“Was the Rise of Islam a Black Swan Event?” Michael Cook, 2016 R. Stephen Humphreys Distinguished Visiting Scholar
McCune Conference Room (HSSB 6020) Humanities and Social Sciences Bldg, Santa Barbara, CA, United StatesA Black Swan Event is by definition a highly improbable happening with a massive impact. No one questions the impact of rise of Islam, but just how improbable was it? Two of its central features look very unlikely against the background of earlier history: the appearance among the Arabs of a new monotheistic religion, and the formation of […]