Late Antique Responses to the Arab Conquests

Josephine van den Bent is lecturer and postdoctoral researcher in the history department of Radboud University Nijmegen. Her research interests include ethnic stereotyping, urban organization, and in general the social and cultural history of the premodern Middle East.Floris van den Eijnde is director of Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies and lecturer and researcher of Ancient History at the department of History and Art History of Utrecht University.Johan Weststeijn studies the parallels between Greek myth and Arabic accounts of the Basus War. From 1992 to 2019 he was a student and guest researcher at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies of the University of Amsterdam.Contributors are Ahmad Al-Jallad, Josephine van den Bent, Kevin van Bladel, Constanza Cordoni, Floris van den Eijnde, Harald Motzki, Petra M. Sijpesteijn, Joanita Vroom, Peter Webb, Johan Weststeijn, Clare Wilde.

• PrefaceList of Figures and TablesNotes on Contributors1 Late Antique Responses to the Arab Conquests: An IntroductionJosephine van den Bent, Floris van den Eijnde and Johan Weststeijn2 The Qurʾanic Rūm: A Late Antique PerspectiveClare Wilde3 Wine and Impurity in the Sura of the Bees: A Structuralist Interpretation of Qurʾan 16:67Johan Weststeijn4 Historical-Critical Research of the Sīra of the Prophet Muhammad: What Do We Stand to Gain?Harald Motzki †5 Arabicization, Islamization, and the Colonies of the ConquerorsKevin van Bladel6 Continuity and Change: Elite Responses to the Founding of the CaliphatePeter Webb7 Muḥammad’s World in EgyptPetra M. Sijpesteijn8 “May God be Mindful of Yazīd the King”: Further Reflections on the Yazīd Inscription and the Development of Arabic ScriptsAhmad Al-Jallad9 Of Siblings, Kingdoms, and the Days of the Messiah: Jewish Literary Responses to the New Order in the Land of Israel in the First Muslim PeriodConstanza Cordoni10 New Light on the Dark Ages: A Byzantine Perspective on the Arab ExpansionJoanita VroomIndex

"This is a cohesive, well-written volume that should appeal to anyone interested in the transition from Late Antiquity to Early Islam. The papers are scholarly, but have generally been written in such a way as to make them accessible to a readership that does not specialize in Islamic studies, but wants to learn more about the early Islamic period. It has also been produced to a very high standard." David Woods in Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2022.09.18