|
Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane
Author: S. Frederick Starr Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane Princeton University Press 2013 Format: epub Size: 11.4 Mb Language: English In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds--remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia--drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America--five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia.
Read Full Post
Time Frame AD 1300-1400 - The Age of Calamity
Author: Collective Time Frame AD 1300-1400 - The Age of Calamity Time-Life Books 1989 Format: PDF Pages: 184 Language: English Size: 33 MB Surveys fourteenth-century world history in the eastern hemisphere. Content: The Hundred Year's War The Rise of the Ottomans The fury of the steppes China's Brilliant dynasty.
Read Full Post
The Big Golden Book of Knights and Castles
Author: Barbara Weisberg The Big Golden Book of Knights and Castles Golden Book 1993 Format: PDF Pages: 72 Language: English Size: 14.8 MB The Middle Ages--the era of brave knights, majestic castles, and royal pageantry--comes to vivid life in this exciting book. Young readers will discover how a castle was built, how knights were chosen and trained, what it was like to compete in a jousting tournament or to enjoy a lavish feast in the castle's great hall, more. In addition, the book includes lively accounts of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, Joan of Arc, the Black Prince, and other fascinating figures from the days of chivalry.
Read Full Post
The Development of the Komnenian Army 1081-1180
Author: John W. Birkenmeier The Development of the Komnenian Army 1081-1180 Brill Academic Pub 2002 263 Format: Pdf Size: 13 MB Language: English The emperors of the Komnenian dynasty orchestrated the economic and military renewal of the Byzantine Empire. In 1081, Alexios I became emperor of a bankrupt and diminished empire. In 1180, Manuel I ruled the most powerful state in the eastern Mediterranean, capable of sending expeditions to Egypt, Hungary, Italy, and Palestine. This study examines how the Komnenian emperors restored the Byzantine state by building a professional army of mercenaries and Byzantine citizens. It examines the army's ethnic composition, tactics, equipment, and its financial support.
Read Full Post
The Concise History of the Crusades
Author: Thomas F. Madden The Concise History of the Crusades (Critical Issues in World and International History) Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2014 Format: epub/pdf Size: 22.4 Mb Language: English What is the relationship between the medieval crusades and the problems of the modern Middle East? Were the crusades the Christian equivalent of Muslim jihad? In this sweeping yet crisp history, Thomas F. Madden offers a brilliant and compelling narrative of the crusades and their contemporary relevance. Placing all of the major crusades within their social, economic, religious, and intellectual environments, Madden explores the uniquely medieval world that led untold thousands to leave their homes, families, and friends to march in Christ’s name to distant lands. From Palestine and Europe's farthest reaches, each crusade is recounted in a clear, concise narrative. The author gives special attention as well to the crusades’ effects on the Islamic world and the Christian Byzantine East.
Read Full Post
Time Frame AD 1400-1500 - Voyages of Discovery
Author: Collective Time Frame AD 1400-1500 - Voyages of Discovery Time-Life Books 1989 Format: PDF Pages: 184 Language: English Size: 24.84 MB Content: The Ocean Adventurers Essay: Charting a Widening World The Italian Renaissance Essay: A Revolution in Art The Fall of Constantinople Bohemia's Holy Wars Essay: Machines to Mass-Produce Knowledge The Last Great Hindu Empire Lost Empires of the Americas
Read Full Post
The Age of Exploration: From Christopher Columbus to Ferdinand Magellan
Author: Kenneth Pletcher The Age of Exploration: From Christopher Columbus to Ferdinand Magellan Rosen Education Service ISBN: 1622750195 2013 Format: EPUB Size: 16,6 МБ Language: English Pages: 163 The Britannica Guide to Explorers and Adventurers People have been pushing boundaries in search of fame and fortune for centuries, from ancient times to the present day. A quest for knowledge has been another impetus for testing personal and universal limits, as has the thrill of adventure. Within these pages, readers will discover detailed accounts of the lives of explorers and adventurers throughout the ages, men and women whose journeys have been remarkable, whatever their motivation.
Read Full Post
Warfare in the Medieval World
Author: Brian Todd Carey Warfare in the Medieval World Pen and Sword Military ISBN: 1848847416 2011 Format: EPUB Pages: 272 Size: 5 Mb Language: English Warfare in the Medieval World explores how civilizations and cultures made war on the battlefields of the Near East and Europe in the period between the fall of Rome and the introduction of reliable gunpowder weapons during the Thirty Years' War. Through an exploration of thirty-three selected battles, military historian Brian Todd Carey surveys the changing tactical relationships between the four weapon systems - heavy and light infantry and heavy and light cavalry - focusing on the evolution of shock and missile combat.Through the use of dozens of multiphase tactical maps, this fascinating introduction to the art of war during western civilization's ancient and classical periods pulls together the primary and secondary sources and creates a powerful historical narrative. The result is a synthetic work that will be essential reading for students and armchair military historians alike.
Read Full Post
The Middle Ages: An Illustrated History
The Middle Ages: An Illustrated History Author: Barbara Hanawalt Oxford University Press 1998 Pages: 161 Format: PDF Size: 29 Mb Language: English A brisk narrative of battles and plagues, monastic orders, heroic women, and knights-errant, barbaric tortures and tender romance, intrigue, scandals, and conquest, The Middle Ages: An Illustrated History mixes a spirited and entertaining writing style with exquisite, thorough scholarship. Barbara A. Hanawalt, a renowned medievalist, launches her story with the often violent amalgamation of Roman, Christian, and Germanic cultures following the destruction and pillaging of the crown jewel of the Roman Empirethe great city of Rome. The story moves on to the redrawn map of Europe, in which power players like Byzantium and the newly-established Frankish kingdom begin a precarious existence in a "sea of tribes" (in the words of a contemporary).
Read Full Post
The Myth of Muslim Barbarism and Its Aims
Author: S. E. Al-Djazairi The Myth of Muslim Barbarism and Its Aims Bayt Al-Hikma Press 2007 Format: PDF Size: 10 Mb Language: English The cultural, scientific and economic acheivements of Islamic civilisation over the last 1400 years could be a great inspiration to humanity today. Unfortunately, for centuries, the impact of Islamic civilisation has been obscured and its appeal has been countered by the creation and repetition of the myth of the Barbaric Muslim. From the Pope's imaginative justifications for the first crusade in 1095 down to the untouchable death squad roaming US occupied Iraq in 2007, the myth has been told and retold and it has convinced many of the great threat of Muslim fundamentalism, terrorism, extremism, fanaticism, irrationality, etc. As the threat gets magnified, ever more violent measures become justified as necessary to eliminate it - up to and including genocide itself. Wars and sanctions that have killed millions of Muslims have been justified with many pretexts that turned out to be untrue, but the main false pretext is the myth of Muslim barbarism. In this Book, S E Al-Djazairi complements his substantial works on Islamic Civilisation by detailing the nature of this myth, how it was built through the ages and what forms it takes today. He demonstrates the fallacies at the heart of each of its aspects including the charges of intolerance, oppression of women, slave trading, cruelty to captives, Muslim inferiority etc. after refuting these claims he shows the real aims of those who propagate and benefit from them.
Read Full Post
Armor
Author: Charlotte and David Yue Armor Houghton Mifflin Company 1994 Format: PDF Pages: 104 Language: English Size: 10.6 MB No figure in history is more vivid and dramatic than the medieval knight. Fierce in battle and gallant in their defense of the weak, these warriors of the Middle Ages are seen as champions of justice in a savage world. They did not always live up to our image of them, but they still represent a noble ideal.
Read Full Post
Renaissance Armies 1480-1650
Author: George Gush Renaissance Armies 1480-1650 Patrick Stephens Ltd, Cambridge Quality: Pages: 128 Language: English 1975 Format: PDF Size: 122 МБ
Read Full Post
Time Frame AD 800-1000 - Fury of the Northmen
Author: Collective Time Frame AD 800-1000 - Fury of the Northmen Time-Life Books 1988 Format: PDF Pages: 182 Language: English Size: 31.7 MB Contents: The Viking Onslaught, Byzantium Resurgent, The Changing Face of Southeast Asia, Japan's Distinctive Stamp, Monument Builders in the Americas.
Read Full Post
Medieval Technology and Social Change
Medieval Technology and Social Change Author: Lynn White Oxford University Press ISBN: 0195002660 1974 Pages: 224 Format: PDF Size: 75.18МБ Language: English In Medieval Technology and Social Change, Lynn White considers the effects of technological innovation on the societies of medieval Europe: the slow collapse of feudalism with the development of machines and tools that introduced factories in place of cottage industries, and the development of the manorial system with the introduction of new kinds of plows and new methods of crop rotation. One invention of particular import, writes White, was the stirrup, which in turn introduced heavy, long-range cavalry to the medieval battlefield. The development thus escalated small-scale conflict to "shock combat." Cannons and flamethrowers followed, as did more peaceful inventions, such as watermills and reapers.
Read Full Post
The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500-700
Author: Florin Curta The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500-700 Cambridge university press 2001 Format: pdf Size: 9.65 mb Language: English This book offers a new approach to the problem of Slavic ethnicity in southeastern Europe between c. 500 and c. 700. The author shows how Byzantine authors "invented" the Slavs, in order to make sense of political and military developments taking place in the Balkans. Making extensive use of archaeology to show that such developments resulted in the rise of powerful leaders, responsible for creating group identities and mobilizing warriors for successful raids across the frontier. The author rejects the idea of Slavic migration, and shows that "the Slavs" were the product of the frontier.
Read Full Post
The Crusades Biographies
Author: J. Sydney Jones, Marcia Merryman Means, Neil Schlager The Crusades Biographies UXL 2004 ISBN: 0787691771 Format: PDF Size: 15,9 МБ Language: English Pages: 256 "The Crusades: Biographies" explores many key figures, such as Pope Urban II, Saladin, Pope Innocent III, Peter the Hermit, Richard I of England, Frederick I of Germany, Francis of Assisi, Stephen of Cloyes and others.
Read Full Post
In the Footsteps of William Wallace: In Scotland and Northern England
In the Footsteps of William Wallace: In Scotland and Northern England Author: Alan Young & Michael J. Stead History Press ISBN: 978 0752456386 2010 Language: English Pages: 104*2 Format: PDF Size: 57,1 mb For nearly 700 years debate has raged over the true nature of William Wallace and his role in Scotland's turbulent history. Was he the 'Braveheart' of Blind Harry's legendary account, the bold, but savage hero of the Scottish wars? Or, as some contemporary chroniclers attested, nothing but a villainous thief and vagrant fugitive? This book draws on a wide range of contemporary and modern sources to look behind the figure of legend to find Wallace's true character. These superb photographs trace Wallace's life from his modest upbringing in south-west Scotland to his remarkable victory as a 'guerilla' leader and military commander at Stirling Bridge, and to his eventual betrayal, capture and painful execution seven years later. This is an essential travel companion for a journey through the landscapes and places associated with Wallace in Scotland and Northern England, and a vibrant new insight into the reality of Scotland's most famous battlefield hero.
Read Full Post
Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia
Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia (Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages) Author: Josef W. Meri (Editor) Routledge Graduation Year: 2005 ISBN: 0415966906 Pages: 878 Format: pdf Size : 10,4 mb Language: English Medieval Islamic Civilization examines the socio-cultural history of the regions where Islam took hold between the seventh and sixteenth century. This important two-volume work contains over 700 alphabetically arranged entries, contributed and signed by international scholars and experts in fields such as Arabic languages, Arabic literature, architecture, art history, history, history of science, Islamic arts, Islamic studies, Middle Eastern studies, Near Eastern studies, politics, religion, Semitic studies, theology, and more. This reference provides an exhaustive and vivid portrait of Islamic civilization including the many scientific, artistic, and religious developments as well as all aspects of daily life and culture.
Read Full Post
Sea Peoples of the Bronze Age Mediterranean c.1400 BC-1000 BC
Sea Peoples of the Bronze Age Mediterranean c.1400 BC-1000 BC Author: Raffaele D'Amato and Andrea Salimbeti Osprey Publishing Elite, Book 204 2015 ISBN: 1472806816 Pages: 64 Language: English Format: EPUB Size: 19 MB Sea Peoples of the Bronze Age and Mediterranean features the latest historical and archaeological research into the mysterious and powerful confederations of raiders who troubled the Eastern Mediterranean in the last half of the Bronze Age. Research into the origins of the so-called Shardana, Shekelesh, Danuna, Lukka, Peleset and other peoples is a detective 'work in progress'. However, it is known that they both provided the Egyptian pharaohs with mercenaries, and were listed among Egypt's enemies and invaders. They contributed to the collapse of several civilizations through their dreaded piracy and raids, and their waves of attacks were followed by major migrations that changed the face of this region, from modern Libya and Cyprus to the Aegean, mainland Greece, Lebanon and Anatolian Turkey. Drawing on carved inscriptions and papyrus documents - mainly from Egypt - dating from the 15th-11th centuries BC, as well as carved reliefs of Medinet Habu, this title reconstructs the formidable appearance and even the tactics of the famous 'Sea Peoples'.
Read Full Post
|
|