The Islamic-Byzantine Border in History: From the Rise of Islam to the End of the Crusades

by Deborah Tor (Editor), Alexander Beihammer (Editor)

Overview

This cross-disciplinary book offers a broad spectrum of essays on important aspects of the political, social, religious and historical importance of the Islamic-Byzantine border between 630-c.1300CE, and in particular on the manifold ways in which the Islamic-Byzantine border affected the internal development and culture of each of the two civilisations. The chapters are written by twelve of the leading scholars in the field, including experts on both the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world, and explore developments ranging from anti-government riots and dynastic revolutions to the border’s influence on religious law, apocalyptic literature, population policy and heroic culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399513036
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	11/30/2024
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	670,709
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

D.G. Tor is Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, specialising in the history of the pre-thirteenth century Medieval Middle East and Central Asia. Tor’s publications include the books Violent Order: Religious Warfare, Chivalry, and the ʿAyyār Phenomenon in the Medieval Islamic World (2007); The ʿAbbasid and Carolingian Empires: Studies in Civilizational Formation (2017); together with A.C.S. Peacock, Medieval Central Asia and the Persianate World: Iranian Tradition and Islamic Civilisation (2015); and, with Minoru Inaba, The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia: From the Pre-Islamic to the Islamic Period (2022). Tor has won numerous major research grants and awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; the American Council of Learned Societies; the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies; the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies; and Harvard University. Tor is also the Medieval History editor and a board member of the journal Iranian Studies.

Alexander D. Beihammer is Heiden Family College Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in Byzantine History. His books include Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim-Turkish Anatolia, ca. 1040-1130 (2019); with Maria Parani and Christoph Schabel, Diplomatics in the Eastern Mediterranean 1000-1500: Aspects of Cross-cultural Communication (2008); Quellenkritische Untersuchungen Zu Den Agyptischen Kapitulationsvertragen Der Jahre 640-646 (2000).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations | Notes on Contributors | Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 The Historical Significance of the Islamic–Byzantine Border: From the Seventh Century to 1291 - D.G. Tor

2 The Byzantine-Muslim Frontier from the Arab Conquests to the Arrival of the Seljuk Turks - Alexander D. Beihammer

3 The Formation of al-ʿAwāṣim - Hugh Kennedy

4 Caucasian Elites between Byzantium and the Caliphate in the Early Islamic Period - Robert Hoyland

5 Byzantine borders were state artifacts, not “fluid zones of interaction” Anthony Kaldellis

6 A Christian Insurgency in Islamic Syria: The Jarājima (Mardaites) between Byzantium and the Caliphate - Christian Sahner

7 The Character of Umayyad Art: the Mediterranean Tradition - Robert Hillenbrand

8 Byzantine Heroes and Saints of the Arab-Byzantine Border (9th-10th c.) - Sophie Métivier

9 A Cosmopolitan Frontier State: The Marwānids of Diyār Bakr, 990-1085 and the Performance of Power - Carole Hillenbrand

10 Byzantine Population Policy in the Eastern Borderland between Byzantium and the Caliphate from the 7th through the 12th Centuries - Ralph-Johannes Lilie

11 The Islamic-Byzantine Frontier in Seljuq Anatolia - Andrew C.S. Peacock

Selected Bibliography | Index

Editorial Reviews

This series of informative essays embodies new methodologies and details many aspects of Christian-Muslim tensions and conflicts over eight centuries, emphasizing the Syrian and Anatolian borders and excluding the other major areas of conflict between these two missionary empires. [...] Recommended.

CHOICE, January 2024 - S. Bowman

This important volume challenges us to rethink how we understand the frontier, both culturally and geographically, between the Byzantine and Islamic worlds from the 7th century CE onwards. Its eleven chapters present cutting-edge research and establish a new baseline from which this key region must now be studied.

John F. Haldon