Using Arabic, non-Arabic and newly available local Syrian sources, this richly detailed study examines the central events of medieval Islamic history: the fall of the Syrian Umayyad caliphate and the rise of the 'Abbasid state. As the 'Abbasids forged their new state from Iraq, Syrians raised their white banners of opposition and violently contested the changes that occurred under the 'Abbasid rule. As a result, the Syrian population quickly gained a reputation as uniquely contentious. White Banners traces the divergent fates of Syria's populace in their shift from center to periphery,...

A fascinating portrait of Usama ibn Munquidh, the famed 12th century warrior-poet and chronicler of everyday Muslim in the era of the first Crusade.