• J. D. Grainger, The Cities of Seleukid Syria, 1990.
• Ben Isaac, The Limits of Empire: The Roman Army in the East, 1990 and 1992.
• M. Goodman, State and Society in Roman Galilee, AD 132-212, 1983.
• F. Millar, "The Roman Coloniae of the Near East: A Study of Cultural Relations," in H. Solin and M. Kajava (eds), Roman Policy in the East and Other Studies in Roman History, 1990.

 Byzantium and Persia

• Irfan Shahid. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Dumbarton Oaks, 1995. [He has also written Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century and Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century and is completing his Byzantium and the Arabs in the Seventh Century.
• M. Avi-Yonah. The Holy Land from the Persian to the Arab Conquests, Grand Rapids, MI, 1966.
• R. S. Lopez, "The Role of Trade in the Economic Readjustment of Byzantium in the Seventh Century," Dumbarton Oaks Papers xiii, 1959, npp. 67-85.
• C. Foss, "The Persians in Asia Minor and the End of Antiquity," English Historical Review xc, 1975, pp. 721-747.
• G. Downey, The History of Antioch in Syria from Seleucus to the Arab Conquest, Princeton, 1961.
• J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, Antioch. City and Imperial Administration in the Later Roman Empire, Oxford, 1972.
• J. B. Segal, Edessa, the Blessed City, Oxford, 1970.
• P. Brown, "Religious Coercion in the Later Roman Empire: The Case of North Africa," History, xlvii, 1963, pp. 283-305.
• A. Sharf, Byzantine Jewry from Justinian to the Fourth Crusade, London, 1971.
• A very interesting account on Palestine under Byzantine rule is: Joseph Patrich, "Church, State and the Transformation of Palestine -- the Byzantine Period (324-640 CE)," in Thomas E. Levy, (ed), The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, London, 1995, pp. 470-487. Other essays in this volume deal with Palestine during the Persian/Roman wars and Roman rule in Palestine.

• W. R. Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, New York, 1979.
• M. J. Kister, Studies on Jahiliyya and Early Islam, London, 1980, which deals with Meccan life, society and commerce just prior to Muhammad, and in his early years.
• I. Shahid, "Pre-Islamic Arabia," in P. M. Holt, A.K.S. Lambton, and B. Lewis (eds), Cambridge History of Islam, vol. 1, Cambridge, 1970, pp. 3-29.
• M. M. Bravmann, The Spiritual Background of Early Islam, Leiden, 1972.
• Irfan Shahid. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth century. 2 vols. Washington, DC 1995.
  

• Ibn Ishaq's biography of Muhammad is known to us really through a later edition, produced by Ibn Hisham. In our library, it appears as: A. Guillaume (ed), Ibn Hisham, Life of Muhammad, Oxford U Press in its Pakistan branch, in Lahore, 1955.
• See the two-volume study of Muhammad by W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, Oxford 1953, and Muhammad at Medina, Oxford, 1956.
• Three controversial books which deal with the relationship between Islam and Christianity and Judaism are: tor Andrae, Muhammed: The Man and His Faith, London, 1956; R. Bell, The Origins of Islam in Its Christian Environment, London, 1968; and C. C. Torrey, The Jewish Foundation of Islam, New York, 1933.
• Two books which consider the Quran in its Arabian context are by T. Izutsu, Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur'an, Montreal, 1966; and God and Man in the Koran, Tokyo, 1964.
• Professor Alford Welch in the Department of Religious Studies here at MSU has written the articles on the Qur'an and on Muhammad for the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd Edition, held in our Library in the Humanities/Social Science Reference.

• An Arab account of these conquests, by al-Baladhuri [Futah al-Buldan] has been translated into English by P. K. Hitti and E. C. Murgotten, The Origins of the Islamic State, in two volumes, New York, 1916-24.
• See a very controversial account by a Lebanese historian working in England: M. A. Shaban, Islamic History, vol. 1, Cambridge, England, 1971.
• A book of short essays on topics relating to these early years is G. H. A. Juynboll, (ed), Studies on the First Century of Islamic Society, Carbondale, Illinois, 1982.
• A very important study of the effects of the Islamic conquest on Iraq is: M. Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest, Princeton, 1983.
• Walter E. Kaegi, Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests, Chicago 1992. Looks at the conquests from the perspective of Byzantine government and society, with close examination [for the first time] of Byzantine reactions to and responses to the earliest Arab assaults.
• Patricia Crone. Slaves on Horses. The Evolution of the Islamic Polity. Cambridge, 1989.
• Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds. God's Caliph. Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam. Cambridge, 1986.
• Moshe Gil. A History of Palestine, 634-1099. Cambridge, 1992.
• Robert Schick. The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule: A Historical and Archaeological Study. Princeton, 1995.
  

• Eliyahu Ashtor, A Social and Economic History of the Near East in the Middle Ages. London 1976.
• Khalid Yahya Blankinship.  The End of the Jihad State: The Reign of Hisham Ibn 'Abd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads.  Albany, 1994.
• Michael Bonner. Aristocratic Violence and Holy War. Studies in the Jihad and the Arab-Byzantine Frontier.  New Haven. 1996.
• Richard Bulliet.  Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period. An Essay in Quantitative History. Cambridge, Mass. 1979.
• Paul M. Cobb. White Banners: Contention in 'Abbasid Syria, 750-880. Albany, 2001.
• Amikam Elad. Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship. Leiden, 1995.
• Hugh Kennedy. The Early Abbasid Caliphate. London 1981.
• Hugh Kennedy. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. London 1986.
• Jacob Lassner. Islamic Revolution and Historical memory: Abbasid Apologetics and the Art of Historical Writing. New Haven 1986.
• Roy Mottahedeh. Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society. Princeton, 1980.
• M. A. Shaban. The 'Abbasid Revolution. Cambridge 1970.
• Moshe Sharon. Black Banners from the East. Jerusalem 1983.
• Moseh Sharon. The Social and Military Aspects of the 'Abbasid Revolution. Jerusalem 1990.
• Mohsen Zakeri. Sasanid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society. Wiesbaden. 1995.
• Donald Whitcomb, "Islam and the Socio-Cultural Transition of Palestine - Early Islamic Period (638-1099 CE)," in Thomas E. Levy (ed), The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, Leicester University Press, 1995, pp. 488-501. Professor Whitcomb  is at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, and conducts archeaological research in the Middle East.
• Ronnie Ellenblum, "Settlement and Society Formation in Crusader Palestine," in Thomas E. Levy (ed), The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, Leicester University Press, 1995, pp. 502-511.