Week Three

Arab Conquests of Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Persia

The Umayyad State

• Read: Ochesenwald/Fisher, pp. 37-62.

•  Read both of the following, answer one of the following questions- due Sunday January 20, 6 p.m.
• 
  1. What was the relationship between the early Islamic state and the Arab nomads? How did
  the Muslim elite try to integrate the tribal population of Arabia into their state?
  2. What were the causes of the early Islamic conquests, according to Donner?

• Moshe Gil , "The Political History of Jerusalem During the Early Muslim Period" , in Joshua Prawer and Haggai Ben-Shammai (eds), The History of Jerusalem, The Early Muslim Period, 638-1099. 
• Fred Donner , from his Early Muslim Conquests. Study guide for Donner .

The Banu Umayya and the Umayyad Caliphs.

• Oleg Grabar , "The Umayyad Royal Idea and its Expression under Mu'awiyah I" from his Ceremonial and Art at the Umayyad Court. Study guide for Grabar
• Oleg Grabar , "The Symbolic Appropriation of the Land," from his The Formation of Islamic Art. Study guide for Grabar .   
•  The Noble Sanctuary , from a Muslim perspective. 
•  Dome of the Rock , from an architectural perspective, with a 3-D model.
• Inscriptions in the Dome of the Rock