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2 results

  • 2 - Nomads in the Establishment of the Caliphate

  • Beatrice Forbes Manz, Tufts University, Massachusetts
  • Book:
    Nomads in the Middle East
    Published online:
    12 November 2021
    Print publication:
    02 December 2021, pp 28-54

  • Summary

    The chapter describes the population and economy of the Arabian Peninsula, a mix of sedentary population, sheep and goat nomads, and camel nomads. All were included in a strong tribal system. Before the rise of Muhammad, the Peninsula and Syrian desert were brought into the politics of the Sassanian and Roman Empires, which patronized client kingdoms of nomad tribes, thus bringing the nomads into the broader political field. The chapter surveys the role of nomads during the lifetime of Muhammad and the conquests; the conquest army was not organized tribally, but the early caliphs used tribal structures for administrative and cultural purposes. The chapter argues that the Umayyad dynasty (661–750) included nomads within the state, but increased control over tribal leadership. At the same time, the Umayyad court patronized pre-Islamic poetry glorifying the tribe and Bedouin lifestyle to create a separate Arab identity.

  • Talking about Islam's origins1

  • Fred M. Donner
  • Journal:
    Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies / Volume 81 / Issue 1 / February 2018
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    23 January 2018, pp. 1-23
    Print publication:
    February 2018

  • Neither of the terms commonly used to describe the seventh-century expansion of the movement that comes to be called Islam – “the Islamic conquests” or “the Arab conquests” – is satisfactory; both terms are anachronistic and in some ways misleading; yet there is, at present, no clear candidate for an alternative terminology. This article discusses the weaknesses of existing nomenclatures, with reference to relevant primary sources, and the conceptual problems the traditional nomenclatures pose in the context of an extensive review of scholarly literature from roughly 1900 to the present. It offers a few suggestions for possible new terminologies, but essentially opens the question for further discussion.