The Islamic-Byzantine Frontier: Interaction and Exchange Among Muslim and Christian Communities

The retreat of the Byzantine army from Syria in around 650 CE, in advance of the approaching Arab armies, is one that has resounded emphatically in the works of both Islamic and Christian writers, and created an enduring motif: that of the Islamic-Byzantine frontier. For centuries, Byzantine and Islamic scholars have evocatively sketched a contested border: the annual raids between the two, the line of fortified fortresses defending Islamic lands, the no-man's land in between and the birth of jihad. In their early representations of a Muslim-Christian encounter, accounts of the Islamic-Byzantine frontier are charged with significance for a future 'clash of civilizations' that often envisions a polarised world. A. Asa Eger examines the two aspects of this frontier: its physical and ideological ones. By highlighting the archaeological study of the real and material frontier, as well as acknowledging its ideological military and religious implications, he offers a more complex vision of this dividing line than has been traditionally disseminated.With analysis grounded in archaeological evidence as well the relevant historical texts, Eger brings together a nuanced exploration of this vital element of medieval history. In this way, Eger's volume contributes to a more complex vision of the frontier than traditional historical views by bringing to the fore the layers of a real ecological frontier of settlement and interaction. For Eger, exposing the settlements and communities of the frontier constitutes a crucial gesture for understanding the interaction of two civilizations in a contested yet connected world. This work is thus vital for students of not only the medieval period and Byzantine and Islamic studies, but also for readers attempting to understand the ways in which frontiers and borders shape the construction of identity while functioning outside the traditionally understood state.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Islamic Frontiers Real and Imagined Part I: The Syro-Anatolian Thughur Chapter 1: The Central Thughur: The Two Amuqs Chapter 3: The Central Thughur: The Steppe and the River Chapter 3: The Eastern Thughur Chapter 4: The Jazira (Balikh and Khabur River Valleys) Chapter 5: The Western Thughur: Crossroads of Cilicia Part II: Hydraulic Villages and Fortified Castles: A Narrative of Settlement Chapter 6: Upland Settlements in the Late Roman Period (Fourth to Seventh Centuries) Chapter 7: Hydraulic Villages in the Early Islamic Period (Seventh to Tenth Centuries) Chapter 8: Pastoralism on the Byzantine Frontier (Seventh to Tenth Centuries) Chapter 9: Fortified Castles of the Middle Islamic/Byzantine Period (Tenth to Fourteenth Centuries) Chapter 10: Frontier or Frontiers: Social and Environmental Interactions Conclusion: Dismantling and Rebuilding the Frontier

About the Author :
A. Asa Eger is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He holds a PhD in Islamic Archaeology from the University of Chicago.

Review :
This is a long-awaited and much-needed contribution to the study of the Byzantine-Islamic frontier that will force a step-change in approaches to the study of the region as well as to the study of medieval frontier societies and their archaeology. The author is to be congratulated on a clear, concise and well-argued analysis of complex textual and archaeological data.' John Haldon, Shelby Cullom Davis '30 Professor of European History, and Professor of Byzantine History and Hellenic Studies, Princeton University. The Islamic-Byzantine Frontier is a well-constructed, original, and convincing book that challenges conventional opinions on the Islamic-Byzantine frontier, and in doing so raises important theoretical and methodological questions on understanding the dynamics of frontier zones in general. His study further weakens the conventional view of frontiers as sparsely populated, marginal, and disconnected peripheries. The "core and periphery" model for explaining the geopolitical patterning of settlements has never seemed so outdated, given the compelling argumentation presented in Dr Eger's ground-breaking study.' Alan Walmsley, Professor of Islamic Archaeology and Art, University of Copenhagen; 'Eger is to be credited with questioning previous assumptions' - Unnamed reviewer, Today's Zaman;