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The Rise of the Umayyad Caliphate: The First Islamic Empire
A broad account of the Umayyad dynasty, 661 to 750: its Damascus capital, conquests from Spain to Sindh, great monuments, and the revolution that ended it.
Persia and Asia
Caliphates and Ottomans
The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates and the rise of the Ottomans.
The Rise of the Abbasid Caliphate: A Story of Islamic Power and Politics
How the Abbasid revolution of 750 toppled the Umayyads, how Baghdad was founded in 762, and how the court there became a centre of translation and scholarship.
The Rise of the Ottoman Empire: A Story of Islamic Power and Politics
How the Ottomans grew from a small Anatolian frontier principality around 1300 to conquer Constantinople in 1453 and rule territory across three continents.
The Rise of the Umayyad Caliphate: A Story of Islamic Power and Politics
How the Umayyads governed a vast empire: Arabic as the language of administration, the coinage reform, provincial governors, tax tensions and the pressures that ended the dynasty.
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