al-Tariq al-Sultani, which connects Medina with Mecca, holds significant historical importance in Islamic history. This paper aims to shed light on this road, define it, identify its points and stations, and explore its historical significance. The Ottomans took great care of it as part of their interest in the Two Holy Mosques, strengthening and fortifying it. The paper also aims to study the citadel models built along the road, the reasons for their construction, and their importance. Additionally, it seeks to analyze the architectural styles and elements of the road, comparing them with other examples of Ottoman citadels along various pilgrimage routes in al-Hijaz. This paper holds great importance as it presents a new documentary publication for the first time, featuring four Ottoman citadels on the Sultani Road. The study adopts a comparative, analytical, and inductive approach, relying on essential documents concerning the castles, their locations, completion dates, and architectural styles.

This article explores the history of Hamama, an Arab village in the Gaza Sub-District during the Late Ottoman and British Mandate period c. 1750–1948 CE, combining the often disparate fields of Ottoman/Levantine archaeology and Ottoman/Palestinian history for tracing its rise from an ordinary village into the Sub-District’s third largest settlement. Ethnographic sources and historical evidence testify that the village of Hamama had been inhabited continuously from the Mamluk period until 1948. The paper uses the case of Hamama to argue that the detailed history of specific villages and towns cannot be reconstructed out of a synchronous (specific point-in-time) reading of the sources without considering the influence of previous stages in their socioeconomic development. Using a vast array of primary sources and archaeological materials, this study explores the interaction between local topography and existing social fabrics with broader transformative processes on the regional and trans-regional levels. It shows how the region of Hamama underwent a significant economic growth and settlement expansion. In the 1860s, local administrative re-structuring took hold as part of the implementation of the tanzimat reforms at the district level. The establishment of the “quarter system”—the division of village land between the groups of families—led to considerable economic development, which was evident in village land uses by the early 20th century. Later, British town plans and building permits testify to the involvement of the colonial administration in the architectural and spatial planning of the Arab countryside. These were local manifestations of globalization and the modernization efforts of the Ottoman Empire and later the British Mandate.

Pottery is the most affected tool by the changes in human societies; this is due to its flexibility during forming. In order to estimate the effect of the transition of inhabitants of the urban center of Umm Qais (Gadara), north Jordan, from Byzantine (Christianity) to Umayyad (Islam) rule on pottery production traditions, a total of 29 cooking pots and sherds of pottery jars were selected. The samples were dated according to stratigraphy, archaeological context, and parallel examples to the proposed periods. The samples were investigated following the typological and archaeometric approaches. The raw materials and firing technology of the pottery during the two periods were determined following chemical and mineralogical methods using petrography, XRD, ED-XRF, and EDX-SEM techniques. The results revealed that many styles and forms of pottery continued to be produced and some new styles emerged at the urban center of Gadara. Technically, the potters inherited the knowledge of selecting the available raw materials and firing conditions of pottery during the Byzantine and Umayyad periods. During these periods, Umm Qais potters used the local raw materials—non-calcareous ferruginous illite clays mixed with medium to high amounts of coarse quartz grains and fired at temperatures around 1000° in an oxidizing atmosphere to produce cooking pots. They used the available medium to highcalcareous ferruginous illite clays and fired them at temperatures between 850° and 950° in an oxidizing atmosphere to produce the jars. Importing fine fabric jars and cooking pots during the seventh century from Jarash are indicated too. Thus, the types and forms of everyday use pottery were more affected by the political and religious changes than the technical aspects.

Muhammad and his Followers in Context: The Religious Map of Late Antique Arabia Ilkka LindstedtBrill 2023. Islamic History and Civilization: Studies and Texts 209. 372pp., 7 ill., index. Hb 148€. ISBN-13: 9789004687127.

Due to its low rainfall and limited potential for water retention, northern Syria has always had access to and control of water as one of the main features of states in the region aiming to maintain their rule. This article introduces new information about the Mamluk period water adduction system of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which brought water to the Quwayq River, the city’s most important source of water. A newly documented part of the system, known in the Gaziantep region of Türkiye as the “Halep Arki” (the Aleppo channel), is discussed along with Mamluk-era inscriptions associated with it. During archaeological survey conducted between 2016 and 2018 in the Oguzeli region of Türkiye’s Gaziantep province, an open-air channel connected to a qanat-like tunnel with vertical shafts was documented, in addition to two inscriptions carved into the bedrock where the open-air channel met the tunnel. These inscriptions, which have been damaged over the centuries, were documented using RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging) technology, which allowed portions of one of them to be read. The survey showed that this Mamluk era water system was also used and expanded in the Ottoman period beginning with the conquest of the region in the 16th century. Spoil heaps show that the system was cleaned, likely during the Ottoman era. The closing of gaps in the bedrock that came about due to earthquakes or other reasons with stone walling may also have taken place in the Ottoman period. Also, in the Ottoman period, water from other springs was added to the system and various regulations on the use of water introduced. In this article, based on topographic and hydrological study of the region, we offer suggestions of the sources of the spring water that were joined to this system.