the necessity to philosophy of political involvement and the necessity to politics of philosophical thought.
Leading scholars explore how different forms of ignorance are produced and sustained, and the role they play in knowledge practices.
Examines the postmodern implications of Whitehead's metaphysical system.
This book provides detailed treatment of topics in traditional logic: the theory of terms; the theory of definition; the informal fallacies; and division and classification. Aristotelian Logic teaches techniques for solving semantic problems - problems caused by confusion over terminology. It teaches the theory of definition - the different kinds of definition and the criteria by which each is judged. It also teaches that definitions are like tools in that some are better suited for a particular task than others.Several chapters are devoted to informal fallacies. A new classification is given for them, and the concept of proof is presented, without which some of the traditional informal fallacies cannot be explained adequately. Another chapter is devoted to division and classification, which occurs in all of the sciences.Other topics covered include the square of opposition, immediate inferences, and the syllogistic and chain arguments.
In recent decades our view of Gnosticism has been revolutionized by the discovery of a Coptic Gnostic library at Nag-Hammadi, Egypt. Currently, Gnosticism is seen as a phenomenon extending far beyond Christianity and displaying a strong Platonic influence. The opposition between the two systems was certainly not as sharp as Plotinus claimed. Where, why, and how the ideological lines were drawn is discussed in the light of the new historical evidence.
A fascinating look at the social experience of sharing a bed with another person.
Provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive review of contemporary research in education policy implementation.
This book assesses the adequacy of the traditional theories of laughter and humor, suggests revised theories, and explores such areas as the aesthetics and ethics of humor, and the relation of amusement to other mental states.Theories of laughter and humor originated in ancient times with the view that laughter is an expression of feelings of superiority over another person. This superiority theory was held by Plato, Aristotle, and Hobbes. Another aspect of laughter, noted by Aristotle and Cicero and neglected until Kant and Schopenhauer developed it into the incongruity theory, is that laughter is often a reaction to the perception of some incongruity. According to the third and latest traditional theory, the relief theory of Herbert Spencer and Freud, laughter is the venting of superfluous nervous energy. Historical examples of all these theories are presented along with hybrid theories such as those of Descartes and Bergson. The book also features traditional explorations of the place of humor in aesthetics, drama, and literature.This is the first work in the last fifty years to include the classic sources in the philosophy of humor and the first to present theories by contemporary philosophers.
Though Satanstoe has been too much neglected by readers of Cooper's time and ours, it is one of his most interesting books, combining nostalgic autobiographical recollections, pictures of manners, action and adventure, and social philosophy in one of the author's happiest experiments in fiction. Ostensibly, it gives a comprehensive view of colonial life and society in New York State in the middle of the eighteenth century, blending all these elements with the narrative skill for which the author has always been famous.
The Ottoman Empire is approahced through analysis of its political economy based on world systems theory. Relations with Europe constituted one of the key factors that shaped the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Yet a comprehensive account of the nature, development, and consequences of these realtions has, until now, never been developed. This book moves beyond the narrow framework of Euro-Ottoman relations, and places Europe at the center of the expanding world economy as it examines the impact of this global system on the Ottoman Empire. Its main contention is that the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire was the culmination of a long term process whereby the Ottoman territories became integral parts of the European-centered world economy, and Ottoman state a subordinate member of the interstate system. In addition to the broad processes eminating from outside, the author focuses on the transformation of the political, economic, and social structures in the Ottoman Empire. The changes in processes of production, networks of trade, and relations among various social groups are described on the basis of archival material on western Anatolia.Considering world affairs and Ottoman developments simultaneously makes this work unique in its field. This approach captures the transformation of the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century in all its complexity. In addition to providing original information about western Anatolia, the books also offers a general model for combining the macro concerns of historical sociology with detailed research in social history.
During the past two decades Metaphysics of Natural Complexes has exerted a strong a growing influence on the continuing development of contemporary philosophy. This new and expanded edition acknowledges this influence and brings together much material. Included are the previously published articles "On the Concept of 'the World,'" and "Probing the Idea of Nature," which Buchler wrote subsequent to Metaphysics of Natural Complexes as extensions and completions of the system. Previously unpublished work on the key concept of contour has also been added. In addition there are excerpts from Buchler's replies to his critics, a set of editors' notes to facilitate cross-referencing, and an updated index.This work presents a bold and forceful metaphysics and general ontology. It provides a systematic framework for understanding the broadest features of the world and nature, and for locating our understanding of human nature, selfhood, and society as complexes in and of nature. Buchler's detailed analysis of identity, ordinality, nature, world, and validation advance our understanding of the basic categories to be used in defining and exploring whatever is. Unlike other contemporary philosophers that confine themselves to narrowly defined problems in hermeneutics or theory of knowledge, Buchler is unrelenting in his drive toward a more encompassing perspective, simultaneously combining interpretive precision with sheer breadth of vision.
This book examines the way in which elementary schooling can be used as a means to encourage critical democracy in the United States. It focuses primarily on the dialectical tensions and issues that emerge from the conflicting values of individuality and community through a portrayal of an independent elementary school committed to democratic education.
The authors highlight how structural circumstances in countries with various degrees of industrialization are associated with specific policies. The analyses of women's experiences reveal the variety of ways in which private patriarchy in families combines with public patriarchy in economies and states to create a system of domination which subordinates women. The authors detail how gender is constructed under specific political, economic, and cultural circumstances, and seek to understand how state policies with differing sensitivities to women's issues have produced mixed outcomes for women and their families in the process of economic development.
Modern Western approaches to India often have focused on metaphysics at the expense of ethics, leading many to see Hinduism as only concerned with the esoteric and the otherworldly. The chapters of this book offer case study explorations that are selected and presented to invite comparisons with the modern West. Such comparisons will help to remove the apparent otherworldly nature of Hindu thought from the minds of Western readers, as well as give depth and new significance to Indian ideas in the areas of medical ethics, social ethics, and human rights. The case studies demonstrate that Indian thought has not ignored deep reflection on ethical problems that are presenting serious challenges to the modern world. They demonstrate that Hinduism has a firm grounding in ethics, even when the most difficult questions are raised.
Prenumerera på vårt nyhetsbrev för att få fantastiska erbjudanden och inspiration för din nästa läsning.
Genom att registrera dig accepterar du vår personuppgiftspolicy.
