Umayyad Empire

Andrew Marsham is Professor of Classical Arabic Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Queens’ College, specialising in the Late Antique and Early Medieval History of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. His publications include The Umayyad World (Routledge, 2021), Power, Patronage and Memory in Early Islam (Oxford, 2018, with Professor Alain George), and Rituals of Islamic Monarchy (Edinburgh, 2009).

In his new book, Andrew Marsham – one of the great historians of the Umayyads – gives us a portrait of the first Muslim empire in all its vastness, turmoil, and diversity. Much more than a dynastic history, this book helps us see the environment in which Islam was first born and spread across the ancient world. A mighty achievement.

• List of Box TextList of IllustrationsList of AbbreviationsNotes on Dates, Transliteration and NamesAcknowledgementsIntroduction Part I The Formation of the Umayyad Empire Introduction1. The Origins of Arabian Empire 2. The Seventh Century ‘World Crisis’ 3. The ‘Conquest Society’ and the Defeat of Rome and Iran 4. The Emergence of the Umayyad Empire5. The Succession to Mu‘awiya and the Second Civil War Part II The Marwanid Umayyad Empire, 692–750 Introduction6. The Imperial Marwanid Caliphate 7. The Siege of Constantinople and the Short Caliphates of Sulayman, ‘Umar II, and Yazid II 8. Hisham b. ‘Abd al-Malik: Renewal and Defeat 9. The Collapse of Umayyad Power Part III Ecology, Economy and Society in Umayyad Times Introduction10. Resources, Settlement Patterns and Commerce 11. Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews and Others in the Umayyad Empire 12. The Provinces, Government and Taxation AfterwordBibliographyIndex