"The historian of early Islamic Bilād al-Shām has almost no primary source material; legal or political documents are lacking. Most historical information derived from later medieval but secondary sources such as chronicles, biographical dictionaries and poetry written from the perspective of a major capital, a ruler, a ruling house, or one of the different Islamic communities. Archaeology in general and legends on coins in particular, as well as coin finds from archaeological contexts can provide further independent information about the settlements. First, a brief overview is given about the current state of numismatic research in both the Syrian Arab Republic and adjacent regions historically connected to it. Secondly, this study examines the archaeology of the Diyār Mudar or Osrhoene on a regional level. Coins as texts and archaeological coin finds are presented as a parallel independent source for settlement patterns from the 6th to the 10th century AD. "

"In the first centuries of Islamic rule, the Balikh Valley experienced a series of changes concerning settlement distribution, agricultural practices, water management, and the availability of resources. Raqqa/al-Rafiqa developed into an important provincial centre and, at times, a secondary capital. The rise of this urban centre in turn stimulated settlement growth and possibly agricultural intensification in its hinterland, the Balikh Valley, which also formed a main route to the border with enemy territory in the north. In this paper, I analyse the results from the excavations and survey projects undertaken in the valley, focusing on the material evidence from the Umayyad and Abbasid periods."

The methodological problems of the period of the „settlement gap (Siedlungslücke)“ have become more evident. This period is best approached with the help of different disciplines. During the 4th/10th century the Banu Numayr moved into northern Mesopotamia as part of the second great migration of Arab tribes. The cultivated land of settled people diminished and the routes between the villages, towns and cities became endangered. During the period of Bedouin domination the seat of rulership was transferred from the city to the tribal camp (hilla). The interest of the Bedouins lay in the fiscal exploitation of the cities. The emirate of Mani' ibn Shabib constitutes a brief interlude in the development of the Banu Numayr. During the time of the rebellion of al-Basasiri in Iraq, the Fatimids integrated Mani' into an alliance. Thus, the Fatiimids created political stability among the hostile tribes from northern Syria to the Euphrates valley. Then Mani' ibn Shabib began to represent himself as an urban ruler: he built the citadel in Harran. As proof of rulership he had coins struck not only in Harran, as his predecessors had done, but established a mint in ar-Raqqa as well. The evidence marshalled here also suggests that he undertook the restoration of the most representative urban building in ar-Raqqa, the congregational mosque. He extended his territory into the Khabur valley. Manî' ibn Shabib’s rule corresponds to that type of nomadic authority which Michael Rowton calls a ‘dimorphic state’. This constitutes a state led by a nomadic ruler accommodating himself to urban forms of rulership, or at least to urban forms of projecting sovereignty but who simultaneously maintains his power base within the pasture: a ruler who has to balance between the interests of the settled people and the demands of the nomads. These favourable conditions for the revival of urban life in the Diyar Mudar ended soon after the rebellion of al-Basâsîrî in the year 451/1060.

The history of the industrial and commercial district between al-Raqqa and al-Rafiqa is reconstructed on the base of literary sources, numismatic finds and aerial views from the early twentieth century. It came probably into being during the 160s/780s when the „old market of the caliph Hisham„ were transferred from within al-Raqqa into the free land between the two cities. The decision of Harun al-Rashid to reside in al-Raqqa created a new demand. In turn glass furnaces and pottery kilns were set up for mass production. A road running from the east-gate of al-Rafiqa connected this area. After 198/213 the governor of the west, Tahir ibn al-Husain, erected a wall north of the area in order to protect from Bedouin raids. At the latest during the 3rd/9th century the area developed into a third urban entity. Al-Muqaddasi mentions an al-Raqqa al-Muhtariqa. The identification with the commercial and industrial area is proposed. The decline of al-Raqqa al-Muhtariqa began at last at the 270s/880s and 280s/890s. Probably the devastating rule of the Hamdanids marks its end.

The Life of Simeon of the Olives: An entrepreneurial saint of early Islamic North Mesopotamia

The Islamic-Byzantine frontier has become the centre of scholarly attention and, as a result, redefined. Recent archaeological and textual work on the ṯuġūr or Islamic-Byzantine frontier, supports the presence of settlements, communities, and people traversing back and forth and refute the notion of a »no-man’s land«. However, textual evidence, mainly from Abbasid period sources, largely dates these activities from the mid-eighth to tenth centuries 1. Evidence from archaeological surveys and excavations also supports more intensive settlement in the eighth to tenth centuries. Nevertheless, the idea of an unsettled frontier, as a default, should not necessarily include the period from the mid-seventh to mid-eighth centuries, implying an initial century of frontier fighting over a depopulated no-man’s land. Focusing on the initial settlement of the frontier bears important implications for understanding the relationships between locals and between locals and the Umayyad ruling elite. This paper will utilize results from surveys and excavation combined with textual evidence from Greek, Arabic, and Syriac sources to closely examine the nature of settlement and social organization in the newly-acquired Islamic lands of the ṯuġūr in the seventh and eighth centuries. During this century, the Umayyad state and local, predominately Miaphysite Syriac-speaking Christian communities, both autonomously and in cooperation, developed key agricultural settlements alongside irrigation systems on the frontier.

This paper investigates local and regional networks of power in the province of al-Jazīra during the Umayyad and early ʿAbbāsid period. Using a prosopographical approach, it focuses on the office of the qāḍī as an intersection of imperial and provincial authority, and uses the cities of Ḥarrān, al-Raqqa, and al-Mawṣil as case studies. A comparative analysis of the individuals appointed to the qāḍīship reveals some commonalities in their backgrounds, particularly regarding ḥadīth transmission, but also clear differences in the appointment patterns identified for each city. For example, the office of the qāḍī of Ḥarrān seems to have been a predominantly local affair, while Raqqan qāḍīs were frequent examples of transregional elite status. The judges of al-Mawṣil, on the other hand, feature instances of local, regional, and transregional representatives. This variance is likely due to political and administrative factors and emphasizes the complex dynamics and hierarchies of governance in the early Islamic period.

This article discusses the emergence of Diyār Bakr as the northern subdivision of the Jazīra in the early Islamic period. It shows that this subprovince is a product of the 10th century CE and not, as has hitherto been assumed, of the conquest or Umayyad period. As a first step, the paper traces the appearance of the name Diyār Bakr in the Arabic sources to the mid-10th century CE. It then turns to the ʿAbbāsid geographical tradition and gives an overview of the various portrayals of the region of the Jazīran north up to al-Muqaddasī (d. after 990 CE), who is the first to provide a rudimentary depiction of the Jazīran north as ‘Diyār Bakr’. The article then turns to the history of the Banū Shaybān of Bakr/Rabīʿa in the Jazīran north to offer a tentative explanation for the origin of the term and administrative district of Diyār Bakr. It concludes with a brief discussion of the need to re-evaluate the political and administrative history of the Jazīra before the 10th century CE.

How can one best measure economic growth in the Middle Islamic period, and especially in the tenth and eleventh centuries? For the period prior to the fifteenth century, historians researching Islamic societies have almost no primary documents or archives they may call to hand. In contrast to the scarcity of primary documents, secondary sources—namely, literary and historical accounts written after the events—are abundant. The situation is the reverse of that of the European Middle Ages, for which there is a comparatively rich body of archival material available but few chronicles. Archaeology and knowledge of medieval material culture is more developed for Europe than for the contemporaneous era in the Middle East due in part to the prevalence throughout Europe of national archaeological services and a centuries-old tradition of antiquarianism and museology, whereas archaeology in the Middle East, excepting Israel, is still largely comprised of various joint missions by Western institutions, with little or no overarching authority to guide research efforts. This difference in the nature of the sources has led scholars of economic history in Europe and the Middle East to ask different questions. Many such questions, however, are of mutual and common interest, such as those that seek to investigate and define the economic and cultural relations between the Islamic world and Europe, or, from studies that have taken a more comparative perspective, what are the pre-conditions for economic growth and decline within and across different societies?