Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 1

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 1

Shahîd draws on Greek, Syriac, and Arabic sources to trace the relationship between the Byzantines and Ghassānids and the latter’s involvement in ecclesiastical affairs in the eastern region of the Byzantine Empire.

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Series information

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 1, Part 1

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, volume 1, part 1, Political and Military History is devoted to the main Arabian tribes that were federates of the Byzantine Roman Empire. In the early sixth century, Constantinople shifted its Arab alliance from the Salīhids to the Kindites and especially the Ghassānids, who came to dominate Arab-Byzantine relations through the reign of Heraclius. Arranged chronologically, this study, the first in-depth account of the Ghassānids since the nineteenth century, draws widely from original sources in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. Irfan Shahîd traces in detail the vicissitudes of the relationship between the Romans and the Ghassānids, and argues for the latter’s extensive role in the defense of the Byzantine Empire in its east.

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 1, Part 2

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, volume 1, part 2, Ecclesiastical History provides a chronologically ordered account of the involvement of the Ghassānids in ecclesiastical affairs in the eastern region of the Byzantine Empire. Tracing the role of Arab tribes both inside and outside the Roman limes, Irfan Shahîd documents how the Ghassānids in particular came to establish and develop a distinct non-Chalcedonian church hierarchy, all the while remaining allies of the Chalcedonian emperors. Ghassānid phylarchs such as Mundir emerge not merely as loyal foederati but as devout Christians. Shahîd extensively and critically analyzes the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic sources, including many obscure or unfamiliar texts, to illuminate the religious landscape of the Arabs of the sixth century.

Shahîd draws on Greek, Syriac, and Arabic sources to trace the relationship between the Byzantines and Ghassānids and the latter’s involvement in ecclesiastical affairs in the eastern region of the Byzantine Empire.

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Home town: Washington, D.C.
Irfan Shahîd

Associate Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks and Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, Irfan Shahîd was Emeritus Professor of Arabic Studies at Georgetown University, where from 1982 to 2008 he was Oman Professor of Arabic and Islamic Literature.

Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 1, Part 1, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 1, Part 2, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 2, Part 1, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Vol. 2, Part 2, Rome and the Arabs