Monday, May 14, 2007
This is just a quick link to follow -- an "aside." These are links to interesting things that, for one reason or another, I didn't place into a full posting. Click the link to visit the full article. Go to the blog index for a regular listing of posts.
Tony Badran: Middle East Strongmen, Ancient and Modern - '...While many scholars divide the Middle East into pre-Islamic and post-Islamic periods, this division is in many ways artificial. The rise of Islam did change many aspects of society but not all. The practice of Islam grew and adjusted based on political and cultural precedents across the region. Even if Islamists may relegate all that came before Muhammad to the jahiliya, the age of ignorance, scholarship about the pre-Islamic period can provide both comparative and cultural insights into the present day...'
