Allen J Fromherz
Biographic Data
| ID | 534349 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Allen J Fromherz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Allen J |
| FAMILY NAME | Fromherz |
| SIGNATURE | FROMHERZ A J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgia State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0458-0749 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Gulf to Global
Qatar’s Foreign Policy
This new book on Qatar’s foreign policy asks the reader to focus on the extraordinary fact of Qatar’s success despite the numerical odds against it as a small state. The World Bank defines a small state as having a population less than 1.5 million. The UN Forum on Small States has a somewhat higher threshold of 5 million. Qatar, with a combined citizen and noncitizen population of over 2.5 million fits in the middle of that small state range. In …
Dominque Valérian. Ports et réseaux d’échanges dans le Maghreb médiéval
Dominique Valérian ranks among most important historians of the medieval economic history of the Mediterranean. He has changed conventional views on the role of the Maghrib in the medieval history of the Middle Sea. Many theoretical works and accounts by the Mediterranean school of historians have pushed for more data, more references to the Maghrib to provide a more complete picture of the history of the western Mediterranean as a social, econom…
The saint and the caliph
This article focuses on two claims to religious authority: Muḥammad al-Mustanṣir’s proclamation as caliph and the canonisation of King Louis IX (r. 1226–1270). Christian royal sainthood and the Islamic Caliphate were very different institutions with different rules. Despite this obvious contrast, the caliphate of al-Mustanṣir (r. 1249–1277) and the saintliness of Louis IX both resulted from larger, interconnected trends in the economic and religi…
Introduction and Summary
From February 13-15, 2018, Le Centre d’Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis (CEMAT) and the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS) hosted the symposium ‘Early Hafsid Tunis - Capital of the Caliphate
Towards a World History of the Medieval Gulf
The Gulf region during the “Middle Period,” from around 1000 - 1500 CE, faced what seemed to be two insurmountable challenges: the fall of the ‘Abbasids in Baghdad in 1258 CE as well as increased competition from the Red Sea. Despite these two threats to the prosperity of trade in the region, however, Gulf ports remained vibrant and important centers of trade and cosmopolitanism. The Gulf, with its merchant economy and its relatively tolerant por…
Ali Humayun Akhtar. Philosophers, Sufis, and Caliphs
Ali Humayun Akhtar’s Philosophers, Sufis, and Caliphs: Politics and Authority from Cordoba to Cairo and Baghdad is an ambitious intellectual history of Islamic philosophy, mysticism, and the politics of authority that spans the “golden ages” of Islam. In his conclusion, Akhtar states that he aims to show how different groups during these different golden ages answered the following question: “What constituted sound models of political leadership …
The Gulf in World History
A new interdisciplinary approach to Gulf Studies The Gulf sits at an ancient crossroads of cultures and faiths, and at the heart of modern trade stretching back to the origins of civilization. As a site of both conflict and peaceful encounter, it can be studied in the context of world history, as a place of cultural and historical encounter. From medieval astrology to museum architecture, from the trade of glass and pearls to the role of Indians,…
Introduction
The Economics of Ascetic Encounter
I would argue that “Mediterranean religion” is a functional category for a host of reasons. The common Abrahamic root of the three main faiths in medieval Mediterranean society is obvious. When compared to other bodies of water in Eurasia, such as the Indian Ocean, or even the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean is not as diverse as it is often portrayed. In few other Eurasian seas has one category of faith (Abrahamic monotheism) dominated for so man…
Gateways to the World
Applying Ibn Khaldun
Applying Ibn Khaldun: the recovery of a lost tradition in sociology / Makers of Islamic civilization: Ibn Khaldun." The Journal of North African Studies, 20(5), pp. 891–892
Ibn Khaldūn, Ibn al-Khaṭīb and Their Milieu
Despite the calamities of the fourteenth century, the Black Death, the disintegration of political power, and the destructive rivalry between North African and Andalusī rulers, the correspondence of two scholars and ministers, Ibn al-Khaṭīb and Ibn Khaldūn, reveals a network of intellectual contacts maintained above the fray. As Ibn al-Khaṭīb’s famous essay, the “Art of Being a Minister,” made clear, the intelligentsia saw itself as both within a…
Between S prings
Although many in N orth A frica and the M iddle E ast are dissatisfied with it, the phrase “ A rab” S pring, used label to describe extraordinary popular uprisings of the past few years, seems to have staying power. What the name implies is an ethnically “ A rab” uprising. The M iddle E ast and N orth A frica, however, are far from ethnic monoliths. A substantial ethnic and linguistic minority, the B erbers, who form large portions of the populat…
A Vertical Sea
An extraordinary letter was discovered in a neglected pile of medieval diplomatic correspondence in the Vatican Libraries: a letter from Al-Murtada the Almohad, Muslim Caliph in Marrakech to Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254). The letter, written in finest official calligraphy, proposes an alliance between the Caliph and the Vicar of Christ, the leader of an institution that had called for organized crusades against the Islamic world. While the history…
Making ‘great battles’ great
The great battles of the medieval Mediterranean have defined a historical narrative of Christian–Muslim civilizational conflict. This essay challenges this focus on these so-called “great battles” and explains how this concentration on warfare developed for nationalist and political purposes. Las Navas de Tolosa became a “great battle” not simply because it was important in its own right but because of what it has become: a useful symbol for defi…
Ramzi Rouighi. The Making of a Mediterranean Emirate
Journal Article Ramzi Rouighi. The Making of a Mediterranean Emirate: Ifriqiya and Its Andalusis, 1200–1400. Get access Ramzi Rouighi. The Making of a Mediterranean Emirate: Ifriqiya and Its Andalusis, 1200–1400. (The Middle Ages Series.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2011. Pp. 238. $55.00. Allen Fromherz Allen Fromherz Georgia State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American…
Ibn KhaldunLife and Times
Ibn Khaldun
GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup('ISBN:9780748639342); Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) is one of the most influential and important Muslim thinkers in history. Ibn Khaldun has inspired at least as much interest among modern scholars as his immediate contemporaries. Legions of sociologists, anthropologists and historians have studied his philosophy of history, treating the Muqaddimah as a timeless piece of philosophy. Most studies of Ibn Khaldun ignore the fasc…
The Almohads
Fromherz, drawing on medieval Arabic and Berber sources, analyses the myths and history surrounding the origins and rise of the Almohad Empire. He shows how Muhammad Ibn Tumart, the son of a minor Berber tribal chief, set off on his mission to reform Islam, then at a low point in its history, battered by the crusades, having lost Jerusalem and been undermined by weak spiritual and political leadership. Muhammad Ibn Tumart was proclaimed Mahdi - o…
North Africa and the Twelfth-century Renaissance
This article explains the impact of the rise of the Berber, Islamic Almohad Empire on Mediterranean history. The influence of the Almohads on the twelfth-century European Renaissance and the connections and interactions between the Almohads of North Africa and centres of power in Europe has been overlooked by scholars. While scholars of the medieval period have focused on the interactions between Europe and the East, including the great Islamic c…
The Almohad Mecca. Locating Igli and the Cave of Ibn Tūmart
Igli era La Meca de los Almohades. En la cueva de Igli Muḥammad Ibn Tūmart proclamó el principio del movimiento almohade en África del norte. A pesar de la importancia de Igli, no se conocía su localización exacta o de la cueva de Ibn Tūmart. Aquí se detalla el descubrimiento de la pequeña aldea de Igli 30 kilómetros al este de Tarūdant. La localización de esta aldea moderna parece corresponder con el Igli almohade. Las fuentes primarias, el test…
North Africa and the Twelfth-century Renaissance
This article explains the impact of the rise of the Berber, Islamic Almohad Empire on Mediterranean history. The influence of the Almohads on the twelfth-century European Renaissance and the connections and interactions between the Almohads of North Africa and centres of power in Europe has been overlooked by scholars. While scholars of the medieval period have focused on the interactions between Europe and the East, including the great Islamic c…
Between S prings
Although many in N orth A frica and the M iddle E ast are dissatisfied with it, the phrase “ A rab” S pring, used label to describe extraordinary popular uprisings of the past few years, seems to have staying power. What the name implies is an ethnically “ A rab” uprising. The M iddle E ast and N orth A frica, however, are far from ethnic monoliths. A substantial ethnic and linguistic minority, the B erbers, who form large portions of the populat…
Introduction and Summary
From February 13-15, 2018, Le Centre d’Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis (CEMAT) and the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS) hosted the symposium ‘Early Hafsid Tunis - Capital of the Caliphate
Ibn Khaldūn, Ibn al-Khaṭīb and Their Milieu
Despite the calamities of the fourteenth century, the Black Death, the disintegration of political power, and the destructive rivalry between North African and Andalusī rulers, the correspondence of two scholars and ministers, Ibn al-Khaṭīb and Ibn Khaldūn, reveals a network of intellectual contacts maintained above the fray. As Ibn al-Khaṭīb’s famous essay, the “Art of Being a Minister,” made clear, the intelligentsia saw itself as both within a…
The Almohad Mecca. Locating Igli and the Cave of Ibn Tūmart
Igli era La Meca de los Almohades. En la cueva de Igli Muḥammad Ibn Tūmart proclamó el principio del movimiento almohade en África del norte. A pesar de la importancia de Igli, no se conocía su localización exacta o de la cueva de Ibn Tūmart. Aquí se detalla el descubrimiento de la pequeña aldea de Igli 30 kilómetros al este de Tarūdant. La localización de esta aldea moderna parece corresponder con el Igli almohade. Las fuentes primarias, el test…
North Africa and the Twelfth-century Renaissance
This article explains the impact of the rise of the Berber, Islamic Almohad Empire on Mediterranean history. The influence of the Almohads on the twelfth-century European Renaissance and the connections and interactions between the Almohads of North Africa and centres of power in Europe has been overlooked by scholars. While scholars of the medieval period have focused on the interactions between Europe and the East, including the great Islamic c…
Ibn KhaldunLife and Times
Ibn Khaldun
GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup('ISBN:9780748639342); Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) is one of the most influential and important Muslim thinkers in history. Ibn Khaldun has inspired at least as much interest among modern scholars as his immediate contemporaries. Legions of sociologists, anthropologists and historians have studied his philosophy of history, treating the Muqaddimah as a timeless piece of philosophy. Most studies of Ibn Khaldun ignore the fasc…
The Almohads
Fromherz, drawing on medieval Arabic and Berber sources, analyses the myths and history surrounding the origins and rise of the Almohad Empire. He shows how Muhammad Ibn Tumart, the son of a minor Berber tribal chief, set off on his mission to reform Islam, then at a low point in its history, battered by the crusades, having lost Jerusalem and been undermined by weak spiritual and political leadership. Muhammad Ibn Tumart was proclaimed Mahdi - o…
A Vertical Sea
An extraordinary letter was discovered in a neglected pile of medieval diplomatic correspondence in the Vatican Libraries: a letter from Al-Murtada the Almohad, Muslim Caliph in Marrakech to Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254). The letter, written in finest official calligraphy, proposes an alliance between the Caliph and the Vicar of Christ, the leader of an institution that had called for organized crusades against the Islamic world. While the history…
Making ‘great battles’ great
The great battles of the medieval Mediterranean have defined a historical narrative of Christian–Muslim civilizational conflict. This essay challenges this focus on these so-called “great battles” and explains how this concentration on warfare developed for nationalist and political purposes. Las Navas de Tolosa became a “great battle” not simply because it was important in its own right but because of what it has become: a useful symbol for defi…
Ramzi Rouighi. The Making of a Mediterranean Emirate
Journal Article Ramzi Rouighi. The Making of a Mediterranean Emirate: Ifriqiya and Its Andalusis, 1200–1400. Get access Ramzi Rouighi. The Making of a Mediterranean Emirate: Ifriqiya and Its Andalusis, 1200–1400. (The Middle Ages Series.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2011. Pp. 238. $55.00. Allen Fromherz Allen Fromherz Georgia State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American…
Ibn Khaldūn, Ibn al-Khaṭīb and Their Milieu
Despite the calamities of the fourteenth century, the Black Death, the disintegration of political power, and the destructive rivalry between North African and Andalusī rulers, the correspondence of two scholars and ministers, Ibn al-Khaṭīb and Ibn Khaldūn, reveals a network of intellectual contacts maintained above the fray. As Ibn al-Khaṭīb’s famous essay, the “Art of Being a Minister,” made clear, the intelligentsia saw itself as both within a…
Between S prings
Although many in N orth A frica and the M iddle E ast are dissatisfied with it, the phrase “ A rab” S pring, used label to describe extraordinary popular uprisings of the past few years, seems to have staying power. What the name implies is an ethnically “ A rab” uprising. The M iddle E ast and N orth A frica, however, are far from ethnic monoliths. A substantial ethnic and linguistic minority, the B erbers, who form large portions of the populat…
Applying Ibn Khaldun
Applying Ibn Khaldun: the recovery of a lost tradition in sociology / Makers of Islamic civilization: Ibn Khaldun." The Journal of North African Studies, 20(5), pp. 891–892
The Gulf in World History
A new interdisciplinary approach to Gulf Studies The Gulf sits at an ancient crossroads of cultures and faiths, and at the heart of modern trade stretching back to the origins of civilization. As a site of both conflict and peaceful encounter, it can be studied in the context of world history, as a place of cultural and historical encounter. From medieval astrology to museum architecture, from the trade of glass and pearls to the role of Indians,…
Introduction
The Economics of Ascetic Encounter
I would argue that “Mediterranean religion” is a functional category for a host of reasons. The common Abrahamic root of the three main faiths in medieval Mediterranean society is obvious. When compared to other bodies of water in Eurasia, such as the Indian Ocean, or even the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean is not as diverse as it is often portrayed. In few other Eurasian seas has one category of faith (Abrahamic monotheism) dominated for so man…
Gateways to the World
Ali Humayun Akhtar. Philosophers, Sufis, and Caliphs
Ali Humayun Akhtar’s Philosophers, Sufis, and Caliphs: Politics and Authority from Cordoba to Cairo and Baghdad is an ambitious intellectual history of Islamic philosophy, mysticism, and the politics of authority that spans the “golden ages” of Islam. In his conclusion, Akhtar states that he aims to show how different groups during these different golden ages answered the following question: “What constituted sound models of political leadership …
Towards a World History of the Medieval Gulf
The Gulf region during the “Middle Period,” from around 1000 - 1500 CE, faced what seemed to be two insurmountable challenges: the fall of the ‘Abbasids in Baghdad in 1258 CE as well as increased competition from the Red Sea. Despite these two threats to the prosperity of trade in the region, however, Gulf ports remained vibrant and important centers of trade and cosmopolitanism. The Gulf, with its merchant economy and its relatively tolerant por…
The saint and the caliph
This article focuses on two claims to religious authority: Muḥammad al-Mustanṣir’s proclamation as caliph and the canonisation of King Louis IX (r. 1226–1270). Christian royal sainthood and the Islamic Caliphate were very different institutions with different rules. Despite this obvious contrast, the caliphate of al-Mustanṣir (r. 1249–1277) and the saintliness of Louis IX both resulted from larger, interconnected trends in the economic and religi…
Introduction and Summary
From February 13-15, 2018, Le Centre d’Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis (CEMAT) and the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS) hosted the symposium ‘Early Hafsid Tunis - Capital of the Caliphate
Dominque Valérian. Ports et réseaux d’échanges dans le Maghreb médiéval
Dominique Valérian ranks among most important historians of the medieval economic history of the Mediterranean. He has changed conventional views on the role of the Maghrib in the medieval history of the Middle Sea. Many theoretical works and accounts by the Mediterranean school of historians have pushed for more data, more references to the Maghrib to provide a more complete picture of the history of the western Mediterranean as a social, econom…
Qatar’s Foreign Policy
This new book on Qatar’s foreign policy asks the reader to focus on the extraordinary fact of Qatar’s success despite the numerical odds against it as a small state. The World Bank defines a small state as having a population less than 1.5 million. The UN Forum on Small States has a somewhat higher threshold of 5 million. Qatar, with a combined citizen and noncitizen population of over 2.5 million fits in the middle of that small state range. In …
Gulf to Global
History (17 works) · Ancient history (15 works) · Islam (12 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Political science (10 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Islamic Studies and History (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · History (7 works)