Hello, I've been trying to read more on social history recently and I've been wondering if any good books exist either as a series on world social history or books on the social history of the Arab Caliphates, Hindu (and Muslim South Asian empires, the dynasties of China, the Shogunates of Japan and/or Russia?
Good question!
For the Abbasid caliphate, Amira K, Bennison’s The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the Abbasid Empire is, despite the name, more focused on the people who lived in the Abbasid empire than on politics or military history. I use it in my classes.
Maria Rosa Menocal’s The Ornament of the World is a literary history of Islamic Spain (it’s come under a lot of criticism because some people feel like she smooths over things, which is why it’s important to remember that she was a professor of literature and that it’s not a historical text per se, but if you’re looking for texts about people, it fits the bill!)