Description
Book SynopsisIslam emerged amid flourishing Christian and Jewish cultures, yet students of Antiquity and the Middle Ages mostly ignore it. This title suggests a new way of thinking about the historical relationship between the scriptural monotheisms, integrating Islam into European and West Asian history.
Trade Review"[T]he points he raises are important to understanding chronology and periodization on a global scale."--Choice
Table of ContentsPrefatory Note and Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xi Chapter 1. INCLUDING ISLAM 1 The West and the Rest 1 Edward Gibbon 5 Islam and late Antiquity 9 Summary 15 Chapter 2. TIME: BEYOND LATE ANTIQUITY 18 The roots of late antique studies 18 Burckhardt to Strzygowski 23 The Orient and Islam: Views from Vienna 30 Pirenne to the present 37 Chapter 3. A NEW PERIODIZATION: THE FIRST MILLENNIUM 49 Decline versus transformation 49 Maturations 53 Monotheist historiography 68 For and against the First Millennium 82 Chapter 4. SPACE: AN EASTWARD SHIFT 92 Discovering the Mediterranean 92 Discovering the East 96 Empires and commonwealths 101 The Mountain Arena 116 Chapter 5. EXEGETICAL CULTURES 1: ARISTOTELIANISM 127 Greek Aristotelianism 129 Christian polemic 136 Aristotle in Latin, Armenian, and Syriac 139 Alexandria to Baghdad 146 Arabic Aristotelianism 153 Chapter 6. EXEGETICAL CULTURES 2: LAW AND RELIGION 164 Roman law 166 Rabbinic Judaism 173 Patristic Christianity 181 Islam 188 Chapter 7. VIEWPOINTS AROUND 1000: TUS, BASRA, BAGHDAD, PISA 198 Tus/Iran 199 Basra/Encyclopedism 204 Baghdad/Rationality 207 Pisa/The Latin West 212 Prospects for Further Research 219 Map: the Eurasian Hinge, with Circum-Arabian Trade Routes 106 Index 225
