Islamic Period Research Articles

Late Holocene development of Bubiyan Island, Kuwait

AbstractBubiyan Island, presently a vast sabkha and salt flat in the westernmost part of the Shatt Al-Arab delta, originated ca. 4000 cal yr BP as prodelta deposits from a paleochannel of the Euphrates River that flowed into a shallow sea. Southeastern Bubiyan Island first surfaced when spits and barrier islands formed on a 1–2 m forebulge caused by heavy sediment load to the northwest; the spits and barriers delineated an incipient shoreline and sheltered a shallow lagoon. Progradation of southeastern Bubiyan Island began when the spits and barriers were gradually stranded as beach ridges during minor sea-level fluctuations and continued marginal uplift. AMS dating of the beach ridges, which are ~1–5 km from the present shoreline, implies that Late Holocene relative sea level fell in three phases: ca. 3700–3400 cal yr BP, ca. 2600–1000 cal yr BP, and ca. 600–500 cal yr BP. Prior to each phase, relative sea level apparently stabilized to near stillstands, allowing spits and barriers to accrete. Torpedo-jar pottery sherds scattered on some of the most prominent beach ridges indicate Sasanian (AD ca. 300–650; 1650–1300 cal yr BP) to early Islamic (AD ca. 650–800; 1300–1150 cal yr BP) periods of human presence, concurrent with the Second phase of beach-ridge formation.

Investigating and Analyzing the Formation and Evolution of Songhor City in Islamic Periods

Investigating and Analyzing the Formation and Evolution of Songhor City in Islamic Periods

THE SCIENTIFIC LEGACY OF ABU JA’FAR MUHAMMAD IBN JARIR TABARI

The life of Abu Jafar al-Tabari passed during a period when the Abbasid state was weakening and disintegrating, and clashes and disagreements occurred in various parts of the caliphate. Even though, science and education developed, and authoritative works were written in numerous fields. Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari created important works on Islamic studies, especially on tafsir, fiqh, adab, and history. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the life and scientific heritage of the scientist. The source classification of Tabari’s creativity is given, and the features of his works are studied. The works of the scientist “Kitab tahzib al-asar”, “Jami’ ul-bayan fi tafsir al-Qur’an”, “Jami’ qiraat min-ash-shukhur va-sh-shazz”, “Kitab ikhtilaf al-fuqaha”, “Kitab ul-waqf ”, “Kitab sharh as-sunna”, “Kitab at-tabsir fi usul ad-din”, “Adab an-nufus al-jayida wa-l akhlak an-nafisa” are currently included in scientific circulation. History also occupies a special place in the scientific heritage of Abu Jafar Tabari. His work “The History of arRusul wa-l-Muluk” (“The History of the Prophets and Kings”) is known in the Islamic world and studied by many scientists. This work shows that the scientist, along with the Islamic sciences, was fluent in the history, literature, and folklore before the Islamic period. Tabari skillfully used the sources of this period in his work, and the scientific significance of his information has not lost its relevance today. Many later scholars used Tabari’s work as a primary source.

The Endowment Devoted To The Kiswah Of The Kaaba: A Historical Study

The kiswa of the Kaaba has a long history throughout the Islamic ages. All the caliphs and princes of the Islamic countries competed to clothe the Holy Kaaba with the best and most delicate fabrics and master in making it and spending on it. Therefore, according to a historical, methodological perspective, this paper aims to study the endowment allocated to the manufacture of the covering of the Holy Kaaba during the Islamic eras to reveal the first who approved the endowment system designated for cladding during the Islamic periods. In this study, the researcher will follow the historical approach because it aims to collect data, analyze it, and verify its validity. The research reached several results, among the most important of which were the following: It became clear through the research that the first person to approve the waqf system, which was allocated from its proceeds to spend on the cost of manufacturing the covering of the Holy Kaaba was by order of the good king bin Nasser bin Qalawun, king of Egypt, and through this work The extent of the care that the Sultans of the Mamluk state gave to the Holy Kaaba and its cladding becomes clear .

Highlights on the Use of Acanthus as an Ornamental motif from Greco-Roman to Islamic period

Highlights on the Use of Acanthus as an Ornamental motif from Greco-Roman to Islamic period

A scientific study of late Islamic blue‐white stonepaste wares of Iran

AbstractBlue‐white stonepaste wares were an outgrowth of the bursting innovations of Near Eastern potters striving to imitate Chinese products during the Islamic period. Building on the results of previous research, this paper seeks to increase our knowledge of this type of ceramics by analyzing 16 Qajar period samples from Tepe Naderi in North Khorasan Province, Iran, with stereo microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. It appears that the bodies of these samples are characterized by high silicon and high alkali, a hallmark of the traditional Iranian stonepaste. They are coated with transparent alkali glazes and colored with the chromogenic elements of Cr, Co, Fe and Mn derived from chromite, hematite and cobalt ferrite, the latter of which is the decomposed phase of cobaltite ore known from Qamsar in Iran. The provenance of these samples cannot be probed at present, however, due to the lack of study of contemporaneous ceramics in the Near East.

Radiocarbon dating of lime plaster from a Roman period cistern in ancient Gerasa, Jerash in Jordan

Ancient Gerasa (Jerash, since the Islamic period) is a city with a rich archaeological heritage from prehistory onwards, with the periods from Roman times into the Early Islamic period best attested. A Danish-German team has been working in the Northwest Quarter of the city since 2011. Among the findings was a Roman period monumental cistern that was intentionally filled in, at one point in time. The complexity of the archaeology raised chronological questions regarding the construction, destruction and subsequent backfilling of the cistern. This study contributed to answer these questions by radiocarbon dating lime plaster excavated from the cistern, and comparing the results with charcoal radiocarbon dates from other studies. Radiocarbon dating of plaster and mortar in Jerash is challenging because of contamination of geological carbonates from the local limestone geology. Quoting previous mortar dating studies, this study utilized sample characterization by alkalinity screening, petrography, SEM-EDS, and sample pre-treatment and preparation by wet sieving, sedimentation and stepwise injection. The plaster dates argued for the construction of the cistern being in the last half of the 1st century BCE to the middle of the 1st century CE. A few samples had later mortar dates, which argued for the filling event of the cistern taking place sometime in the late 3rd century CE or later.

Evolutionary study of spatial organization in the Islamic Period’s school’s architecture. Comparative study of Seljuk, Timurid, Safavid and Qajar Eras.

Evolutionary study of spatial organization in the Islamic Period’s school’s architecture. Comparative study of Seljuk, Timurid, Safavid and Qajar Eras.

Mediterranean Period of Islamic Medicine in Medieval

Mediterranean is the birthplace of civilizational changes in world. There is special school of medicine in east of Islamic world which was formed by transferring Iranian medical heritage from ancient university of Jondishapur and medical sciences of India, Alexandria, Greece and Egypt. Therefore, Baghdad has arisen as a combined medical school. There is same school of medicine was established in west of Islamic world by evolutionary processes of Islamic medicine during its Mediterranean life and produced independent medical schools. Medical experience schools of ancient Cairo, Tunisia, Cordoba and Sicily transferred in Qairwan. This shows that medical development in Mediterranean world of Islamic period has been an increasing development, and Islamic medicine in the Mediterranean. Despite having Iranian roots and its origin go back to Avicenna, the founder of Islamic medicine and philosophy had a higher position than each other. It has acquired its oriental type. The medical school in the Mediterranean took place with the transfer of medicine from the first house of wisdom in the Islamic world to the second house of wisdom, which was built in Qairwan by Aghlabids state. The reality of Mediterranean period of Islamic medicine and its physical role in history of world medicine played by House of Wisdom (Beit al-Hakmeh ) Qairwan in the last stages of its development has prepared the collection of Islamic medical knowledge produced in Beit al-Hikma in Baghdad for final development by combining Latin teachings. By Transfer of Roman and Byzantine; medical knowledge from the Latin world to the Islamic world, which was a major milestone in the history of world medicine in southern Europe was made in Andalusia on the Iberian Peninsula, setting the stage for the latest evolution of medicine. A vast body of medical knowledge was transferred from North Africa and Andalusia to Europe (Salerno Italy) at the beginning of the European Renaissance.

Development of Obstetric Practice During the Early Islamic Era

Art of healing was considered the most noble of human undertakings by Islamic scholars. Acquiring medical manuscripts from previous civilizations and translating them into Arabic proceeded at a great pace. This was followed by the emergence of several great physician scientists who examined these writings, corrected many, and proceeded to produce their own, with the addition of significant original paradigm-shifting contributions to all branches of science and medicine. This article highlights some of the most important contributions to obstetrics of several prominent scholars of the early Islamic period (700–1300 A.D.)

Schlomo Dov Goitein’s “Political” Symbiosis in the Secrets of Simon Ben Yohai: A Qur’anic Reappraisal for a Jewish Apocalyptic Source on the Reflecting of an Early Islamic Background.

This paper examines the concept of symbiosis in Islamic history as developed by Schlomo Dov Goitein, the 20th-century Jewish German scholar in the area of Jewish and Arabic studies, and discusses its application to the identity sourcing of Prophet Muhammad in particular. The aim of the study is to review the historical outline briefly on the background and formation of “symbiosis” preceding and in the aftermath of Goitein’s conceptualization and context, following a qualitative research approach with an intertextual criticism to his references and discussing their possible philological aspects in his mindset. The study found that, while the Islamic historical sources presented the relations between Jews and Muslims in the Madina period of Islam as negative, in Goitein’s works, the Jewish perception of early Islamic history is positively grounded on a mid-eight century Jewish messianic-apocalyptical text, namely, The Secrets of Rabbi Simon ben Yohai as traditionally understood in Judaism for describing Ishmaelites as the savior of Jews from Christian oppression. This finding seems to be in explicit contradistinction to the concept of innovative “creative symbiosis” with subversion of historical experience.

Mitigating Water Scarcity in the Medieval and Islamic Periods

During the intermediate Islamic period, the settlement of Safed was transformed from a small unknown village in Upper Galilee to an important stronghold and administrative center, aggravating the problem of the town’s water supply. Lacking natural springs, Safed depended on cisterns fed by gutters that channeled seasonal rainwater from the roofs and on distant springs in the Nahal Amud ravine. As the town’s population grew, its rulers were required to install public water systems. Our field study of the region reveals several Mamluk water systems whose outstanding features are an aqueduct that channeled water by force of gravity from 'Ayn Biriyya to the Crusader/Mamluk citadel in Safed, and a spring tunnel flowing beneath the town that was accessible via shafts in the houses. The composition of the water in the tunnel is similar to that of a famous ritual bath in one of these houses, indicating a probable connection. The water systems were dated using Uranium-Thorium analysis and by radiocarbon dating. An ancient spring tunnel at the nearby site of 'Ayn al-Zaytun that may have inspired the construction of Safed’s water systems is also discussed. The archaeological finds and dating are consistent with several historical sources describing the construction of water systems in Safed.

Exotic glass types and the intensity of recycling in the northwest Quarter of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan)

Major and trace elements are presented for 149 glass fragments ranging in date from the Roman to Early Islamic periods (1st – mid-8th centuries CE), excavated during the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project's fieldwork between 2011 and 2016. The results confirm a clear dominance of Levantine glass types, but also reveal 12 glasses of Egyptian and Mesopotamian compositions recovered from two houses destroyed by the major earthquake which hit parts of the Levant in January 749 CE. These closed and undisturbed contexts from the final phase of occupation reveal the presence of relatively more pristine Levantine as well as imported material that is less visible in earlier contexts in the Gerasa assemblage, where the recycling indexes are high and chemical signatures of any exotic glass were largely lost due to remelting and their dilution by the overwhelming quantities of glass produced in the Levantine region. This emphasizes that imported glass may frequently be underestimated or even invisible in glass compositional studies, depending on the archaeological context sampled and the approach taken to artifact quantification.Levantine glass was attributed to Roman, Late Roman (Jalame) and Byzantine/Early Islamic (Apollonia) productions based primarily on MnO, Al2O3 and Na2O concentrations, which offered an advantage over previous approaches. While colorants in weakly colored glass indicate recycled material, their concentrations are sensitive to context, with higher concentrations in the early periods when the use of intentionally colored glass was more frequent. We have therefore developed the concept of the intensity of recycling, which was estimated using components modified during prolonged melting, such as K2O, P2O5 and Cl. A pronounced enrichment in CaO, also dependent upon the intensity of recycling, may affect the assignment to compositional groups and should be taken into consideration in future. Recycling in Gerasa appears to have been more intensive than was the case for cities closer to the primary production centers on the Mediterranean coast, consistent with the view that the dependency on recycling increases further away from the source of the primary material. In contrast, the cities in the coastal plain could readily exploit the marine transportation network, which appears to have played a major role in the distribution of raw glass. (361 words).

Review: Arab Conquests and Early Islamic Historiography: The Futuh al-Buldan of al-Baladhuri, by Ryan J. Lynch

Review: <i>Arab Conquests and Early Islamic Historiography: The Futuh al-Buldan of al-Baladhuri</i>, by Ryan J. Lynch

Sources of geomaterials in the Sicani Mountains during the Early Middle Ages: A case study of Contrada Castro, central western Sicily

AbstractFrom 2017, an unknown rural settlement in Contrada Castro at Corleone (Palermo Province, western Sicily) was investigated as part of the ‘Harvesting Memories Project’. The stratigraphic sequence, supported by radiocarbon dating, has demonstrated a reoccupation of a pre‐Roman site during the transition between the Byzantine and Islamic periods. In particular, the main occupation occurred in the late 8th–9th century when pottery kilns and a probable warehouse were constructed. During the 10th–11th century, a new structure with different orientations replaced the previous buildings that had already collapsed. Specifically focusing on a perspective of the household production and its relationship to the surrounding landscapes of this site, this paper presents the results of a geological survey and petrographic analysis of ceramic finds and lithic samples to identify the source area of the geomaterials used in the studied settlement. The ceramic finds were divided into different Paste Groups based on the characteristics of a polarizing microscope study. The use of some locally available raw materials was recorded both for ceramic and lithic samples. Such an approach enables us to better understand ceramic craft technology, clay and lithic procurement strategies and, more broadly, the consumption of household pottery in the Early Medieval site in Contrada Castro. Furthermore, this study verifies the close relationship that this rural settlement had with the surrounding resources in the area and reveals a connection with the city of Palermo during the Early Middle Ages.

A Khanjar of Ibrāhīm Ibn Ilyās Ibn Asad Ibn Sāmān dated 246 AH (28th March 860 to 17th March 861 AD)

The blade of this weapon might be a few decades older than its hilt. However, the gilded elements on both probably date from when the blade acquired a new hilt, likely in the year Hijri 246 (28th March 860 to 17th March 861 AD) as mentioned in the blade inscription, when Ibrāhīm Ibn Ilyās was governor of Harāt. The gilding process used on the blade seems to be an exceptionally rare example of what was known in medieval Islamic literary sources as ‘gold water’, which has similarities with that found on objects from the 18th and 19th centuries China, where it was called Wu Tong. The weapon itself is a khanjar or large ‘fighting knife’ of a type characteristic amongst Sughdian peoples of Central Asia and amongst Turkic nomadic cultures of the Eurasian steppes. However, the design of the hilt is more distinctive and may have originated in eastern Iran, Islamic Central Asia or Afghanistan during the early medieval Islamic period. Though not necessarily a Sāmānid design, this form of hilt came to be closely associated with regions which would form the core of the Sāmānid state. Weapons comparable to this khanjar are very limited in the archaeological records of all regions except Central Asia and the steppes. Furthermore, nothing strictly comparable is known from the immediately pre-Islamic period within the territory that would become the early medieval Islamic world. The few large fighting knives which do exist differ significantly from this weapon but nevertheless reinforce the thesis that the khanjar’s stylistic origins, including both its blade and hilt, are to be found within the Islamized regions of early medieval Central Asia and Afghanistan rather than the Sassanian Iranian or Romano-Byzantine heartlands of what became the Islamic Caliphate. Meanwhile, the pommel of the khanjar of Ibrāhīm Ibn Ilyās is of what might be called a large button shape which, though larger than most other examples from this period, is probably rooted in the same design concept. Unfortunately, one has to wait for several centuries before finding acutely downturned quillons like those on this particular weapon.

A Comparative Study of the Chemical Composition and Manufacturing Technology of Historical Glazed Ceramics from the Islamic Period (8th to Early 21th Centuries) Using Spectroscopic Analysis

A Comparative Study of the Chemical Composition and Manufacturing Technology of Historical Glazed Ceramics from the Islamic Period (8th to Early 21th Centuries) Using Spectroscopic Analysis

Le Jésus mandéen: Entre mémoire nazoréenne et controverse religieuse à l’époque islamique

Jesus is a well-known figure in Mandaean sources. Described as a “ false messiah,” a “seducer,” or a “sorcerer,” he is presented as the antagonist of John the Baptist, who is the embodiment of the genuine prophet and the presumed founder of the Mandaean religion. Based on an examination of the Jesus passages in the Mandaean sources, it is assumed that their highly polemical character reflects inter-religious conflicts in the Islamic period, when the Mandaeans were forced to distinguish themselves from the Christians as “People of the Book” with their own prophet and holy scriptures. This essay will also aim to open up some new avenues of reflection on the origins of Mandaeism and, above all, the re-elaboration of the memory of Mandaeism in the context of the advent of Islam in 7th-century Iraq and Iran.

Shaping Community through Biographical Collections from South Arabia: A Comparison of Two Ṭabaqāt-works

This article investigates and compares the origins, intentions and contents of two biographical collections from South Arabia. The first, al-Sulūk fī ṭabaqāt al-ʿulamā̉ wa-l-mulūk, was written by al-Janadī, who held important legal and administrative positions for the Rasūlid court during the first part of the 8th/14th century. This collection mainly emerges from an earlier Yemeni historiographical work, which described the lives of religious figures in South Arabia in the Islamic period, but sees new entries being added from the author’s own research and time. It encompasses both the lives of learned men and of political dignitaries and overall aimed to induce readers to remember and imitate the exemplary lives found in the history of al-Janadī’s beloved Yemen. The second collection, Ṭabaqāt al-khawāṣṣ ahl al-ṣidq wa-l-ikhlāṣ, was composed by al-Sharjī, a 9th/15th-century legal scholar who was motivated by his visitations of the graves of Sufis in Yemen as well as by the observation that these individuals had been left out of previous collections describing the Sufis in other parts of the Islamic world. As a result, he utilised the earlier Yemeni biographical collections, including al-Janadī’s, to put together a representation of the lives of the Sufis of South Arabia. Towards the end of this article there is a detailed comparison made between the alternative biographies of the same man found in the two collections, thus illustrating the differences apparent in the respective foci of these two historians.

Interpretation of the concept zuhd (asceticism) in the early islamic period

Interpretation of the concept zuhd (asceticism) in the early islamic period