Schedule

Week 1: Induction and Introduction; Before Islam: Near East in Late Antiquity

Week 2: Before Islam: Near East in Late Antiquity  — Tutorial: Arabs in the Late Antiquary World

Week 3: Before Islam: Near East in Late Antiquity — Tutorial: Arabs in the Late Antiquary World

Week 4: Early Islamic Polity: Mu?ammad and His Successors 

Week 5: Early Islamic Polity: Mu?ammad and His Successors  — Tutorial: Mu?ammad: History and Memory

Week 6: Early Islamic Polity: Mu?ammad and His Successors — Tutorial: Islamic Conquests

Week 7: The Civil Wars and the Umayyads

Week 8: The Civil Wars and the Umayyads — Tutorial: the Civil Wars

Week 9: The Civil Wars and the Umayyads — Tutorial: the Articulation of the Umayyad Authority

Week 10: Midterm

Week 11: The Early ?Abb?sid Caliphate

Week 12: The ?Abb?sids — Tutorial: Central Authority and Provincial Elite

Week 13: The ?Abb?sids and the Rise of Regional Dynasties

Week 14: The ?Abb?sids — Tutorial: Translation Movement

Week 15: Muslims in Spain and North Africa

Week 16: Muslims in Spain and North Africa — Tutorial: the Umayyads in Spain

Week 17: Muslims in Spain and North Africa — Tutorial: the F??imids

Week 18: Final Examination

Midterm Exam — 15%

Final Exam — 25%

Tutorials — 30%

Essay — 30%

Before Islam: Near East in Late Antiquity

Set Reading

• Conrad, Lawrence I. “The Arabs.” In The Cambridge Ancient History. Volume XIV. Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425–600. Edited by Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins, and Michael Whitby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, 678–695.


• Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. 2^nd Edition. London: Longman, 2004, 1–29.

Further Reading Suggestions

Encyclopaedia Iranica, “?ARAB i. Arabs and Iran in the pre-Islamic period”, “Zoroastrianism i. Historical Review up to the Arab Conquest”, “Class System iii. in the Parthian and Sasanian Periods”, “Iran ix. Religions in Iran (1) Pre-Islamic”, et al.

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2^nd edition and Encyclopaedia of Islam Three (EI² and EI³), ‘Abraha’, ‘Ghassan’, ‘Himyar’, ‘al-Hira’, ‘Kinda’, ‘Lakhm’, et al.

The Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 3(2): The Seleucids, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods. Edited by Ehsan Yarshater. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

The Cambridge Ancient History. Volume XIV. Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425–600. Edited by Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins, and Michael Whitby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Fisher, G. Between Empires: Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Fowden, G. Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of monotheism in late antiquity, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Fowden, Garth. Before and after Muhammad: The First Millennium Refocused. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.

Howard-Johnston, J. “The Great Powers on the Eve of Islamic Conquest.’ In Les préludes de l’Islam: Ruptures et continuités dans les civilisations du Proche-Orient, de l’Afrique orientales, de l’Arabie et de I’Inde à la veille de l’Islam. Edited by Christian Julien Robin and Jérémie Schiettecatte. Paris: De Boccard, 2013, 37–56.

Tutorial: Arabs in the Late Antiquary World

• Berkey, J. P. The Formation of Islam, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 3–49.


• Hoyland, R. Arabia and the Arabs from the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. London, 2001, 85–166.


• Finster, B. “Arabia in Late Antiquity: An Outline of the Cultural Situation in the Peninsula at the Time of Muhammad.” In The Qur??n in Conext: Historical and Literary Investigations into the Qur?anic Milieu. Edited by Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai and Michael Marx. Leiden: Brill, 2010, 61–114. 

Early Islamic Polity: Mu?ammad and His Successors

Set reading

• Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004 (1^st ed., 1986), 15–75.


• Berkey, J. P. The Formation of Islam, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 3–69.

Further Reading Suggestions

Cook, Michael. The Koran: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Donner, Fred M. “Modern Approaches to Early Islamic History.” In The New Cambridge History of Islam Volume 1: The Formation of the Islamic World, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries. Edited by Chase F. Robinson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 623–647.

Hoyland, Robert G. In God’s Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Ibn Ishaq (d. 767). The life of Muhammad: a translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah. Translated by A. Guillaume. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955.

Kennedy, Hugh. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. London: Routledge, 2001.

Watt, M. Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961.

The Qur’an, surat Maryam (Q. 19).

Tutorial Reading: Mu?ammad: History and Memory

• Brown, J.A. Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Oxford: One World, 2009, 15–23, 197–239.


• Cook, Michael. Muhammad. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983, 61–76


• Crone, P., ‘What do we actually know about Muhammad?’, openDemocracy, 10 June 2008 (1st published 31 August 2006), http://www.opendemocracy.net/faith-europe_islam/mohammed_3866.jsp.


• Raven, W. “S?ra”, in EI².


• Hoyland, Robert. Seeing Islam as Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam. Princeton: Darwin Press, 1997, 523–544.

Tutorial Reading: Islamic Conquests

• Donner, Fred M. The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981, 221–250, 267–272.


• Kennedy, Hugh. The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We lived In. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 2007, 344–376.


• Levy-Rubin, M. Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire: From Surrender to Coexistence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, 8–57. 

The Civil Wars and the Umayyads

Set Reading

• Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004 (1^st ed., 1986), 75–122.


• Berkey, Jonathan P. The Formation of Islam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 76–90.


• Hawting, Gerald. “Umayyads” in EI².

Further Reading Suggestions

Blankinship, Khalid Yahya. The End of the Jih?d State: The Reign of Hisha?m ibn ?Abd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.

Duri, ‘Abd al-‘Az?z. Early Islamic Institutions: Administration and Taxation from the Caliphate to the Umayyads and  ?Abb?sids. Translated by the Centre for Arab Unity Studies for Razia Ali. London: Tauris, 2011.

Grabar, Oleg. The Dome of the Rock. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006

Humphreys, R. Stephen. Mu‘awiya ibn Abi Sufyan: The Saviour of the Caliphate. Oxford: Oneworld, 2006.

The New Cambridge History of Islam Volume 1: The Formation of the Islamic World Sixth to Eleventh

Centuries. Edited by Chase F. Robinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Morony, M. G. Iraq After the Muslim Conquest. New Jersey: Gorgias, 2005.

Tutorial: the Civil Wars

• Crone, Patricia. Medieval Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004, 17–47.


• Hawting, Gerald. The First Dynasty of Islam.  London: Routledge, 2000, 21–103.

Tutorial: the Articulation of Authority

• Robinson, C. F. ‘Abd al-Malik. Oxford: Oneworld, 2005, 58–118.


• George, A. “Paradise or Empire? On a Paradox of Umayyad Art. In Power Patronage and Memory in early Islam: Perspectives on Umayyad Elites. Edited by A. George and A. Marsham. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, 39–67.


• Marsham, A. ‘“God’s Caliph” Revisited: Umayyad Political Thought in Its Late Antique Context.” Power Patronage and Memory in early Islam: Perspectives on Umayyad Elites. Edited by A. George and A. Marsham. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, 3–37.

The Early ?Abb?sid Caliphate

Set reading

• Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004 (1^st ed., 1986), 124–157.


• Hawting, Gerald. The First Dynasty of Islam.  London: Routledge, 72–118.

Further Reading Suggestions

Berkey, Jonathan P. The Formation of Islam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 91–176.

Lewis, Bernard. “Abbasids (Banu ‘l-‘Abbas)” in EI².

Crone, Patricia. Medieval Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004, 70–98, NB, too, the charts at 401–4.

Crone, Patricia. Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Daniel, E. The Political and Social History of Khurasan under Abbasid Rule 747–820. Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1979.

Humphreys, R. S. Islamic History: A framework for inquiry. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1991, 104–27.

Tutorial Reading: Central Authority and Provincial Elite

• Munt, Harry. “Caliphal Imperialism and ?ij?z? elites in the second/eighth Century.” Al-Mas?q 28-1 (2016): 6–21.


• Kennedy, Hugh. “Central Government and Provincial E?lites in the Early ?Abba?sid caliphate.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 44-1 (1981): 26–38.


• Kennedy, Hugh. The Early Abbasid Caliphate: a Political History. London: Croom Helm, 1981, 18–34, 176–197.


• Tillier, M. “Legal Knowledge and Local Practices under the Early ?Abb?sids.” In History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East 500–1000. Edited by Philip Wood. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, 187–204.


• Zaman, Muhammad Qasim, “The Caliphs, the ?Ulam??, and the Law: Defining the Role and Function of the Caliph in the Early ?Abb?sid Period.” Islamic Law and Society, 4-1(1997): 1-36.

The ?Abb?sids and the Rise of Regional Dynasties

Set Reading

• Kennedy, Hugh. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. London: Routledge, 2001, 158–284.

Further Reading Suggestions

Crone, Patricia. Medieval Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.

Kennedy, Hugh. “The decline and fall of the first Muslim empire,” Islam 81-1(2004): 10–16.

Gordon, Matthew S. The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish Military of Samarra (A.H. 200–275/815–889 C.E.). Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.

Kennedy, Hugh. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. London: Routledge, 2001.

Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi‘i Islam. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985

Northedge, A. “S?marr??”, in EI².

Waines, David. “The Third Century Internal Crisis of the Abbasids.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 20-3 (1977): 282–306.

Zaman, Muhammad Qasim. Religion and Politics under the Early ?Abb?sids: The Emergence of proto-Sunn? Elite. Leiden: Brill, 1997.

Tutorial Reading: Translation Movement

• BBC Radio 4, ‘The Translation Movement’, In Our Time podcast, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dp4d8


• Bennison, A. The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the ‘Abbasid Empire. London: I.B. Tauris, 2009, 158–202.


• Gutas, D. Greek thought, Arabic culture: the Graeco-Arabic translation movement in Baghdad and early ?Abbasid society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries). London: Routledge, 1998, 28–60.


• Saliba, G. Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance. Cambridge: Mass., 2007, 1–


• 129.

Muslims in Spain and North Africa

Set Reading

• Moreno, E. “The Iberian Peninsula and North Africa.” In The New Cambridge History of Islam. Edited by Chase Robinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 581-622.


• Brett, Michael. “Egypt.” In The New Cambridge History of Islam. Edited by Chase F. Robinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 541–580.

Further Reading Suggestions

Daftary, F. The Isma?ilis: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Halm, Heinz. Shi‘ism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995.

Halm, Heiz. The Empire of the Mahdi: the Rise of the Fatimids. Leiden: Brill, 1996

Momen, Moojan. An Introduction to Shi‘i Islam. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985, 86–104.

Newman, Andrew J. Twelver Shiism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.

Molina, L. “Umayyads.” In EI².

Watt. W. M. and P. Cachia. A History of Islamic Spain. New Brunswick: Aldine Transaction, 2008.

Clarke, N. The Muslim Conquest of Iberia: Medieval Arabic Narratives. London: Routledge, 2012.

Fletcher, Richard. Moorish Spain. London: Phoenix, 2001.

The Art of the Umayyad Period in Spain (711–1031), available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sumay/hd_sumay.htm

Safran, Janina. “The Command of the Faithful in Al-Andalus: A Study in the Articulation of Caliphal Legitimacy.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 30-2 (1998): 183-198.

Safran. Janina M. “Identity and Differentiation in Ninth-Century Al-Andalus.” Speculum 76-3 (2001): 573-598.

Rouighi, Ramzi. “The Berbers of the Arabs.” Studia Islamica 106-1 (2011): 49-76.

Tutorial Reading: the Umayyads in Spain

• Kennedy, H. Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. New York: Routledge, 2014, 30–108.


• Goddard, H. A History of Christian-Muslim Relationships. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000, 79–108.

Tutorial Reading: the F??imids

• Crone, Patricia. Medieval Islamic Political Thought. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004, esp. 87–124, 197–218.


• Madelung, W. “Isma‘iliyya: History, Pre-F??imid and F??imid Times” and “Doctrine: Pre-F??imid and F??imid Times” in EI².


• Brett, Michael. The Fatimid Empire. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017, 17–83.