Between Memory and Power : The Syrian Space Under the Late Umayyads and Early Abbasids (c. 72-193/692-809)

"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"-- Provided by publisher Contents Preface to the English Translation (2023) Acknowledgements to the French Edition (2011) Translator’s Note Illustrations Introduction 1 A Time of Writings and Rewritings: Writing History in the Syrian Space 1.1 Narrative Islamic Sources and the Question of Their Transmission 1.1.1 The Act of Writing and Modes of Transmission 1.1.2 Lost Sources and Historical Reconstruction 1.1.3 Formal Aspects: Isnād and Khabar 1.2 Writing History in the Syrian Space under the Late Umayyads and Early Abbasids 1.2.1 On the Origins of Islamic Historiography 1.2.2 Syrian Historiography in the Umayyad Era? 1.2.3 Forgotten Sources? 2 A Time of Writings and Rewritings: Historiographic Filters and Vulgates 2.1 In Search of Umayyad Historiographic Projects 2.1.1 “Common Link,” “Collective isnāds,” or Umayyad Historiographic Filters? 2.1.2 Marwanid Writings and Rewritings 2.2 Toward a Historiographic Vulgate: The History of Syria Rewritten in Abbasid Iraq 2.2.1 Layers of Historical Rewriting under the Early Abbasids 2.2.2 Al-Ṭabarī: The End of History? 3 A Time of Writings and Rewritings: Sources on the Margins of the Historiographic Vulgate? 3.1 Islamic Sources on the Margins of the Vulgate? 3.1.1 Second/Eighth Century Sources? 3.1.2 Space before Chronology 3.1.3 Other Perspectives 3.2 Non-Muslim Sources: “External” or “Eastern” Sources? 3.2.1 Intercultural Transmission 3.2.2 Theophilus of Edessa, the Chronology of Qartamīn and the Syriac Common Source 3.2.3 Other Christian Sources 3.2.4 Historical Apocalypses 4 The Second/Eight-Century Syrian Space: Between Memory and Oblivion 4.1 Memoria as an Object of Study 4.1.1 Islam and Memory 4.1.2 Memoria outside the Field of Islamic Studies: A Historiographic Overview 4.2 Umayyad Memoria 4.2.1 Umayyad “Realms of Memory” 4.2.2 The Early Abbasids and Umayyad Memory 4.2.3 Umayyad Memory and Culture 4.3 Spaces of Memory 4.3.1 The Distorting Prisms of Post-Sāmarrāʾ Historiography 4.3.2 Syrian-Umayyad Memoria versus Iraqi-Abbasid Memoria: A False Dichotomy? 4.3.3 The Syrian Space in Umayyad Ideology: Appropriation of Solomonic Precedent 5 The Creation of Umayyad Heroes: Maslama b. ʿAbd al-Malik, Combat Hero 5.1 The Siege of Constantinople: Military Failure, Narrative Success 5.1.1 Epic Tradition and Monumental Legacy 5.1.2 The Expedition against Constantinople in the Islamic Chronographies 5.1.3 The Christian Sources and the Construction of Heroes 5.2 From Hero of the Byzantine Frontier to Islamic Hero? 5.2.1 The Competition for Heroisation 5.2.2 Maslama and the Borders of the World: A New Alexander? 5.3 Eschatology and the Creation of Heroes 6 The Creation of Umayyad Heroes: ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, the “Holy” Caliph 6.1 ʿUmar II in the Islamic Tradition 6.1.1 The Fifth Orthodox Caliph 6.1.2 A New ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb 6.1.3 Mahdī and Mujaddid: The Caliph of the Year 100 Hijrī 6.2 ʿUmar II in the Christian Sources 6.2.1 Muslim Apocalyptic and Christian Tradition 6.2.2 The Caliph’s Image 6.2.3 A Chronology of these topoi in the Syrian Space: Propositions and Hypotheses 6.3 Constructing the Image of the Holy Caliph: Stages and Conditions 6.3.1 Sunna and Sīra: The Traditionists’ Caliph 6.3.2 The Caliph and the Law: ʿUmar II and Mālik b. Anas 6.3.3 The Circulation of Elements Related to ʿUmar II: Propositions and Hypotheses 7 Interpreting the Abbasid Revolution in the Syrian Space 7.1 The Abbasid Revolution: Medieval and Modern Vulgates 7.1.1 The Revolutionary Canon 7.1.2 A Century of Interpretations of the Abbasid Revolution 7.1.3 The “Abbasid Revolution” and Modern Scholarship: Questions and Debates 7.2 Syrian Memories of the Abbasid Revolution 7.2.1 In the Workshop of Abbasid History 7.2.2 History Continues? 7.2.3 Ibrāhīm al-Imām 7.3 ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAlī and the Allure of a Syrian Abbasid Caliphate? 7.3.1 Strategies of Isolation 7.3.2 Confiscation for and by Messianism 8 Exercising Power in the Syrian Space in the Second/Eighth Century: A History of Meanings 8.1 Patrimonialism and the Creation of a Caliphal Landscape 8.1.1 The Construction of an Islamic Caliphal Landscape 8.1.2 Patrimonialism and Regionalisation of Powers 8.2 The Mobile Exercise of Power 8.2.1 The Need for Mobility 8.2.2 The “Umayyad Castles” as an Expression of Mobile Power 8.2.3 Mobility Lost 8.3 Abbasid Reconfigurations 8.3.1 The Banū Ṣāliḥ and Abbasid Syrian Patrimonialism 8.3.2 Competition for Mobility and Its Consequences 8.3.3 Between Damascus and Baghdad: Spaces of Caliphal Power Conclusion Abbreviations Sources Bibliography Index