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Umayyad Legacies
The Umayyads, the first dynasty of Islam, ruled over a vast empire from their central province of Syria, providing a line of caliphs from 661 to 750. Another branch later ruled in al-Andalus – Islamic Spain – from 756 to 1031, ruling first as emirs and then as caliphs themselves. This book is the first to bring together studies of this far-flung family and treat it not as two unrelated caliphates but as a single enterprise. Yet for all that historians have made note of Umayyad accomplishments in the Near East and al-Andalus, Umayyad legacies – what later generations made of these caliphs and their achievements – are poorly understood. Building on new interest in the study of memory and Islamic historiography and including interdisciplinary perspectives from Arabic literature, art, and archaeology, this book highlights Umayyad achievements and the shaping of our knowledge of the Umayyad past.
Between Memory and Power
Between Memory and Power intends to demonstrate that a robust culture of historical writing existed in 2nd/8th century Syria, and to offer new methodological approaches to access this now lost history, torn between memory and oblivion. By studying the making of Umayyad heroes or Abbasid origins-myths, this book aims to reveal the successive meanings granted to Syrian history, and to identify the various layers of historical writing and rewriting during the first centuries of Islam. Taken together, these elements make possible a history of meanings of the very space of Syria, articulated around power and its expression, which grants a clear coherence to the period, extending well beyond the dynastic caesura of 132/750.
Controversies over Islamic Origins
What evidence do we have to reconstruct the origins of Islam? On the basis of what sources can the first century of Islam be accessed? Why do historians of early Islam consider the literary sources of Islamic origins to be so problematic? How is the problem of early Islamic history framed? This book addresses these critical questions by discussing various approaches to the problem of reconstructing Islamic origins. In a spirit of welcoming diverse perspectives and encouraging healthy scholarly debate, it explores different, even conflicting modern theories about the emergence of Islam through various case studies, including recent debates on the Qur’an, the biography of the Prophet, and early conquest narratives. A broad spectrum of both traditionalist and revisionist scholarship is critically examined with the purpose of illuminating not only how modern scholars differ, but also what they have in common.
Muḥammad and His Followers in Context
This title is published in Open Access with the support of the University of Helsinki Library. The book surveys and analyzes changes in religious groups and identities in late antique Arabia, ca. 300-700 CE. It engages with contemporary and material evidence: for example, inscriptions, archaeological remains, Arabic poetry, the Qurʾān, and the so-called Constitution of Medina. Also, it suggests ways to deal with the later Arabic historiographical and other literary texts. The issue of social identities and their processes are central to the study. For instance, how did Arabian ethnic and religious identities intersect on the eve of Islam? The book suggests that the changes in social groups were more piecemeal than previously thought.
Politics of Pasts and Futures in (Post-)Imperial Contexts
Although empires have played a decisive role in political thinking and the orientation of political goals at all times, the focus of research has so far mostly been on spatial and ideological aspects. This volume, on the other hand, offers a multi-disciplinary collection of studies that deal with the instrumentalization and ongoing impacts of perspectives on empire and their place in time. Coming from archaeology, history, art history, literary studies, and social sciences, the individual case studies discuss perceptions of imperial histories and imagined futures of empires, both in imperial and in post-imperial contexts. The transcending historical significance of the imperial ideas and ideals shows the deep and long-lasting effects of empire in landscapes, mindscapes, and social structures. The diachronic cut through all epochs from antiquity to modern times is complemented by a broad global view to deepen the temporal understanding of imperial imaginaries as well as their political implications.
Conversion to Islam
During the first three centuries of Islamic rule, Muslims first articulated what it meant to become Muslim. In early Islamic sources, references to conversion describe an act of religious, political, and social transition. Conversion stories were an important way for historians to emphasize Allah at work in the Muslim community and to convey the unique qualities of Muhammad and the Qu'ran. In these texts, historians not only revealed the diverse nature of conversion and perceptions of it, but also illuminated their own religious debates, social concerns, political orientations, and ideological agendas. Conversion to Islam is the first scholarly study to identify and analyze these conversion themes in early Muslim historiographies.
Stories Between Christianity and Islam
Storytelling in late antique Christianity -- "How is Muhammad a better storyteller than I?" -- Narrating the Quran with Christian saints -- Christian saints in Islamic literature -- From Paul and John to Fīmyūn and Ṣāliḥ -- Stories between Christianity and Islam.
The Lineaments of Islam
In honor of Fred M. Donner's distinguished career as an interpreter of early Islam, this volume collects more than a dozen studies by his students. They range over a wide array of sub-fields in Islamic studies, including Islamic history, historiography, Islamic law, Qur'anic studies and Islamic aracheology.
Crossing Confessional Boundaries
Arguably the single most important element in Abrahamic cross-confessional relations has been an ongoing mutual interest in perennial spiritual and ethical exemplars of one another’s communities. Ranging from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages, Crossing Confessional Boundaries explores the complex roles played by saints, sages, and Friends of God in the communal and intercommunal lives of Christians, Muslims, and Jews across the Mediterranean world, from Spain and North Africa to the Middle East to the Balkans. By examining these stories in their broad institutional, social, and cultural contexts, Crossing Confessional Boundaries reveals unique theological insights into the interlocking histories of the Abrahamic faiths.
Heirs of the Apostles
Heirs of the Apostles offers a panoramic survey of Arabic-speaking Christians—descendants of the Christian communities established in the Middle East by the apostles—and their history, religion, and culture in the early Islamic and medieval periods. The subjects range from Arabic translations of the Bible, to the status of Christians in the Muslim-governed lands, Muslim-Christian polemic, and Christian-Muslim and Christian-Jewish relations. The volume is offered as a Festschrift to Sidney H. Griffith, the doyen of Christian Arabic Studies in North America, on his eightieth birthday. Contributors are: David Bertaina, Elie Dannaoui, Stephen Davis, Nathan P. Gibson, Cornelia Horn, Sandra Toenies Keating, Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, Johannes Pahlitzsch, Andrew Platt, Thomas W. Ricks, Barbara Roggema, Harald Suermann, Mark N. Swanson, Shawqi Talia, Jack Tannous, David Thomas, Jennifer Tobkin, Alexander Treiger, Ronny Vollandt, Clare Wilde, and Jason Zaborowski.
