The Expansion of the Early Islamic State

All in all, this is a very useful volume which greatly aids our understanding not only of the nature of the early Islamic conquests, but also of the responses to them and as we have indicated, these responses have echoes today. The Muslim Word Book Review

Fred M. Donner is Professor of Near Eastern History at the University of Chicago, USA

Contents: Introduction; The art of war of the Arabs, and the supposed religious fervour of the Arab conquerors, Leone Caetani; Some critical and sociological remarks on the Arab conquest and the theories proposed on this, G.H. Bousquet; Observations on the nature and causes of the Arab conquest, G.H. Bousquet; The nomad as empire builder: a comparison of the Arab and Mongol conquests, John J. Saunders; The Arab expansion: the military problem, Marius Canard; The first expansion of Islam: factors of thrust and containment, Gustave E. von Grunebaum; The conquest, Christian Dcobert; Another orientalist's remarks concerning the Pirenne thesis, Andrew S. Ehrenkreutz; Initial Byzantine reactions to the Arab conquest, Walter E. Kaegi; Only a change of masters? The Christians of Iran and the Muslim conquest, Stephen Ger; An apocalyptic vision of Islamic history, Bernard Lewis; The legendary Futuh literature, Rudi Paret; On the relationship in the Caliphate between central power and the provinces: the 'Sulh'-''Anwa' traditions in Egypt and Iraq, Albrecht Noth; Ibn Abdelhakam and the conquest of North Africa, Robert Brunschwig; The birth of Islam in the Holy Land, Moshe Sharon; Isfahan-Nihawand. A source-critical study of early Islamic historiography, Albrecht Noth; Centralized authority and military autonomy in the early Islamic conquests, Fred McGraw Donner; The conquest of Khuzistan: a historiographical reassessment, Chase F. Robinson; Syriac views of emergent Islam, S.P. Brock; Index.