Eastern Rome and the Rise of Islam: History and Prophecy

163 Pages·2016·17.74 MB·English

by  Olof Heilo

Eastern Rome and the Rise of Islam
The emergence of Islam in the seventh century AD still polarises scholarswho
seek to separate religious truth from the historical reality with which it is
associated. However, history and prophecy are not solely defined by positive
evidence or apocalyptic truth, but by human subjects, who consider them to
convey distinct messages and in turn make these messages meaningful to
others. These messages are mutually interdependent, and analysed together
provide new insights into history.
It is by way of this concept that Olof Heilo presents the decline of the
Eastern Roman Empire as a key to understanding the rise of Islam – two
historical processes often perceived as distinct from one another. Eastern
Rome and the Rise of Islam highlights significant convergences between Early
IslamandtheLateAncientworld.ItsuggeststhatIslam’sriseisafeatureofa
common process during which tensions between imperial ambitions and
apocalyptic beliefs in Europe and the Middle East cut straight across today’s
theologicalandpoliticaldefinitions.TheconquestsofIslam,theemergenceof
the caliphate, and the transformation of the Roman and Christian world are
approached from both prophetic anticipations in the Ancient and Late
Ancient world, and from the Medieval and Modern receptions of history. In
the shadow of their narratives it becomes possible to trace the outline of a
shared history of Christianity and Islam. The “Dark Ages” thus emerge not
merely as a tale of sound and fury, but as an era of openness, diversity and
unexpected possibilities.
Approaching the rise of Islam as an historical phenomenon, this book
opens new perspectives in the study of early religion and philosophy, as well
as providing avaluable resource for students and scholars of Islamic Studies.
Olof Heilo obtained his PhD at the Institute for Byzantine and Modern
Greek Studies in Vienna and is currently teaching history at the Center for
Middle Eastern Studies in Lund.
Culture and Civilization in the Middle East
General Editor: Ian Richard Netton
Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
ThisseriesstudiestheMiddleEastthroughthetwinfociofitsdiversecultures
and civilisations. Comprising original monographs as well as scholarly sur-
veys, it covers topics in the fields of Middle Eastern literature, archaeology,
law, history, philosophy, science, folklore, art, architecture and language.
While there is a pluralityof views, the series presents serious scholarship in a
lucid and stimulating fashion.
Previously published by Curzon
The Formation of Hanbalism
The Origins of Islamic Law Piety into Power
The Qur’an, the Muwatta‘ and Nimrod Hurvitz
Madinan Amal
Yasin Dutton Arabic Literature
An Overview
A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo Pierre Cachia
The Historyof Cambridge
University's Genizah Collection Structure and Meaning in Medieval
Stefan Reif Arabic and Persian Lyric Poetry
Orient Pearls
The Formative Period of Julie Scott Meisami
Twelver Shi‘ism
Hadith as Discourse Between Qum Muslims and Christians in
and Baghdad Norman Sicily
Andrew J. Newman Arabic-Speakers and the End
of Islam
Qur’an Translation Alexander Metcalfe
Discourse, Texture and Exegesis
Hussein Abdul-Raof Modern Arab Historiography
Historical Discourse and the
Christians in Al-Andalus 711-1000 Nation-State
Ann Rosemary Christys Youssef Choueiri
Folklore and Folklife in the United The Philosophical Poetics of
Arab Emirates Alfarabi, Avicenna and Averroes
Sayyid Hamid Hurriez The Aristotelian Reception
Salim Kemal
Published by Routledge
1. The Epistemology of 10. Islam and Science
Ibn Khaldun The Intellectual Career
Zaid Ahmad of Nizam al-Din al-Nizaburi
Robert G. Morrison
2. The Hanbali School of Law and
Ibn Taymiyyah 11. Ibn ‘Arabî – Time
Conflict or Concilation and Cosmology
Abdul Hakim I Al-Matroudi Mohamed Haj Yousef
3. Arabic Rhetoric 12. The Status of Women in Islamic
A Pragmatic Analysis Law and Society
Hussein Abdul-Raof Annotated translation of
al-Ta-hir al-Hadda-d’s Imra’tuna-
4. Arab Representations of fi ‘l-shar-ıcawa ’l-mujtamac,
the Occident with an introduction
East-West Encounters in Ronak Husni and
Arabic Fiction Daniel L. Newman
Rasheed El-Enany
13. Islam and the Baha'i Faith
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Islamic Thought Muhammad ‘Abduh and
Abd al-Jabba-r, Ibn S-ına- and ‘Abdul-Baha ‘Abbas
al-Ghaza-l-ı Oliver Scharbrodt
Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth
14. Comte de Gobineau
6. Original Islam and Orientalism
Malik and the madhhab Selected Eastern Writings
of Madina Translated by
Yasin Dutton Daniel O’Donoghue
Edited by Geoffrey Nash
7. Al-Ghazali and the Qur’an
One Book, Many Meanings 15. Early Islamic Spain
Martin Whittingham The History of Ibn al-Qu-.t-ıya
David James
8. Birth of The Prophet
Muhammad 16. German Orientalism
Devotional Piety in Sunni Islam The Studyof the Middle East
Marion Holmes Katz and Islam from 1800 to 1945
Ursula Wokoeck
9. Space and Muslim Urban Life
- -
At the Limits of the Labyrinth 17. Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics
of Fez Modulation of Being
Simon O'Meara Sajjad H. Rizvi
18. Schools of Qur’anic Exegesis 26. A History of Early al-Andalus
Genesis and Development The Akhbar Majmu’a
Hussein Abdul-Raof David James
19. Al-Ghazali, Averroes and the 27. Inspired Knowledge in
Interpretation of the Qur’an Islamic Thought
Common Sense and Philosophy Al-Ghazali’s Theory of
in Islam Mystical Cognition and its
Avital Wohlman, translated by Avicennian Foundation
David Burrell Alexander Treiger
20. Eastern Christianity in the 28. Shi’i Theology in Iran
Modern Middle East The Challenge of
Edited by Anthony O’Mahony Religious Experience
and Emma Loosley Ori Goldberg
21. Islamic Reform and 29. Founding Figures and
Arab Nationalism Commentators in
Expanding the Crescent from Arabic Mathematics
the Mediterranean to the Indian A History of Arabic Sciences
Ocean (1880s–1930s) and Mathematics, Volume 1
Amal N. Ghazal Roshdi Rashed, edited by
Nader El-Bizri, translated by
22. Islamic Ethics Roger Wareham, with
Divine Command Theory in Chris Allen and Michael Barany
Arabo-Islamic Thought
Mariam al-Attar 30. The Muslim Conquest of Iberia
Medieval Arabic Narratives
23. Muslim Fortresses in the Levant Nicola Clarke
Between Crusaders
and Mongols 31. Angels in Islam
Kate Raphael Jalal al-Din
al-Suyuti's al-Haba'ik fi akhbar
24. Being Human in Islam al-mala'ik
The Impact of the Stephen Burge
Evolutionary Worldview
Damian Howard 32. Theological Approaches to
Qur’anic Exegesis
25. The UAE and Foreign Policy A Practical Comparative-
Foreign Aid, Identities Contrastive Analysis
and Interests Hussein Abdul-Raof
Khalid S. Almezaini
33. Ibn al-Haytham and 41. Skepticism in Classical Islam
Analytical Mathematics Moments of Confusion
A History of Arabic Sciences Paul L. Heck
and Mathematics, Volume 2
Roshdi Rashed, translated by 42. Free Will and Predestination in
Susan Glynn and Islamic Thought
Roger Wareham Theoretical Compromises in the
Works of Avicenna al-Ghaza-l-ı
34. Ghazali’s Politics in Context and Ibn ‘Arab-ı
Yazeed Said Maria de Cillis
35. Orientalism Revisited 43. Ibn al-Haytham, New Spherical
Art, Land and Voyage Geometry and Astronomy
Edited by Ian Richard Netton A History of Arabic Sciences
and Mathematics, Volume 4
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Conics, Geometrical J.V. Field
Constructions and
Practical Geometry 44. Classical Mathematics from
A History of Arabic Sciences al-Khwa-rizm-ı to Descartes
and Mathematics, Volume 3 Roshdi Rashed, translated by
Roshdi Rashed, translated by Michael H. Shank
J. V. Field
45. Legal Authority in
37. Science and Religion in Premodern Islam
Mamluk Egypt Yahya- b. Sharaf al-Nawaw-ı in
Ibn al-Nafis, Pulmonary Transit the Sha-fi'-ı School of Law
and Bodily Resurrection Fachrizal A. Halim
Nahyan Fancy
46. Ethics in Islam
38. The Qur’an in Friendship in the Political
Christian-Muslim Dialogue Thought of Al-Tawh.-ıd-ı and
Historical and Modern his Contemporaries
Interpretations Nuha A. Alshaar
C Jonn Block
47. The City in the Muslim World
39. Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems Depictions by Western
in Al-Andalus Travel Writers
Shari L. Lowin Edited by
Mohammad Gharipour &
40. Religious Scholars and Nilay Üzlü
the Umayyads
Piety-Minded Supporters of the
Marwanid Caliphate
Steven C. Judd
48. Moral Rationalism and Shari‘a 51. Eastern Rome and the Rise
Independent Rationality in of Islam
Modern Sh-ı‘-ı Us¸u-l al-Fiqh History and prophecy
Ali-Reza Bhojani Olof Heilo
49. An Arab Ambassador in the 52. Literature and the Islamic Court
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Mediterranean World Cultural life under al-S.ah.ib
The Travels of Muh.ammad ibn Ibn ‘Abba-d
‘Uthma-n al-Mikna-s-ı Erez Naaman
Nabil Matar
50. The Poetics of Ancient and
Classical Arabic Literature
Orientology
Esad Durakovic´
Eastern Rome and the Rise of
Islam
History and prophecy
Olof Heilo
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Firstpublished2016
byRoutledge
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©2016OlofHeilo
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withoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:Heilo,Olof,author.
Title:EasternRomeandtheriseofIslam:historyandprophecy/Olof
Heilo.
Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,[2015]|
Series:CultureandcivilizationintheMiddleEast
Identifiers:LCCN2015025825|ISBN9781138101388(hardback)|ISBN
9781315656960(e-book)
Subjects:LCSH:ByzantineEmpire–History–527-1081.|IslamicEmpire–
History–750-1258.|Christianityandpolitics–History–MiddleAges,600-
1500.|Islamandpolitics–Europe.|Christianity–Relations–Islam.|Islam–
Relations–Christianity.|Civilization,Western.|Islamiccivilization.
Classification:LCCDF571.H452015|DDC297.09/21–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2015025825
ISBN:978-1-138-10138-8(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-65696-0(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of figures x
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xii
Prologue 1
1 A broken Colossus 16
2 Taming Leviathan 47
3 Shadows at dusk 68
4 Eyes in the dark 88
5 New horizons 102
6 Cultural capitals 113
Epilogue 122
Bibliography 132
Index 143