The long-term geopolitics of the pre-modern Middle East

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
MICHAEL COOK
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Random Fluctuations ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Over Time

AbstractThe geopolitical shape of the Middle East has varied greatly over time. This article is concerned with the period from Late Antiquity to the end of the eighteenth century, during which four basic configurations succeeded each other. Late Antiquity was marked by the coexistence of two large empires, one based in the western Middle East and the other in the eastern Middle East; the early Islamic period saw the dominance of a single empire the location of whose centre was unstable; the medieval period was characterised by the absence of large and lasting empires and a shifting plurality of smaller states; finally in the Ottoman period we see the renewed dominance of a single empire, now based in the western Middle East. Are these changes to be seen as random fluctuations, or can they be explained in terms of a small number of underlying factors? The point of this article is to argue that a focus on the potential imperial heartlands of the Middle East can help us to explain much—though not all—of the changing geopolitical configuration of the region.

Zoroastrian law and the spread of Islam in Iranian society (ninth–tenth century)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Christian C. Sahner
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
Questions And Answers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic

Abstract This article explores three important Zoroastrian legal texts from the ʿAbbasid period, consisting of questions and answers to high-ranking priests. The texts contain a wellspring of information about the social history of Zoroastrianism under Islamic rule, especially the formative encounter between Zoroastrians and Muslims. These include matters such as conversion, apostasy, sexual relations with outsiders, inheritance, commerce, and the economic status of priests. The article argues that the elite clergy responsible for writing these texts used law to refashion the Zoroastrian community from the rulers of Iran, as they had been in Late Antiquity, into one of a variety of dhimmī groups living under Islamic rule. It also argues that, far from being brittle or inflexible, the priests responded to the challenges of the day with creativity and pragmatism. On both counts, there are strong parallels between the experiences of Zoroastrians and those of Christians and Jews, who also turned to law as an instrument for rethinking their place in the new Islamic cosmos. Finally, the article makes a methodological point, namely to show the importance of integrating Pahlavi sources into wider histories of Iran and the Middle East during the early Islamic period.

Iranian Cities: Settlements and Water Management from Antiquity to the Islamic Period

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 39-76
Author(s):  
Rocco Rante
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Iranian Plateau ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Geomorphological Features

AbstractThis article attempts a long-term perspective on cities and water from Late Antiquity to the early Islamic centuries (until ca. 1000 CE). It focuses on the question of how cities and their agricultural hinterland were supplied with water. The topography of the site, its geomorphological features, are shown to influence both the setup and subsequent history of the cities. The article uses two sets of examples, one chosen from the Iranian plateau where qanāt irrigation predominates, and the other one from Persianate Central Asia (Transoxiana), where water is derived from larger and medium-sized rivers. The type of irrigation influences the ways in which the city grows, and more generally, the layout of the city is also determined by the water supply. Cities tend to grow towards the source of water, and it can also be observed that in many cases, the political and administrative centre is located where the best water is available. One of the major questions is whether imperial will was behind the construction of irrigation systems or whether local players such as landlords were the decisive factor.The article combines archaeological research and the study of textual sources but is mostly based on recent archaeological fieldwork.

Medieval Kashan: Crossroads of Commerce and Culture

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 395-429
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Amanat ◽  
Roy P. Mottahedeh
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Education ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
Arab Immigrants ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic

AbstractThis essay first attempts to explain why the Iranian city of Kashan is where it is and then how it came to grow.Extensive use of irrigation allowed an adequate and perhaps abundant agriculture in the surrounding region. The arrival of substantial numbers of Arab immigrants in Kashan in the early Islamic period played an important role in the city’s development and its continuation as a center of Shiʿism. A strong educational tradition produced many talented Kashani officials, who served in the Saljuq and later administrations and sent some of their wealth back to Kashan.It was also in the Saljuq period that Kashan gained a reputation for its production of luxury ceramics. Artisanal traditions were passed from generation to generation and contributed to exports of brass, and especially of textiles, which continued for centuries. Wealthy Kashanis (probably including a fair number of sayyids) invested heavily in charitable endowments, which served the poor and furthered learning in general. In the Timurid period, investments in mathematical education produced several outstanding mathematicians and astronomers. Tax yields from the medieval period may indicate the increasing prosperity of Kashan.

Towards a Historical Semantic of the Bedouin, Seventh to Fifteenth Centuries: A Survey

Der Islam ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Leder
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Near East ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
Over Time

AbstractArabic literature is exceptionally rich in references to the Bedouin component of society. The main terms used by Arabic authors to refer to the Bedouin and their ways of life reveal the significant approach to nomadism in the Near East and Arabic North Africa and expose specific concepts which changed over time. Arabic terminology, in our reading, does not support a sharp and categorical dichotomy between sedentary and Bedouin ways of life, although distinctions based on socially mediated normative contexts appear marked, and Bedouin may thus appear simply as a social category, so that their actual way of life may fade into insignificance. What we suggest is to explore the extent to which the category “Bedouin” is applied in different cultural and conceptual contexts. Various historical attitudes may be distinguished approximately, not only on the basis of the terms applied, but also in light of the semantic features determining their application. Whereas in the early Islamic period, Bedouin tribal groups (

scholarly journals Bioarchaeological analysis of one of the earliest Islamic burials in the Levant

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megha Srigyan ◽  
Héctor Bolívar ◽  
Irene Ureña ◽  
Jonathan Santana ◽  
Andrew Petersen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Genomic Analysis ◽  
Genomic Diversity ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
First Time ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Genomic Similarity

AbstractThe Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here, we present for the first time, a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to late 7th and early 8th centuries from Tell Qarassa, an open-air site in modern-day Syria. Radiocarbon dates, religious and cultural burial evidence indicate that this site represents one of the earliest Islamic Arab burials in the Levant during the Late Antiquity period. Interestingly, we found genomic similarity to a genotyped group of modern-day Bedouins and Saudi rather than to most neighbouring Levantine groups. This is highlighted through substantial Neolithic Levant ancestry in our samples, inviting an alternative scenario of long-term continuity in this region. This raises questions about the influence of ancient populations and historical migrations to genetic structure in the Middle East. As our study represents the first genomic analysis of an early Islamic burial in the Levant, we discuss our findings and possible historic scenarios in light of forces such as genetic drift and their possible interaction with religious and cultural processes.

scholarly journals The Feeding of the five Hundred Thousand: Cities and Agriculture in Early Islamic Mesopotamia

Iraq ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 177-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Productivity ◽  
Rural Settlement ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Agricultural Economy ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
River Transport ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Early Islamic

This paper discusses the impact of the foundation of major cities in Mesopotamia in the early Islamic period (c. 636-900 CE) and their impact on the agricultural economy and rural settlement in the area. It considers the potential agricultural productivity of the area, the availability of river transport, the fiscal structure of the early Islamic state and the way in which it created demand for foodstuffs, and the development of the qaṭīca as a form of landholding which provided security of tenure and hence the encouragement of long-term investment in agricultural infrastructure.

Desert Migrations: people, environment and culture in the Libyan Sahara

2007 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 115-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mattingly ◽  
Marta Lahr ◽  
Simon Armitage ◽  
Huw Barton ◽  
John Dore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Historic Period ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Art Research ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic

AbstractThe Desert Migrations Project is a new interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional collaborative project between the Society for Libyan Studies and the Department of Antiquities. The geographical focus of the study is the Fazzan region of southwest Libya and in thematic terms we aim to address the theme of migration in the broadest sense, encompassing the movement of people, ideas/knowledge and material culture into and out of Fazzan, along with evidence of shifting climatic and ecological boundaries over time. The report describes the principal sub-strands of the project's first season in January 2007, with some account of research questions, methods employed and some preliminary results. Three main sub-projects are reported on. The first concerns the improved understanding of long-term climatic and environmental changes derived from a detailed palaeoenvironmental study of palaeolake sediments. This geo-science work runs alongside and feeds directly into both archaeological sub-projects, the first relating to prehistoric activity and mobility around and between a series of palaeolakes during wetter climatic cycles; the second to the excavation of burials in the Wadi al-Ajal, exploring the changing relationship between material culture, identity and ethnicity across time, from prehistory to the early Islamic period (the span of the main cemetery zones). In addition, some rock art research and a survey of historic period sites was undertaken in the Wadi ash-Shati and Ubari sand sea.

scholarly journals Arabic-Islamic Views of the Latin West

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 153-156
Author(s):  
Eyad Abuali
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
Latin West ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Previous Scholarship

Interactions between Latin Europeans and the Islamic world during the medievalperiod have received great attention in numerous scholarly studies. Thefocus of such works often consists of an attempt to delineate the constructionof identities and the extent to which they were utilized to mark out an “other.”By contrast, one of König’s most important conclusions demonstrates that formedieval Arab-Islamic scholars writing about the Latin West, these Latin Christiansocieties “were often simply regarded as alternative manifestations ofhuman life and its social and political organisation” (pp. 327-28).This is primarily a historiographical investigation with a macro-historicalapproach. König analyzes material spanning the early Islamic period (the seventhcentury) to the later medieval period (the fifteenth century) and covers arange of genres. It could be said that such an approach fails to critically analyzethe motivations of individual Muslim authors, something that the author doesacknowledge in his preface. However, such analyses lie beyond the scope ofthe project at hand. Furthermore, a macro-historical approach is necessary forchallenging previous scholarship on the subject. Bernard Lewis asserted thatthe Latin West was perceived as a united barbaric monolith, one viewed at bestwith disinterest in the minds of Muslim writers – a view that continues to influencescholarship to this day ...

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