Shaping a Muslim State: The World of a Mid-Eighth-Century Egyptian Official

ISBN-13: 9780199673902 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 424 str.

Petra M. Sijpesteijn

Opis

Shaping a Muslim State provides a synthetic study of the political, social, and economic processes which formed early Islamic Egypt. Looking at a corpus of previously unknown Arabic papyrus letters, dating from between AD 730 and 750, which were written to a Muslim administrator and merchant in the Fayyum oasis in Egypt, Sijpesteijn examines the reasons for the success of the early Arab conquests and the transition from the pre-Islamic Byzantine system and its Egyptian executors to an Arab/Muslim state.
By examining the impact of Islam on the daily lives of those living under its rule, the volume highlights the striking newness of Islamic society while also acknowledging the influence of the ancient societies which preceded it. The book applies theoretical discussions about governance, historiography, (social) linguistics, and source criticism to understand the dynamics of early Islamic Egypt, as well as the larger process of state formation in the Islamic world.

Recenzje

... one of the most useful studies on the history of Arab/Islamic Egypt to appear in many years. ...The scholarship on display is admirable: the book is clearly written, closely and sensibly argued, and thoroughly documented... One is accustomered to being told that this or that book is essential reading. the phrase has become hackneyed, which is a shame: one needs it still precisely for this sort of work. there is very much to learn here and, indeed, a single reading of Shaping a Muslim State hardly suffices.

O autorze

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.