When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty

This is a popular history written by an academic who is determined not to write yet another history book that is "difficult, problematic, and yes, rather dull" (as Kennedy explains in his forward, p. xx). He succeeds, while making the account as accurate as he can, considering the sources, frequently warning when an account (or accounts) are debatable or dubious. He notes that even the dubious accounts generally have a lot to reveal about what people of the time thought, or how they thought. Most of Kennedy's work covers the Abbasids from the beginning of the Abbasid Revolution in 747 until the killing of Caliph Muhtahdi by his own Turkish soldiers in 869. Other chapters cover consistent or changing themes (e.g. Chapter V "Poetry and Power" or Chapter VII "The Harem"). There are maps of the Abbasid Empire, Baghdad, and Samarra, a chart of the Caliphs from 749-1031, and numerous photographs and illustrations. I read this while taking a class on early Islamic civilization. The other students found it to be an easy, pleasant read. Quibble: My 5-star rating is for adults. Kennedy doesn't avoid the scatological, the salacious, or the bloody e.g. lesbians caught in the moment of passion and decapitated (pp. 177-178). James D. Glick Austin Peay State University Clarksville, TN

The Abbysid dynasty witnessed Islam's "golden age" as the Islamic world grew and flowered both economically and socially. Prof. Kennedy has written a great anecdotal history of the region that shows the Abbysid caliphate in all its glory. For me, however, Kennedy's use of anecdotes was a little much. To be fair, Kennedy is well aware of his use of anecdotes, stating that the majority of primary sources from this era *are* anecdotal, and in the spirit of the age they are used to illustrate larger themes. (The generosity - or frugality or meanness - of a particular caliph for example.) I struggled with this even as I understood why Kennedy chose to do this. The organization of the book was another point with which I struggled. The first third of the book details the political history of the Abbysids from its founding in 750 to the regin of Mu'tadid in 892; his discussion of the civil war between Ma'mun and Amin was excellent. From there, Kennedy topically discusses the Abbysid Near East - the building of the city of Baghdad, court life, the role and importance of poetry, economics. The utility of a topical orgnization like this makes sense, but for me it made some frustrating reading, as I found myself having to reference back and forth to gain a better chronological perspective of what was going on. I give _When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World_ four stars primarily for Kennedy's writing - clearly he intended this book for the lay-person, and he succeeded brilliantly in outlining the importance and relevance of the 150 year reign of the Abbysids politically, socially and economically. In brief, the Abbysids standardized Islam, encouraged the development of the four major legal interpretations of shari'a, and made Islam (politically and intellectually) an inheiritor of classical Greek, Latin and Persian knowledge. Recommended for those with a specific interest in the region or the time.

This book was a good blend of accurate history and interesting writing. As a professor of History I found this a good overview of the court life of the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, while holding the readers interest. It is not the most uniquely original in it's analysis, but it is much easier to access and understand than most historians who seem to write for each other-not the public. If you are looking for such a blend, this is a good book for court life of that era. Be sure to read the introduction, where the author explains his strengths and weaknesses, so that you can accept the work for what it is, and not what you might wish it to be.

When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World claims to introduce us to the history and flourishing culture of the "golden age of Islam." Overall, there aren't too many books on the market to compare to but the scope of the work is interesting and relatively unexplored by most scholars. Unfortunately, the book doesn't live up to all of the expectations I had for it. Hugh Kennedy admirably tries to tell the history of the Abbasids in as a story but fails to achieve the level of storytelling success that one might find in a book like Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary. His biggest problem with his story format is that 1. it's inconsistent and 2. it switches without notice between storytelling and history lecture in an abrupt manner that doesn't flow well. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with his writing style. He seems to desperately want to share this history as a story but fails to do so in a consistently cohesive and logical way. It seems like he often presents the most dramatic/entertaining/shocking story first as if that IS what happened but, then all of the sudden cuts it off and tells you that's just one possibility and another source says x, y, z. I would have really preferred if he could have told the story that facts confirm and then add in the miscellaneous possibilities as to what else may have occurred. It was kind of like reading "this is what happened.... or is it?" over and over again. I loved the stories he did tell, I hated hearing once again that it was only one of several possibilities. I think the stories he did tell were perhaps how he'd like to imagine history having occurred and that by telling that story he puts his opinion first in your mind while marginally acknowledging the other possibilities so he doesn't lose credibility. This way you're more likely to remember the more interesting story as opposed to the other possibilities which are presented as more dry facts or secondary considerations. Aside from that I really enjoyed most of the content and I loved reading about Harun Al-Rashid,The Harem, and Abbassid court culture. Unfortunately, this particular look at court culture contains essentially no information about dancers as part of the court or general culture. There are some images in the middle of the book including one from Samarra depicting two dancing girls pouring wine. It is part of a small fragment of the murals which decorated the palace. Clearly dance was present in court culture but, despite even including an image there is no real information about dance in any form. It does talk quite a bit about poets and makes some mentions of Musicians though. We can make some guesses about the possible place of dance in court culture based on the information about musicians and possibly slaves but the author made no attempt to mention anything about dance. Although the beginning has a lot of problems with the switching between storyteller and historian writing style the later chapters don't do this as much. Instead the majority switches to more dry history. The information is interesting but, harder to follow and keep interested in. However there are occasional small instances like this throughout the books. Another issue I had with the book is that although the author of the book is supposed to be neutral to religion but several comments and assertions of the authors opinions seemed to be rather biased against Islam. This gives me reservations about how he perceives the historic events. Considering he presents certain versions of possible history as being his story arc is it because these are products of his bias or is it historically the most viable? I don't know. My other issue with the book is the way that it's divided into chapters. Some books like Women, Men and Eunuchs: Gender in Byzantium can take a more separate approach to a historical time period and work. this is because the scope of each chapter is very specific in what it covers. there is little to no overlap in other chapters and there is generally not much repeated. Kennedey's work however attempts to separate while weaving together in a story and it doesn't work well. It's a bit like reading a novel out of order randomly selecting which chapter you will read. It's a disjointed experience and you have to jump from one person to another and one topic to another constantly to re situate yourself in the context of what's happening. I wonder if he wouldn't have been better off using a bit more of a chronological progression throughout the book in which he could have incorporated each of the elements he tried to separate. It might have made it easier for the reader to compare military, architectural, and cultural differences between all the different caliphs while also moving forward in a logical and more story like progression. I would still recommend this for people looking to learn more about the Abbasid Caliphs which is mostly what the book ends up talking about but most other questions about court culture or how people lived their daily lives go largely unanswered. Be aware that parts are going to quickly switch from a story to history in a split second and that jolting experience as a reader can be a problem with moving forward in the book. I do think there is a lot of good information and it is relatively accessible to the average reader (assuming you like reading history and are used to reading in that genre). It does help to examine the history and successions of the Abbasid Caliphs and tells some of the stories that make them seem more like human beings as opposed to just some distant historical figures.

Very interesting book. Easy to read. It explains in detail how the Abassid courts funcioned. It has great chapters about the palaces, the Harem and Arab poetry, The only issue missing is the Abassid rule over North Africa and Spain. The book uses arab sources of the time and tells a lot of amusing stories about the caliphs, the viziers, wives and concubines. It is a great tool to undestand the customs and life in the Abassid period in Irak.

The author’s ability to narrate is unmatched.

Excellent survey of a dynasty’s political and cultural influence that extends through our time. Nicely peppered with good anecdotes and personal character color its pages with human detail and captivating stories. Sections on harem culture and cultural contributions really enhance the dynastic political history.

This is one of the best history books that I have read. The best thing about it is that it reads like a novel. When you start reading it you cant stop because you really want to know what happens next, and most of the time I already knew what was going to happen!

The book was quick to read. You get to know about the foundation of Baghdad, and the Caliphs who ruled from their. Though the rule of all the caliphs are not mentioned, but those of Harun, Mamun etc are well explained. I would recommend it, if you want to read quickly what happened during the Abbasid era.

Although the book contained rich information, I found it poorly organised, repetitive, incoherent (at times) and lacked proper historical analysis. I understand the writer wants to reach out to laypersons by narrating "The Abbasid era" in a storytelling format but only manages to make it dull and dry. I felt the writer spent too much time on personal tales, corruption , betrayal and scandals(though some are shocking and interesting at the same time).I expected more on geo-politics and social analysis.It falls a shot by miles in my opinion and I didn't enjoy much except for some personal tales and gruesome politics. This may a good starting book for learning "The Abbasid Era". If you are little or vaguely familiar with this period of history, I recommend you skip this book

Amazingly detailed account of events taking place more than 1200 years ago. Very colorful and in some places even a page-turner. The author is very good at noting where the sources are conflicting or may not be trusted.