Eamonn Gearon

The chapter on Al-Jahiz, makes the claim that the formation of the Islamic empire needed writing in order to keep records and write down what the laws were, and that this in turn led a great literary flowering. While not denying the writing needs of empire, I question this. After all, the Parthian empire, in much the same region, had the same kinds of needs, but this did not lead to a literary flowering. I suspect historians need to look elsewhere for the causes behind this development. In show more particular, they ought to take a look at the influence of the Caliphs, and how they wanted to present themselves and their empires, both to the empire and without. show less

This is a very long read (listen) but, heck, it covers a long period of time! Very interesting, and gives one a good perspective to view our (US, Russia, European countries) actions through the 20th century to now.

I am the author of this book and so can not review it myself, but am simply highlighting it here, as a new member of librarything.com
The US edition launches on 1 November, 2011.
Happy reading!

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