458 Pages
by
Routledge
458 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
This volume examines the background to the rise of Islam. The opening essays consider the broad context of nomad-sedentary relations in the Near East; thereafter the focus is on the Arabian peninsula and the history of the Arab peoples. The following papers set out the political and economic structures of the pre-Islamic period, and are concerned to trace the evolution of religious beliefs in the... Read more
Contents: Introduction; The nature of Arab unity before Islam, Gustav von Grunebaum; The role of nomads in the Near East in Late Antiquity (400-800 c.e.), Fred M. Donner; The bedouinization of Arabia, Werner Caskel; Trans-Arabian routes of the pre-Islamic period, Daniel Potts; Al-Hira. Some notes on its relation with Arabia, M.J. Kister; Pre-Islamic Bedouin religion, J. Henninger; Idol worship in pre-Islamic Medina (Yathrib), Michael Lecker; The origin of the Jews of Yathrib, Moshe Gil; Haram and hawtah, the sacred enclosures in Arabia, R.B. Serjeant; The pre-foundations of the Muslim community in Mecca, Fazlur Rahman; Mecca before the time of the prophet - attempt of an anthropological interpretation, Walter Dostal; The ’sacred offices’ of Mecca from Jahiliyya to Islam, Gerald R. Hawting; Hanifiyya and Ka’ba. An enquiry into the Arabian pre-Islamic background of the din Ibrahim, Uri Rubin; Pre-Islamic monotheism in Arabia, H.A.R. Gibb; Belief in a ’High God’ in pre-Islamic Mecca, W. Montgomery Watt; The Ka’ba: aspects of its ritual functions and position in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Uri Rubin; The role played by the organization of the Hums in the evolution of political ideas in pre-Islamic Mecca, Ugo Fabietti; The campaign of Hulaban: new light on the expedition of Abraha, M.J. Kister; Index.
Biography
F.E. Peters
'For non-specialist readers, the information available in this book may, for the most part, be an exciting discovery. For specialists in the field, reading or re-reading these studies is particularly interesting, given the focused framework of the volume... may well become a frequently-consulted reference work... All articles represent research studies by some of the finest scholars in Middle Eastern Studies...' Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam
