David Cook is professor of religion at Rice University specializing in Islam. He did his undergraduate degrees at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2001. His areas of specialization include early Islamic history and development, as well as Muslim apocalyptic literature and movements (classical and contemporary). His first book, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, was published by Darwin Press in the series Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. Two further books, Understanding Jihad (University of California Press) and Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature (Syracuse University Press) were published during 2005, and Martyrdom in Islam (Cambridge University Press 2007) as well as The Syrian Muslim Apocalyptic Heritage: An Annotated Translation of NuꜤaym b. Ḥammād al-Marwazī’s Kitāb al-fitan (The Book of Tribulations) (Edinburgh University Press, 2018).

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsOutline of Ibn ꜤAsākir’s lifePart 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTIONChapter 1: OverviewDescription of DamascusIbn ꜤAsākir and the History of the City of Damascus Teachers and SourcesSocial Realities of Damascene MuslimsSyria according to Ibn ꜤAsākirChapter 2: Rulers and ElitesCaliphs and Sultans: Authority from AfarGovernors and Rulers of DamascusDamascene Judiciary and Religious EliteSyrian Judiciary and Religious EliteChapter 3: ThemesTransmission of knowledge: circular, familial and popularSyria-particular TraditionPoetry in TMDChapter 4: GroupsTravelers and Foreigners in DamascusAscetics and SufisPro-ꜤAlids and ShiꜤitesChapter 5: ConnectionsNon-Muslims in TMD and non-Muslim statesNon-Syrian rulers and dynastiesEconomic SphereBirths, and Names, Ages, Deaths and FuneralsMethodology for the open-access materialPart 2: TMD ANALYSISABBASID SYRIAChapter 6: The Early Abbasid Period (133-95/750-810) Abbasids ruling in Syria: intimate enemiesSources for this periodPost-Umayyad SyriaIbn Abī al-ꜤAjā’iz and the Umayyad survivorsLeaders: four portraits of TMD figures in Syriaa. al-AwzāꜤī, the stern proto-Sunni, and Ibrāhīm b. Adham, the footloose asceticb. Abū al-Haydhām, the indomitable hero, and Ibrāhīm b. al-Mahdī, the manipulative reconcilerFollowersNon-MuslimsSocial currents in early Abbasid Damascus and SyriaChapter 7: The Middle Abbasid Period (195-255/811-64)Revolt of the Sufyānī: An Umayyad anti-caliphSources for the middle Abbasid periodAn Abbasid murder mysteryReligious and judicial trendsPreachers and asceticsSocial and economic trends of during middle Abbasid SyriaSHIFTING ALLEGIANCES: ABBASIDS and TURKSChapter 8: The Ṭūlūnids (255-92/864-904)SourcesThe rise of Abū ZurꜤa al-DimashqīJudiciary and tradition during the Ṭūlūnid periodLocal Syrian elites of the Abbasid and post-Abbasid timesSufis… at lastṬūlūnid DamascusJudging Ṭūlūnid Syria by its roadsChapter 9: Intermediate Period (292-323/904-35)What was the intermediate period?SourcesJudicial reform in DamascusSocial and economic trendsChapter 10: The Ikhshīdids (323-57/935-968) Sources: al-Rāzī, and the duo of Ibn Zabr and Ibn Yūnusal-AwzāꜤī’s rite comes to an end with the rise of ShāfiꜤismSocial and economic trendsThe borderlands in TMDPre-Fatimid asceticsChapter 11: Qarmațian interlude (357-70/968-80)A complete ruptureProblematic sourcesDamascus and Syria at a transition pointSHIꜤITE DAMASCUS: The FATIMIDSChapter 12: The Early Fatimid Period (370-411/980-1021)SourcesFatimid Damascus: Collaboration or resistance?Growth of traditionist Sunnism and Sufism during early Fatimid SyriaSyria under the FatimidsChapter 13: The Late Fatimid Period (411-68/1021-76) Sources and biographiesDamascus under the later FatimidsIbn Abī Naṣr’s houseal-Kattānī and the growth of Sufismal-khațīb al-Baghdādī’s visits to Damascus and TyreSyria prior to the SeljuqsTURKISH AND CRUSADER-ERA SYRIAChapter 14: Damascene Seljuqs and the Crusaders’ Arrival (468-97/1076-1103)SourcesSunni Damascus, traditionists and its judiciaryThe rise of the Ibn al-ṣā’ighThe early Ibn ꜤAsākir family and the ascetic circle of Naṣr b. Ibrāhīm al-MaqdisīIbn al-Akfānī and Damascene history collectionCoastland Syria: Tyre and the secretary/preacher Ghayth b. ꜤAlīAppearance of the CrusadersChapter 15: The Ṭughtakīn atābaks (497-548/1103-54)The Seljuq legacy to ṬughtakīnYouthful Ibn ꜤAsākirInfluences inside and outside of Damascusal-SamꜤānī in SyriaMature Ibn ꜤAsākirIbn al-Milḥī’s poetic recollectionsThe curious case of Ḥamdān al-AthāribīMystery of the Second CrusadeEconomic and social realities of Damascus under the Ṭughtakīn atābaksBiographical entry: No. 5852 Ḥamdān b. ꜤAbd al-Raḥīm al-Athāribī (partial)Chapter 16: The Zangids (548-95/1154-98) The return of the kingIbn ꜤAsākir and his friends’ circleDamascus judiciary: relatives: close, yet far awayJudicial reform during the Zangid periodEducational renewal during Ibn ꜤAsākir’s timeHanbalis inside and outside of TMDSufis and the popular religion in DamascusIbn ꜤAsākir’s connections east and westZangid to Ayyubid rule: Ṣalāḥ al-DīnConclusionsTimes, renewal and apocalypse in TMDConstruction of TMD in accord with the conceptInclusion and Exclusion in TMDTMD as HistoryGlossary AppendicesBibliographyIndex

David Cook has accomplished a remarkable feat. The gigantic scale of his probing into Ibn ʿAsakir’s massive History is unprecedented, and the amount of new knowledge he infused in his new book will undoubtedly energise the field of medieval Islamic/Middle Eastern history. Syria down to Saladin will be an instant classic.