Arabs and Empires before Islam

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.

Table of Contents:
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

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

Review :
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. 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. [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. 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. 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.