Sojourner in Islamic Lands
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€40.99
A01=Russell Fraser
Al-Biruni
Allahverdi Khan
Author_Russell Fraser
Category=WTL
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_travel
Hajji
Ibn Battuta
International Style (architecture)
Islam
Islamic architecture
Islamic art
Islamic culture
Islamic Golden Age
Mahmud of Ghazni
Mosque
Muhammad
Muslim world
Nader Shah
Reza Abbasi
Sasanian Empire
Shia Islam
The Sufis
Umayyad Caliphate
Product details
- ISBN 9781611173161
- Weight: 333g
- Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 16 Jan 2014
- Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Sojourner in Islamic Lands takes us on a journey from Kazakhstan in the far north of Central Asia, across the mountains to the former Soviet Union, then south to Iran just below the Caspian Sea. Russell Fraser follows the ancient Silk Road wherever possible. For centuries the Silk Road was the primary commercial link between Europe and Asia, with much of it over desert sands and accessible only by camel. Building on history and personal experience, Fraser's narrative describes this vast territory with an eye to geography, artistic culture, and religion over more than two thousand years.
The book that he gives us depends first of all on travel, but the author's eye is on an interior landscape, and he focuses on the influence of religious ideology on the cultural landscape of Central Asia. Delving deeply into art and architecture, he takes them to be Islam's most significant creative expressions. Although Islam is currently the predominant religion in the region, the book also examines the two other belief systems with modern-day followers--Christianity and an antireligious sect Fraser calls secular progressivism.
His aim is to present Islam to Western readers by describing its achievements during the High Middle Ages and comparing and contrasting them with those of modern Islam. The book offers insights into the history of a major world religion through the eyes of a well-known literary scholar on a journey through exotic parts of the world. He steeps us in the latter, inviting the reader to share the journey with him and participate in the sensations it gives rise to.
The book that he gives us depends first of all on travel, but the author's eye is on an interior landscape, and he focuses on the influence of religious ideology on the cultural landscape of Central Asia. Delving deeply into art and architecture, he takes them to be Islam's most significant creative expressions. Although Islam is currently the predominant religion in the region, the book also examines the two other belief systems with modern-day followers--Christianity and an antireligious sect Fraser calls secular progressivism.
His aim is to present Islam to Western readers by describing its achievements during the High Middle Ages and comparing and contrasting them with those of modern Islam. The book offers insights into the history of a major world religion through the eyes of a well-known literary scholar on a journey through exotic parts of the world. He steeps us in the latter, inviting the reader to share the journey with him and participate in the sensations it gives rise to.
Russell Fraser is the Austin Warren Professor of English Language and Literature Emeritus at the University of Michigan, USA. Fraser is the author or editor of twenty books including From China to Peru: A Memoir of Travel.
