The Early Islamic Empire at Work
-
Edited by:
Transregional and regional elites of various backgrounds were essential for the integration of diverse regions into the early Islamic Empire, from Central Asia to North Africa. This volume is an important contribution to the conceptualization of the largest empire of Late Antiquity. While previous studies used Iraq as the paradigm for the entire empire, this volume looks at diverse regions instead. After a theoretical introduction to the concept of ‘elites’ in an early Islamic context, the papers focus on elite structures and networks within selected regions of the Empire (Transoxiana, Khurāsān, Armenia, Fārs, Iraq, al-Jazīra, Syria, Egypt, and Ifrīqiya). The papers analyze elite groups across social, religious, geographical, and professional boundaries.
Although each region appears unique at first glance, based on their heterogeneous surviving sources, its physical geography, and its indigenous population and elites, the studies show that they shared certain patterns of governance and interaction, and that this was an important factor for the success of the largest empire of Late Antiquity.
How could an empire stretching from the Hindukush to the Atlantic be governed for about 300 years, from ca. 650 to the 950s? How far did the geographic, political, economic, and linguistic reach of the Islamic Empire extend within and beyond the societies that it governed?
Based on case studies on various regions inside and outside the empire proper, the authors pursue these questions by challenging the perception of an empire entailing the military and administrative control over these vast regions. They investigate the reach of Arabic as the imperial language, Sunni Islam as the imperial religion, and the reaction of communities that resisted religious integration, such as Muslim Ibāḍīs, or the Zoroastrians.
The Empire’s reach into the provinces is largely a question of negotiation between these provinces and the center. It integrates societies and is limited by local rebellion. Emphasis is given to Daylam, Ṭabaristān, the Jazīra, and to the economic integration of regions beyond political control. ‘The Reach of the Empire’ sheds light on the complex ways of the functioning of the early Islamic Empire. It underlines its various layers of government, its impacts on different communities and their place within the empire.
