Profumi d'Arabia


Book Description

English summary: The names, origins, and by ways in the west, and the uses and 'imaginary' symbolism that has for centuries distinguished the commerce in incense, cinnamon, and myrrh from the far away regions of the orient to the merchant's stalls of the Greeks and Romans. This is an ideal journey through the centuries of classical antiquity following the caravan routes, legends and the Levantine enchantment that instill an atmosphere of dreams around the commercial and cultural exchanges between the Orient and Occident, prior to the advent of the great Islamic civilization. Italian description: I nomi, le origini, le vie di penetrazione in Occidente, gli usi e il simbolismo immaginario che ha contraddistinto per secoli il commercio di incenso, cinnamomo, mirra dalle lontane plaghe d'Oriente ai banchi dei mercati greci e romani. Un viaggio ideale nei secoli dell'antichita classica al seguito di vie carovaniere, di leggende e magie levantine che infondono un'atmosfera di sogno agli scambi commerciali e culturali tra Oriente ed Occidente, prima dell'avvento della grande civilta islamica.




The Longest Journey


Book Description

The pilgrimage to Mecca, or Hajj, has been a yearly phenomenon of great importance in Muslim lands for well over one thousand years. Each year, millions of pilgrims from throughout the Dar al-Islam, or Islamic world, stretching from Morocco east to Indonesia, make the trip to Mecca as one of the five pillars of their faith. By the end of the nineteenth century, and the beginning of the twentieth, fully half of all pilgrims making the journey in any given year could come from Southeast Asia. The Longest Journey, spanning eleven modern nation-states and seven centuries, is the first book to offer a history of the Hajj from one of Islam's largest and most important regions.




Toponymy on the Periphery


Book Description

"In Toponymy on the Periphery, Julien Charles Cooper conducts a study of the rich geographies preserved in Egyptian texts relating to the desert regions east of Egypt. These regions, filled with mines, quarries, nomadic camps, and harbours are often considered as an unimportant hinterland of the Egyptian state, but this work reveals the wide explorations and awareness Egyptians had of the Red Sea and its adjacent deserts, from the Sinai in the north to Punt in the south. The book attempts to locate many of the placenames present in Egyptian texts and analyse their etymology in light of Egyptian linguistics and the various foreign languages spoken in the adjacent deserts and distant shores of the Red Sea"--




The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia


Book Description

The romantic landscapes and exotic cultures of Arabia have long captured the int- ests of both academics and the general public alike. The wide array and incredible variety of environments found across the Arabian peninsula are truly dramatic; tro- cal coastal plains are found bordering up against barren sandy deserts, high mountain plateaus are deeply incised by ancient river courses. As the birthplace of Islam, the recent history of the region is well documented and thoroughly studied. However, legendary explorers such as T.E. Lawrence, Wilfred Thesiger, and St. John Philby discovered hints of a much deeper past during their travels across the subcontinent. Drawn to Arabia by the magnifcent solitude of its vast sand seas, these intrepid adventurers learned from the Bedouin how to penetrate its deserts and returned with stirring accounts of lost civilizations among the wind-swept dunes. We now know that, prior to recorded history, Arabia housed countless peoples living a variety of lifestyles, including some of the world’s earliest pastoralists, c- munities of incipient farmers, fshermen dubbed the “Ichthyophagi” by ancient Greek geographers, and Paleolithic big-game hunters who were among the frst humans to depart their ancestral homeland in Africa. In fact, some archaeological investigations indicate that Arabia was inhabited by early hominins extending far back into the Early Pleistocene, perhaps even into the Late Pliocene.




The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia


Book Description

This book provides the first extensive coverage of the archaeology of the Arabian peninsula from c. 9000 to 800 BC. Providing a wealth of detail on the environmental and archaeological record, it argues that this ancient region was in many ways very different from the surrounding states in Egypt and Mesopotamia. It examines the adaptation of humans to Arabia's environment and the eventual formation of a unique society that flourished for millennia.







The Qur??n in Context


Book Description

By addressing various aspects of the Qur'?n's linguistic and historical context and offering close readings of selected passages in the light of Jewish, Christian, and ancient Arabic literature, the volume seeks to stimulate a new interaction between literary and historical scholarship.




South Arabian Long-Distance Trade in Antiquity


Book Description

South Arabia is one of the least known parts of the Near East. It is primarily due to its remoteness, coupled with the difficulty of access, that South Arabia remains so under-explored. In pre-Islamic times, however, it was well-connected to the rest of the world. Due to its location at the crossroads of caravan and maritime routes, pre-Islamic South Arabia linked the Near East with Africa and the Mediterranean with India. The region is unique in that it has a written history extending as far back as the early first millennium BCE—a far longer history than that of any other part of the Arabian Peninsula. The papers collected in this volume make a number of important contributions to the study of the history and languages of ancient South Arabia, as well as the history of South Arabian studies, and will be of interest to scholars and laypeople alike.




Rome's Eastern Trade


Book Description

Utilising new archaeological research the author questions the traditionally held view that the imperial government had a strong political interest in eastern trade. Instead, he argues that their primary motivation was the tax income.




The Prospect of Global History


Book Description

The Prospect of Global History takes a new approach to the study of global history, seeking to apply it, rather than advocate it. The volume seeks perspectives on history from East Asian and Islamic sources as well as European ones, and insists on depth in historical analysis. The Prospect of Global History will speak to those interested in medieval and ancient history as well as modern history. Chapters range from historical sociology to economic history, from medieval to modern times, from European expansion to constitutional history, and from the United States across South Asia to China.




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