Books by Carsten Niebuhr
“This is the archetypal text of a European traveller who travels through the Arab and Islamic world. Carsten Niebuhr came from the borderlands between Germany and Denmark, and he’s in the service of the Danish crown. He’s part of a Danish exploratory expedition, one of many European expeditions in the 18th century…So when he travels across the Arabian peninsula, and then further east, he records meticulously what people say. This is the time when the Wahhabi movement was emerging on the Arabian peninsula. He encounters the Yazidi imams in Yemen, the Ibadis in Oman and Shia in the Gulf and Bahrain. He also goes to Iraq. He visits Karbala and the holy places in Iraq. Everywhere, he hears of people being afraid of the Wahhabis, and trying to mobilize their own resources to counter them.” Read more...
Interviews where books by Carsten Niebuhr were recommended
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1
The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam
by Marshall Hodgson -
2
Imams and Emirs: State, Religion and Sects in Islam
by Fuad I. Khuri -
3
Book of Travels (Safarnāma)
by Nasir-i Khusraw -
4
Travels through Arabia and Other Countries in the East
by Carsten Niebuhr -
5
The Others
by Seba al-Herz
The best books on Sunnism and Shiism, recommended by Toby Matthiesen
The best books on Sunnism and Shiism, recommended by Toby Matthiesen
In a bid to get away from simplistic explanations of why sectarian identity in the Middle East can lead to conflict, Swiss political scientist Toby Matthiesen wrote The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism. Here he recommends other books that shed light on Sunni and Shia differences, including a racy novel set in Saudi Arabia.
