Ira M. LapidusIra M. Lapidus is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Throughout his long and illustrious career he has published extensively. His abiding interest has been the relationships among families, tribes, religious commnities, cities and states. This is exemplified in his current work and previous publications, including Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages (1967, 1984), Middle Eastern Cities (edited, 1969), Contemporary Islamic Movements in Historical Perspective (1983), Islam, Politics and Social Movements, co-edited with Edmund Burke (1988), A History of Islamic Societies (1988, 2002), and Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History (2012). Read More Read Less