The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity

Based on epigraphic and other material evidence as well as more traditional literary sources and critical review of the extensive relevant scholarship, this book presents a comprehensive and innovative reconstruction of the rise of Islam as a religion and imperial polity. It reassesses the development of the imperial monotheism of the New Rome, and considers the history of the Arabs as an integral part of Late Antiquity, including Arab ethnogenesis and the emergence of what was to become Muslim monotheism, comparable with the emergence of other monotheisms from polytheistic systems. Topics discussed include the emergence and development of the Muhammadan polity and its new cultic deity and associated ritual, the constitution of the Muslim canon, and the development of early Islam as an imperial religion. Intended principally for scholars of Late Antiquity, Islamic studies and the history of religions, the book opens up many novel directions for future research.

Author: Aziz Al-Azmeh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 02/23/2017
Pages: 660
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.91lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.33d
ISBN: 9781316641552

About the Author
Al-Azmeh, Aziz: - Aziz Al-Azmeh is CEU University Professor at the School of Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies, Central European University, Budapest. Previous books (in English) are Ibn Khaldun: An Essay in Reinterpretation (1982); Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred in Christian, Muslim and Pagan Polities (2001); Islams and Modernities (3rd edition, 2009); and The Times of History: Universal Themes in Islamic Historiography (2006).