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Professor Hitti, the distinguished authority on the Islamic world, views the highlights of Arab history through the windows of the capital cities where those events occurred. The account focuses on six cities -- Mecca, the religious capital; Medina, the caliphal capital; Damascus, the imperial capital; Baghdad, the intellectual capital; Cairo, the dissident capital; and Cordova, the European capital. The approach is historical rather than geographical, and the book is addressed to the student and the cultured layman rather than the specialist. Tourists to the Middle East and Spain also will find the book especially interesting. The author describes the physical settings of the cities, the primary occupations of the people, and the significant monumental structures. He discusses such modern history of a city as is relevant to the story, but the emphasis is on the period of Arab ascendancy -- roughly, the seventh to the thirteenth century. In addition to Arabic sources, he quotes Europeans' descriptions where appropriate (such descriptions are rare because Europeans were not allowed in such cities as Mecca and Medina). As he makes clear, the six cities were more than capitals; they left their indelible imprint not only on the subsequent history of the Arabs and other Moslems but on the development of civilization at large.
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Capital Cities of Arab Islam he contribution of the McKnight T 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 PhilipK.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 Macmillan, London; St. Martin's Press, New York; and Mr. Joseph Ascherl. The poems on pages 144 and 158 are reprinted 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 Damasc