De Re Militari | Book Reviews
Fred M. Donner (ed.)
The Expansion of the Early Islamic State
The Formation of the Classical Islamic World 5 (Burlington: Ashgate, 2008). 386 pp. $154.95. ISBN 0860787222.
The Arab conquests of the Middle East are among the epoch-making changes in human history. The sources we have for understanding these tumultuous events are hemmed in by many limitations. We cannot always, perhaps ever, find answers to the questions we most want to ask, yet by treating the evidence with respect, and working with it, we can come to a fuller understanding of what was happening. (p.33)
Hugh Kennedy, The Great Arab Conquests (2007)
Under the banner of Islam, four years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, in 636, nomadic tribesman brought two longstanding empires, in the form of the Byzantine and Sasanian, to their knees. Islam, no longer a religion of cult, was the religion of state and it was the capacity of this Islamic state—integrating Arabia’s fragmented society—that made the conquests possible, giving birth to a new civilization as another passed away.
Needless to say, the conquests remain a source of lasting and continuous inspiration for a variety of different reasons to a variety of different people. For instance, Efraim Karsh, Professor and Head of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies at King’s College London, author of Islamic Imperialism: A History (2006) —in a learned treatment of the history of Islam, it must be noted—boldly illuminates Islam’s imperial tradition.
Yet, unlike many of the books published on Islam today, The Expansion of the Early Islamic State is a volume that would have been edited and released notwithstanding the events of September 11, 2001—in actual fact, only one of the 19 chapters is written post-9/11. Paraphrasing, Chase F. Robinson, the author of the aforementioned chapter, history has not been pressed into service to express a view about the present (p.305). Be sure, not playing to this obsession only adds to the authority of the volume and there can be no better authority to edit such a volume than Fred M. Donner, Professor of Near Eastern History at the University of Chicago.
Edited by Donner, The Expansion of the Early Islamic State is the latest volume in The Formation of the Classical Islamic World series to make available a selection of published research that has defined the formative period of Islamic history (AD 600-950).
The various volumes endeavour to be, in the words of the General Editor, Lawrence I. Conrad, “well rounded and representative syntheses useful not as the definitive word on their subjects—if, in fact, one can speak of such a thing in the present state of research—but as introductions comprising well-considered points of departure for more detailed inquiry.” (xii)
After briefly but brilliantly sketching the expansion and the scholarly interpretation thereof (xiii-xxxi), Donner presents his brief but brilliant bibliography (xxxiii-xlii). Even at this early point you feel that you are about to read something very special indeed.
Leone Caetani’s chapter opens the proceedings with an authoritative introduction on the art of war of the Arabs (pp.1-13). From the supposed reputation of Khalid b. al-Walid to the supposed religious fervour of the Arab conquerors, the pioneering Italian scholar (d. 1935) persuasively, albeit controversially, penned that it was finance and food—as opposed to faith and fanaticism—which motivated the movement, i.e. impoverishment not Islam.
Taking Caetani’s “univocal” (p.21) thesis and the relegation of religiosity to task, G.H. Bousquet, the renowned scholar of Islamic Law—in the first of his two installments to feature in our volume—provided some critical and sociological remarks. While Bousquet confined himself “to formulating a pointer in the right direction” in his first installment (pp.15-21), the second (pp.23-35) illustrated his “positive reasons to believe that the religious factor played a far from negligible role.” (p.21) To that end, both are rich in historical analogy.
Arabs living in penury were evidently susceptible to the promises of booty which the holy war would enable them to get their hands on. Bringing both theses together, Marius Canard, author of Chapter Five, talked of plunder or Paradise:
“The attraction of booty was furthermore linked to the religious enthusiasm. Thus it could be said that the jihad was a lottery in which every player could be assured of winning: those who died had the guarantee of Paradise, those who survived had their share of the booty.” (p.68)
While there remained a lack of consensus pertaining to the religious aspect, economic factor, and/or relative military weakness of the Byzantines and the Sasanians undergirding the conquests, there remained a (quasi) consensus pertaining to the imperial aspect. John J. Saunders, author of Chapter Four, even compared the Arab nomad with the Mongol nomad as empire builder (pp.37-61). No wonder, given that the early Islamic empire was, in truth, a conquest state dependent on booty.
On a more theological footing, Walter E. Kaegi, Byzantine specialist at the University of Chicago, touched upon Christian eschatology (pp.113-123) and Bernard Lewis, the British-American historian at Princeton University, discussed Jewish apocalyptic literature (pp.131-161) while, on a more technical footing, Albrecht Noth (d. 1999) and Robert Brunschvig (d. 1990) covered the relationship in the Caliphate between central power and the provinces (pp.177-188) and Ibn Abdelhakam (pp.189-228) respectively. As difficult as these particular chapters are to read, for this reviewer at least, the volume is without doubt enriched by such contributions.
Donner’s chapter is as easy to read as the abovementioned are as hard, yet the editor’s own, scholarly but simple, contribution proves a worthy inclusion. In fact, it is a magisterial interpretation on centralized authority in the conquests (pp.263-286). Similar praise can be directed at Robinson, Professor of Islamic History at the University of Oxford, with his cogent historiographical reassessment (pp.287-312).
If you want a swashbuckling-of-sort, chronological history of the conquests—conquest by conquest, I might add—with maps and illustrations to boot, then Hugh Kennedy’s The Great Arab Conquests is the one for you; not The Expansion of the Early Islamic State. Yet the informed reader need not be put off by this.
Despite comprising an esteemed group of historians, Orientalists—call them what you will, this weighty tome is a light read for students of the history of the Orient. In other words, the reader will now have at their disposal a convenient volume of the major published research on the Islamic state that will allow them to come to a fuller understanding of what was happening.