The Caliphate (Pelican Books) - Softcover

[Kennedy] traces the history of this important, much-misunderstood concept from the death of the Prophet Muhammad in AD 632 to the present ... [The Caliphate] wears its profound erudition lightly (Jason Burke Literary Review)

An engaging portrait of a fascinating, multifaceted history (Times Literary Supplement)

A lucid and learned account of one of the most important institutions in world history - and who better to deliver it than one of our most gifted and accessible historians (Shawkat Toorawa, Professor of Arabic, Yale University)

Only Hugh Kennedy has the expertise, the wide-ranging mastery of the sources, the general deep understanding of Islamic culture, and the literary style to construct a persuasive argument that describes the intellectual vitality of classical Abbasid Baghdad as similar to that of our modern-day Paris or London (George Saliba, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science, Columbia University)

Enlisting significant Arab-language scholarship, Kennedy provides a carefully calibrated, timely chronicle for nonacademic readers (Kirkus Reviews)

A remarkable narrative history... A lively and compelling study (William Dalrymple The Times (praise for 'Court of the Caliphs'))

Masterly and magical (Simon Sebag Montefiore Daily Telegraph (praise for 'Court of the Caliphs'))

History at its most vivid and enthralling . . . a truly magnificent achievement (New Statesman (Praise for 'The Great Arab Conquests'))

Intriguing ... Kennedy draws on dynastic histories and a variety of historical records and documents to make these once magnificent empires and their impressive accomplishments in science, medicine and technology, as well as literary and cultural endeavours, come to life (Ebrahim Moosa Wall Street Journal)

[An] engrossing and entertaining introduction ... Kennedy clearly shows the continuing power of this idea to incite controversy (Publishers Weekly)

Hugh Kennedy is Professor of Arabic in the Faculty of Languages and Cultures at School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He studied Arabic at the Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies before reading Arabic, Persian and History at Cambridge. He was formerly a professor of history at University of St. Andrews, a position he had held since 1972. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2000.