World Medieval History : oso

Majnūn: The Madman in Medieval Islamic Society

Michael W. Dols — 2011-10-03

Author:: Michael W. Dols
ISBN:: 9780198202219
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, World Medieval History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202219.001.0001
Published in print:: 1992
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This is a study of madness in the medieval Islamic world. Using a wide variety of sources from history, literature, and art, the book explores beliefs about madness in Islamic society and examines attitudes towards individuals afflicted by mental illness or disability. The book demonstrates the links between Christian and Muslim medical beliefs and practices, and traces the influence of certain Christian beliefs, such as miracle working, on Islamic practices. It analyses the notions of the romantic fool, the wise fool, and the holy fool in medieval Islam within the framework of perceptions of mental illness, and shows that the madman was not regarded as a pariah, an outcast, or a scapegoat. This book's examination of magic, medicine, and religion helps to open up our understanding of medieval Islamic society.

The History of Government from the Earliest Times

S. E. Finer — 2011-10-03

Author:: S. E. Finer
ISBN:: 9780198207900
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, World Medieval History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207900.001.0001
Published in print:: 1999
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

No one has hitherto had the breadth of imagination and intellectual boldness to describe and analyse government throughout recorded history and throughout the world. Ranging over 5,000 years, from the Sumerian city state to the modern European nation state, five themes emerge in this book: state-building, military formats, belief systems, social stratification, and timespan. The three volumes examine both representative and exceptional polities, and focus on political elites of different types. This text is the second volume and it analyses the ‘church’ politics of the Byzantine Empire and the Caliphate; the evolution of the T'ang and Ming Empires in China; the characteristics of feudal Europe, the ‘republican alternatives’ of Florence and Venice, and finally the growth of representative assemblies across Europe.

The Christianization of Iceland

Orri Vesteinsson — 2011-10-03

Author:: Orri Vesteinsson
ISBN:: 9780198207993
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, World Medieval History, History of Religion
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207993.001.0001
Published in print:: 2000
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

In this historical study of High-Medieval Iceland, the author investigates the influence of the Christian Church on the formation of the earliest state structures in Iceland, from the conversion in 1000 to the union with Norway in 1262. In the history of mankind, states and state structures have usually been established before the advent of written records. As a result historians are rarely able to trace with certainty the early development of complex structures of government. In Iceland, literacy and the practice of native history writing had been established by the beginning of the twelfth century; whereas the formation of a centralized government did not occur until more than a hundred years later. The early development of state-like structures has therefore been unusually well chronicled, in the Icelandic Sagas, and in the historical records of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Based on this material, this book contributes to the discussion on the formation of states.

Brokering Belonging

Lisa Rose Mar — 2011-01-01

Author:: Lisa Rose Mar
ISBN:: 9780199733132
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: History, World Modern History, World Medieval History
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199733132.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

This work traces several generations of Chinese “brokers,” ethnic leaders who acted as intermediaries between the Chinese and Anglo worlds of Canada. At the time, most Chinese could not vote and many were illegal immigrants, so brokers played informal but necessary roles as representatives to the larger society. Brokers’ work reveals the changing boundaries between Chinese and Anglo worlds and how tensions among Chinese shaped them. By reinserting Chinese back into mainstream politics, this book alters common understandings of how legally “alien” groups helped create modern immigrant nations. Over several generations, brokers deeply embedded Chinese immigrants in the larger Canadian, U.S., and Chinese politics of their time. On the nineteenth-century Western frontier, Chinese businessmen competed with each other to represent their community. By the early 1920s, a new generation of brokers based in social movements challenged traditional brokers, shifting the power dynamic within the Chinese community. During the Second World War, social movements helped reconfigure both brokerage and race relations. Based on new Chinese language evidence, this book recounts history from the “middle,” a view that is neither bottom up nor top down. Through brokerage, Chinese wielded considerable influence, navigating a period of anti-Asian sentiment and exclusion throughout society. Consequently, Chinese immigrants became significant players in race relations, influencing policies that affected all Canadians and Americans.