Although he was a native of Bullock County, Alabama, Wade Hall -- teacher, writer, poet, critic, interviewer, folklorist, and documentarian -- spent most of his fifty-year career in Kentucky. But he was never emotionally far from his home as evidenced by his passion for collecting vintage Alabama postcards. In his lifetime he amassed 10,000, which he then graciously gave to the University of Alabama Libraries and Troy University in a large joint bequest that also included rare books, quilts, folk art, letters and more. These postcards date from the late 1800s to the mid-20th century and offer a fascinating and diverse picture of the state. The meaning of postcards that could be purchased as a travel souvenir is largely forgotten today when cameras are commonplace. But the value of Hall's stunning collection cannot be missed. The some 400 cards featured in Greetings from Alabama are revealing of scenes familiar and rare. From Birmingham's Vulcan to Mobile's Bellingrath Gardens, from Enterprise's boll weevil monument to Huntsville's rockets, from Helen Keller's home to William Rufus King's resting place, the scenes offer captivating glimpses of Alabama history.

The present volume is a collection of excerpts from al-Ṭabarī's biographical work entitled The Supplement to the Supplemented (Dhayl al-mudhayyal). In the introduction to his History, al-Ṭabarī declared his intention to append to it a biographical work for the reader's convenience. Only a collection of excerpts has survived, however. It was first published as part of the Leiden edition of the History and is now presented as a volume in the Ṭabarī Translation Project. It brings together biographies of Companions, successors, and scholars of subsequent generations; many chapters are devoted to women related to the Prophet who played a role in the transmission of knowledge. The biographies vary in length and style, ranging from a mere identification of a person to long accounts and anecdotes. This volume represents a long tradition characteristic of Muslim culture. Muslim scholars developed biographical literature into a rich and complex genre. It was intended to be an auxiliary branch of religious study, aimed at determining the reliability of chains of transmission through which traditions were handed down. More often than not, however, works in this genre contain valuable historical information of the kind often ignored by the authors of mainstream history books. Even though not a complete work, this volume is thus not merely a supplement to al-Ṭabarī's History but also a source in its own right, often supplying new and rare insights into events and social conditions.

This volume covers the years 700-715 A.D., a period that witnessed the last five years of the caliphate of the Umayyad 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān and the whole of the caliphate of his son al-Walīd. In retrospect, this period can be seen to have marked the apogee of Marwānid Umayyad power. It began with the dangerous revolt of the Iraqi tribal leader Ibn al-Ash'ath, which seriously imperilled Marwānid control of Iraq and was countered with considerable difficulty; but this proved to be the last of the obstacles faced by 'Abd al-Malik in the wake of the Second Civil War of 685-693. Thereafter he was able to preside over a strong and dynamic Arab kingdom, with al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf as his powerful governor of Iraq and the East. When 'Abd al-Malik died in 705, the caliphate passed to his son al-Walīd, during whose decade of office al-Ḥajjāj remained at his post and further Arab expansion took place in Central Asia, in Sind, and in the Iberian Peninsula. To many of their contemporaries, the Arabs of that time must have looked like potential world conquerors. The volume ends shortly after the deaths of al-Ḥajjāj and al-Walīd and just two years before the dispatch in 717 of the ill-fated Arab expedition to Constantinople.

In this volume, which covers the caliphates of Sulaymān, ʿUmar II, and Yazīd II, al-Ṭabarī provides vivid and detailed accounts of the events spanning the period from 97-105/715-724. We listen to the stirring speeches of Qutaybah ibn Muslim, in which he urges his followers to renounce their allegiance to Sulaymān; are present at the disastrous third and final attempt to take Constantinople; watch from behind the scenes as Rajaʾ ibn Ḥaywah skillfully engineers the accession of 'Umar II; and follow the remarkable career of Yazīd b. al-Muhallab, first as governor and conqueror, then as prisoner, and finally as rebel. Throughout this volume we observe the struggle of the Umayyad regime to maintain control over a rapidly expanding but increasingly dissatisfied subject population. Governors are appointed and dismissed with dizzying rapidity, administrative boundaries are drawn and redrawn, Arab tribesmen express dissatisfaction with the diminishing rewards of military conquest, non-Arab converts chafe at the differential treatment they receive, and religious opponents revolt in the name of "the Book and the Sunnah." Important in their own right, the events of this period provide an essential key to a proper understanding of the 'Abbasid revolution that lay just over the horizon. A discounted price is available when purchasing the entire 39-volume History of al-Ṭabarī set. Contact SUNY Press for more information.

This volume of al-Ṭabarī’s History provides the most complete and detailed historical source for the Persian empire of the Sāsānids, whose four centuries of rule were one of the most glorious periods in Persia’s long history. This volume of al-Ṭabarī's History has a particularly wide sweep and interest. It provides the most complete and detailed historical source for the Persian empire of the Sāsānids, whose four centuries of rule were one of the most glorious periods in Persia's long history. It also gives information on the history of pre-Islamic Arabs of the Mesopotamian desert fringes and eastern Arabia (in al-Hira and the Ghassanid kingdom), and on the quite separate civilization of South Arabia, the Yemen, otherwise known mainly by inscriptions. It furnishes details of the centuries'-long warfare of the two great empires of Western Asia, the Sāsānids and the Byzantine Greeks, a titanic struggle which paved the way for the subsequent rise of the new faith of Islam. The volume is thus of great value for scholars, from Byzantinists to Semitists and Iranists. It provides the first English translation of this key section of al-Ṭabarī's work, one for which non-Arabists have hitherto relied on a partial German translation, meritorious for its time but now 120 years old. This new translation is enriched by a detailed commentary which takes into account up-to-date scholarship.

Catalogs some 2700 Alabama communities, ranging from Abanda, in Chambers County, to Zip City, in Lauderdale County.

Winner of the 2022 James F. Sulzby Book Award from the Alabama Historical Association Alabama Quilts: Wilderness through World War II, 1682–1950 is a look at the quilts of the state from before Alabama was part of the Mississippi Territory through the Second World War—a period of 268 years. The quilts are examined for their cultural context—that is, within the community and time in which they were made, the lives of the makers, and the events for which they were made. Starting as far back as 1682, with a fragment that research indicates could possibly be the oldest quilt in America, the volume covers quilting in Alabama up through 1950. There are seven sections in the book to represent each time period of quilting in Alabama, and each section discusses the particular factors that influenced the appearance of the quilts, such as migration and population patterns, socioeconomic conditions, political climate, lifestyle paradigms, and historic events. Interwoven in this narrative are the stories of individuals associated with certain quilts, as recorded on quilt documentation forms. The book also includes over 265 beautiful photographs of the quilts and their intricate details. To make this book possible, authors Mary Elizabeth Johnson Huff and Carole Ann King worked with libraries, historic homes, museums, and quilt guilds around the state of Alabama, spending days on formal quilt documentation, while also holding lectures across the state and informal “quilt sharings.” The efforts of the authors involved so many community people—from historians, preservationists, librarians, textile historians, local historians, museum curators, and genealogists to quilt guild members, quilt shop owners, and quilt owners—making Alabama Quilts not only a celebration of the quilting culture within the state but also the many enthusiasts who have played a role in creating and sustaining this important art.

Includes history of various bomb groups, pictures and biographies of bombardiers, and history of the development of bombing equipment.