Arabs and Empires before Islam

Edited by Greg Fisher

The only volume to provide a rich and detailed anthology of sources for the history of Arabs in the Near East and Middle East in the pre-Islamic period
Features international contributors drawn from a broad range of academic disciplines, including archaeology, classics, ancient history, linguistics, philology, epigraphy, and art history
Provides up-to-date, comprehensive coverage of over 250 individual translated sources, such as ancient texts, inscriptions, and discussions of archaeological and artistic material

Arabs and Empires before Islam

Edited by Greg Fisher

Description

Arabs and Empires before Islam collates nearly 250 translated extracts from an extensive array of ancient sources which, from a variety of different perspectives, illuminate the history of the Arabs before the emergence of Islam. Drawn from a broad period between the eighth century BC and the Middle Ages, the sources include texts written in Greek, Latin, Syriac, Persian, and Arabic, inscriptions in a variety of languages and alphabets, and discussions of archaeological sites from across the Near East. More than 20 international experts from the fields of archaeology, classics and ancient history, linguistics and philology, epigraphy, and art history, provide detailed commentary and analysis on this diverse selection of material.
Richly-illustrated with 16 colour plates, 15 maps, and over 70 in-text images, the volume provides a comprehensive, wide-ranging, and up-to-date examination of what ancient sources had to say about the politics, culture, and religion of the Arabs in the pre-Islamic period. It offers a full consideration of the traces which the Arabs have left in the epigraphic, literary, and archaeological records, and sheds light on their relationship with their often more-powerful neighbours: the states and empires of the ancient Near East. Arabs and Empires before Islam gathers together a host of material never before collected into a single volume — some of which appears in English translation for the very first time — and provides a single point of reference for a vibrant and dynamic area of research.

Arabs and Empires before Islam

Edited by Greg Fisher

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
List of Illustrations
Copyright Notices
Transliteration Tables
Leaders of Arab Dynasties and the Kingdom of Himyar
Editor's Introduction
1:Aldo Corcella, Touraj Daryaee, Greg Fisher, Matt Gibbs, Ariel S. Lewin, Michael C. A. Macdonald, Donatella Violante, and Conor Whately: Arabs and Empires before the Sixth Century
2:Christian Julien Robin: Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of Saudi Arabia
3:Christian Julien Robin: Himyar, Aksum, and Arabia Deserta in Late Antiquity: The Epigraphic Evidence
4:Denis Genequand: The Archaeological Evidence for the Jafnids and the Nasrids
5:Peter Edwell, with contributions from George Bevan, Greg Fisher, Geoffrey Greatrex, Conor Whateley, and Philip Wood: Arabs in the Conflict between Rome and Persia, 491-630
6:Greg Fisher and Philip Wood, with contributions from George Bevan, Geoffrey Greatrex, Basema Hamarneh, Peter Schadler, and Walter Ward: Arabs and Christianity
7:Zbigniew T. Fiema, Ahmad Al-Jallad, Michael C. A. Macdonald, and Laïla Nehmé: Provincia Arabia: Nabataea, the Emergence of Arabic as a Written Language, and Graeco-Arabica
8:Harry Munt, with contributions from Touraj Daryaee, Omar Edaibat, Robert G. Hoyland, and Isabel Toral-Niehoff: Arabic and Persian Sources for Pre-Islamic Arabia
Index of Sources
Epigraphic and Papyrological Sigla
Bibliography
Index

Arabs and Empires before Islam

Edited by Greg Fisher

Author Information

Edited by Greg Fisher, Associate Professor, College of the Humanities and Department of History, Carleton University

Greg Fisher is Associate Professor in the College of the Humanities and the Department of History at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Contributors:

George Bevan, Queen's University, Kingston
Aldo Corcella, Università della Basilicata
Touraj Daryaee, University of California, Irvine
Omar Edaibat, McGill University
Peter Edwell, Macquarie University
Zbigniew T. Fiema, University of Helsinki
Greg Fisher, Carleton University
Denis Genequand, University of Geneva
Matt Gibbs, University of Winnpeg
Geoffrey Greatrex, University of Ottawa
Basema Hamarneh, Bergamo University
Robert G. Hoyland, University of Oxford and New York University
Ahmad Al-Jallad, Leiden University
Ariel S. Lewin, Università della Basilicata
Michael C. A. Macdonald, University of Oxford
Harry Munt, University of York
Laïla Nehmé, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Christian Julien Robin, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Peter Schadler, University of North Florida
Isabel Toral-Niehoff, Georg-August-Universität-Göttingen
Donata Violante, Università della Basilicata
Walter Ward, University of Alabama
Conor Whately, University of Winnipeg
Philip Wood, Aga Khan University

Arabs and Empires before Islam

Edited by Greg Fisher

Reviews and Awards

"This book's title is too modest to give an accurate idea of its contents. In sober fact, it is an absolutely essential vade mecum for anyone seriously interested in the material culture of the Arabs across the Near East before the coming of Islam . . . an encyclopaedia, a mine of curious erudition, a challenge to take the wider view, a reminder that Islam did not come out of nowhere. This is a book to savour, to treasure, and to dip into anytime." - Robert Hillenbrand, Journal of Qur'anic Studies

"a formidable achievement in the field of pre-Islamic Arabian studies ... It is a book that one will read with great excitement from cover to cover ... by far the best single work on pre-Islamic Arabia." - Ilkka Lindstedt, Review of Qur'anic Research

"[An] interesting book ... [The chapters] include numerous translations and transliterations and thus provide a rich body of evidence for anyone interested in the Middle East, especially in the period called Late Antiquity in Roman history. The collection shows how multifaceted that region was in linguistic, cultural, and religious terms, something contemporary forces want people to forget. Highly recommended." - M. Van De Mieroop, CHOICE

"Arabs and Empires Before Islam gives an excellent overview of the complexity of social, political and religious action in pre-Islamic Arabia ... especially valuable to those with an interest in ancient borderlands, empires, and people on their fringes." - Hamish Cameron, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"Arabs and Empires Before Islam embraces a remarkable variety of sources, and the secondary references are comprehensive and up to date. The literary translations and the examination of the epigraphic evidence help ease readers into the spectrum of primary sources. A major merit of the volume is to have proved the relevance of epigraphic evidence to this particular historical enquiry." - Valentina A. Grasso, Journal of Roman Studies

Arabs and Empires before Islam

Edited by Greg Fisher

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