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Article: Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs of the Prophets in the Age of al-Ma'mun. .(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Journal of the American Oriental Society
- Article date:
- July 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 American Oriental Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs of the Prophets in the Age of al-Ma'mun. By MICHAEL COOPERSON. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2000. Pp. xxii + 217. $59.95.
Michael Cooperson has written a splendid book with a lousy title. That is, this is not a book, as the dustjacket suggests, that surveys the origin and development of the genre of biographical writing in early Islamic times, at least not completely so. That book remains to be written, and I for one pray Michael Cooperson will do it. For what he has written here is a refreshingly clear literary analysis of how Muslim authors of the [Abbasid.sup.[subset]] ...