This beautiful online book contains excellent essays and anecdotes on the historic and contemporary role of food, meeting and hospitality in Islam, featuring an art gallery of Islamic art.
Gregorian-Hijri Dates Converter
Books in the field of Islamic Studies have two dates to indicate the same event: for example, "Ibn Sina (d.427 AH / 1037 CE)." This does not mean that Ibn Sina died twice, but that there are two calendars used by the scholars. The Hijri Calendar (abbreviated as "AH") is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 months in a year of 354 or 355 days that started in the year in 622 CE. To learn more about the Hijri date, check here.
You can find here Carl Ernst's .ppt presentation "Changing Approaches to Islamic Studies in the U.S."