The Arabs, Byzantium and Iran: Studies in Early Islamic History and Culture (Variorum Collected Studies)

This collection of articles by Professor Bosworth contains a series of studies on the Arab-Persian heartland of the medieval Islamic world, from the Levant to Afghanistan and the borderlands with India. The emphasis is on historical, religious, cultural and literary aspects of the region's history, from pre-Islamic times to the medieval period. A number of the studies focus on the Arab caliphate and the successor dynasties that arose from it in the Iranian world, others focus on Muslim perceptions of other faiths in the Middle East and on the relations of the ruling Muslim institution with its non-Muslim minorities. One particular group is also concerned with the prolonged contacts and interaction between Islam and the Byzantine Empire. Cover Series Half Title Title Copyright Contents Introduction Acknowledgements Section One: Arab History, Culture and Literature I Madyan Shu‘ayb in pre-Islamic and early Islamic lore and history II A note on ta‘arrub in early Islam III Some remarks on the terminology of irrigation practices and hydraulic constructions in the eastern Arab and Iranian worlds in the third-fifth centuries A.H. IV Abū Ḥafṣ ‘Umar al-Kirmānī and the rise of the Barmakids V Notes on the lives of some ‘Abbasid princes and descendants VI The concept of dhimma in early Islam VII The ‘Protected Peoples’ (Christians and Jews) in medieval Egypt and Syria VIII Ghars al-Ni‘ma [b.] Hilāl al-Sābi”s Kitāb al-Hafawāt an-nādira and Būyid history IX Some historical gleanings from the section on symbolic actions in Qalqašandī’s Ṣubḥ al-a‘šā Section Two: The Arabs and the Byzantine Empire X Al-Khwārazmī on the secular and religious titles of the Byzantines and Christians XI The Byzantine defence system in Asia Minor and the first Arab incursions XII Byzantium and the Syrian frontier in the early Abbasid period XIII Byzantium and the Arabs: war and peace between two world civilizations XIV The city of Tarsus and the Arab-Byzantine frontiers in early and middle ‘Abbāsid times XV Abū‘Amr ‘Uthmān al-Ṭarsūsī’s Siyar al-thughūr and the last years of Arab rule in Tarsus (fourth/tenth century) Section Three: Iranian History, Culture and Literature XVI The coming of Islam to Afghanistan XVII An ‘Ayyār coin from Sistan XVIII Al-Khwārazmī on various faiths and sects, chiefly Iranian XIX Rulers of Makrān and Quṣdār in the early Islamic period XX The rulers of Chaghāniyān in early Islamic times XXI The poetical citations in Baihaqī’s Ta’rīkh-i Mas‘ūdī XXII Farrukhī’s elegy on Maḥmūd of Ghazna XXIII An early Persian Ṣūfī, Shaykh AbūSa‘īd of Mayhanah Index C.e. Bosworth. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.