Capital Cities of Arab Islam

185 Pages·1973·11.23 MB·English

by  Philip Hitti

Capital Cities of Arab Islam
The contribution of the McKnight
Foundation to the general program of the
University of Minnesota Press, of which the
publication of this book is a part, is
gratefully acknowledged
of
Capital Cities
of
Arab Islam
By
Philip K. Hitti
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS
Minneapolis
© Copyright 1973 by the University of Minnesota.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America
at Jones Press, Minneapolis
Published in the United Kingdom and India by the Oxford University
Press, London and Delhi, and in Canada
by the Copp Clark Publishing Co. Limited, Toronto
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-92335
ISBN 0-8166-0663-3
The maps on pages 5 and 113 are reprinted from History of
the Arabs, © 1937, by permission of Macmillan, London, and
St. Martin's Press, New York. The maps on pages 20-21,
50-51, 77, 129, and 137 are reprinted from Makers of Arab
History, ©1968 by Philip K. Hitti, by permission of Mac-
millan, London; St. Martin's Press, New York; and Mr.
Joseph Ascherl. The poems on pages 144 and 158 are re-
printed from A Literary History of the Arabs by Reynold
A. Nicholson, © 1966, by permission of
Cambridge University Press.
Preface
T
his is an attempt to view the
highlights of Arab history through the windows
of the cities where those events were enacted.
The study therefore is more historical than
geographical, and is addressed to the student
and cultured layman rather than to the
specialist. In its compilation the author drew
upon some of the research material he had
prepared for his earlier works, particularly his
History of the Arabs and History of Syria
Including Lebanon and Palestine. The six
cities treated were more than capitals; they left
their indelible imprint not only on the
subsequent history of the Arabs and Moslems
but on the development of civilization at
large. The study hopes to arouse the interest
of the reader, but does not claim to satisfy it.
Several cities studied in this book were
revisited by the author while enjoying with his
wife the hospitality of his sister and
brother-in-law Nabihah and Najib Jabbur in
their Shimlan summer home, Lebanon, in
the 1960s.
P. K. H.
Princeton, N.J.
v
Courtesy Aramco World Magazine
Pilgrim at the Kaabah, Mecca
Table
of
Contents
1 Mecca: The Religious Capital 3
2. Medina: The Caliphal Capital 33
3 Damascus: The Imperial Capital 61
4 Baghdad: The Intellectual Capital 85
5* Cairo: The Dissident Capital 110
6 Cordova: The European Capital 135
Bibliography 167
Index 169
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Capital cities of* Arab Islam