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Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture

Classical IslamCollected Papers

By Carole Hillenbrand

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Published 31 October 2026

About this book

Collects 21 papers on Classical Islam by one of the world’s leading experts on medieval Islamic history

  • Traces the evolution of scholarship in the area over several decades
  • Gathers many papers located in out-of-print or hard-to-find works
  • Includes a preface that outlines the trajectory of Professor Hillenbrand's research in the field of Classical Islam over the course of her career, and an index of names, places and terms


Classical Islam presents studies of the career of the Prophet Muhammad and the environment from which he sprang; the evolution of Islamic mysticism; political thought; and philosophical themes. It also includes investigations into the development of the late ‘Abbasid caliphate; analyses of the Mirror for Princes literature; and studies of the minor dynasties of Iraq and Anatolia, and of the major cities in the region.
Classical Islam is publishing alongside two further volumes of Carole Hillenbrand's collected papers: Islam and the Crusades and The Medieval Turks.

Table of contents

Preface

  1. Islamic orthodoxy or Realpolitik?: al-Ghazali’s views on government
  2. Al-Mustandjid
  3. Al-Mustansir
  4. Al-Mustarshid
  5. Al-Mustazhir
  6. Some Aspects of al-Ghazali’s Views on Beauty
  7. New Introduction to Nasir al-Din Shah, The Diary of H.M. the Shah of Persia during his tour through Europe in A.D. 1873
  8. A little-known Mirror for Princes of al-Ghazali
  9. Muhammad and the rise of Islam
  10. Sources in Arabic
  11. Some medieval Muslim views of Constantinople
  12. Water in classical Islamic culture
  13. Sayf al-Dawla, al-Mutanabbi and Byzantium: The Evidence of a Textile
  14. The Kimiya-yi sa‘adat (The Alchemy of Happiness) of al-Ghazali: a misunderstood work?
  15. A Neglected Source on the Life of Hasan-i Sabbah, the Founder of the Nizari ‘Assassin’ Sect
  16. The Impact of a Sixteenth-Century Jihad Treatise on Colonial and Modern India
  17. Ancient Iranian Kings in the World History of Rashid al-Din
  18. Al-Ghazali: In Praise of Sufism
  19. Life in pre-Mongol Marw according to the medieval Muslim geographers
  20. Bernard Lewis: 31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018
  21. ‘Seek ye knowledge, even unto China’: the literature of travel in the lands of Islam


Original sources and page numbers of the items in this volume Index

About the author

Carole Hillenbrand

Carole Hillenbrand is Honorary Professorial Fellow, Professor Emerita at the University of Edinburgh and Professor of Islamic History at the University of St Andrews since 2013. In 2005 she became the first non-Muslim scholar to be awarded the prestigious King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies, reflecting her ‘revolutionary approach to the largely one-sided subject of the Crusades’. She is author of The Crusades (EUP, 1999), The Waning of the Umayyad Caliphate (Albany, 1989), A Muslim Principality in Crusader Times (Brill, 1990), and co-editor (with C. E. Bosworth) of Qajar Iran, (Edinburgh, 1984) and editor of The Sultan's Turret (Brill, 1999).

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