The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800Jonathan Berkey's 2003 book surveys the religious history of the peoples of the Near East from roughly 600 to 1800 CE. The opening chapter examines the religious scene in the Near East in late antiquity, and the religious traditions which preceded Islam. Subsequent chapters investigate Islam's first century and the beginnings of its own traditions, the 'classical' period from the accession of the Abbasids to the rise of the Buyid amirs, and thereafter the emergence of new forms of Islam in the middle period. Throughout, close attention is paid to the experiences of Jews and Christians, as well as Muslims. The book stresses that Islam did not appear all at once, but emerged slowly, as part of a prolonged process whereby it was differentiated from other religious traditions and, indeed, that much that we take as characteristic of Islam is in fact the product of the medieval period. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
The religions of late antiquity | 10 |
Arabia before Islam | 39 |
The early seventh century | 50 |
The Emergence of Islam 600750 | 55 |
Approaches and problems | 57 |
The origins of the Muslim community | 61 |
Early Islam in the Near East | 70 |
The formation of Sunni traditionalism | 141 |
Asceticism and mysticism | 152 |
The nonMuslim communities | 159 |
Medieval Islam 10001500 | 177 |
The medieval Islamic Near East | 179 |
Characteristics of the medieval Islamic world | 184 |
A Sunni revival? | 189 |
Common patterns in social and political organization | 203 |
The Umayyad period | 76 |
The beginnings of sectarianism | 83 |
The nonMuslims of early Islam | 91 |
The cAbbasid revolution | 102 |
The Consolidation of Islam 7501000 | 111 |
Issues of Islamic identity | 113 |
Religion and politics | 124 |
Shicism | 130 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abbasid caliph al-Din Arab Arab conquests Arabia Baghdad Bulliet Byzantine Cairo Cambridge University Press central Christian claims constituted conversion Coptic Crone cultural Damascus dhimmis doctrine E. J. Brill early Islamic East Eastern Egypt Egyptian elite emerged especially example faith Fatimid hadith Hanbali historian idem identified Imam important institutions Iran Iranian Iraq Islamic history Islamic law Islamic world Ismaili Jerusalem Jewish Jews jihad Judaism jurists Khariji Koran late antiquity later least madhahib madrasas Mamluk Manichaeism medieval Islamic Middle Period mihna military Mongol Muhammad Muslim Conquest mystical ninth century non-Muslims Ottoman pagan Patricia Crone polemic political popular practice pre-Islamic Princeton University Press Prophet qadis rebellion regimes religion religious authority religious identity religious knowledge religious traditions Roman rule rulers Saljuq Sasanian Sasanian Empire scholars sectarian seventh century shari'a shaykh Shi'i Shi'ism social Studies Sufi Sufism sultan sunna Sunni Islam Syria transmission Twelver ulama Umayyad umma urban Zoroastrian