Creating an Islamic City

Rana Mikati, Ph.D. (2013), University of Chicago, is Associate Professor of Islamic History at the College of Charleston. She is the author of several articles on Early Islamic History.

• AcknowledgementsList of FiguresIntroduction1 Beirut: History of Research2 Beirut’s Islamic Past and the Politics of Identity3 A Truncated Archaeological Record4 Beirut: Not an “Islamic City”5 A Fragmented Historical Record6 The Story1 Calamities: Beirut at the End of Antiquity1 Late Antique Beirut: What Did the Muslim Armies Conquer?2 “A House of Many Mansions:” The People of Beirut3 Beirut and Mediterranean Bounty4 Beirut and Trade Networks5 A Series of Unfortunate Events6 Conclusion2 Beirut, the Coast, and Its Conquest1 The Conquest of the Coast through Abbasid Eyes2 Surrender Treaties3 Beirut after the Conquest: A Tale of Continuity and Change4 Soldiers: The Emergence of a Muslim Military Presence5 Conclusion3 Beirut, Sailors, and Ascetics1 Sailors: The Creation of an Islamic Navy2 Second Fitna (61–73/680–692) and the Coast3 The Marwanids (65–132/685–750) and Naval Jihad4 The Early Abbasids and the Navy5 Ascetics: Piety and the Naval Frontier6 Conclusion4 Beirut and the Rise of Ribāṭ1 The Ribāṭ of the Geographers and Archaeologists2 The Case of the Wandering Salmān al-Fārisī3 The Ribāṭ of the ʿUlamāʾ4 Ribāṭ and the Coast5 Conclusion5 Beirut, the Imām, and Life on the Maritime Frontier1 Before Beirut: al- Awzāʿī’s Rise to Prominence2 Moving to Beirut: The Fall of the Umayyads and the Abbasid Transition3 Al-Awzāʿī, His Family, and Community in Beirut4 Al-Awzāʿī and the Army in Beirut5 Al-Awzāʿī: Beirut and Beyond6 Al-Awzāʿī’s Death7 Conclusion6 The Death of a Scholar: The Heirs of al-Awzāʿī in Beirut1 The Second/Eighth Century: Socio-Political Transformation2 The Second/Eighth Century: Intellectual Marginalizalition3 Bequeathing a Scholarly Legacy4 The Third/Ninth Century: A Missed Opportunity5 Conclusion7 A Few Good Men and a Woman: Beirut in the Muslim Imagination1 The Islamic City and Sacred Hierarchies2 Beirut, al-Nābulusī, and the Mapping of a Syrian Sacred Landscape3 Al-Awzāʿī’s Sainthood4 Manifestations of al-Awzāʿī’s Sainthood in Beirut5 Al-Awzāʿī’s Lieux de Mémoire in Beirut and Its Environs6 Beirut’s Other Saints7 Sacred Landscapes: A Few Observations8 ConclusionBibliographyIndex