121
The saying is attributed to an early eighth-century scholar, Mujahid bin Jabr (quoted by Hakim, p. 161). Muslim opinion on the virtues—or otherwise—of Umar covers a broad spectrum.
122
Sebeos, 139.
123
Qur’an: 5.33.
124
Constitution of Medina: Document A.9, as reproduced in Serjeant (1978), p. 19.
125
My thanks to Michael Kulikowski for this.
126
It is only fair to point out that Christian authors, looking to explain the defeat of the Romans, cast the Saracen armies as no less teeming. In fact, as Donner (1981) has pointed out, “perhaps the most striking fact about the armies that carried out the Islamic conquest of the Fertile Crescent was their small size” (p. 231).
127
Sebeos, 136.
128
According to the best estimate, Arab
foederati
“may have numbered two to five times the size of the available regular and garrison troops” (Kaegi (1992), p. 43).
129
Sebeos: p. 141.
130
Teachings of Jacob
: 5.16.
131
Qur’an: 5.20.
132
Hans Jansen has suggested, very plausibly, that “these stories about Jews who had entered into talks with the enemies of Islam and were killed as a consequence had as their primary aim the cowing of the Christians of the Middle East” (p. 134). (My gratitude to Liz Waters for the translation.)
133
Sebeos, 135.
134
From the so-called “Secrets of Rabbi Simon ben Yohai,” quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 309. The rabbi had lived back in the second century AD, but the vision of the Arab conquests attributed to him seems to have been contemporaneous with the events it describes.
135
Ibid., p. 311.
136
Subsequent Islamic tradition would explain this as a title bestowed on Umar by Muhammad. However, it is clear—from both contemporaneous Jewish records and later Muslim histories—that the title actually derived from the Jews of Jerusalem and was prompted by Umar’s activities on the Temple Mount. See Bashear (1990).
137
Qur’an: 16.41.
138
John of Nikiu, p. 200.
139
A recently discovered inscription in the Arabian desert south of Palestine reads simply, “In the name of God, I, Zuhayr, wrote [this] at the time Umar died in the year twenty-four.” Quoted by Hoyland (2006), p. 411.
140
Qur’an: 2.177.
141
Sebeos, 175.
142
Qur’an: 49.9.
143
Sebeos, 176.
144
From a Christian tract written around 680 and quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 141. Although the author was a Syrian, Hoyland convincingly argues that his informant was an Arab.
145
Dhu al-Thafinat, quoted by Sizgorich (2009), p. 206.
146
Qur’an: 16.106.
147
Muhamad b. Ahmad al-Malati, quoted by Sizgorich (2009), p. 215.
148
From the Christian chronicle mentioned above, and quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 136.
149
Ibid.
150
Padwick, p. 119.
151
From an inscription on a dam near Ta’if, in Arabia, quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 692.
152
John bar Penkâye, p. 61.
7 The Forging of Islam
1
Arculf, p. 41.
2
Fredegarius: 154.
3
Arculf, p. 43.
4
“A Jewish Apocalypse on the Umayyads,” quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 317.
5
The monk was Anastasius of Sinai. See Flusin, pp. 25–6.
6
Arculf, p. 43.
7
Quoted by Humphreys, p. 11.
8
Mu’awiya is hailed as “Commander of the Faithful” on an inscription in the main hall of the bath-house of Hammat Gader, a few miles from Tiberias, which was one of the
Amir
’s favourite winter resorts. Accompanying this very public articulation of Umayyad legitimacy is a cross—which, inevitably, has always deeply puzzled scholars committed to the notion that Mu’awiya was a Muslim. In the words of Clive Foss (2008), “the further implications of this phenomenon remain to be explored” (p. 118).
9
Abu Hamza, quoted by Crone and Hinds, p. 131.
10
John bar Penkâye, p. 61.
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid.
13
Jacob of Edessa, quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 566.
14
Qur’an: 2.142.
15
John bar Penkâye, p. 61.
16
Quoted by Hawting (1982a), p. 44.
17
Syriac Common Source
, in Hoyland (1997), p. 647.
18
John bar Penkâye, pp. 68–9.
19
Ibid., p. 66.
20
Qur’an: 21.1.
21
From a coin issued in 688–9, quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 695.
22
Quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 694.
23
Qur’an: 33.57.
24
Syriac Common Source
, in Hoyland (1997), p. 647.
25
Al-Akhtal, 19, in Stetkevych, p. 92.
26
Al-Muqqadasi, quoted by Rabbat, p. 16.
27
Al-Muqqadasi, quoted by Rosen-Ayalon, p. 69.
28
From a sermon preached towards the end of the Umayyad Caliphate. Quoted by Elad (1992), p. 50.
29
This phrase dates from the twelfth century: evidence for the fact that Syrians continued to regard Jerusalem, rather than Mecca, as Islam’s holiest shrine for several centuries. Quoted by Van Ess, p. 89.
30
Qur’an: 61.9.
31
Syriac Common Source
, in Hoyland (1997), p. 648.
32
Farazdaq, quoted by Kister (1969), p. 182. The literal translation of “the mount of Jerusalem” is “the upper part of Iliy’a.”
33
The mosque in Egypt was at Fustat, a garrison city that would ultimately evolve into Cairo. Its
qibla
was reoriented in 710–11; see Bashear (1989), p. 268. The mosque in the Negev was at Be’er Ora. For a description and illustration of the change in the orientation of its
qibla
, see Sharon (1988), pp. 230–2. For the change to Kufa’s
qibla
, see Hoyland (1997), p. 562.
34
From the Kharijite sermon quoted by Elad (1992), p. 50.
35
Nu’aym b. Hammad al-Marwazi, in the
Kitab al-Fitan
, quoted by Sharon (1988), p. 234, fn. 7.
36
Tabari: Vol. 22, p. 14.
37
Ibn Asakir, quoted by de Prémare, p. 209.
38
Quoted by Crone and Hinds, p. 28.
39
Al-Akhtal, 19, in Stetkevych, p. 91.
40
Farazdaq, quoted by Crone and Hinds, p. 43.
41
Qur’an: 3.19.
42
Quoted by Hoyland (1997), p. 702.
43
Qur’an: 27.23.
44
Al-Muqqadasi, quoted by Ettinghausen, p. 28.
45
John bar Penkâye, p. 61.
46
Michael the Syrian, in Palmer, Brock and Hoyland, p. 152, n. 363.
47
John bar Penkâye, p. 67.
48
Tabari, quoted by Hoyland, p. 198.
49
Gregory of Nyssa, p. 74. Gregory’s fourth homily on Ecclesiastes is exceptional for being the only document from antiquity—as far as I am aware—specifically and unequivocally to condemn slavery as an institution.
50
Qur’an: 90.12–17.
51
These restrictions are conventionally attributed to a pact signed between the Christians of Syria and Umar, but Western scholars have tended to date them to the end of the eighth century, a hundred and fifty years after the time of Umar. Recently, though, it has been convincingly argued that the so-called “Pact of Umar” may indeed date—in its essentials if not its final form—from the period of the early conquests. See Noth (1987).