Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Said K. Aburish, Arafat: From Defender 

to Dictator (New York: Bloomsbury, 1998); Barry Rubin 

and Judith Colp Rubin, Yasir Arafat: A Political Biogra-

phy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

archaeology

Archaeology is the modern study of material 

remains from the past in order to understand and 

explain history, culture, and social life. It involves 

scientific excavation, field surveys, careful record-

ing of data, and critical thinking about what the 

data mean. Countries in the Middle East and Asia 

have been centers of archaeological inquiry since 

the late 18th century, but most of the excavat-

ing has been done on the sites of ancient, pre-

Islamic, civilizations. Archaeological research in 

locations associated with Islamicate civilizations 

has increased in recent years, however. Muslim 

cities

, towns, fortifications, way stations, and 

cemeteries from Spain and Africa to Central Asia 

and Indonesia provide significant amounts of 

material evidence about the past, encompassing 

a time span of nearly 1,400 years. This evidence 

includes the remains of 

mosqUes

, palaces, shrines, 

houses, hostels, burials, ceramics, inscriptions, 

and coinage.

Even though pre-Islamic history is dismissed 

by some pious Muslims as a time of pagan igno-

rance (the j

ahiliyya

), Muslim historical writing 

from the Middle Ages demonstrates an early inter-

est in gathering and preserving information about 

antiquities, or the material remains of bygone 

times. These accounts mixed together histori-

cal fact, legends from the q

Uran

, and 

Folklore

about ancient peoples and sites in Arabia, e

gypt

, 

i

raq

, and i

ran

. Nevertheless, when it came to Isl-

amicate cities and buildings, medieval authors did 

provide richly detailed information about their 

foundation, design, inhabitants, renovation, and 

destruction. Much of what we know today about 

medieval cities such as m

ecca

, m

edina

, b

aghdad

, 

c

airo

,  d

amascUs

, and c

ordoba

 comes from the 

work of these scholars.

Archaeology in the modern study of the Mid-

dle East and Asia began with Napoleon Bonapar-

te’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 and continued to 

develop as European powers competed for colo-

nial dominance in those regions during the 19th 

and early 20th centuries. Although Europeans 

engaged in outright plundering of the antiqui-

ties of Egypt, p

alestine

 (now Israel, Gaza, and 

the West Bank), and Iraq, they also established 

research centers and museums that promoted 

serious archaeological research and the study of 

ancient and “Oriental” languages. These scholars 

were mainly interested in uncovering the roots of 

Western civilization and verifying the historical 

authenticity of the Bible, so they often ignored 

archaeological evidence pertaining to Islamic his-

tory and society. Toward the end of the 19th 

century, when Europeans became interested in 

Islamic 

art

 and religion, they began to excavate 

sites that dated to the Islamic periods of history 

(seventh century to 19th century). Among the 

first places to be excavated were Samarqand in 

Turkestan (by Russians, 1885), the Qala of Bani 

Hammad in a

lgeria

 (by French, 1898–1908), and 

Samarra in Ottoman Iraq (by Germans, 1911–20). 

The French conducted the first excavations in Iran 

from the 1880s to 1931 and in s

yria

 after World 

War I. Meanwhile, the British included Islamic as 

well as Hindu and Buddhist sites in their Archaeo-

logical Survey of i

ndia

 and conducted excavations 

at Islamic sites in Palestine, Transjordan (now 

Jordan), and Iraq. Americans became involved in 

Middle Eastern archaeology in the 1920s, concen-

trating their efforts in Palestine and Iran. Since 

World War II, they have focused attention on 

Islamic sites in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen. While