Islam, the Ancient Near East and Varieties of Godlessness

Patricia Crone (1945-2015), Ph.D. (1974), School of Oriental and African Studies, was Professor Emerita at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Her numerous publications include Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (1987); Pre-Industrial Societies (1989); Medieval Islamic Political Thought (2004); and The Nativist Prophets of Early Islamic Iran (2012). Hanna Siurua (BA, School of Oriental and African Studies; MA, University of Sussex) is a professional editor based in Chicago. She specialises in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies and has edited numerous books and articles in these as well as other fields.

• Editor’s prefaceAuthor’s preface1. ‘Barefoot and naked’: What did the bedouin of the Arab conquests look like?2. The ancient Near East and Islam: The case of lot-casting3. Idrīs, Atraḫasīs and al-Khiḍr4. Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥaḍrī and the punishment of unbelievers5. The Dahrīs according to al-Jāḥiẓ6. Ungodly cosmologies7. Post-colonialism in tenth-century Islam8. What are prophets for? The social utility of religion in medieval Islamic thought9. Oral transmission of subversive ideas from the Islamic world to Europe: The case of the three impostors10. How the field has changed in my lifetime11. List of publicationsIndex to volume 3