The Islamic Byzantine Border in History

Explores the significance of the Islamic-Byzantine border from the rise of Islam to the end of the Crusades Presents the first work dedicated entirely to the Islamic-Byzantine Border Provides a comparative perspective, featuring both leading Byzantinists and leading researchers of the Islamic world Uniquely offers a broad chronological perspective, showing the longue dur e rather than focusing on a specific period One of the most formative areas and periods of historical inquiry, across the fields of Mediterranean history, Byzantine history, Islamic history and the history of Muslim-Christian relations, is the long warfare between the Islamic and Christian worlds in the period that began with the Islamic conquests of the formerly Byzantine lands of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 630s CE and ended with the closing of the Crusades in the Levant c.1300 CE. This cross-disciplinary book offers a broad spectrum of essays on important aspects of the political, social, religious and historical importance of the Islamic-Byzantine border between 630-c.1300CE, and in particular on the manifold ways in which the Islamic-Byzantine border affected the internal development and culture of each of the two civilisations. The chapters are written by twelve of the leading scholars in the field, including experts on both the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world, and explore developments ranging from anti-government riots and dynastic revolutions to the border's influence on religious law, apocalyptic literature, population policy and heroic culture.