In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire

7 The Forging of Islam

1

Arculf, p. 41.

2

Fredegarius: 154.

3

Arculf, p. 43.

4

“A Jewish Apocalypse on the Umayyads,” quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 317.

5

The monk was Anastasius of Sinai. See Flusin, pp. 25–6.

6

Arculf, p. 43.

7

Quoted by Humphreys, p. 11.

8

Mu’awiya is hailed as “Commander of the Faithful” on an inscription in the main hall of the bath-house of Hammat Gader, a few miles from Tiberias, which was one of the

Amir

’s favourite winter resorts. Accompanying this very public articulation of Umayyad legitimacy is a cross—which, inevitably, has always deeply puzzled scholars committed to the notion that Mu’awiya was a Muslim. In the words of Clive Foss (2008), “the further implications of this phenomenon remain to be explored” (p. 118).

9

Abu Hamza, quoted by Crone and Hinds, p. 131.

10

John bar Penkâye, p. 61.

11

Ibid.

12

Ibid.

13

Jacob of Edessa, quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 566.

14

Qur’an: 2.142.

15

John bar Penkâye, p. 61.

16

Quoted by Hawting (1982a), p. 44.

17

Syriac Common Source

, in Hoyland (1997), p. 647.

18

John bar Penkâye, pp. 68–9.

19

Ibid., p. 66.

20

Qur’an: 21.1.

21

From a coin issued in 688–9, quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 695.

22

Quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 694.

23

Qur’an: 33.57.

24

Syriac Common Source

, in Hoyland (1997), p. 647.

25

Al-Akhtal, 19, in Stetkevych, p. 92.

26

Al-Muqqadasi, quoted by Rabbat, p. 16.

27

Al-Muqqadasi, quoted by Rosen-Ayalon, p. 69.

28

From a sermon preached towards the end of the Umayyad Caliphate. Quoted by Elad (1992), p. 50.

29

This phrase dates from the twelfth century: evidence for the fact that Syrians continued to regard Jerusalem, rather than Mecca, as Islam’s holiest shrine for several centuries. Quoted by Van Ess, p. 89.

30

Qur’an: 61.9.

31

Syriac Common Source

, in Hoyland (1997), p. 648.

32

Farazdaq, quoted by Kister (1969), p. 182. The literal translation of “the mount of Jerusalem” is “the upper part of Iliy’a.”

33

The mosque in Egypt was at Fustat, a garrison city that would ultimately evolve into Cairo. Its

qibla

was reoriented in 710–11; see Bashear (1989), p. 268. The mosque in the Negev was at Be’er Ora. For a description and illustration of the change in the orientation of its

qibla

, see Sharon (1988), pp. 230–2. For the change to Kufa’s

qibla

, see Hoyland (1997), p. 562.

34

From the Kharijite sermon quoted by Elad (1992), p. 50.

35

Nu’aym b. Hammad al-Marwazi, in the

Kitab al-Fitan

, quoted by Sharon (1988), p. 234, fn. 7.

36

Tabari: Vol. 22, p. 14.

37

Ibn Asakir, quoted by de Prémare, p. 209.

38

Quoted by Crone and Hinds, p. 28.

39

Al-Akhtal, 19, in Stetkevych, p. 91.

40

Farazdaq, quoted by Crone and Hinds, p. 43.

41

Qur’an: 3.19.

42

Quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 702.

43

Qur’an: 27.23.

44

Al-Muqqadasi, quoted by Ettinghausen, p. 28.

45

John bar Penkâye, p. 61.

46

Michael the Syrian, in Palmer, Brock and Hoyland, p. 152, n. 363.

47

John bar Penkâye, p. 67.

48

Tabari, quoted by Hoyland, p. 198.

49

Gregory of Nyssa, p. 74. Gregory’s fourth homily on Ecclesiastes is exceptional for being the only document from antiquity—as far as I am aware—specifically and unequivocally to condemn slavery as an institution.

50

Qur’an: 90.12–17.

51

These restrictions are conventionally attributed to a pact signed between the Christians of Syria and Umar, but Western scholars have tended to date them to the end of the eighth century, a hundred and fifty years after the time of Umar. Recently, though, it has been convincingly argued that the so-called “Pact of Umar” may indeed date—in its essentials if not its final form—from the period of the early conquests. See Noth (1987).

52

Qur’an: 33.27.

53

Ibid.: 33.50.

54

Al-Suyuti, quoted by Robinson (2005), p. 20.

55

Qur’an: 89.17–20.

56

For a sample of the various attempts to make proper sense of it, see Ibn Warraq (2002), pp. 319–86.

57

A Zoroastrian text anticipating the End Days, from the eighth or ninth century, quoted by Minorsky, p. 257.

58

Quoted by Brown (2003), p. 314.

59

The complaint of an eighth-century Muslim governor in eastern Iran, quoted by Dennett, p. 120.

60

Qur’an: 1.6–7.

61

Sefer ha-Eshkol

: Vol. 2, pp. 73–4.

62

Qur’an: 24.58. The three prayers specified by the Qur’an are the Dawn Prayer, the Noon Prayer and the Night Prayer.

63

Sahih al-Bukhari

: 1.4.245.

64

The Talmud,

p. 553.

65

Ibid.

66

Ibn Qutayba, quoted by Sizgorich (2009), p. 160.

67

Ibn Hawqal, quoted by Haldon and Kennedy, p. 97.

68

Artat b. al-Mundhir, quoted by Bashear (1991a), p. 178.

69

Tabari, quoted by Brooks (1899), p. 20.

70

Theophanes, p. 396.

71

Theophanes, pp. 397–8.

72

Quoted by Bashear (1991a), p. 191.

73

The first scholars to be recorded on the front line joined Maslama’s expedition against Constantinople in 716. Therefore, although the two examples mentioned here by name were active after the fall of the Umayyads, they can be taken as representative of a trend that spanned most of the eighth century.

74

Ibn Asakir, quoted by Bonner (2004), p. 409.

75

Ibn al-Mubarak, quoted by Yahya, p. 33.

76

Ibn al-Mubarak, quoted by Sizgorich (2009), p. 161.

77

Ibn al-Mubarak, quoted by Yahya, pp. 32–3.

78

Qur’an: 9.5.

79

Ibid.: 2.190.

80

The words of a Christian scholar of the eighth century, quoted by J. B. Segal (1963), p. 125.

81

The story dates from the mid-tenth century, and is attributed to the reign of a Caliph who lived some eighty years after Marwan’s Caliphate. The link between the Harranians and the Sabaeans appears to have been made much earlier than that, however. It also seems to date to around the time that Marwan was present in Harran. See Green, p. 106.

82

Bar Hebraeus: p. 110. The liver inspection recorded by Bar Hebraeus took place in 737.

83

History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria

: 18.156.

84

Tabari, quoted by Kennedy (2007), p. 288.

85

Tha’alibi, quoted by Pourshariati (2008), p. 431.

86

Baladhuri, quoted by Sharon (1983), p. 203.