Interesting interview. I have that book on Nook but had stopped at Chapter 2. Will resume the read
One question that came up in my mind: If Mecca was not the origin of the Arabs, were the Umayyads the first caliphate that there was, rather than the Rashiduns, or is there contemporaneous literature confirming the existence of the latter? Also, if the earliest mosques pointed to Petra, and if the geography described in the Sira corresponds more w/ Petra than Mecca, then did the Arab conquests actually start from Jordan rather than Arabia, and first seize Damascus, then Palestine and following that Egypt and Iran? In which case, at what point was Arabia itself conquered, or became a part of the caliphate, if the story of the Rashidun caliphate is contrived?
Another question that came to mind: when the Arabs invaded Sind, was islam already formed, or was it still being designed? The book seems to suggest that it was the Abbasids that put it together, whereas the invasion of Sind happened during the Umayyad caliphate. So was islam the driving factor behind that invasion, or were the only muslim invasions of the subcontinent the ones done by Mahmoud of Ghazni and everyone after him?
Finally, for any books on which you do revisions, please consider self-publishing them so that there are no shackles on you when it comes to the translation rights. A history of Byzantia sounds like a fun read, so I’ll check it out whenever it arrives. It would be particularly interesting to see what they say about the invasion of Syria in 634 and the loss of their empire in Syria, Egypt, Cyrenaica and so on
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Infidel says
Interesting interview. I have that book on Nook but had stopped at Chapter 2. Will resume the read
One question that came up in my mind: If Mecca was not the origin of the Arabs, were the Umayyads the first caliphate that there was, rather than the Rashiduns, or is there contemporaneous literature confirming the existence of the latter? Also, if the earliest mosques pointed to Petra, and if the geography described in the Sira corresponds more w/ Petra than Mecca, then did the Arab conquests actually start from Jordan rather than Arabia, and first seize Damascus, then Palestine and following that Egypt and Iran? In which case, at what point was Arabia itself conquered, or became a part of the caliphate, if the story of the Rashidun caliphate is contrived?
Another question that came to mind: when the Arabs invaded Sind, was islam already formed, or was it still being designed? The book seems to suggest that it was the Abbasids that put it together, whereas the invasion of Sind happened during the Umayyad caliphate. So was islam the driving factor behind that invasion, or were the only muslim invasions of the subcontinent the ones done by Mahmoud of Ghazni and everyone after him?
Finally, for any books on which you do revisions, please consider self-publishing them so that there are no shackles on you when it comes to the translation rights. A history of Byzantia sounds like a fun read, so I’ll check it out whenever it arrives. It would be particularly interesting to see what they say about the invasion of Syria in 634 and the loss of their empire in Syria, Egypt, Cyrenaica and so on