1st Edition
From Arabian Tribes to Islamic Empire Army, State and Society in the Near East c.600-850
By Patricia Crone
Copyright 2008
320 Pages
by
Routledge
This second collection of articles by Patricia Crone brings together studies on the development of early Muslim society, above all the army with which it was originally synonymous, from shortly after the Prophet's death until the mid-Abbasid period. The focus is on the changes that the Arab tribesmen underwent thanks to settlement outside Arabia, their strained relations with converts from the conquered population, and their gradual eclipse by them.
Contents: Introduction; The Arabian Background: The tribe and the state; Tribes and states in the Middle East; The 1st-century concept of higra. The Later Evolution: Were the Qays and Yemen of the Umayyad period political parties?; A note on Muqatil b. Hayyan and Muqatil b. Sulayman; The significance of wooden weapons in al-Mukhtar's revolt and the `Abbasid revolution; On the meaning of the `Abbasid call to al-Rida; The `Abbasid Abna' and Sasanid cavalrymen; The early Islamic world; The pay of client soldiers in the Umayyad period; Mawali and the Prophet's family: an early Shi`ite view; Imperial trauma: the case of the Arabs; Index.
Biography
Patricia Crone (1945 - 2015) was Professor Emerita in the School of Historical Studies at The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA.
’This volume, given the author’s importance to the field of early Islamic history, is destined to be one of the most useful in the Variorum series.’ Journal of Islamic Studies '[These articles] serve as a reminder, if one is needed, of the range and incisiveness of Crone’s work on early Islamic history. They also sit together well, presenting a coherent set of perspectives on the problem implied in the book’s title - that of the political consequences of the Arabian origins of Islam.' Journal of Semitic Studies
