Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times


Book Description

Surrounded on all sides by hostile nations and peoples, Islam began life as a religion in a wary manner. This collection begins and ends with war and considers the uneasy relationship between the Arabs and the Byzantine civilization from which they learned a great deal during uneasy periods of peace.




Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times


Book Description

The Byzantine Empire was the Islamic commonwealth’s first and most stubborn adversary. For many centuries it loomed large in Islamic diplomacy, military operations and commerce, as well as in Islamic representations of the world in general. Moreover, the ways in which early Muslims and Byzantines perceived one another ” both polemically and otherwise ” afterwards proved decisive for the mutual perceptions between the Islamic world and Christian Western Europe. For these and other reasons, Arab-Byzantine relations have been a major concern of modern scholarship on early Islam for well over a century. Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times presents some of the most important of these contributions, organized according to the following themes: war and diplomacy; frontiers and military organization; polemics and images of the 'other'; exchange, influence and convergence; and martyrdom, jihad and holy war. An introductory essay discusses these themes within the contexts of early Islamic society, politics and economy.




Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs


Book Description

This book studies the Arabic-Islamic view of Byzantium, tracing the Byzantine image as it evolved through centuries of warfare, contact, and exchanges. Including previously inaccessible material on the Arabic textual tradition on Byzantium, this investigation shows the significance of Byzantium to the Arab Muslim establishment and their appreciation of various facets of Byzantine culture and civilization. The Arabic-Islamic representation of the Byzantine Empire stretching from the reference to Byzantium in the Qur'an until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 is considered in terms of a few salient themes. The image of Byzantium reveals itself to be complex, non-monolithic, and self-referential. Formulating an alternative appreciation to the politics of confrontation and hostility that so often underlies scholarly discourse on Muslim-Byzantine relations, this book presents the schemes developed by medieval authors to reinterpret aspects of their own history, their own self-definition, and their own view of the world.




A Handbook of Modern Arabic Historical Scholarship on the Ancient and Medieval Periods


Book Description

A Handbook of Modern Arabic Historical Scholarship on the Ancient and Medieval Periods presents 16 studies about modern Arab academic scholarship on the Ancient and Medieval Worlds covering disciplines as diverse as Assyriology and Mamluk studies as well as historiographical schools in the Arab World. This unique work is the first of its kind in any language. It is an important resource for scholars and students of the Ancient Near East and North Africa, Classical and Byzantine studies, and medieval Islamic history who would like to learn more about the work done by their colleagues in the Arab World in these fields over the last 7 decades and to benefit from Arabic secondary sources in their research. دليل الدراسات العربية الحديثة حول العصور القديمة والوسيطة يحتوي هذا الكتاب على 61 بحثا حول الدراسات الأكاديمية المتعلّقة بتاريخ العصور القديمة والوسيطة في العالم العربي، وتغطي هذه الأبحاث تخصصات علمية متنوعة منها الدراسات المسمارية والدراسات المملوكية، إضافةً إلى بعض المدارس التاريخية العربية المعاصرة. الكتاب فريد من نوعه والأول في كافة اللغات، ويُشكّل مصدرا هاما للباحثين والطلبة في دراسات الشرق الأدنى القديم وشمال إفريقيا في العصور القديمة والدراسات الكلاسيكية والبيزنطية والتاريخ الإسلامي الوسيط، وكذلك للمهتمين بعلمي التاريخ والآثار في الدول العربية. Contributors Emad Abou-Ghazi, Al-Amin Abouseada, Youcef Aibeche, Sidi Mohammed Alaioud, Abdulhadi Alajmi, Allaoua Amara, Lotfi Ben Miled, Brahim El Kadiri Boutchich, Usama Gad, Azeddine Guessous, Fayza Haikal, Hani Hamza, Laith Hussein, Nasir al-Kaabi, Khaled Kchir, Mohammed Maraqten, Amr Omar, Abdelaziz Ramadan.




The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History


Book Description

This handbook is a guide to Iran's complex history. The book emphasizes the large-scale continuities of Iranian history while also describing the important patterns of transformation that have characterized Iran's past.




Transmitting and Circulating the Late Antique and Byzantine Worlds


Book Description

Transmitting and Circulating the Late Antique and Byzantine Worlds seeks to be a crucial contribution to the history of medieval connectedness. Using one of the methodological tools associated with the global history movement, this volume aims to use connectedness to revitalise local and regional networks of exchange and movement. Its case studies collectively point caution toward assuming or asserting global-scale transmission of meaning or items unchanged, and show instead how meaning is locally produced and regionally formulated, and how this is no less dynamic than any global-level connectedness. These case studies by early career scholars range from the movement of cotton growing practices to the transmission of information within individual texts. Their wide scope, however, is nonetheless united by their preoccupation with transmission and circulation as categories of analysing or explaining movement and change in history. This volume hopes to be, therefore, a useful contribution to the growing field of a history of connectivity and connectedness. Contributors are Jovana Anđelković, Petér Bara, Mathew Barber, Julia Burdajewicz, Adele Curness, Carl Dixon, Alex MacFarlane, Anna Kelley, Matteo G. Randazzo, Katinka Sewing and Grace Stafford. See inside the book.




Calendars in the Making: The Origins of Calendars from the Roman Empire to the Later Middle Ages


Book Description

Calendars in the Making investigates the Roman and medieval origins of several calendars we are most familiar with today, including the Christian liturgical calendar, the Islamic calendar, and the week as a standard method of dating and time reckoning.




Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century


Book Description

This book elucidates the birth of the new relationship between the Roman Empire and the Arabs and the rise of its institutional forms. Shahîd discusses the participation of the Arab foederati in Byzantium's wars with her neighbors--the Persians and the Goths--during which those Arab allies contributed to the welfare of the imperium and the ecclesia.




Diplomacy in the Early Islamic World


Book Description

Arab messengers played a vital role in the medieval Islamic world and its diplomatic relations with foreign powers. An innovative treatise from the 10th Century ("Rusul al-Muluk", "Messengers of Kings") is perhaps the most important account of the diplomacy of the period, and it is here translated into English for the first time. "Rusul al-Muluk" draws on examples from the Qur'an and other sources which extend from the period of al-jahiliyya to the time of the 'Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim (218-227/833-842). In the only medieval Arabic work which exists on the conduct of messengers and their qualifications, the author Ibn al-Farr rejects jihadist policies in favor of quiet diplomacy and a pragmatic outlook of constructive realpolitik. "Rusul al-Muluk" is an extraordinarily important and original contribution to our understanding of the early Islamic world and the field of International Relations and Diplomatic History.




A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations


Book Description

The first encylopedic guide to the history of relations between Jews and Muslims around the world This is the first encyclopedic guide to the history of relations between Jews and Muslims around the world from the birth of Islam to today. Richly illustrated and beautifully produced, the book features more than 150 authoritative and accessible articles by an international team of leading experts in history, politics, literature, anthropology, and philosophy. Organized thematically and chronologically, this indispensable reference provides critical facts and balanced context for greater historical understanding and a more informed dialogue between Jews and Muslims. Part I covers the medieval period; Part II, the early modern period through the nineteenth century, in the Ottoman Empire, Africa, Asia, and Europe; Part III, the twentieth century, including the exile of Jews from the Muslim world, Jews and Muslims in Israel, and Jewish-Muslim politics; and Part IV, intersections between Jewish and Muslim origins, philosophy, scholarship, art, ritual, and beliefs. The main articles address major topics such as the Jews of Arabia at the origin of Islam; special profiles cover important individuals and places; and excerpts from primary sources provide contemporary views on historical events. Contributors include Mark R. Cohen, Alain Dieckhoff, Michael Laskier, Vera Moreen, Gordon D. Newby, Marina Rustow, Daniel Schroeter, Kirsten Schulze, Mark Tessler, John Tolan, Gilles Veinstein, and many more. Covers the history of relations between Jews and Muslims around the world from the birth of Islam to today Written by an international team of leading scholars Features in-depth articles on social, political, and cultural history Includes profiles of important people (Eliyahu Capsali, Joseph Nasi, Mohammed V, Martin Buber, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, Edward Said, Messali Hadj, Mahmoud Darwish) and places (Jerusalem, Alexandria, Baghdad) Presents passages from essential documents of each historical period, such as the Cairo Geniza, Al-Sira, and Judeo-Persian illuminated manuscripts Richly illustrated with more than 250 images, including maps and color photographs Includes extensive cross-references, bibliographies, and an index