Early Islamic Period Research Articles

Think outside the road: Negev connectivity beyond the ‘Nabatean incense route’

This article examines the Negev road-economy from the rise of the Nabatean civilization to the Early Islamic period (3rd C. BCE – 9th C. CE), focusing on the region's complex commerce networks, which connected between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean basin and, more broadly, between east and west. We discuss the economy of goods-transportation within the system of Negev connectivity, and we propose to update the limiting boundary lines imposed by the title ‘The Nabatean Incense Route’ on the medium connecting between Aila, Petra and Gaza. Our main aims are: to emphasize the longevity of the system, which functioned long before and after the floruit of the Nabatean society; to highlight the wide and colorful array of participants – other than the Nabateans themselves – who were acting within the system for their respective commercial purposes; to demonstrate the wealth of goods which was transported by means of the system in both directions – far beyond incense or even spice and aromatics more broadly; and to show how transportation itself was carried out throughout the system along networks of roads and hubs, rather than through a single, linear road.

Glass Finds from the Elite House of Roue, a Sasanian City Building in Western Iran: Composition and Classification Using XRF and Raman Spectroscopy

The Silk Road connected the east of Iran to the western world. Roue city is close to the Road. Six glass samples from Roue were classified on the basis of morphology, archaeological context and compositions. The samples were analysed by means of XRF and Raman spectroscopy and two specific groups, namely Roue type 1 and Roue type 2, with close composition to high alumina plant-ash glass in circulation from the 6th to 10th centuries CE in Mesopotamia, Iran and Syria, were identified. The simultaneous occurrence of two types of glass in the excavated layers shows that the house was inhabited in the early Islamic period. Colours (black, amber-green, light and aqua blue) were produced mainly by the amount of iron and sulphur ions required for the amber chromophore and copper ions for the blue colour and the controlling of reducing conditions in the furnace.

Archaeological Geology of Jurash, ʿAsīr Province, Southwestern Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACTThe Jurash archaeological site is located on Wādī Bīshah near the city of Khamīs Mushayt in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It has a fort and other remains from the pre‐Islamic period (third century bc to early seventh century ad) and a settlement with two mosques from the Early Islamic period (early seventh to early 11th centuries ad). A survey was conducted for the purposes of identifying the building materials and determining their geographic sources, and also investigating the building methods. It was found that all materials were locally derived and that the fort's outer wall is a typical example of South Arabian fortifications of the first millennium bc. An examination of the site stratigraphy revealed that Jurash has been repeatedly inundated by destructive flash floods from Wādī Bīshah. The timing of these events was largely controlled by global climatic fluctuations, including the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age.

The Phenomenon of Almajirci in Northern Nigeria: A Historical Perspective

The Almajirci system is an ancient tradition of Islamic scholarship that dates back to the early period of Islam in the Western Sudan. It is characterized by itinerancy, with scholars and their students traveling in search of knowledge. This practice initially yielded positive results, cultivating a large number of indigenous scholars in the region, particularly in Hausaland. However, the current form of Almajirci education, where children are left in dire conditions, often naked and more concerned with survival than with acquiring spiritual knowledge—the primary aim of the system—is foreign to Islam and the original Almajirci tradition in Northern Nigeria. Today, the phenomenon of Almajirci has evolved into a social problem, leading to the abandonment and exploitation of children, many of whom become easy recruits for criminality and violence. Previous government efforts to regulate and address the worsening situation—through integration, control, or legislation—have largely been half-hearted and politically expedient, failing to provide a lasting solution. This paper explores the historical development of the Almajirci system of education in Northern Nigeria, identifying the material conditions that led to its transformation from a productive educational system to its current, deteriorated state, and examining the reasons for the failure of previous attempts to resolve the issue. The findings of this study could help suggest a viable solution to the problem. The paper asserts that solving the Almajirci problem requires a concerted effort: a combination of genuine government action, intervention by non-governmental organizations, support from philanthropic individuals in society, and continued exhortations by respected Muslim clerics, reminding parents of their responsibilities toward their children.

Jejak-Jejak Tertulis: Sejarah Pembukuan Hadis Dalam Islam

This study examines the development, controversy, and influence of hadith bookkeeping in the Islamic tradition from early times to modern contexts. Hadith, as the second source in the Islamic religious hierarchy after the Quran, played an important role in directing religious practice, the establishment of Islamic law, and understanding of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as well as the early period of Islam. Although it began soon after the death of the Prophet, the process of bookkeeping hadith has been marred by controversies surrounding authority, reliability, and methodology. These controversies include the validity of hadiths, the reliability of narrators, selection criteria, and methodologies of interpretation, as well as political and ideological influences in the bookkeeping process. Through a qualitative approach with literature studies, this study analyzes patterns, themes, and arguments that arise in literature related to history, methodology, and controversy in hadith bookkeeping. The results showed that hadith bookkeeping had a significant role in the development of Islamic thought and practice, despite methodological debates. Hadith bookkeeping remains an important cornerstone in the Islamic tradition, and the advice for the future is to maintain the quality and integrity of the hadith bookkeeping process and pay attention to various perspectives in interpreting and applying hadith in a contemporary context.

The Future of the Civilization of the Ummah Is Reviewed from the Sociology of Education for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG'S)

Objective: The ancient Arab economy developed in the second half of the first millennium BC. Its glory peaked in the first century until the early second century AD, with trade routes to North Arabia and Syria. Nabataean kingdom in North Arabia was established, with two major cities as trading centers: Petra, and Palmyra. using the sociological perspective of education and commercialization theory, the ancient Arab economy has a mode of merchant capitalism. Theoretical Framework: Ancient Arab trading capitalism revived in the pre-Islamic Arab period, from the end of the fourth century AD. Mecca became the center of international trade, side by side with Yathrib and Taif. Two types of markets were born, the inner market and the outer market. New institutions related to culture, politics, and economy were established, including the division of labor institutions and institutions that regulate traders' interaction from inside and outside Makkah. Method: This research uses an interpretative paradigm with a qualitative approach, case study type, and multicase design. Data were collected using observation, interviews, and documentation. Data validity using triangulation of sources, methods, and theories. Next, an interactive model analysis is carried out. The research object was carried out in the Yogyakarta and Surakarta regions of Indonesia. Results and Discussion: Merchant capitalism during the early Islamic era underwent characteristic changes, similar to social capitalism. Referred to as Religious Capitalism, because its inspiration comes from religious teachings. The state regulates the market: the prohibition of exaggerating the quality of goods, bidding new prices, intercepting goods before they reach the market, hoarding goods, and silent trading. State revenues have also increased, including spoils of war, income from the agricultural and industrial sectors, kharaj, endowments, 'ushr, jizya, redemption money, loans, alms, and gifts. The state is involved in public affairs, for example by establishing the Diwan. Research Implications: The reconstruction of Islamic civilization should follow the model of Religious Capitalism, which is one of the main legacies of the early Islamic period. Social capitalism is also gaining momentum. Apart from that, a development model with a mode of peaceful revolution is also proposed: dialogue and cooperation with the dominant civilization. The geopolitics of the world are also shifting. Originality/Value: Three technical requirements are needed, namely political democracy, economic cooperation, and active participation in global institutions. The main attention is directed to the development of knowledge and science, with critical and conventional madzab models.

The Environmental History of the Navazo Agroecosystem in Late Holocene Sand Bodies Along the Atlantic Coast of Andalusia, Spain

ABSTRACT Since the late Spanish Enlightenment, the agroecosystem of the Atlantic coast of Andalusia, through which coastal dune systems are cultivated via sunken gardens between sand berms, have attracted scholarly attention. The environmental history of these systems, known as Navazo, is the focus of this article. Through analysis of historical aerial photographs, we identify eight areas in which traditional Navazo land use was practiced. By studying landscape diversity and historical documentation we identify key aspects of the emergence and evolution of this agroecosystem. The results of this study indicate that Navazos originated through a combination of the natural properties offered by the region's coastal dune geomorphology, which was cultivated as vineyards since ancient times, as well as external cultural influences. Coinciding with the popularisation of potato consumption in the eighteenth century, earlier vineyards were, in some cases, completely replaced by Navazos. Due to transformations in traditional land use practices, created a contemporary version of the Navazo. The location and physical configuration of the Navazos, meanwhile, display strong similarities with archaeological remains of Plot-and-Berm agroecosystems from the southeastern Mediterranean dating from the Early Islamic period. This study presents evidence to better understand the function, cropping practices and irrigation of these systems. .

Intractable Cities: Urbanism in the Islamic Sphere of the Later Medieval Mediterranean World

ABSTRACT The urbanism of the medieval Islamic world has often been understood as a type of urbanism in which cities and the structures of states were closely entwined – a trait that has been foregrounded as a major difference from the urbanism of Christian Europe in this period. Based on a close-up study of six cities in the later medieval Mashriq and Maghrib, this article argues for a reappraisal of this interpretation. While there was a close link between urban and imperial structures in the early Islamic period, the urbanism that emerged in the period after the collapse of the ʿAbbāsid Empire was of an altogether different nature. Cities and states intersected in various ways, but cities were important political arenas which rulers surprisingly often struggled to control: only in some cities were rulers able to impose urbanistic schemes that dominated the spatial organisation of cities and in many cities they were frequently met with conflict and resistance from city-based populations.

Analysis of mosaic mortars from the Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods sourced from Gerasa’s Northwest Quarter

This study analyses and compares around 650 years of mosaic mortar production spanning the Roman, late Roman and Umayyad periods, at Gerasa/Jerash in Jordan, offering a better understanding of composition, structural features, and manufacturing processes. It assesses the value of optical and electron microscopy examination of morphological and textural features, pore structure using MIP, and composition studies using EDX, XRD, FTIR, TGA, and Raman spectroscopy. The study indicated high density lime adhesive was used compared to other mortars. Wood was used as a fuel when producing the lime and natural fibres were incorporated when manufacturing mortars. Aggregates were primarily calcitic with a small proportion of silica-based aggregates. Key outcomes of the study conclude that early Roman mortars were of highest quality, which was demonstrated through the careful selection of materials including different stone for lime and tesserae, and differences between layers. Late Roman mortars used the same slaked lime plus fibres and charcoal. Mortars dating from the Umayyad period also had the same higher lime content than late Roman, but higher porosity with fibres and charcoal. In general, the mortars showed slight differences in content and aggregate; different stone for lime and tesserae. The research attests to underlying traditions as well as changes in mortar mixes and methods according to context and time. The resulting data is contextualized within local and regional approaches.

Pronominal variation in Arabic among the grammarians, Qurʾānic reading traditions and manuscripts

ABSTRACT In the early Islamic period, the literary form of Arabic had an astounding amount of variation in its pronominal morphology. This paper examines the pronominal morphology of especially the third person masculine singular and plural pronouns, as they are described by the early Arabic grammarians, how they appear in the the descriptions of the canonical and non-canonical reading traditions and finally the pronominal systems as they appear in actual early Qurʾānic manuscripts. It is shown that the early grammarians were much more permissive of morphological variation than one would expect from strict norms that appear later. It is also shown that the pronominal systems of the reading traditions go well beyond the kinds of variation described by these grammarians. The systems of these readers show clear clusters (a Kufan, Basran, Hijazi and a ‘Classical’ cluster), even though in the details reading traditions from a single region still often differ from one another. Finally, it is shown that while some of the pronominal systems known in the reading tradition literature also show up in the Qurʾānic manuscripts, there is a significant number of manuscripts that have pronominal systems unlike any of the described systems in the literary sources.

Discontinuous Arabic frozen expressions modelization and implementation

Frozen expressions hold significant importance in the field of natural language processing, attracting considerable attention from researchers across various languages in recent years. The Arabic language, in particular, boasts a wealth of frozen expressions inherited from the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods, with persistent usage to the present day. This linguistic richness has motivated researchers to systematically collect, classify, and elucidate these expressions. Various classifications have emerged, addressing aspects such as continuity, discontinuity, allowance for variations, and restriction from variations. Our aim is to produce lexicon-grammar tables of discontinuous Arabic frozen expressions and implement them. Our approach involves the meticulous collection and study of these expressions, followed by the transformation of their lexicon-grammar tables into dictionaries and syntactic grammars within the NooJ platform. This methodology allows us to recognize and annotate these expressions in texts and corpora, even when they exhibit discontinuity. Such recognition has the potential to address several challenges in automatic natural language processing, including the area of automatic translation.

Cultivating the Hills and the Sands: A Comparative Archaeobotanical Investigation of Early Islamic Agriculture in Palestine

ABSTRACT This article investigates how agricultural choices were driven by political, social and environmental conditions in Palestine during the Early Islamic period (c. 636–1099 CE) through the analysis of charred archaeobotanical assemblages from three archaeological sites in the southern Levant. These sites – the coastal urban centres of Ashkelon and Caesarea Maritima, and the large inland village of Neby Zakaria – are situated in different environmental settings and had distinct socioeconomic functions. Data on categories of economic plants (cereals, chaff, pulses, fruits and nuts) are aggregated from all time periods represented at each site to understand general patterns of crop presence and are examined diachronically. These data show that the production and consumption of plant resources were affected more by a settlement’s socioeconomic function than by its environmental setting; in this case, urban centres specialised in perennial arboriculture and viticulture, and villages specialised in annual cultivation of cereals and pulses. Furthermore, these data suggest that there is no clear divide between cities as consumers or conduits of trade and villages as producers of agricultural products in this part of Palestine in the Early Islamic period, but this pattern needs to be tested with archaeobotanical investigations of additional sites.

Ijarah Contracts From The Time Of Rasulullah To The Present Day

The Islamic banking industry in Indonesia continues to experience significant development. With this development, innovation in products and services in Islamic banking is very important to answer the needs in contemporary banking and financial transactions. One of the many products that have been applied and developed is ijarah. However, practitioners and scholars are still discussing different points of view regarding the legal basis of ijarah and its types. This research aims to review the development process of the ijarah principle and its variance from the early Islamic period to the present. This study is a qualitative research with a literature study approach and library research with descriptive analysis. This research concludes that, The concept of ijarah has existed since the time of the apostle of Allah, namely with the wage system given by the Rasulullah for the services received. For its application in the industry, there are 2 main products, namely Ijarah Muntahiya Bittamlik (IMBT) and Ijarah Maushufah Fi Al Dzimmah (IMDF).

Əbu Hənifə və Rəy məktəbi

As it is known, in the early Islamic period, that is, during the time of the Prophet and his companions it was not difficult to find answers to the questions. However, when we look at the later periods, we see that people who had just accepted Islam, belonging to many new cultures, asked new questions. It was not so easy to answer these questions merely based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah. For this reason, Kufa scholars considered it necessary to use ijtihad with raʾy (free legal reasoning). They were subjected to a lot of criticism in that period and today because they resorted to raʾy while doing ijtihad. One of the two main schools that criticized the Ahl al-Ra’y the most was the Ahl al-Hadith (people of hadith) school. From the early days of the formation of the Hadith school of jurisprudence, the Iraqi school has been accused of abandoning the book and the Sunnah in the interpretation of Shari'ah rulings and preferring the rulings obtained by the intellectual method. This intellectual method that we are talking about has been the target of criticism in certain historical periods, sometimes in the name of ra’y, sometimes inthe name of qiyas (analogy), and sometimes in the name of istihsan. Abu Hanifa is one of the famous scholars who have been criticized by Ahl al-Hadith. This article deals with the life, works and school of ra’y of Abu Hanifa.

Artifacts Associated with the Chemical Arts in the Early Islamic Period in Ramla, Israel

Archaeological excavations in Ramla, Jund Filastin capital during the early Islamic period, discovered in a zone of artisans and workshops, a unique complex of built and dug installations. It included barely known and understood components of a proto-chemical toolkit. The finds included an abundance of small, decorated bottles previously identified as perfume containers. Additional small finds of a proto-chemistry toolkit included e.g., bronze pipettes, delicate bronze pestles and weights. The complex is to be associated with the existence of a facility differing from an alchemist studio-laboratory. It involved the commercial, non-artisan, pre-industrial production of perfumes and aromatic oils associated with body care chemistry. The close proximity to a Hammam (bathhouse) is notable. Suitable comparisons were found throughout the Mediterranean Basin, from Spain, where comparable tool kits in close proximity to Hammams were discovered, to Russia, where similar technology and typology were documented. The article discusses the importance of the dictates of the Qur’an and Mohammedan traditions regarding purification of the body and their catalytic influence on social and early technological changes in a pre-industrial society.

Centrifugal Forces Impacting Urbanization in the Eastern Mediterranean during Roman and Early Islamic Times

My goal with this essay is to make the existence of a distinctive Levantine cultural paradigm a lens through which to examine long-term patterns of urbanization and cultural change in the Eastern Mediterranean—focusing especially on present-day Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Inspired by the agenda and approach of global history, the essay is an attempt to highlight a number of salient features of societal formation processes in this region that set them apart from such processes in the heartlands of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The paradigm holds that societal formation dynamics in the Levant have been dominated more by centrifugal than by centripetal forces, thus predisposing local social order in the region towards greater local agency, resiliency, polycentrism, heterarchical social structure and societal complexity less conspicuously reflected in grand monumentality. The implications of this hypothesis for understanding urban resilience in the Late Roman and Early Islamic periods in the Eastern Mediterranean will be explored drawing, in particular, on previous research on the “cities of the Decapolis” and on findings of archaeological excavations at Tall Hisban and the wider Madaba Plains region in Jordan.

Introduction

This volume of Acta ad archaeologia et artium historiam pertinentia gathers selected contributions from the workshop City, Hinterland, and Environment: Urban Resilience in the Late Roman and Early Islamic Period. Held at the University of Bergen September 23-25, 2019. Papers approach the topic from a variety of angles, including cultural and socioeconomic hinterlands and environments, in their discussions of urban resilience. The meeting was part of the project Globalization, Urbanization and Urban Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Roman and Early Islamic periods funded by Nordforsk (grant no. NOSHSWS-2 00052/NOS-HS), with a workshop on globalization taking place at the University of Helsinki in December 2018, and one on urban religion at Aarhus University in May 2019.

A Note on the Architectural Layout of the Early Islamic Church on Sir Bani Yas Island, UAE

It has been suggested that the church on Sir Bani Yas island, dated to the seventh–eighth century, originally had a tower rising over its south-eastern room. This would be a unique feature as other hitherto known churches in the Gulf dated to the early Islamic period did not have towers. One of the arguments for the existence of the tower has been the increased thickness of the northern wall of the south-eastern room. However, close examination of the remains reveals that the increased thickness of this wall is in fact related to the rectangular apse of the chancel. Other arguments used previously to support the claim that the church had a tower are critically assessed in this paper, which concludes that the Sir Bani Yas church had no tower and that its chancel had a rectangular apse, yet another architectural feature it shares with other early Islamic Gulf churches.

Shifting the Sands – Early Islamic Modification of the Caesarea Sandy Lowlands into Plot-and-Berm Water-Harvesting Agroecosystem

ABSTRACT During the Early Islamic period, several emerging agricultural innovations enabled the cultivation of summer crops in unproductive Mediterranean lands. This necessitated the development of water harvesting methods. This study delves into the creation of the Plot-and-Berm (P&B) agroecosystem along the sandy coast of Caesarea, Israel. From the early tenth century to the mid-twelfth century, coeval to the later part of the Early Islamic period and the beginning of the Crusader period, a 1.5 km2 P&B agroecosystem was constructed and maintained. Remarkably, this system still dominates the landscape. The agroecosystem’s expansion was controlled by regional hydrological, geological, and climatic factors. Anthropogenic sedimentary units include the anthrosol found within the plots and anthrosediment within the berms with densely added refuse. Sedimentological and mineralogical analysis of the anthrosol and anthrosediment unveils the additives of calcitic fine-grains, likely originating from nearby kilns. The arrangement of these fine grains amidst quartz particles fills pore spaces, reducing the hydraulic conductivity of the natural sand. Similar to other sandy agricultural systems, morphological and sedimentological adaptations were employed to sustain a pattern of annual crop yields, by capturing rainfall water for crop cultivation during the rainy season, while high groundwater levels facilitated summer cultivation.

Political Thought In Islam: An Analysis of The Development And Evolution of Islamic Political Philosophy

The explores the development and evolution of Islamic politics, tracing its historical trajectory from the early stages of Islam to its contemporary manifestations. By analyzing key political events, influential thinkers, and ideological movements, this study sheds light on the multifaceted nature of Islamic politics and its transformations over time. Through a comprehensive examination of primary and secondary sources, the research highlights the diverse political ideologies, organisations, and discourses within the Islamic tradition. Furthermore, it investigates the early Islamic period, the caliphate era, the influence of classical Islamic scholars, and contemporary debates on political philosophy in Islam. By examining various perspectives, this research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the rich and diverse political thought within the Islamic tradition.