Download The Near East in the Age of Justinian and Muhammad (AD 527

The Near East in the Age of Justinian and Muhammad (AD 527-700)
(course convenor: Dr. P. Sarris)
(So-called ‘standing caliph’ gold coin produced at the end of the seventh century
thought to depict either a Muslim leader drawing a sword or possibly even the Prophet
himself)
What were the historical origins of Islam? How did armies loyal to Muhammad
and his God manage to destroy the ancient empire of Persia and bring the Eastern
Roman Empire of Byzantium to its knees in just twenty years? How did the first
Islamic state consolidate its rule over the Near and Middle East by the end of the
seventh century? These are among the core questions that students taking this paper
will address.
The paper begins with the revival of superpower conflict between the East
Roman Empire ruled from Constantinople and the ancient empire of Persia at the start
of the sixth century. Initially approaching the Roman-Persian conflict through the eyewitness testimony of the contemporary Greek historian Procopius, students will
examine how escalating rivalry led to a struggle for power between the Romans and
Persians across the Near East and, crucially, Arabia, where it helped to create the
cultural and political pre-conditions for the emergence of Islam, as well as the way in
which the two empires reached out to the great nomad powers of Western Eurasia in a
desperate attempt to secure imperial superiority and advantage. In the second half of
the paper, students focus on the emergence of Islam, consider the lively debate as to the
nature of the religion in its formative phase and the role (and historicity) of the Prophet
Muhammad, and study how the establishment of Islamic rule ushered in a new epoch in
human history the ramifications of which are still with us.
The paper pre-supposes no knowledge of ancient or medieval history, and all
original sources are studied in translation. In the past, many students have combined
this paper with twentieth-century options, and those who have taken it have found it
provides useful preparation for careers in diplomacy, international relations and
government service as well as further research in Byzantine and Islamic studies.
The paper will be taught through eight one-on-one supervisions (or seven if
students opt for a reading week) and there is no cap. Students may, if they wish,
specialize more on Roman/Byzantine or Islamic topics according to interest. Students
must be comfortable, however, approaching the history of religion from a historical
perspective.
A core bibliography of sources available in English translation will be provided and
added to as new translations appear, and archaeological evidence will also feature.
Core texts (2017):
Procopius, History of the Wars, trans. H.B. Dewing (Loeb Classics, London, 1914–54),
Bks. I, II; Bk. VII, 14, 38, 40; Bk. VIII, 1–17 and 25. or in the new edition:
ProkopiosThe Wars of Justinian tr. by H.B. Dewing, revised by A. Kaldellis
(Cambridge Mass., 2014)
Procopius, The Buildings, trans. H.B. Dewing (Loeb Classics, London, 1954), Bks. I-V.
Procopius The Secret History, trans. H.B. Dewing (Loeb Classics, London, 1935) or in
P. Sarris and G. Williams Procopius – The Secret History (London, 2007)
The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 533 tr. R. Price (Liverpool, 2009)
The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius tr. B. Garstad (Washington D.C., 2012)
P. Bell Three Political Voices From the Age of Justinian (Liverpool, 20090
Chronicon Paschale Olympiad 327–end, trans. M. and M. Whitby (Liverpool, 1989).
The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus tr. M. Whitby (Liverpool, 2001)
The Chronicle of John Bishop of Nikiu, trans. R.H. Charles (London, 1916), chapters
90–123.
The Ecclesiastical History of John of Ephesus, trans. R.P. Smith (Oxford, 1860) Bk.
VI.
The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos, trans. R.W. Thomson, commentary by
J.D. Howard-Johnston (Liverpool, 2000)
Antiochus Strategus Account of the Sack of Jerusalem in A.D. 614 trans. F.C.
Conybeare, English Historical Review XXV (1910) pp. 502–17.
Leontius of Neapolis The Life of John the Almsgiver in E. Dawes and N.H. Baynes,
Three Byzantine Saints (Oxford, 1948) pp. 195–270.
G. Greatrex and S, Lieu The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars –
Narrative Sourcebook – Part II AD 363–630 (London, 2002) pp. 62–247.
The Farmers’ Law trans. W. Ashburner, Journal of Hellenic Studies XXXII (1912) pp.
68–95.
The Chronicle of Monemvasia trans. P.Charanis, Dumbarton Oaks Papers V (1950),
p.148.
Maurice The Strategikon tr. G.T. Dennis (Pennsylvania, 1984)
The History of Menander the Guardsman tr. R.C. Blockley (Cambridge, 1985)
The History of Theophylact Simocatta tr. M. and M. Whitby (Oxford, 1985)
The History of the Caucasian Albanians te. C. Dowsett (London, 1961)
The Seventh Century in the West Syrian Chronicles tr. A. Palmer and S. Brock
(Liverpool, 1993)
Theophilus of Edessa’s Chronicle tr. R. Hoyland (Liverpool, 2011)
The Life of Muhammad: a translation of Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah trans. A. Guillaume
(Oxford, 1955), part III.
P.K. Hitti The Origins of the Islamic State, Vol. I (New York, 1916), parts II-IV and
part V, chapters 1–2 (i.e. pp. 165–351).
The Koran (various translations available)
The following are key titles on which secondary reading will be based. Further reading
lists, including articles, will be handed out in the package to be given to all students
taking this paper.
Eastern Roman Empire
P. Booth Crisis of Empire: Doctrine and Dissent at the End of Late Antiquity
(Berkeley, 2014)
P.R.L. Brown The World of Late Antiquity (London, 1971)
L. Brubaker and J. Haldon Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era (Cambridge, 2010)
Averil Cameron The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity (London, 2011)
Averil Cameron, B. Ward-Perkins, and M.Whitby (eds.) The Cambridge Ancient
History Volume XIV – Late Antiquity: Empires and Successors, A.D. 425–600
(Cambridge, 2000)
M. Dal Santo Debating the Saints’ Cult in the Age of Gregory the Great (Oxford, 2012)
J.F. Haldon Byzantium in the Seventh Century (Cambridge, 1990)
M. Humphreys Law, Power and Imperial Ideology in the Iconoclast Era (Oxford,
2014)
A.H.M. Jones The Later Roman Empire (Oxford, 1964)
M. Maas John Lydus and the Roman Past (London, 1992)
M. Maas (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge, 2005)
C. Mango (ed.) The Oxford History of Byzantium (Oxford, 2002)
C. Mango Byzantium – The Empire of New Rome (London, 1983)
P. Sarris Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian (Cambridge, 2006)
P.Sarris Empires of Faith: The Fall of Rome to the Rise of Islam (Oxford, 2011)
P. Sarris A Very Short Introduction to Byzantium (Oxford, 2015)
M. Whittow The Making of Orthodox Byzantium (London, 1996)
P. Wood We Have No King But Christ (Oxford, 2010)
Eastern Empire – Art
R. Cormack Byzantine Art (Oxford, 2002)
M. Harrison A Temple for Byzantium (London, 1989)
J. Lowden Early Christian and Byzantine Art (London, 1997)
C. Mango The Art of the Byzantine Empire (Toronto, 1972)
C. Mango Byzantine Architecture (London, 1979)
Historiography
Averil Cameron Procopius and the Sixth Century (London, 1985)
Averil Cameron and L. Conrad (eds.) The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East, I –
Problems in the Literary Source Materials (Princeton, 1992)
M. Cook Mohammad (Oxford, 1983)
M. Cook and P. Crone Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge, 1977)
A.A. Duri The Rise of Historical Writing Among the Arabs (Princeton, 1983)
R.G. Hoyland Seeing Islam As Others Saw It (Princeton, 1997)
J.D. Howard-Johnston Witnesses to a World Crisis (Oxford, 2010)
R.S. Humphreys Islamic History: a Framework of Enquiry (London, 1991)
E. Jeffreys, B. Croke and R. Scott (eds.) Studies in John Malalas (Sydney, 1990)
A. Kaldellis Procopius of Caesarea Tyranny, History, and Philosophy at the end of
Antiquity (Philadelphia, 2004)
C.F. Robinson Islamic Historiography (Cambridge, 2003)
M. Whitby The Emperor Maurice and His Historian (Oxford, 1988)
Balkan History and the Steppe
F. Curta The Making of the Slavs – History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube
Region c. 500–700 (Cambridge, 2001)
M. Maas (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila (Cambridge, 2014)
D. Obolensky The Byzantine Commonwealth (London, 1971)
D. Sinor (ed.) The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (Cambridge, 1990)
International Relations
R.C. Blockley East Roman Foreign Policy (Leeds, 1992)
R. Bowersock The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam (Princeton,
2013)
M. Boyce The Zoroastrians – Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (London, 1979)
A. Cameron (ed.) The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East III – States, Resources
and Armies (Princeton, 1993)
G. Fowden Empire to Commonwealth – Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity
(Princeton, 1993)
G. Greatrex Rome and Persia at War (Leeds, 1998)
G. Herrmann The Iranian Revival (Oxford, 1977)
G.R.D. King and Averil Cameron (eds.) The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East III
– Land- Use and Settlement Patterns (Princeton, 1994)
A.D. Lee Information and Frontiers (Cambridge, 1993)
P. Poushoriati The Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire (London, 2009)
T. Power The Red Sea From Byzantium to the Caliphate (New York, 2012)
Early Islam (see also ‘Historiography’ above)
P. Crone Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Oxford, 1987)
P. Crone Slaves on Horseback: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity (Cambridge, 1980)
F.M. Donner Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam (Cambridge Mass.,
2010)
G. Fowden Before And After Muhammad – The First Millennium Refocused (Princeton,
2013)
R. Hillenbrand Islamic Art and Architecture (London, 1999)
R. Holyland Arabia and the Arabs from the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam
(London, 2001)
R. Hoyland In God’s Path (Oxford, 2015)
H. Kennedy The Great Arab Conquests (London, 2007)
M.G. Morony Iraq After the Muslim Conquest (Princeton, 1984)
C. Robinson Empires and Elites After the Muslim Conquests (Cambridge, 2000)
C. Robinson (ed.) The New Cambridge History of Islam: Volume One (Cambridge,
2010)
P. Sijpesteijn Shaping A Muslim State (Oxford, 2013)
EXAMINATION
HISTORICAL TRIPOS PART II
(SPECIMEN)
______________________________________________________________________
THE NEAR EAST IN THE AGE OF JUSTINIAN AND MUHAMMAD,
AD 527-700
Page
1
______________________________________________________________________
Answer at least one question from Section A and two other questions.
You may not start to read the questions
printed on the subsequent pages of this
question paper until instructed that you
may do so by the Invigilator
EXAMINATION
HISTORICAL TRIPOS PART II
______________________________________________________________________
PAPER 8
THE NEAR EAST IN THE AGE OF JUSTINIAN AND
MUHAMMAD,
AD 527-700
Page
2
______________________________________________________________________
SECTION A
1
‘It is only in the Secret History that we hear Procopius’ true voice.’ Discuss
2
How useful a source for cultural change in the sixth century is the Chronicle of
John Malalas?
3
What does hagiography add to our understanding of early Byzantine society?
4
What can we know of the ‘historical Muhammad’?
5
How reliable is the early Islamic historical tradition with respect to the
conquests?
SECTION B
6
To what extent was there a crisis of imperial legitimacy in sixth-century
Constantinople?
7
What factors were primarily responsible for Roman-Persian warfare in the sixth
century?
8
Why was the sixth century a period of such political volatility on the West
Eurasian Steppe?
9
Why did Christian heresy proliferate in the sixth and seventh centuries?
10
Either (a) What role did Ethiopia play in the struggle for control of the Red
Sea??
Or
(b) What factors shaped cultural conditions in Arabia in the sixth
century?
11
‘The defeat of Khusro II owed more to the Turks than it did to Heraclius.’
Discuss.
12
What factors shaped the development of the concept of jihad?
13
When and how did the Muslims consolidate their rule over the Near East?
14
To what extent would it be fair to describe early Islamic art and architecture as
‘sub-Byzantine’?
15
Why did the Arabs fail to eliminate Byzantium in the seventh century?
16
When, and why, did Islam begin to oppose religious images?