The religious thinkers, political leaders, law-makers, writers and philosophers of the early Muslim world helped to shape the 1,400-year-long development of today's second-largest world religion. But who were these people? What do we know of their lives, and the ways in which they influenced their societies? Chase F. Robinson draws on the long tradition in Muslim scholarship of commemorating in writing the biographies of notable figures, but weaves these ambitious lives together to create a rich narrative of early Islamic civilization, from the Prophet Muhammad to fearsome Tamerlane.

Islam & empire 600-850 -- Muhammad, the prophet (632) -- 'Ali : cousin, caliph and forefather of Shi'ism (661) -- 'A'isha : wife of the Prophet (678) -- 'Abd al-Malik : engineer of the caliphate (705) -- Ibn al-Muqaffa' : translator and essayist (759) -- Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya : renunciant and saint (801) -- al-Ma'mun : caliph-patron (833) -- The Islamic commonwealth 850-1050 -- 'Arib : courtesan of caliphs (890) -- al-Hallaj : 'the Truth' (922) -- al-Tabari : traditionalist rationalist (923) -- Abu Bakr al-Razi : free-thinking physician (925 or 935) -- Ibn Fadlan : intrepid envoy (fl. tenth century) -- Ibn Muqla : vizier, scribe, calligrapher? (940) -- Mahmud of Ghazna : conqueror and patron (1030) -- al-Biruni : cataloguer of nature and culture (c. 1050) -- A provisional synthesis 1050-1250 -- Ibn Hazm : polemicist, polymath (1064) -- Karima al-Marwaziyya : hadith scholar (1070) -- al-Ghazali : 'Renewer' of Islam (1111) -- Abu al-Qasim Ramisht : merchant millionaire (c. 1150) -- al-Idrisi : cosmopolitan cartographer (1165) -- Saladin : anti-Crusader hero (1193) -- Ibn Rushd (Averroes) : Aristotelian monotheist (1198) -- Disruption & integration 1250-1525 -- Rumi : Sufi 'poet' (1273) -- Rashid al-Din : physician, courtier and global historian (1318) -- al-Hilli : paragon of Shi'ism ascendant (1325) -- Ibn Taymiyya : stubborn reactionary (1328) -- Timur : sheep-rustler, world-conqueror (1405) -- Ibn Khaldun : social theorist and historian (1406) -- Mehmed II : conqueror and renaissance man (1481) -- Shah Isma'il : esoteric charismatic (1524).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 248-266) and index.

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