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The Story of Civilization; 11 volumes of pure joy. Will and Ariel Durant will make you fall in love with mankind. The most humanist take on history I have read.
by mahmud 17y ago
The Story of Civilization; 11 volumes of pure joy. Will and Ariel Durant will make you fall in love with mankind. The most humanist take on history I have read. I read them over 6 years and I still live under the Durants' spell. Exquisite and delightful read.
Muqadimat Ibn Khaldun. History, Sociology, Political Science, Scientific Empiricism, Theology, Superstition, Gossip, Leadership, Trivia .. it's everything. It feels like a collaboration between the Grim brothers, Karl Marx, Douglas Adams and Plato. People well versed in Islamic history will get the most out of it. It's a book written by a scientist for a religious and superstitious audience. You can see him walk the fine line, appeasing his princely sponsors while speaking his mind. It's full of code-language written for a better enlightened generation while accommodating the religious and cultural beliefs of his era. Read his biography and you should see bits and pieces of Rousseau; a hypocritical, pan-handling snob who makes his living saying one thing, and living his life doing another .. while still being a fucking genius :-D
- Scott_MacGregor 17y agoMuqadimat Ibn Khaldun. You make this book seem very interesting. Based on your description and explanation of it, I think many people from outside the Islamic culture might find this book fascinating (buy a copy) if it came with a running dialog inserted into the text as needed that explained the history and cultural beliefs of that time. Might be a best seller in the west.
- mahmud 17y agoThe unequaled Franz Rosenthal did a translation of the Muqadima (Prolegomena in Greek) in English: http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/index.htm http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/index.htm My copy of it is Arabic but heavily annotated by researchers. A translation of that would be great, I know. Short bio: http://www.cis-ca.org/voices/k/khaldun.htm http://www.cis-ca.org/voices/k/khaldun.htm Longer bio (PDF): http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/books/ibn-khald.pdf http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/books/ibn-khald.pdf N.B: This is a medieval personality and the text is ancient. Please read it under that light. He lived 1332 - 1406 CE.
- Scott_MacGregor 17y agoInteresting cultural material, thank you.
- Kaizyn 17y agoAlbert Hourani's History of the Arab Peoples cites Ibn Khaldun and covers much the same territory of Islamic history. A read I would highly recomment to anyone.
- zizou 17y agoyou should probably try guns germs and steel by jared diamond, it also is a different way to look at history and how and why it has spanned the way it has over different geographies.