This volume presents a selection of the key studies in which leading scholars since the beginning of the 20th century attempt to explain the phenomenally rapid expansion of the early Islamic state during the 7th century CE. The articles debate the causes for the conquest movement or expansion, the reasons for its success, the nature of the movement itself, the impact the expansion had on the countries affected by it, and the complex questions surrounding the sources on which historians have constructed their views of the expansion, and the reliability (or lack of it) of those sources. No articles devoted to the actual conquest of a given locality are included-hundreds exist-but a fairly extensive bibliography lists many of the more important contributions in this genre. The editor's introduction addresses the phenomenon of the expansion and how scholars have approached and grappled with it.

This is the first translation of a classic work (Bahth fi nnsh' at 'ilm al ta' rikh 'inda l-'Arab) by the eminent Arab historian A. A. Duri. Published in Beirut in 1960, Duri's book was the first comprehensive effort to trace the origins and early development of Arab historical writing, and to resolve some extremely complex and still debated questions about the reliability of the Arabic historical sources.

Originally published in 1984.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This is the first translation of a classic work (Bahth fi nnsh' at 'ilm al ta' rikh 'inda l-'Arab) by the eminent Arab historian A. A. Duri. Published in Beirut in 1960, Duri's book was the first comprehensive effort to trace the origins and early development of Arab historical writing, and to resolve some extremely complex and still debated questions about the reliability of the Arabic historical sources. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In this contribution to the ongoing debate on the nature and causes of the Islamic conquests in Syria and Iraq during the sixth and seventh centuries, Fred Donner argues for a necessary distinction between the causes of the conquests, the causes of their success, and the causes of the subsequent Arab migrations to the Fertile Crescent. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In this contribution to the ongoing debate on the nature and causes of the Islamic conquests in Syria and Iraq during the sixth and seventh centuries, Fred Donner argues for a necessary distinction between the causes of the conquests, the causes of their success, and the causes of the subsequent Arab migrations to the Fertile Crescent.

Originally published in 1986.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The papers in this first volume of the new Oriental Institute series LAMINE are derived from a conference entitled "Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians in the Umayyad State," held at the University of Chicago on June 17-18, 2011. The goal of the conference was to address a simple question: Just what role did non-Muslims play in the operations of the Umayyad state? It has always been clear that the Umayyad family (r. 41-132/661-750) governed populations in the rapidly expanding empire that were overwhelmingly composed of non-Muslims - mainly Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians - and the status of those non-Muslim communities under Umayyad rule, and more broadly in early Islam, has been discussed continuously for more than a century. The role of non-Muslims within the Umayyad state has been, however, largely neglected. The eight papers in this volume thus focus on non-Muslims who participated actively in the workings of the Umayyad government." This new Oriental Institute series - Late Antique and Medieval Islamic Near East (LAMINE) - aims to publish a variety of scholarly works, including monographs, edited volumes, critical text editions, translations, studies of corpora of documents - in short, any work that offers a significant contribution to understanding the Near East between roughly 200 and 1000 CE. "

This volume reprints nineteen articles that deal with the formation of the first Islamic state under the 'rightly-guided' and Umayyad caliphs (632-750 CE). The articles (five of which originally appeared in languages other than English and are translated here) trace the crystallization of key institutions of the growing empire and treat such fundamental issues as taxation, military institutions, administrative organization and practices, the barid or official courier and intelligence service, succession, the ruling elites and their income, and questions of legitimation. The volume includes an introduction by the editor that offers an overview of the processes involved and helps place each article in its proper context. It also offers an extensive bibliography of further works relevant to the theme of the volume.