Pre-islamic Arabia : societies, politics, cults and identities during late antiquity / Valentina A. Grasso.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grasso, Valentina A., 1993- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arabian Peninsula--History--To 622.

Arabian Peninsula.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 266 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Summary:

This book delves into the political and cultural developments of pre-Islamic Arabia, focusing on the religious attitudes of the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension into the Syrian desert. Between the third and the seventh century, Arabia was on the edge of three great empires (Iran, Rome and AksuÌ"m) and at the centre of a lucrative network of trade routes. Valentina Grasso offers an interpretative framework which contextualizes the choice of Arabian elites to become Jewish sympathisers and/or convert to Christianity and Islam by probing the mobilization of faith in the shaping of Arabian identities. For the first time the Arabians of the period are granted autonomy from marginalizing (mostly Western) narratives framing them as 'barbarians' inhabiting the fringes of Rome and Iran and/or deterministic analyses in which they are depicted retrospectively as exemplified by the Muslims' definition of the period as JaÌ"hiliÌ"yah, 'ignorance'.

Contents:

An Introduction To The Study Of Pre-islamic Arabia

North Arabia Between The Late Third And The Fifth Century: Borders And Conversions

A Late Antique Kingdom's Conversion: Jews And Sympathizers In South Arabia

The Shape Of The Sixth Century I: The South

The Shape Of The Sixth Century Ii: The North

The ḤijāzīIslam: Narratives And Frameworks Re-examined.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 16 Feb 2023).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781009252997 (ebook)

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.