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Book Cover
E-book
Author McCants, William F. (William Faizi), 1975-

Title Founding gods, inventing nations : conquest and culture myths from antiquity to Islam / William F. McCants
Published Princeton : Princeton University Press, ©2012

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Description 1 online resource ([ix], 179 pages)
Contents Gifts of the gods : the origins of civilization in ancient Near Eastern and Greek mythology -- The beneficent sky god : cultural history in the Qur'an -- Who was first? : protography and discovery catalogs -- Inventing nations : postconquest native histories of civilization's origins -- "The sciences of the ancients" : speculation on the origins of philosophy, medicine, and the exact sciences
Summary From the dawn of writing in Sumer to the sunset of the Islamic empire, Founding Gods, Inventing Nations traces four thousand years of speculation on the origins of civilization. Investigating a vast range of primary sources, some of which are translated here for the first time, and focusing on the dynamic influence of the Greek, Roman, and Arab conquests of the Near East, William McCants looks at the ways the conquerors and those they conquered reshaped their myths of civilization's origins in response to the social and political consequences of empire. The Greek and Roman conquests brought with them a learned culture that competed with that of native elites
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 149-166) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Civilization -- Philosophy.
Mythology, Middle Eastern.
Greeks -- Middle East -- History
Romans -- Middle East -- History
Arabs -- Middle East -- History
Acculturation -- Middle East -- History
HISTORY -- Ancient -- General.
HISTORY -- Middle East -- General.
Acculturation
Arabs
Civilization -- Historiography
Civilization -- Philosophy
Colonization
Greeks
Intellectual life
Mythology, Middle Eastern
Romans
SUBJECT Middle East -- Civilization -- Historiography
Middle East -- Civilization -- Philosophy
Middle East -- Intellectual life
Middle East -- Colonization
Subject Middle East
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781400840069
1400840066
1283280671
9781283280679