The Arabs in Anatolia and the Islamic law of war (fïqh al‐jihād) seventh–tenth centuries)

Abstract

This article deals with the Islamic background of the Arab penetration of Byzantine Anatolia in the seventh to tenth centuries A.D. It focuses in particular on the implicit references to the Islamic law of war (fiqh al‐jihād), as found in the Arabic historical sources dealing with Muslim raids, the accumulation and distribution of booty, and the ideological framework in which these events occurred. There was a theological dimension to this discourse: Muslim writers at times refer to the absolute determination of the outcome of battles and sieges through divine will. It appears that fiqh al‐jihād had acquired standing as a species of international law by the end of this period, becoming the dialectical cognate of customary law of nations recognised by the late Roman jurists. This becomes evident through an analysis of negotiations for the surrender of cities, and in the periodic exchange of captives for which there are detailed records between 830–946 A.D. Recognised norms were sometimes violated: one sees this particularly in the killing of monks during Arab military operations. It is anticipated that the present study will be the first step in a comparative study of Byzantine and Islamic jurisprudence on the regulation of armed conflict.