Allah's Commonwealth; a history of Islam in the Near East, 600-1100 A.D. [by] F.E. Peters.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 747-761).

The near east before Islam: The word of God and the kingdom of men -- The prophet and the book -- The successors -- The failure of the Umayyads -- The examination of the faith -- An orthodox Caliphates -- The reign of Ma'mun -- The Mu'tazilites -- The Islamic sciences -- Philology as a sacred science -- The Islamic law -- From Epic to history -- The reception of Hellenism -- The arrival of Hermes -- Plato: From athtotle -- The foreign sciences -- The mathematical sciences and geography -- The occult sciences -- medical learning is Islam -- The search for the center: A Muslim paideia -- A conscience for Islam: The early sufis -- A new revelation: Falsafah -- Reaction and reform -- The ignorant city and the virtuous city -- The dissolution of the commonwealth -- The ideal polity: Farabi -- The Hellenic enlightenment -- Islam transcendent -- The illumined path -- The evolution of Shi'ism -- The failed revolution: The Isma'ilis -- The intentions of the philosophy: Ibn Sina -- Orthodoxy redeemed: Persians and Turks in Islam -- The custodians of the Caliphate -- The revitalization of the sciences of Religion.