Islamic-economics

From 700 A.D. to 1900 A.D. the Islamic bazaar included a vigorous trade in humanity. Over 11 million Black Africans were kidnapped from their homes and pressed into slavery by the Islamic dynasties. Males slaves were castrated and sent to the fight the wars of the Islamic world. Female slaves went into harmes and household service.
If a history of the Bazaar is attempted by this author it shoujld be complete and accurate.

I checked this out of the library, and when I get back from Syria and Lebanon, am going to buy it. An entirely different perspective from anything I've ever seen. Even if it does omit anything about the ongoing conflicts of the region, we already know all of that. This tells us and shows us something we don't know. When I'm walking through the bazaars in Damascus and Aleppo, I will be carrying this book in my head and seeing everything differently because of it.

I have traveled extensively in the Middle East and North Africa, and my favorite places are the suqs, or bazaars of each city. I have actually visited half of the bazaars featured in this book, and therefore I can attest to the accuracy of the information provided. This book captures the variety, texture, and atmosphere of the bazaar. The only aspects missing are the sounds and the aromas. Of special interest and value are the maps of each bazaar, for wandering through a suq can be an overpowering experience. Nowhere else have I come upon this type of information. The photos are well done, showing both the people and their surroundings accurately, but beautifully. This book makes me want to pay a return visit to a bazaar, soon.

Can archeologists draw conclusions about whole societies? The discipline of social archeology says they can, and Insoll proves it in the case of Islam. His goal is not only to demonstrate the richness and variety of the material culture of Muslim societies-he refers to a satisfactorily wide range of times and places in doing so-but also to interpret material culture and connect it convincingly to social characteristics. Islam itself structures his book, each chapter begin-ning with an epigraph from the Qur'an that sets the theme. Thus the obligation of prayer is made archeologically concrete in the structure of the mosque, the importance of privacy shapes the excavatable spaces of domestic structures, and dietary requirements affect the food remains and the building types the archeologist may find.

This book is a valuable addition to our understanding of Islam. It highlights the rich tradition of Islam without unneccesary and misleading reference to "Orientalist" literature

This is a memoir of a middle-class Iraqi artist in Iraq - during the sanctions (i.e. after 1990).

Nuha Radi presents a much needed voice from Iraq.

Ms. Al-Radi gives an amazing play-by-play of how the war (the massive bombing campaigns by the US and allied forces in Baghdad and neighbouring cities and the ensuing embargo) unfolded before her and the people of Iraq. I couldn't put it down.

Ms. Al-Radi has a knack for turning a seriously tragic situation into an almost funny account through her matter-of-fact statements. Still, somehow she manages to not lessen the impact of the tragedy.

Ms. Al-Radi does not paint an "Oh woe is me," picture but she invites the reader to walk by her as she takes us through the experiences of the people of Iraq, (her friends and neighbours, and even her dog Salvador Dali and his "friends," etc.). She paints vivid images of the various stages of the war. For example she describes, in the beginning of the war, how the Iraqis had filled up their freezers to the hilt with meat and vegetables and anything they could fit in there fearing the onset of war. But, as the first bombs hit taking out the electical plants and leaving Iraq without power, in total darkness and every refrigerator and freezer unfreezing, the Iraqis are left gorging themselves as their food begins to rot inside their quickly defrosting freezers.

Ms. Al-Radi then takes us into bowels of the war itself describing the massive bombs that obliterate and take out innocent human and animal lives by the hundreds (at any given time).

She finally steps into the final blow of the war (pun intended) -the cruel and unusual punishment of the embargo and the ensuing anarchy that it creates, in addition to the odd occurrences in nature. Her trees die, her vegetables don't grow, strange insects never before seen take a hold of the trees and shrubs struggling to live, birds die by the thousands for no "apparent" reason, the cancer rates go up immeasurably, etc.

This is a much needed book. The human face of Iraq has all but been eliminated and replaced with the menacing one of Saddam which in turn justified/s the punishment that the people had to endure(are still enduring)as a result.

It is a wonderful book. It is sad that a book of this sort had to be written in the first place.

I read an article by Edward Said during the December 1998 bombing of Iraq which mentioned this great book. I bought it thinking that I will read a simple diary of the hardships of war. I was wrong. It is a beautiful mixture of everyday events, which Al-Radi makes humourous. It is only humourous because our tears have dried over Iraq's suffering. It is a book I recommend for Iraqis because it states all that we hear about from visitors of Iraq. I recommend it to others because the media never shows these aspects. Perhaps it will help to make people realize that the distant pictures of green lights broadcast on T.V. are much more damaging than "degrading weapons of mass distruction". That is not to say that Saddam Hussein is not a dictator who must be eliminated. The final part of the book 'exile' is particularly moving as the suffering does not end with leaving Iraq. A great book, please read it.

This is a book-length version of Andrew Watson's groundbreaking 1974 Journal of Economic History article. There he noted a fundamental transformation preceding "The Columbian Exchange" described by Alfred Crosby. Islam unified much of the Middle East and Asia, enabling the transfer of valuable plants and farming techniques within the Muslim world. Some crops, such as sorghum from Africa, traveled farther east. But many others came west to enrich the diets and economies of the Mediterranean, Europe and ultimately the Americas several centuries later. These included most citrus fruits, mangos, Asiatic rice and especially cotton and sugar cane, which both led to major changes in economy, population distribution and vegetation cover. Knowledge and technology transfer included a variety of sophisticated irrigation methods and new forms of land tenure. Watson's article deftly outlined the process; the book is not a complete transition to the fuller genre and resembles an extended essay, but adds detail in cataloging crops and techniques. What he first called "the Arab agricultural revolution" is more properly dubbed Islamic here, since many non-Arabs contributed to the innovations. Overall, Watson identifies a crucial development in world history that is still neglected---perhaps because the book was not in print very long.