JIA 2.1 (2015) 127–129 Journal of Islamic Archaeology ISSN (print) 2051-9710 doi: 10.1558/jia.v2i1.25663 Journal of Islamic Archaeology ISSN (print) 2051-9729

Book Reviews

Abstract

The Byzantine–Islamic Transition in Palestine: An Archaeological Approach by Gideon Avni. Oxford University Press, 2014 Oxford Studies in Byzantium. 448pp., 78 in-text illus- trations. Hb., £90.00/$185.00. ISBN-13: 9780199684335.

Reviewed by Denis Genequand, University of Geneva, [email protected].

Over the last thirty years, Islamic archaeology has benefited from a renewed impetus in the Near East, including Israel, where many research projects have been oriented more specifically towards the transition between late Antiquity and early Islam and toward the Islamic period. Moreover, Israel is the only country in the Near East, which has an official body—Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)—that relies on proper archaeological maps and systematically conducts rescue excavations. This produces a formidable array of data covering all periods and all aspects of field archaeology, including the Byzantine and Islamic periods. The results of all these rescue excava- tions and research projects form the base on which Gideon Avni, himself head of the archaeology division at IAA, is building his approach for the study of a very important phase of transition in the Near East. For the first time, there is a comprehensive sur- vey of all this material and a convincing analysis of the Byzantine-Islamic transition in Palestine considered in the longue durée, from the sixth to the eleventh century AD. The geographical scope of the book is modern Israel and territories under the Palestinian Authority, also including some areas east of the Jordan River, in modern Jordan. This fits roughly with the late Antique provinces of Palestine (I, II and III) and with the early Islamic Jund al-Urdunn and Jund Filāṣṭīn. This book is divided into six chapters of uneven length covering different themes. Chapter 1 can be seen as a long introduction to the subject of the book. It presents the history of research, the different interpretations that have been proposed over time to understand the transition from late Antiquity to early Islam and its consequences, and the problems related to the chronology. Chapter 2 explores one of the major subjects of debate concerning the transition, that of the profound changes that affected the cities and saw their progressive trans- formation into medieval towns. Under the title “From Polis to Madina”, referring to a seminal article published by Hugh Kennedy in 1985, Avni chooses an interesting per-

Keywords: Byzantine–Islamic transition, Palestine, Arab conquest, religious transforma- tion, Islamization, urbanism, Ramla, Jerusalem

© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2015, Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX 128 Book Reviews spective by selecting four major urban centres, each presenting a different case and a different evolution. These are Caesarea Maritima, Beth Shean, Tiberias and Jarash. The detailed presentation relies on a large number of recent excavations and publi- cations. Leaving aside some of the very conceptual analyses developed by scholars over the last decades and giving more weight to archaeological findings, Avni rightly emphasizes the idea of a long-term process involving continuity and change, and rejects any decline or sudden transformations due to political events. Chapter 3 is still concerned with urbanism and is devoted to the comparison of two rather different cities, Jerusalem and Ramla. The first, which kept its important religious position for Jews, Christians and also Muslims, provides a perfect example of how Islam was implanted inside a Christian city and also a good example of a slow transitional process. The second, an ex nihilo foundation of the early eighth century, had a primarily political role as a jund capital. It exemplifies the new Islamic concept of urbanism that took shape progressively and is one of the best examples of urban economic expansion in the early Islamic period. Chapter 4 is devoted to settlement patterns and ethnic identities. It is the longest chapter and perhaps the most arduous to read. It proceeds by regions and types of settlement and sometime almost looks like a long catalogue of sites. That is, indeed, a usual trend for archaeological literature based on archaeological remains and it should not be understood as a negative comment. On the other hand, this chapter provides a wonderful overview of all sorts of settlements, often quite obscurely published, about which most scholars working elsewhere in the Near East would not be aware. Chapter 5 is a synthesis. It brings together all the data presented in earlier chapters and discusses at a more general level a number of issues such as the agents of change (the impact of the Persian and Arab conquests, effects of earthquakes and climatic changes) and religious transformation and Islamization. It ends with a chronological overview of settlement change between the “zenith of urban and rural settlement” in the sixth century and the “virtual collapse of settlement” in the second half of the eleventh century. A short concluding chapter summarizes the main themes developed throughout the book and the author’s ideas on how to interpret the changes and the gradual transition between the Byzantine and Islamic period. The book is well illustrated with maps, plans and photographs. If something is missing amongst the illustrations, it is a clearer plan of early Islamic Ramla, for which there is only a very rough plan indicating the supposed extent of the town, the con- gregational mosque and the areas that were excavated (indicated as grey-shaded squares or rectangles). However, as there are over thirty pages devoted to Ramla, as it is contrasted with Jerusalem and used as the most important example of the new concept of urbanism in the early Islamic period, it would have been very useful to provide a more detailed plan of the city or, at least, of some of the extensively exca- vated areas. Appendices provide lists of Byzantine cities and early Islamic settlements, and re- sults of regional surveys. An index and a very comprehensive bibliography complete the volume.

© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2015 Book Reviews 129 One point we may regret is the poor knowledge about sites situated in modern Jordan that are treated in the book. The map on p. 218 has inaccurate locations for most of the sites south of ‘Amman. When dealing with church buildings or mosaics at sites like Khirbat al-Samra, Rihab and others, one would like to see a reference to the work of Pierre-Louis Gatier, who convincingly argued against too many new churches being built in the seventh and eighth centuries.1 The mosaic with the de- pictions of Arabian and Palestinian cities in the nave of the church of St Stephen in Umm al-Rasas does not belong to the second half of the eighth century (as stated on pp. 111, 224, 243, 249), nor even to the first half of it, but in all likelihood to the sixth century.2 The difference made by the author between “Umayyad palaces” and the quṣūr is unclear and probably misleading (for instance, Qastal, considered as a qaṣr, is in fact a caliphal palace and is much larger and more magnificent than Qasr Kharana, which is considered as a palace). In Appendix I, one is also surprised to find Hesban and Madaba listed in Palestina II as they had belonged to Arabia since the creation of the province in AD 106 and were later included in the Jund Dimashq. However, these are only minor details and they should not cast any kind of shadow on Avni’s work and expertise, which provides us with an exceptional synthesis on the long transition between late Antiquity and early Islam in Palestine. An interesting point is raised by the book: the question of the date of the decline and abandonment of the sites. Avni summarizes previous research and shows how, over the last thirty to forty years, this has slowly been seen as having occurred more recently, from the time when the decline and abandonment were attributed to the Persian and Arab conquests, then to the end of the Umayyad caliphate, and later to the ninth century. Now, it is convincingly argued that most of the settlements lasted until the eleventh century, but the decline and abandonment are still attrib- uted to rather similar causes: political instability, earthquakes, and Bedouins raids. One may wonder if, in the following decades, this dating may not change again and if a clearer perception of continuity with the Crusader or Medieval period may not be recognized. For instance, if looking east of the Jordan River, there are still very few attestations of a tenth to eleventh century occupation phase, but, especially in the countryside, it is from the twelfth century onwards that a significant number of sites were settled again. This situation also finds many parallels in rural areas of southern, central and northern Syria. One may really wonder whether this eleventh-century boundary is yet again the result of a perception of modern research or if it corre- sponds to a real historical turning point. 1. P.-L. Gatier, “Inscriptions grecques, mosaïques et églises des débuts de l’époque isla- mique au Proche-Orient (VIIe–VIIIe siècles),” in A. Borrut, M. Debié, A. Papaconstantinou, D. Pieri and J.-P. Sodini (eds.), Le Proche-Orient de Justinien aux Abbassides. Peuplement et dynamiques spatiales. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011, 7–28 (Bibl. Ant. Tard. 19). 2. Gatier 2011, 22–25.

© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2015