Early Islamic Syria (Debates in Archaeology) - Softcover

Walmsley, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0715635700 ISBN 13: 9780715635704

Publisher: Bristol Classical Press, 2007

Synopsis

After more than a century of neglect, a profound revolution is occurring in the way archaeology addresses and interprets developments in the social history of early Islamic Syria-Palestine. This concise book offers an innovative assessment of social and economic developments in Syria-Palestine shortly before, and in the two centuries after, the Islamic expansion (the later sixth to the early ninth century AD), drawing on a wide range of new evidence from recent archaeological work. Alan Walmsley challenges conventional explanations for social change with the arrival of Islam, arguing for considerable cultural and economic continuity rather than devastation and unrelenting decline. Much new, and increasingly non-elite, architectural evidence and an ever-growing corpus of material culture indicate that Syria-Palestine entered a new age of social richness in the early Islamic period, even if the gains were chronologically and regionally uneven.

About this title

About the Authors

Alan Walmsley is Associate Professor, Carsten Niebuhr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has worked in the Middle East for over 25 years, directing four major field projects.

Richard Hodges OBE is Emeritus President of The American University of Rome, Italy. He is the editor of the Debates in Archaeology series; and his publications include Dark Age Economics (2012), The Anglo-Saxon Achievement (1991), Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne (2000), Goodbye to the Vikings (2006) and (as co-author) Villa to Village (2003), all published by Bloomsbury Academic. He has previously been Director of Archaeology for the Butrint Foundation, Albania, and Director of the Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, USA.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bristol Classical Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0715635700
• ISBN 13: 9780715635704
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176