The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate ad 661-750

Ris Melle
’ (
Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam,
  9
(1987)). Brock was involved too, together with Robert Hoyland and
Andrew Palmer in a work which contains the translation, in whole or
in part, of several Syriac chronicles and apocalypses: Andrew
Palmer (ed.), 
The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles,
Liverpool: Liverpool University Press 1993. Finally, Hoyland has
produced in the 
LAEI
 studies series the fullest survey and discussion
of the non-Muslim sources relating to the early Islamic period:
Seeing Islam as Others Saw It,
 Princeton: Darwin Press, Inc. 1997.
The question of how far the Arabic, Syriac and Greek historical
traditions concerning early Islam are interrelated is examined in
Lawrence I.Conrad, ‘Theophanes and the Arabic Historical
Tradition. Some Indications of Intercultural Transmission’
(
Byzantinische Forschungen,
 15 (1990), 1–44). The connexion

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Bibliographical Postscript to the Second Edition  
133
between Muslim apocalyptic traditions and historical events and the
possible value of the apocalyptic materials as historical sources have
been explored by Wilferd Madelung, ‘Apocalyptic Prophecies in
?im? in the Umayyad Age’ (
Journal of Semitic Studies,
 31 (1986),
141–85), and by Michael Cook, among whose contributions on this
topic reference may be made especially to ‘Eschatology and the
Dating of Traditions’ (
Princeton Papers in Near Eastern Studies,
 1
(1992), 23–47) since it responds to Madelung’s suggestion about
material relating to the struggle between the Umayyads and Ibn al-
Zubayr (see chapter 4 above).
The period of the Umayyad caliphate is the first in Islamic history
for which we have reasonably substantial archaeological evidence—
not only buildings, but coins, inscriptions and other non-literary
source material. For a wide ranging introduction to and survey of the
whole field of Islamic architecture, with some material of relevance
to the period covered in this book, see now Robert Hillenbrand,
Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning
 (Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press 1994). The same author’s ‘
La Dolce Vita
in Early Islamic Syria: The Evidence of Later Umayyad Palaces’
(
Art History,
 5 (1982), 1–35), is especially relevant here.
Among the investigations of specific sites mention may be made
of the work of the German Archaeological Institute at al-Ru?afa (see
p. 91 above), the fourth volume of which deals with the Umayyad
Ru?afat Hisham: Dorothee Sack, 
Die grosse Moschee von Resafa—
Rusafat Hisaam
 (Mainz am Rhein: Zabern 1996).
Naturally many other sites have been and continue to be the
object of archaeological investigations, including al-?umayma the
home of the Abbasid family in Jordan for many years, and Merv
(Marw) in Khurasan where the rising which overthrew the
Umayyads began. Alexander Northedge has discussed the evidence
pertaining to the (no longer visible) Umayyad mosque on the site of
the citadel in Amman in the proceedings of the Bilad al-Sham
conference mentioned above. The work of Patricia Carlier at the
place called Qa?tal in Jordan, reported in the same proceedings, is
especially interesting because it has discovered a mosque with a
‘deviant’ orientation which may be added to those mentioned in
Crone and Cook, 
Hagarism,
 p. 23.
For two new inscriptions from the Umayyad era and discussion of
points arising from them, see Amikam Elad, ‘The Southern Golan in
the Early Muslim Period. The Significance of Two Newly
Discovered Milestones of ?bd al-Malik’ (
Der Islam,
 76 (1999)).

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134
Bibliographical Postscript to the Second Edition
For coins there are various publications of Michael L.Bates,
including: ‘The Arab-Byzantine Coinage of Syria: An Innovation by
?bd al-Malik’, in 
A Colloquium in Memory of George Carpenter
Miles
 (New York: American Numismatic Society 1976), 16–27;
‘History, Geography and Numismatics in the First Century of
Islamic Coinage’ (
Revue Suisse de Numismatique,
 65 (1986), 321–
63; and ‘The Coinage of Syria under the Umayyads’ in the
proceedings of the Bilad al-Sham symposium. For references to the
first two of those articles, I am grateful to Michael Bonner. The
catalogue of Lutz Ilisch, 
Sylloge Numorum Arabicorum Tübingen
.
Palästina IVa Bilad as-Sam I,
 Tübingen 1993, may now also be
consulted.
For weights and stamps and the evidence to be found on them
pertaining to the personnel and institutions of the Umayyad
administration, A.H.Morton has published 
A Catalogue of Early
Islamic Stamps in the British Museum
 (London 1985), ‘A Glass
Dinar Weight in the Name of ?bd al-?ziz b. Marwan’ (
Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies,
 49 (1986)), and ‘?isba and
Early Glass Stamps in Eighth and Early Ninth-century Egypt’
(
Documents de l’Islam Medieval. Nouvelles Perspectives de
Recherche,
 Paris: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale du Caire
1991).