The Umayyad Empire

by Andrew Marsham

Overview

The Umayyad Empire (644–750 CE) was the first Islamic empire and one of the largest empires of ancient and medieval times, extending over 5,000 miles between the Atlantic Ocean in the West and the Indian Ocean in the East. This book traces the empire’s origins to the Arabian Peninsula and the Syrian Steppe in the centuries before Islam. It explores the dynamics that shaped this formative era for the history of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. The century of Umayyad rule witnessed war with the Eastern Roman Empire, against whom the Umayyads defined their claims to rule as God’s deputies on Earth. This was the period in which the Qur’an was compiled, monuments such as the Dome of the Rock were built, and new Islamic and Arab identities developed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748643004
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	01/12/2024
Series:	The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	652,871
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Andrew Marsham is Professor of Classical Arabic Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Queens’ College, specialising in the Late Antique and Early Medieval History of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. His publications include The Umayyad World (Routledge, 2021), Power, Patronage and Memory in Early Islam (Oxford, 2018, with Professor Alain George), and Rituals of Islamic Monarchy (Edinburgh, 2009).

Table of Contents

List of Box TextList of IllustrationsList of AbbreviationsNotes on Dates, Transliteration and NamesAcknowledgementsIntroduction

Part I The Formation of the Umayyad Empire Introduction

1. The Origins of Arabian Empire

2. The Seventh Century ‘World Crisis’

3. The ‘Conquest Society’ and the Defeat of Rome and Iran

4. The Emergence of the Umayyad Empire

5. The Succession to Mu‘awiya and the Second Civil War

Part II The Marwanid Umayyad Empire, 692–750

Introduction

6. The Imperial Marwanid Caliphate

7. The Siege of Constantinople and the Short Caliphates of Sulayman, ‘Umar II, and Yazid II

8. Hisham b. ‘Abd al-Malik: Renewal and Defeat

9. The Collapse of Umayyad Power

Part III Ecology, Economy and Society in Umayyad Times

Introduction

10. Resources, Settlement Patterns and Commerce

11. Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews and Others in the Umayyad Empire

12. The Provinces, Government and Taxation

AfterwordBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

In his new book, Andrew Marsham – one of the great historians of the Umayyads – gives us a portrait of the first Muslim empire in all its vastness, turmoil, and diversity. Much more than a dynastic history, this book helps us see the environment in which Islam was first born and spread across the ancient world. A mighty achievement.

Christian Sahner