The Arab Conquest and the Creation of an Islamic Empire, by Robert Hoy- Land

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JIA 4.2 (2017) 256–260 Journal of Islamic Archaeology ISSN (print) 2051-9710 https://doi.10.1558/jia.35277 Journal of Islamic Archaeology ISSN (print) 2051-9729

In God’s Path: The Arab Conquest and the Creation of an Islamic Empire, by Robert Hoy- land. Oxford University Press, 2014. 320pp., 30 illustrations, including map. Hb. 29.95, ISBN-13: 9780199916368. Pb. (2017) $19.95, ISBN-13: 9780190618575. Reviewed by Yehoshua Frenkel, Department of Middle Eastern History, Haifa Univer- sity, [email protected] Gibbon’s Decline and Fall is seen as the start of the “modern” enquiry into the emergence of the Islamic Caliphate. In the seventh century, as he frames the story, while the Roman state “was exhausted by the Persian war, and the church was distracted by the Nestorian and Monophysite sects, Mahomet, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, erected his throne on the ruins of Christianity and Rome.”1 For a quarter of a millennium after Gibbon a considerable number of scholars have continued to ponder the rise of Islam.2 It is sufficient here to name only a handful of the most salient works that have investigated this major moment in world history.3 The revolutionary study by Crone and Cook recalled historians’ attention to non- Arab/non-Muslim sources for the writing of the history of Western Asia and Egypt during the seventh and eighth centuries.4 Endeavouring to discard further the kernel of the Islamic Heilsgeschichte, which did not lose its popularity among the general Arabic speaking public and in the mass media, other scholars have turned in more recent years to archaeology, numismatics and epigraphy (including graffiti). This new phase in the study of Islamic history has recently produced several instructive works.5 The author of the book here under review maintains an important distinction between early (almost contemporary) and later sources. Unconcerned with criteria such as language or the religious identity of the composer, his research method is based upon preference for the first category. A second methodological strategy that he employs is to look in each chapter both outwards and inwards, so that the reader learns not only about the expansion of the new political power in Asia and Africa but

1. Edward Gibbon (1737–1794), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, edited by J. B. Bury (Methuen, 1911), vol. 5, chapter 50: 332; Bernard Lewis, “Gibbon on Muhammad,” Daedalus 105(3), (1976): 91. 2. See the influential study by Peter Brown,The World of Late Antiquity: From Marcus Aurelius to Muham- mad (Thames and Hudson, 1971). 3. M. J. De Goeje, Memoire sur la conquete de la Syrie (Bril, 1900); Fred McGraw Donner, The Early Islamic Conquests (1981); Michael G. Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest (Princeton University Press, 1984); Walter Emil Kaegi, Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests (Cambridge University Press, 1992). 4. For the state of the art in the first decade of the 21st century see the two collections edited by Fred McGraw Donner, The Expansion of the Early Islamic State (Ashgate, 2008) and The Articulation of Islamic State Structures (Ashgate, 2012). 5. See for example, Gideon Avni, The Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palestine: an Archaeological Approach (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Keywords: history, historiography, early Islam, Muslim conquests

© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2017, Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX Book Reviews 257 also about the effects of these developments on the politics of the Arab tribes and the articulation of Islam. In chapter one (entitled: “The Setting”) Hoyland employs a wide brush to paint a global picture. He provides a thick description of the Mediterranean and western Asia, which were then both divided between the two super powers of the ancient world, Rome (later Byzantium) and Persia. He then moves to the fringes of these civilizations and sets out a condensed account of the dissemination of Christianity among the Arab tribes of the Syrian Desert. The chapter ends with an account of the emergence of the periphery (i.e. the Turks of the Steppe and the Saracens of Palestine and Syria) and the decline of the centre. Chapter two opens with a survey of the external threats that built up on the bor- ders of the empires and an account of the war between them. Those readers familiar with the story of Yemen in the sira of the Prophet will not be surprised by the long treatment here given by Hoyland to south Arabia and the Himyarite monarchy. The emergence of ummat Muhammad changed the political game in northern Arabia and the fringes of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires. The author then turns to a brief depiction of three battle fronts: Syria, southern Iraq and northern Iraq. Surprisingly, Hoyland refrains from analyzing at this juncture the Muslim historiography of the futuhat, which suggests a picture of a central command guiding the united armies of Islam. It is equally difficult to agree with his narrative of the conquest of Syria by the “Ishmaelite.” It seems that in both cases Hoyland is led astray by a desire to reconcile the late Muslim story with the fragmented early reports. The second section of this second chapter analyzes the victorious forces. Hence Hoyland explores the early meanings of the terms muʾmin (faithful; loyal or believer) and hijra. The first certainly did not denote only Muslims. This is clearly demon- strated in seventh-century graffiti. Apparently not all the conquerors belonged to “the Arabs of Muhammad.” Hoyland’s discussion of these issues leads him to give more weight to materialistic explanations of the Arabs’ success in opposition to those more spiritual accounts preferred by some. Chapter three opens with a description of the aftershocks in Byzantium and Persia that followed the initial successful Arab offensive in Syria and Iraq. Hoyland then turns to the Nile Valley. His account here is based on the Ethiopian chronicle of John of Niku, of which, in addition to the French and English translations, there is a modern Arabic translation (by Abd al-Jalil, 2000). It is worth noting that an inscrip- tion in a desolated church mentions ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs, the commander of the invading army.6 While the Arab armies failed to advance southward into Nubia, they were successful in their onslaught on the Byzantine territories in North Africa. In the east they advanced along the roads that traverse the Iranian Plateau. Within a relatively short period the Arab conquers had annihilated the Sassanid Empire and established a long frontier in the Eurasian Steppe. This was a major achievement, the nature of which determined—as David Aylon has rightly empha- sized—the very future of Islam during later crises. The victories along the Mediterra-

6. Michael Lecker, “The Estates of ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ in Palestine: Notes on a New Negev Arabic Inscrip- tion”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 52 (1989): 24–37. © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2017 258 Book Reviews nean coasts encouraged commanders in Syria and Egypt to launch naval operations,7 which targeted first various Mediterranean islands and later turned against Constan- tinople. The imperative to join the maritime jihad is vividly illustrated by the story of Umm Ḥarām bint Milḥān: Allah’s Messenger used to visit Umm Harām bint Milhan, who would offer him meals. Umm Haram was the wife of ʿUbada bin al-Samit. Allah’s Messenger, once visited her and she provided him with food and started looking for lice in his head. Then Allah’s Messenger slept, and afterwards woke up smiling. Umm Harãm asked, “What causes you to smile, O Allah’s Messenger?” He said, “Some of my followers who (in a dream) were displayed before me as fighters in Allah’s Cause (on board a ship) amidst this sea cause me to smile; they were as kings on the thrones (or like kings on the thrones).8 Working through the history of the Muslim conquests, Hoyland emphasizes the weakness of the Byzantine and Persian empires, the transition of Arab tribesmen from being allies of the empires to becoming enemies of the old order, and the growth of their armies following their initial success. He dwells upon the accounts of agreements of surrender that are transmitted by ninth-century Muslim authors and rightly rejects the myth of co-operation of the local population with the invaders. This is followed by a study of the beginnings, under Muʿāwiya, of the new political and administrative order in the Fertile Crescent and the Iranian Plateau. Inscrip- tions and documents, in Greek and Arabic, augmented by Syriac texts, cast light on this turning point in world history. Due to the relatively rich findings of papyri from Egypt, in the medley of provinces that came under his rule we are best informed about that country and adjacent provinces.9 Chapter four opens with a minute study of Muʿāwiya’s offensive against the Byzan- tine capital. This is followed by an account of the caliphate’s frontiers. The initial success of the Arab armies gave the ancient Sassanid Empire the coup de grace and also hit Byzantium fatally. Insurrections and frontier skirmishes did not change the new reality that had emerged in the Mediterranean Basin and Asia. The Caliphate, deeply rooted in this ancient soil, was long-lasting and played a decisive role in coming centuries. At this juncture Holyand moves his attention from the fringes to direct it care- fully on the centre, Damascus, where Muʿāwiya fortified his position. In concluding this chapter, Hoyland dwells upon the image of the “commander of the faithful,” who was crowed at Golgotha in Jerusalem and visited Mary’s tomb. He thus artfully broaches the crucial question of the newly established regime’s religion. The founder of the new Arab religio-political reign was the first ruler whose name is attested on coins, walls, rocks and documents. The lack of any explicit reference to Islam or to the prophet Muhammad in these sources aggravates the historical ambiguity. Here again arises the enigmatic question: “who were the al-Muʾminūn”? Faithful observers will certainly not be happty with Hoyland’s findings and accurate conclusion. 7. Yusuf Ragib, “Lettres nouvelles de Qurra b. Šarīk”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 40 (1981): 173–187. 8. al-Bukhārī, Saḥīḥ (kitāb al-Jihād), no. 2789. 9. M. J. Kister, JSAI 3 (1982): 237–239; idem, Studies in Judaica, Karaitica and Islamica presented to Leon Nemoy on his eightieth birthday (1982): 163–166; Rachel Stroumsa, People and Identities in Nessana (Duke University: Department of Classics, 2008). © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2017 Book Reviews 259 The violent political conflicts that erupted after Muʿāwiya’s death ended with the vic- tory of ʿAbd al-Malik. The fighting and the propaganda effected profoundly the devel- opment of Islam, its political ideas and religious rituals. It is with these issues, as well as with the administration of the caliphate and its expansion (c. 685–715) that chapter five deals. Considerable space is given to the reconstruction of the military campaigns in North Africa and the landing on the coasts of Iberia. Strictly following his method of source analysis, Hoyland avoids the pitfall of the “Jewish” soothsayer – the legend that too often diverts attention away from profitable study of the Maghrib. As in the previous chapters, so also here the author examines closely Iran and Central Asia. The last pages of the chapter focus on the society of the caliphate. As we can infer from the story of Ḥārith ibn Saʿīd al-Kadhdhāb, ʿAbd al-Malik could not rely only on his Arab tribesmen. He had to recruit local elements, particularly from the eastern edges of his realm. The sculpture in Hirbet al-Mafjar, near Jericho, shows that the artisans who built the palace were familiar with Central Asian work. But changes in the administration enhanced the process of Arabization, as the Syriac account of the taʿdīl illuminates. The Syriac apocalypse of the Pseudo-Methodius narrates the hardship experienced by the conquered villagers. Conversion to Islam followed swiftly. Yet this was not a period of smooth transition, as we can deduce from semi-historical episodes.10 Chapter six opens with the catastrophic failure of Maslama at the gates of Constan- tinople. But we soon learn how, at the western edges of the caliphate, the story of Islam was more cheerful. Although the Franks repelled a raiding force, Islam gained control of Iberia. In Central Asia the picture was more complex. The rapidly changing winds of fortune ended in the Battle of Talas, which acquired a legendary status. It is said that Chinese prisoners of war transmitted the technology of paper production to the central lands of the caliphate. In the region west of the Caspian Sea the caliphate arrived at a peaceful co-existence with the Khazars. The belief that this latter people converted to Judaism, although popular, has been recently challenged.11 Military achievements in the Indian sub-continent opened a vast and rich area. Merchants and commanders profited from these opportunities. With ʿAbd al-Malik the first evidence of the public display of Islam comes to light. Some instances, such as the mosque of Damascus and the al-Haram al-Sharif in Jeru- salem, are still with us today. ʿAbd al-Malik’s inscriptions and coins bear for the first time the name of the prophet Muhammad. In more than one case they address his Christian subjects. No wonder that some revisionist scholars have voiced the argu- ment that Islam should be counted only from his days.12 Yet religious tension and inner power struggle among the Quraysh, the tribe of the Prophet, ended the Uma- yyad chapter in the history of the caliphate. Black banners from the East advanced westward and uprooted the Arab dynasty of Damascus. Chapter seven describes the deep social and political changes that swept through the huge territory governed by the caliphs. Arabic was the tongue of the newly born

10. al-Ṭabarī, Taʾrīkh, 2: 1353–1354, 1507–1510. 11. Shaul Stampfer, “Did the Khazars Convert to Judaism?”, Jewish Social Studies 19(3), (2013): 1–72. 12. Suliman Bashear, Muqaddima fī al-taʾrīkh al-akhar: nahw qiraʾa jadīda lil-riwāya al-islāmiyya (Jerusalem, 1984). © Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2017 260 Book Reviews civilization, but ethnic Arabs were the minority. Islam developed to become a world religion, calling all people to Allah’s praying houses. Yet from the very beginning of their rise, the Abbasids faced the breaking down of the central authority. Hoyland proposes that two explanations can elucidate the history of the Islamic empire: geog- raphy, the territory was too large and diverse to be guided from a single center; and ideological conflicts among the Believers. Yet the Arabic language and the articulation within it by devoted jurisconsults of belief system and religious rituals created the threads that to this very day unite the community of Muhammad. The author thus emphasizes the integrative capacity of Islam. But this was a slow process of reworking old and new ideas and principles, and it was accompanied by the compo- sition of the salvation history of Islam. In the appendix, Hoyland provides a list of sources in various languages that were written during the first three centuries of Islam. This is followed by a select bibliography, which cannot serve as a substitute to a conventional bibliography. Readers might find difficulties in identifying works mentioned in the notes. The book reviewed here offers students of early Islamic history a clear and read- able account of the emergence of this world religion between the seventh and eighth centuries. Comparing it with studies of the Arab conquest and the expansion of Islam that were written in the last quarter of the twentieth century illustrates the great advance that historians have achieved in explaining the history of the first Arab kingdom and its fall.