Arabs in the Early Islamic Empire

Explores what tribal identity meant to Arabs at different stages of the caliphate's evolution

• Examines al-Azd in Arabia on the eve of Islam
• Contributes to the debate over centralisation in the early Islamic conquests
• Reconsiders the careers of the crucial Muhallabid family in Umayyad politics
• Asks what al-Azd identity meant to literate elites under the early Abbasids
• Critically analyses multiple narratives concerning the early Marwanid period

Examining a single broad tribal identity – al-Azd – from the immediate pre-Islamic period into the early Abbasid era, this book notes the ways it was continually refashioned over that time. It explores the ways in which the rise of the early Islamic empire influenced the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula who became a core part of it, and examines the connections between the kinship societies and the developing state of the early caliphate. This helps us to understand how what are often called ‘tribal’ forms of social organisation identity conditioned its growth and helped shape what became its common elite culture.

Studying the relationship between tribe and state during the first two centuries of the caliphate, author Brian Ulrich’s focus is on understanding the survival and transformation of tribal identity until it became part of the literate high culture of the Abbasid caliphate and a component of a larger Arab ethnic identity. He argues that, from pre-Islamic Arabia to the caliphate, greater continuity existed between tribal identity and social practice than is generally portrayed.