A 7/8th c. Syriac source, discussing the First Fitna, describes ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as “Abū Turāb” (father of dust, a polemical epithet also attested in the Islamic tradition) and “emir of Ḥírtā” (al-Ḥīra in southern Iraq, a Christian city beside al-Kūfa where ʿAlī was based) From Sebastian Brock, “An Early Syriac Life of Maximus the Confessor,” 1973, 313, 319, 329

Coming in June, my new book: "The Definitive Zoroastrian Critique of Islam" (Translated Texts for Historians, Liverpool UP) (PROOFS of the cover and table of contents below)
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.38… 1/ Here's the official blurb:

Zoroastrianism was the religion of the ancient Persian kings and following the Arab conquest, it remained the religion of a significant portion of the population in Iran and parts of Central Asia. This book investigates the most important polemical 2/

One of the reasons I love the early Abbasid period is the incredible mix of different religions that helped shape high culture.

Here's a report about a diverse group of friends who met to recite poetry and tell stories in Basra in southern Iraq in 156/772-73. They included 1/ 1) al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad the master of prosody (ṣāḥib al-ʿarūḍ), a Sunnī

2) al-Sayyid Muḥammad al-Ḥimyārī the poet, a Shīʿī (rāfiḍī)

3) Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Quddūs, a Dualist (thanawī)

4) Sufyān ibn Mujāshiʿ, a Ṣufrī (that is, a type of Khārijī) 2/

Ancient and medieval Zoroastrianism is famous for the practice of "xwēdōdah," that is, close-kin or incestuous marriage. As far as I'm aware, the first documentary proof of "xwēdōdah" was recently discovered in a legal text written in Pahlavi from 8th-century Tabaristan 1/ The document, dated to 732-33 AD, concerns the transfer of property rights after the death of a man called Rahāg. Under certain conditions, the document states, his property should pass to his wife, a woman named Duxtxwašīh, who was also his granddaughter (!) 2/

1/ Who were the earliest women converts to Islam and what was their experience of conversion?

In our new sourcebook, Sean Anthony (@shahanSean) and Keren Abbou Hershkovitz profile several women who were alive at the Prophet's time #ConversionToIslam

ucpress.edu/book/978052029… 2/ In the first entry, @shahanSean translates and comments on the conversion of the Prophet's first wife Khadīja as portrayed in one of the earliest and most famous biographies, the Kitāb al-Maghāzī of Ibn Isḥāq (d. 767)

1/ This week I'm posting about early converts to Islam and what happened to their descendants once inside Muslim society

ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAwn (d. 768) was a famous early Sunnī scholar from Basra whose grandfather had been a Christian deacon enslaved during the conquest of Iraq 2/ The grandfather was called Arṭabān, and judging from the name, he seems to have been a Persian. He was a deacon (shammās) and was captured and enslaved in southern Iraq (Maysān) by one of the Prophet’s Companions, ʿAbdallāh ibn Durra al-Muzanī

1/ What happened to the descendants of the Sasanian cavalry (known as the Asāwira) who went over to the Arabs during the conquest of Iraq?

A thread on how Sasanian soldiers transformed into Muslim theologians over the course of several generations 2/ The Asāwira are a famous example of pre-Islamic elites who switched sides during the conquest and were richly rewarded for their loyalty.

They settled mainly in the city of Basra in southern Iraq, where they lived under the patronage of the powerful Arab tribe of Tamīm

1/ A thread on the most famous slave revolt in Islamic history: the Zanj of #Iraq (869-83), who brought the Abbasid caliphate to its knees, followed a messianic preacher and even held slaves of their own

@HenryLouisGates has compared them to Spartacus & Toussaint Louverture 2/ The Arabic term "Zanj" refers to the inhabitants of East Africa, especially along the coast. Many were taken captive in the early Islamic period and brought as slaves to southern Iraq

1/ Is it possible to convert to Islam without fully intending to?

Today's martyr is ʿAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ghassānī, an abbot of the famous Monastery of Mt. Sinai in #Egypt, who was executed for converting to #Islam and then returning to #Christianity in the middle of the 8th c. 2/ The life of ʿAbd al-Masīḥ was written in #Arabic and is one of the earliest Christian texts composed in the language

1/ #Iran dominates #Iraq today, but it wasn't always this way. Thoughts on the relationship between two neighbors in Late Antiquity and the Early Islamic period:

The Sasanians were the last great Persian empire (224-661). They originated in Iran, but ruled from Iraq 2/ Control of Iran and Iraq gave the Sasanians (and other Persian dynasties going back to the Achaemenids) distinct advantages. With the Tigris and Euphrates, Iraq was an agricultural powerhouse. This also made it a tax collector's paradise

1/ Medieval Muslims were fascinated by Christian monasteries, which they celebrated as places of refreshment, beauty, and entertainment

These little-known images come from the Book of Wonders (Kitāb al-Bulhān) of ʿAbd al-Ḥasan al-Iṣfahānī, now at the Bodleian Library, Oxford 2/ The manuscript comes from mid-13th c. Baghdad. The image on the right portrays the "Monastery of the Maidens" (Dayr al-Banāt) and the one on the left portrays the "Monastery of the Raven" (Dayr al-Ghurāb)

1/ What does the #Quran have to say about #Christmas, and what does this ruined church located between #Jerusalem and #Bethlehem have to do with it? 2/ The Quran contains its own version of the Nativity story (Q. 19:22-27), in which Mary is said to withdraw to a remote place and to be overcome by the pains of labor. She then finds shelter under a date palm tree

quran.com/19/22-28

1/ If you're a Christian in medieval #Egypt, and the church won't grant you a divorce, what do you do? Head to the Muslim court!

This fascinating papyrus from the Fayyūm is dated to 909 AD. It records the divorce proceedings of a Christian named Sawīrah (Severus) 2/ It states that Sawīrah divorced his wife, Qasīdaq (the daughter of a monk named George) "three times [and] irrevocably." The divorce was witnessed by a series of Muslim men, who are named in the papyrus (His father-in-law, the monk, could not have been happy!)

1/ This week @UniofOxford we explored the origins of Shīʿism. One of the most interesting but little known forms is Zaydism, which began with the revolt of Zayd ibn ʿAlī in 740. Read on for more about this unique Zaydī coin and what it says about the doctrine of the Zaydī imamate 2/ Zaydīs believed that the imam had to be a descendant of ʿAlī through his sons al-Ḥasan or al-Ḥusayn. Among Shīʿīs, they were unique for also believing that the imam proved himself by his ability to lead a revolt (khurūj) against an unjust power

1/ This morning's Islamic History lecture @UniofOxford was on the Islamic West. We talked a lot about the #Berber "false prophets," incl. Salih ibn Tarif (ca. 8th c.), a mysterious figure from #Morocco who founded his own religion and possessed a Berber scripture (a "#Quran") 2/ Salih seems to have understood prophecy in vaguely Islamic terms, even though he was not a Muslim (or at least a conventional one). He claimed that #Quran 66:4 referred to him when it speaks of "the righteous of the faithful" (salih al-mu'minin) quran.com/66/4

1/ Here’s a unique coin I love to show my students @UniofOxford. A fascinating window into the early history of #Islam in #Iran. Minted in Sistan, ca. 691-2. One side portrays the #Sasanian king of kings; the other has the Islamic profession of faith (the shahada) but in Pahlavi! 2/ Pahlavi (otherwise known as #Zoroastrian Middle #Persian) was the language of the #Sassanian kings and the #Zoroastrian clergy. It remained a prestige language in #Iran even after the Islamic conquest

1/ Fun fact from today’s Islamic History lecture @UniofOxford: the Khazars, a nomadic people from the S. Russian steppe, converted to #Judaism in ca. 9th. Here, a Khazar coin based on an Islamic model swaps “#Muhammad is the Messenger of God” for “#Moses is the Messenger of God”! 2/ Specifically, the Khazar king and his court are said to have converted. This model of top-down religious change happened all over the late antique and medieval worlds, but is most commonly associated with #Christianity and #Islam (not #Judaism!)