Arabs and Iranians in the Islamic Conquest Narrative: Memory and Identity Construction in Islamic Historiography, 750-1050

by Scott Savran

Overview

Arabs and Iranians in the Islamic Conquest Narrative analyzes how early Muslim historians merged the pre-Islamic histories of the Arab and Iranian peoples into a didactic narrative culminating with the Arab conquest of Iran.

This book provides an in-depth examination of Islamic historical accounts of the encounters between representatives of these two peoples that took place in the centuries prior to the coming of Islam. By doing this, it uncovers anachronistic projections of dynamic identity and political discourses within the contemporaneous Islamic world. It shows how the formulaic placement of such embellishment within the context of the narrative served to justify the Arabs’ rise to power, whilst also explaining the fall of the Iranian Sasanian empire. The objective of this book is not simply to mine Islamic historical chronicles for the factual data they contain about the pre-Islamic period, but rather to understand how the authors of these works thought about this era.

By investigating the intersection between early Islamic memory, identity construction, and power discourses, this book will benefit researchers and students of Islamic history and literature and Middle Eastern Studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781317749080
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/08/2017
Series:	Culture and Civilization in the Middle East
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	258
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Scott Savran obtained his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 2011. Dr Savran's research focuses on identity-based discourses in early Islamic historiography.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Shifting Patterns of Identity and Early Islamic Historiography in Context 3. The Opening of the Drama: Shāpūr and the Sheikh 4. Bahrām V Gūr, the Lakhmids, and the Hephthalite Disaster 5. The Twilight of Sasanian Power: Khusraw I Anūshirvān and the Saga of Ḥimyar 6. The Buildup to the Confrontation: Khusraw II Parvīz and the Rise of the Arabs 7. The Climax: The Islamic Victory over the Sasanians 8. Conclusion