Early Islamic Syria
Subtitle: An Archaeological Appraisal (Duckworth Debates in Archaeolo) (Duckworth Debates in Archaeology)
Publisher: Duckworth Publishers
Published: June 27, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 144
ISBN-13: 9780715635704
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history: BCE to c 500 CE; Asian / Middle Eastern history: c 500 to c 1500; Social history; History; Archaeology / Anthropology; History: World; Syria; Archaeology; Nonfiction / Social Science; Social Science / Archaeology; Reference
Description: "This book offers an innovative assessment of social and economic developments in Syria-Palestine shortly before, and in the two centuries after, the Islamic expansion (the later sixth to the early ninth century AD), drawing on a wide range of new evidence from recent archaeological work. Alan Walmsley challenges conventional explanations for social change with the arrival of Islam, arguing for considerable cultural and economic continuity rather than devastation and unrelenting decline. Much new, and increasingly non-elite, architectural evidence and an ever-growing corpus of material culture indicate that Syria-Palestine entered a new age of social richness in the early Islamic period, even if the gains were chronologically and regionally uneven."--Jacket.