Seventh Eighth Centuries Research Articles

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.

Impact of Sufi Movement on Socio-religious Life During the Medieval Period: Rise and Spread of Sufism Movement in India

Sufism develops the esoteric and exoteric dimensions of spiritual practice to establish deep devotion, love as passion; Instead of Namaz, Hajj and celibacy, poetry, song and dance, worship and turning away from God are the norm. Like the Bhakti movement, the Sufi movement also came into its effective form in the medieval period, although its background can be seen only in the seventh-eighth century. Similarly, like the Bhakti movement, the Sufi movement was not an attempt to establish any new religion but was a peaceful campaign of Islam.

The time and place of origin of South Caucasian languages: insights into past human societies, ecosystems and human population genetics

This study re-examines the linguistic phylogeny of the South Caucasian linguistic family (aka the Kartvelian linguistic family) and attempts to identify its Urheimat. We apply Bayesian phylogenetics to infer a dated phylogeny of the South Caucasian languages. We infer the Urheimat and the reasons for the split of the Kartvelian languages by taking into consideration (1) the past distribution ranges of wildlife elements whose names can be traced back to proto-Kartvelian roots, (2) the distribution ranges of past cultures and (3) the genetic variations of past and extant human populations. Our best-fit Bayesian phylogenetic model is in agreement with the widely accepted topology suggested by previous studies. However, in contrast to these studies, our model suggests earlier mean split dates, according to which the divergence between Svan and Karto-Zan occurred in the early Copper Age, while Georgian and Zan diverged in the early Iron Age. The split of Zan into Megrelian and Laz is widely attributed to the spread of Georgian and/or Georgian speakers in the seventh-eighth centuries CE. Our analyses place the Kartvelian Urheimat in an area that largely intersects the Colchis glacial refugium in the South Caucasus. The divergence of Kartvelian languages is strongly associated with differences in the rate of technological expansions in relation to landscape heterogeneity, as well as the emergence of state-run communities. Neolithic societies could not colonize dense forests, whereas Copper Age societies made limited progress in this regard, but not to the same degree of success achieved by Bronze and Iron Age societies. The paper also discusses the importance of glacial refugia in laying the foundation for linguistic families and where Indo-European languages might have originated.

A Case Against Simple-mindedness: Śrīgupta on Mental Mereology

ABSTRACT There’s a common line of reasoning which supposes that the phenomenal unity of conscious experience is grounded in a mind-like simple subject. To the contrary, Mādhyamika Buddhist philosophers beginning with Śrīgupta (seventh–eighth century) argue that any kind of mental simple is incoherent and thus metaphysically impossible. Lacking any unifying principle, the phenomenal unity of conscious experience is instead an unfounded illusion. In this paper, I present an analysis of Śrīgupta’s ‘neither-one-nor-many argument’ against mental simples and show how his line of reasoning is driven by a set of implicit questions concerning the nature of and relation between consciousness and its intentional object. These questions not only set the agenda for centuries of intra-Buddhist debate on the topic, but they are also questions to which any defender of unified consciousness or a simple subject of experience arguably owes responses.

Conservation and Technical Evaluation of an Early Medieval Papyrus Codex

ABSTRACT In 2005, a team of Polish archaeologists discovered three Coptic codices, two on papyrus and one on parchment, in the rubbish dump of a hermitage at Sheik Abd el-Gurna, Egypt. While the parchment codex and the remains of the bindings of the papyrus ones have been conserved, the text blocks of the papyrus codices were opened and disassembled and after being disinfected remained untouched for nearly 15 years, until the current project started. Currently, all three books are stored in the collection of the Coptic Museum in Cairo. Our team undertook the conservation of and archaeometric research on the papyrus codices. The first of the books contains the Canons of Pseudo-Basil, while the second is an Encomium of St. Pisenthios. Both codices have been palaeographically dated to the seventh-eighth centuries CE. In this paper, we describe our project and present the results of the work carried out on the Canons of Pseudo-Basil. Our work involved photography in transmitted light, measurements of the thickness of the papyrus leaves, and digital microscopy under three-light illumination. These measurements allowed us to determine the types of the inks and characterize the papyrus writing substrate. For conservation, we used a novel method developed in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin that comprises suspending papyrus folios on a translucent, extremely thin Japanese paper inside glass frames without the use of adhesives.

High-status Avar warriors identified. Differences in the prevalence of the horse riding syndrome in “high-status” vs. “low-status” adult male burials in the Avar cemetery of Wien 11-Csokorgasse (seventh–eighth century AD)

Abstract Bioarchaeology can contribute to interdisciplinary research on the social organization of the Avar Empire (568 AD to around 800 AD) by providing information on the health, lifestyle and habitual activity patterns of Avar populations, thus offering an important, additional perspective to traditional archaeological methods focusing on material culture. The so-called horse riding syndrome refers to a combination of changes on the human skeleton, which may indicate that the individual in question practised horse riding as a habitual activity during his or her lifetime. The aim of this paper is to identify potential differences in habitual horse riding activity between different socioeconomic groups within the adult male population of the Avar cemetery of Wien 11-Csokorgasse, using a major criterion of the horse riding syndrome (namely the ovalization or vertical elongation of the acetabulum) and an indicator of social status in burials of Avar men (namely the depth of burial). The sample included only males (age group adult or older) with at least one completely preserved acetabulum (n = 38 for the left acetabulum, n = 40 for the right acetabulum). The ovalization of the acetabulum was determined using a basic measurement method, the Index of Ovalization of Acetabulum (IOA). The sample was divided into two groups according to depth of burial: The “high-status” group included the skeletal material of adult male individuals with a depth of burial of 1.00 m or more. The “low-status” group included the skeletal material of adult male individuals with a depth of burial less than 1.00 m. We observed highly significant differences regarding the ovalization of the acetabulum between “high-status” and “low-status” adult males. This may reflect considerable variation in lifestyle and/or habitual activity patterns between these two groups, which could suggest differences regarding the prevalence of habitual horse riding between “high-status” and “low-status” adult males. Hence, using a major criterion of the “horse riding syndrome” – the “ovalization” of the acetabulum – we may have identified a group of “high-status” Avar warriors, whose way of life appears to have differed from that of the “lower-status” male population buried in the Avar-period cemetery of Wien 11-Csokorgasse.

Recent Excavation Results at Sa’ida Village, Failaka Island

AbstractOne of the least known, yet extremely important, archaeological sites in Failaka Island, off Kuwait, is Sa’ida village. A joint Gulf mission started excavation in Sa’ida in 2001. The excavations on Hill 1 then exposed the first Friday mosque discovered on Failaka and in the State of Kuwait. The material data revealed that the village dates to the late Islamic period, specifically to the end of the seventeenth century until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the village was abandoned due to the plague epidemic that swept the region. Since 2016, four fieldwork campaign indicated that the village was inhabited in the early Islamic era in the seventh–eighth centuries and continued until the beginning of the twentieth century, with a few but long gaps. The six campaigns revealed religious and domestic buildings and were sufficient to reassess the chronology of occupation and abandonment of Sa’ida. They provided a valuable insight into the organisation of the site and the lifestyle of the population, with large courtyard houses and small one‐room buildings.

The Late-Antique Ma‘agan Mikhael B Shipwreck, Israel

The Ma‘agan Mikhael B shipwreck, dated to the seventh–eighth centuries CE is located about 70 m off the Mediterranean coast of Israel, at a maximum water depth of 3 m, buried under 1.5 m of sand. T...

A Comparison of Chinese and Indian Solar Theories in the Sui and Early Tang Periods (Seventh–Eighth Centuries c.e.)

The Sovereign Pole System ( Huang ji li 皇極曆, a.d. 600) is the first Chinese astronomical system to include a solar equation table for calculating the motion of the Sun. From then on, each Chinese system took the solar equation of centre into consideration. Some scholars have argued that Chinese solar theory in the Sui and Tang dynasties was developed independently by Chinese astronomers. However, other scholars have speculated that this theory was ultimately influenced by Babylonian astronomy, through the medium of Indian astronomy. In this paper, we compare Chinese solar theory in the Sui and early Tang periods with Indian solar theory in the sixth century. First, we discuss the content, meaning, and accuracy of the solar equation tables in the Sovereign Pole System, the Great Patrimony System ( Da ye li 大業曆, a.d. 607), and the Great Expansion System ( Dan yan li 大衍曆, a.d. 727), three representative Chinese systems of the Sui and early Tang periods. Then, we discuss the speed of the Sun, the accuracy of the solar equation of centre, and the difference between the motions of the true Sun and mean Sun in the Vāsiṣṭha Siddhānta, Pauliśa Siddhānta, and Romaka Siddhānta, three Indian astronomical works collected in the Pañcasiddhāntikā in the sixth century. Finally, we discuss the similarities and differences between Indian and Chinese solar theories in the Sui and early Tang periods. The results show that while Chinese solar theory in the Sui and early Tang periods was very similar to Indian solar theory in the sixth century, Indian astronomers had a more sophisticated view of solar theory than their Chinese contemporaries, both in relation to the difference between the mean Sun and true Sun and in the selection of the longitude of perigee of the Sun. At the same time, we must note that the influence of Indian solar theory on Chinese solar theory was very limited, even if Chinese solar theory in the Sui and Tang dynasties was possibly influenced by Indian solar theory.

Ritual and Sacred Chant in the Ordo Romanus Primus (Seventh-Eighth Century)

The Ordo Romanus Primus offers historians of the Mass in the West a complete picture of a normative liturgy, namely that of the Roman Pontiff. Sacred chant, inherent in the solemn public character of the Eucharistic assembly, is an essential element of this liturgy. It accompanies certain significant rites, expresses the prayers of the ministers and the faithful, and offers a meditation on the Word of God. The direct link between rite and chant permits an account of developments, adaptations, and simplifications that, since the Franco-Roman period, have been grafted onto the original structure.

Considering the effects of the Byzantine–Islamic transition: Umayyad glass tesserae and vessels from the qasr of Khirbet al-Mafjar (Jericho, Palestine)

The paper reports and discusses data obtained by archaeological and archaeometric studies of glass vessels and tesserae from the qasr of Khirbet al-Mafjar (near Jericho, Palestine). Archaeological contextualisation of the site and chrono-typological study of glass vessels were associated to EPMA and LA–ICP–MS analyses, performed to characterise the composition of the glassy matrix (major and minor components as well as trace elements). Analyses allowed achieving meaningful and intriguing results, which gain insights into the production and consumption of glass vessels and tesserae in the near East during the Umayyad period (seventh–eighth centuries). Within the analysed samples, both an Egyptian and a Levantine manufacture have been identified: such data provide evidence of a double supply of glass from Egypt and the Syro-Palestinian coast in the Umayyad period occurring not only in the glassware manufacture but also in the production of base glass intended to be used in the manufacture of mosaic tesserae. Thus, the achieved results represent the first material evidence of a non-exclusive gathering of glass tesserae from Byzantium and the Byzantines in the manufacture of early Islamic mosaics.

The Hajj: pilgrimage in Islam

Introduction Eric Tagliacozzo and Shawkat Toorawa 1. Pilgrimage in pre-Islamic Arabia and late Antiquity Harry Munt 2. Why Mecca? Abraham and the Hajj in the Islamic tradition Fareeha Khan 3. The early Hajj, seventh-eighth centuries CE Travis Zadeh 4. Women and the Hajj Asma Sayeed 5. Hajj by land Benjamin C. Brower 6. Hajj by sea Eric Tagliacozzo 7. Hajj by air Robert Bianchi 8. Economics: agents, pilgrims, and profits on the Hajj Sylvia Chiffoleau 9. The pilgrimage to Mecca and international health regulations Valeska Huber 10. The Saudis as managers of the Hajj Saud al-Sarhan 11. Performing the Hajj Shawkat Toorawa 12. Decoding the Hajj in cyberspace Gary R. Bunt 13. A pilgrim's complaint: recent accounts of the Hajj Michael Wolfe 14. Visualizing the Hajj: imagining a sacred landscape past and present Juan Campo.

Discourse of doubt: the testing of apocalyptic figures in Jewish and Christian traditions of Late Antiquity

This paper will examine Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature of the seventh–eighth centuries to discuss a shared ‘discourse of doubt’ that cuts across different religious traditions. This discourse is manifested in the doubts of different sections of society regarding the end of time and their place in the future world, and the associated requirement that major apocalyptic figures undergo tests to prove their identity, most commonly through performing the miracle of resurrection. This discourse indicates the need to endorse the religious claims of a given group, which in turn reflects the wider political turmoil of the seventh century and a search for identity and clarification of status in uncertain times. The analysis presented here not only contributes to discussion on the relationship between Jewish and Christian apocalyptic writings of this period, but highlights what potential contacts and conflict as evidenced in this literature can reveal about the state of Jewish–Christian relations at a formative period for the Abrahamic religions.

An Early Medieval Zoomorphic Ceramic Vessel from the Edys Burial Site

This article analyzes the finds’ assemblage of burial 8, a subterranean cemetery near Edis village, Dzau district, South Ossetia. The author preliminarily dates the burial to the seventh—eighth centuries. It represented a cumulative multiperson grave in a ground pit. The remains of four buried people were found; the bones of three skeletons were displaced but the fourth was in a relatively intact anatomical position. The buried individuals were accompanied by crockery, adornments, and clothing accessories: fibulas (brooches), pins, earrings, buckles, pendants, beads, and a tip of a belt. Attention is drawn to a unique zoomorphic vessel in the form of a ram found in the burial; its closest analogues are in North Ossetia. The author considers this vessel to have been used in religious ceremonies, because the image of the ram is identified with the image of Khvarenah in Iranian tradition generally, and in Ossetian tradition particularly.

Measuring evaporation distribution of mud brick and rammed earth

Purpose– Salt weathering is one of the most common agents of decay of Central Asian earthen sites and is in function of water evaporation from the wall surface. Soon after excavation the earthen walls and the stupa of the Buddhist temple of Ajina Tepa (seventh-eighth century AD) started to deteriorate due lack of protection and surface erosion. The most important issue in the planning of conservation work was to understand such mechanisms and to decrease the effect of salt weathering on structural damage. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– Evaporation distribution and salts types were studied on selected walls. In addition, three-dimensional recording of the walls and the stupa was undertaken with digital photogrammetric methods.Findings– It was clearly found that the intensity of salt weathering in the site is high and some salts such as halite (sodium chloride) are thought to originate from groundwater. On the basis of the results obtained, thick shelter coating with mud brick and mud render was designed and constructed as protective measure for the earthen walls.Practical implications– Those walls that were most affected by salts weathering and erosion at the base (coving) became structurally less sound and eventually collapsed if not conserved.Originality/value– The work is the first attempt in the design of a methodology for the selection of earthen repair materials and methods.

A multidisciplinary study of archaeological grape seeds

We report here the first integrated investigation of both ancient DNA and proteins in archaeobotanical samples: medieval grape (Vitis vinifera L.) seeds, preserved by anoxic waterlogging, from an early medieval (seventh–eighth century A.D.) Byzantine rural settlement in the Salento area (Lecce, Italy) and a late (fourteenth–fifteenth century A.D.) medieval site in York (England). Pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry documented good carbohydrate preservation, whilst amino acid analysis revealed approximately 90% loss of the original protein content. In the York sample, mass spectrometry-based sequencing identified several degraded ancient peptides. Nuclear microsatellite locus (VVS2, VVMD5, VVMD7, ZAG62 and ZAG79) analysis permitted a tentative comparison of the genetic profiles of both the ancient samples with the modern varieties. The ability to recover microsatellite DNA has potential to improve biomolecular analysis on ancient grape seeds from archaeological contexts. Although the investigation of five microsatellite loci cannot assign the ancient samples to any geographic region or modern cultivar, the results allow speculation that the material from York was not grown locally, whilst the remains from Supersano could represent a trace of contacts with the eastern Mediterranean.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0629-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Irish–Scottish connections in the fi rst millennium AD: an evaluation of the links between souterrain ware and Hebridean ceramics

Although some limited consideration has been given to the possibility of links between the early medieval ceramic traditions of the Western Isles and the souterrain ware of north-east Ireland, these have tended to be framed in the context of supposed Dalriadic cultural influence flowing from Ireland to Scotland. A re-evaluation of the possible relationships between these pottery styles suggests that souterrain ware might instead be seen as part of a regional expansion of western Scottish pottery styles in the seventh-eighth centuries ad. This raises the question of what social processes might underlie the cross-regional patterning evident in what remains a vernacular, rather than a high-status, technology. Introduction Archaeological studies of cultural connections between Scotland and Ireland during the first millennium ad have been hampered by a number of perceptual and organisational factors. Modern political boundaries have inevitably led to the emergence of distinct archaeological traditions within Scotland and Ireland, while histories of prospection, methodologies of recording, conventions in publication, and priorities for excavation have also evolved differently. Curatorial and classificatory systems have similarly grown up quite separately on either side of the North Channel. While understandable for a variety of reasons, this has tended to compartmentalise primary archaeological research and prevent the perception of some interesting aspects of cultural patterning which cut across modern political boundaries. The few attempts to embrace material on both sides of the water in our period have tended to be driven not by archaeological, but by historical or pseudo-historical questions deriving from what are generally very partial documentary sources. For the first millennium ad the two great marker points are of course the supposed Dalriadic migration from Ulster to Argyll around ad 500, and the Viking movements south and westwards through the Hebrides to south-west Scotland and Ireland from around ad 800. It is the first of these that is of concern to us most directly here. For present purposes, the discussion will be restricted to the specifically archaeological aspects of the debates surrounding Scottish DalRiata. * Author's e-mail: i.armit@qub.ac.uk doi: 10.33 18/PRIAC.2008. 108.1 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 108C, 1-18 © 2008 Royal Irish Academy This content downloaded from 157.55.39.138 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 05:52:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East. I: problems in the literary source materials (review)

Reviews 123 critical methodological statement in the preface, Bloom's study seems unabletobreak free from the neo-Orientalist mould. The above criticism should not diminish the value of Bloom's Minaret as an important contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate on the history of Islamic architecture. Although not all his conclusions are convincing, the questions he raises, including the impact of politics on the changing semiotics of Islamic architecture, and the sheer scope of the coverage, make his book worthy of serious consideration. The illustrations are well integrated in the discussion with constant references. Apart from specialists in Islamic architecture, the book should appeal to medievalists in general, and also to those interested in the comparative study of architecture and culture. Ahmad Shboul Department of Semitic Studies University of Sydney Cameron, Averil and Lawrence I. Conrad, eds, The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East. I: problems in the literary source materials (Studies in late antiquity and early Islam, I), Princeton, The Darwin Press, 1992; cloth; pp. xiv, 428; R.R.P. US$29.95/£18.50. This volume contains eight papers: Michael Whitby on 'Greek historical writing after Procopius: variety and vitality'; Averil Cameron on 'New themes and styles in Greek literature: seventh-eighth centuries'; John Haldon on 'The works of Anastasius of Sinai: a key source for the history of seventh-century east Mediterranean society and belief; G. J. Reinink on 'Ps.-Methodius: a concept of history in response to theriseof Islam'; Hans J. W . Drijvers on "The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles: a Syriac apocalypse from the early Islamic period'; Wadad al-Qadi on 'Early Islamic state letters: the question of authenticity'; Stefan Leder on 'The literary use of the Khobar, a basic form of historical writing'; and Lawrence I. Conrad on "The conquest of Arwad: a source-critical study in the historiography of the early medieval Near East'. Space precludes comment on all of the above. What follows is addressed to Whitby's, Cameron's, Reinink's and Drijver's contributions. Whitby demonstrates that there was indeed an end to traditional historiography after the reign of Heraclius. This 'shrinkage of historiography must to a certain extent be seen in the context of the demise 124 Reviews of a broader range of categories of secular literature—panegyrics, epigrams, letters, philosophical works, legislation'. One reason why there were no Byzantine historians writing on the Arab conquests was precisely this drying-up of the classical tradition though, as Whitby makes clear, this does not mean that there was no historiography as such. Ecclesiastical historiography, and chronicle-writing were not affected. Whitby suggests that the actions of Heraclius were translated into eschatological terms. Averil Cameron goes further than Whitby and while she admits that 'historical writing in the traditional sense seems to have suffered a hiatus: classical historiography did not seem relevant any more', she nevertheless insists that 'an enormous amount of writing was going on in the seventh and eighth centuries'. Most of this was polemical and also written mostly by monks. All of it was theological. She cautions historians against an attempt 'to construct our own history of the period from the Greek sources alone . . . ; even leaving aside the vast corpus of works in the Arab-Islamic historical tradition, surviving historical works in Armenian and Syriac are as important as those in Greek One source above all seems to have influenced both Byzantine and medieval minds: Pseudo-Methodius. In an exemplary essay Reinink summarizes the extensive literature on this Syriac apocalypse and comes up with an original dating. Pseudo-Methodius was written in reaction to 'Abd al-Malik's foundation of the D o m e of The Rock on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, in or about 692 A.D. According to Reinink, his primary concern 'is to create a typological relation between Alexander, the first king of the Greeks, and the last king of the Greeks' who will defeat the Arabs and liberate Jerusalem. Whitby suggests that Heraclius's victories and the restoration of the True Cross to Jerusalem in 630 led to belief in the coming of the Golden Age of the Syriac Romance of Alexander. Reinink notes that 'the idea of the...

Chinese Alchemy

IT is generally agreed that chemistry had its origin about the first century A.D. at Alexandria, where the Egyptian metallurgical and technical arts combined with speculative philosophy and theosophy to form a belief in the possibility of the transmutation of metals into gold. On the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs in A.D. 640 this knowledge passed to Arabia, largely through the intermediary of Syriac translations of the Greek treatises. Arabic chemistry is not earlier than the seventh-eighth century A.D. and appears to be greatly dependent upon that borrowed from Alexandria.