News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books. by mahmud on Sunday October 11, 2009 @10:22PM (#875775)
The Story of Civilization; 11 volumes of pure joy. Will and Ariel Durant will make you fall in love with mankind. The most humanist take on history I have read. I read them over 6 years and I still live under the Durants' spell. Exquisite and delightful read.

Muqadimat Ibn Khaldun. History, Sociology, Political Science, Scientific Empiricism, Theology, Superstition, Gossip, Leadership, Trivia .. it's everything. It feels like a collaboration between the Grim brothers, Karl Marx, Douglas Adams and Plato. People well versed in Islamic history will get the most out of it. It's a book written by a scientist for a religious and superstitious audience. You can see him walk the fine line, appeasing his princely sponsors while speaking his mind. It's full of code-language written for a better enlightened generation while accommodating the religious and cultural beliefs of his era. Read his biography and you should see bits and pieces of Rousseau; a hypocritical, pan-handling snob who makes his living saying one thing, and living his life doing another .. while still being a fucking genius :-D

Re:Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books. by Scott_MacGregor on Monday October 12, 2009 @12:10AM (#875972)
Muqadimat Ibn Khaldun. You make this book seem very interesting. Based on your description and explanation of it, I think many people from outside the Islamic culture might find this book fascinating (buy a copy) if it came with a running dialog inserted into the text as needed that explained the history and cultural beliefs of that time. Might be a best seller in the west.
Re:Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books. by mahmud on Monday October 12, 2009 @01:36AM (#876108)
The unequaled Franz Rosenthal did a translation of the Muqadima (Prolegomena in Greek) in English:

http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/index.htm

My copy of it is Arabic but heavily annotated by researchers. A translation of that would be great, I know.

Short bio:

http://www.cis-ca.org/voices/k/khaldun.htm

Longer bio (PDF):

http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/books/ibn-khald.pdf

N.B: This is a medieval personality and the text is ancient. Please read it under that light. He lived 1332 - 1406 CE.

Re:Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books. by Scott_MacGregor on Monday October 12, 2009 @02:20AM (#876175)
Interesting cultural material, thank you.
Re:Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books. by Kaizyn on Monday October 12, 2009 @03:01AM (#876222)
Albert Hourani's History of the Arab Peoples cites Ibn Khaldun and covers much the same territory of Islamic history. A read I would highly recomment to anyone.
Re:Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books. by zizou on Monday October 12, 2009 @07:39AM (#876506)
you should probably try guns germs and steel by jared diamond, it also is a different way to look at history and how and why it has spanned the way it has over different geographies.