Rome, Persia, and Arabia traces the enormous impact that the Great Powers of antiquity exerted on Arabia and the Arabs, between the arrival of Roman forces in the Middle East in 63 BC and the death of the Prophet Muhammad in AD 632. Richly illustrated and covering a vast area from the fertile lands of South Arabia to the bleak deserts of Iraq and Syria, this book provides a detailed and captivating narrative of the way that the empires of antiquity affected the politics, culture, and religion of the Arabs. It examines Rome’s first tentative contacts in the Syrian steppe and the controversial mission of Aelius Gallus to Yemen, and takes in the city states, kingdoms, and tribes caught up in the struggle for supremacy between Rome and Persia, including the city state of Hatra, one of the many archaeological sites in the Middle East that have suffered deliberate vandalism at the hands of the ‘Islamic State’. The development of an Arab Christianity spanning the Middle East, the emergence of Arab fiefdoms at the edges of imperial power, and the crucial appearance of strong Arab leadership in the century before Islam provide a clear picture of the importance of pre-Islamic Arabia and the Arabs to understanding world and regional history. Rome, Persia, and Arabia includes discussions of heritage destruction in the Middle East, the emergence of Islam, and modern research into the anthropology of ancient tribal societies and their relationship with the states around them. This comprehensive and wide-ranging book delivers an authoritative chronicle of a crucial but little known era in world history, and is for any reader with an interest in the ancient Middle East, Arabia, and the Roman and Persian empires.
Author(s): Greg Fisher
Publisher: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 261
Tags: Rome, Persia, Arabia, Middle East
Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright Page......Page 5
Dedication......Page 6
Table of Contents......Page 8
Figures......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 12
Note to the Reader......Page 13
Introduction......Page 14
Arabs and Arabias......Page 16
Tribes and states......Page 20
Graeco-Roman and Syriac literary sources......Page 22
Inscriptions and archaeological sources......Page 26
Muslim literary texts......Page 27
Germans and Arabs......Page 28
Notes......Page 30
Introduction......Page 36
Arab scenitae, Arab raiders......Page 38
Arab townspeople from Emesa to Characene......Page 39
Arabs and the end of the Roman Republic......Page 53
Augustus and the Arabian Peninsula......Page 55
From Augustus to Severus......Page 60
The creation of the Province of Arabia......Page 62
Trajan in the east......Page 66
The Parthian wars of Marcus Aurelius and Septimius Severus......Page 67
Conclusion......Page 70
Notes......Page 71
Rome and Persia......Page 79
Monotheism and empire......Page 81
The end of Hatra, Sasanians in Oman, and Himyarites in Arabia Deserta......Page 84
Mara al-Qays: a late antique king at the edge of the Roman empire......Page 92
‘So much for this dangerous tribe’......Page 97
The revolt of Mavia......Page 101
Religious communities......Page 102
Al-Hira......Page 110
Towards the sixth century: Kinda, Mudar, and Maadd......Page 113
Notes......Page 116
Introduction......Page 126
The idea of the ‘super-phylarchate’......Page 127
Before al-Harith, 500–528......Page 133
Aksum and Himyar: Najran, 523......Page 136
Al-Harith and Alamoundaros......Page 138
Abraha......Page 153
The death of Alamoundaros and the treaty of 561/2......Page 155
Al-Mundhir: statesman and warrior......Page 157
Al-Numan and the collapse of the Arab dynasty at al-Hira......Page 167
Conclusion......Page 171
Notes......Page 173
Introduction......Page 183
Measuring legacies......Page 184
Early Islam and late antiquity......Page 185
Was there such a thing as ‘Arab identity’ in late antiquity?......Page 189
The afterlife of the super-phylarchates......Page 191
Heritage destruction......Page 193
The nature and character of Arab tribal leadership......Page 195
Pre-Islamic Christian inscriptions in Arabic......Page 199
Middlemen......Page 202
Arabs, Germans, and state formation......Page 204
Links to the divine......Page 208
Arab kingship and late antiquity......Page 211
Notes......Page 213
References......Page 220
Index......Page 246
