The contiguity between churches and mosques in early Islamic Bilād al-Shām

2013 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Guidetti
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
The Status ◽  
Islamic Conquest ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Material Evidence

AbstractThis article examines the transformation of the sacred landscape in the cities of Syria and Palestine from late antiquity to early Islam. This phase of urban and architectural history, often obscured by the changes brought in during the medieval period, is investigated through a close comparison of textual and material evidence related to the main urban religious complexes. It is suggested that the new Friday mosques were frequently built contiguous to Christian great churches, creating a sort of shared sacred area within the cities. Legal issues related to the Islamic conquest and the status of minorities are considered in order to explain the rationale behind such a choice by Muslims.

Attitudes to the Use of Fire in Executions in Late Antiquity and Early Islam: The Burning of Heretics and Rebels in Late Umayyad Iraq

2015 ◽  
pp. 106-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Marsham
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Physical Change ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
The Status ◽  
Extreme Violence

Capital punishment can be understood as simultaneously an exercise of actual power – the ending of a human life – and an exertion of symbolic, or ritual, power.1 In this combination of symbolic transformation with real physical change, executions are unusual rituals. But the use of extreme violence against the human body certainly does have ritual characteristics, in that it has established rules (which may, of course, be deliberately challenged or broken) and in that these rules are used to make the drastic transformation in the status of the executed party seem legitimate and proper, to reassert more general ideas about the correct social order and to communicate threats and warnings to others who might seek to upset it. The victim of the execution is quite literally marked out as beyond reintegration into society. Their body becomes a kind of text, which can be read in a multitude of ways: the authorities carrying out the killing usually have one set of messages in mind, but the victim themselves, and those who witness or remember the act, may have very different ideas.

Archaeology and the History of Early Islam: The First Seventy Years

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Johns
Keyword(s):  
Islamic State ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
Il Y A ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Material Evidence

AbstractThe rarity of material evidence for the religion of Islam during the first seventy years of the hijra (622-92 CE) has been used to attack the traditional positivist account of the rise of Islam. However, the earliest declarations of Islam are to be found on media produced by the early Islamic state. It is therefore mistake to read too much significance into the absence of such declarations prior to the formation of that state by Abd al-Malik (685-705 CE). There is little prospect that archaeology will uncover new evidence of Islam from the first seventy years. Le manque de données matérielles sur la religion de l'Islam pendant les sept premières décennies de l'hégire (622-92) a été utilisé pour réfuter la théorie positiviste traditionelle de l'essor de l'Islam. Cependant, les premières déclarations de l'Islam sont à trouver dans des oeuvres produites par l'Etat islamique à ses débuts. Il est donc erroné d'attribuer trop de sens à l'absence de telles déclarations avant la formation de cet Etat par Abd al-Malik (685-705). Il y a peu de perspectives de nouvelles découvertes archéologiques sur l'Islam des sept premières décennies.

Manumission

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Mouritsen
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Status ◽  
Legal Structures ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Almost All ◽  
State Functions

While manumission has been practised in almost all slave societies the Romans appear to have freed their slaves with unparalleled frequency. The chapter looks at three aspects of Roman manumission: the status of freedmen, the Augustan reforms of manumission and the legal discourse on freedmen under the Empire. It is suggested that the background for the Roman practice of enfranchising former slaves should be sought in the social and legal structures of early Rome, which delegated many “state” functions to the heads of households. The enfranchisement of freedmen was compatible with the political structures of the Republic, but in response to changes to the Roman citizenship the first emperor introduced a new legal framework, which remained until late Antiquity. The details of this framework were refined over the following centuries, as jurists explored a wide range of complex legal issues associated with manumission and the place of freedmen in society.

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