Alan Walmsley is Associate Professor, Carsten Niebuhr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has worked in the Middle East for over 25 years, directing four major field projects.

• List of Illustrations Preface 1. Defining Islamic archaeology in Syria-Palestine 2. After Justinian, 565-635 CE 3. Material culture and society 4. Sites and settlement processes 5. Life 6. Prospects: ongoing debates in Islamic archaeologyBrief chronology of early Islamic Arabia andSyria-Palestine Glossary BibliographyIndex