Petra Sijpesteijn is Professor of Arabic Language and Culture at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the transition from Late Antiquity to early Islam in Egypt.

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; NOTE ON EDITIONS, DATES, AND REFERENCES; LIST OF MAPS; LIST OF PLATES; INTRODUCTION; PART I: DISCUSSION; PART II: THE TEXTS; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX

This is an outstanding book which transforms our understanding of the reality of the early Muslim state ... Petra Sijpesteijn has succeeded in presenting this rebarbative material with clarity and elegance, whether it is in the discussion of the broad outlines of early Islamic history, or the minutiae of grammar and lexicography. It is absolutely fundamental reading for anyone, scholar or student, who woshes to understand the origins of the Muslim world.

Petra Sijpesteijn is Professor of Arabic Language and Culture at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the transition from Late Antiquity to early Islam in Egypt.

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; NOTE ON EDITIONS, DATES, AND REFERENCES; LIST OF MAPS; LIST OF PLATES; INTRODUCTION; PART I: DISCUSSION; PART II: THE TEXTS; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX

This is an outstanding book which transforms our understanding of the reality of the early Muslim state ... Petra Sijpesteijn has succeeded in presenting this rebarbative material with clarity and elegance, whether it is in the discussion of the broad outlines of early Islamic history, or the minutiae of grammar and lexicography. It is absolutely fundamental reading for anyone, scholar or student, who woshes to understand the origins of the Muslim world.

Petra Sijpesteijn is Professor of Arabic Language and Culture at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the transition from Late Antiquity to early Islam in Egypt.

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; NOTE ON EDITIONS, DATES, AND REFERENCES; LIST OF MAPS; LIST OF PLATES; INTRODUCTION; PART I: DISCUSSION; PART II: THE TEXTS; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX

This is an outstanding book which transforms our understanding of the reality of the early Muslim state ... Petra Sijpesteijn has succeeded in presenting this rebarbative material with clarity and elegance, whether it is in the discussion of the broad outlines of early Islamic history, or the minutiae of grammar and lexicography. It is absolutely fundamental reading for anyone, scholar or student, who woshes to understand the origins of the Muslim world.