A. Nassr, Ahmed Elhassan, Mohammed Al-Hajj, Ali Tueaiman
Faid was a major pilgrim Islamic oasis located 120 km southeast of the Ha’il Province, northwest of Saudi Arabia. It was founded on the major Hajj Road between Baghdad/Kufa and Medina and was developed by Zubaydah bint Ja'far, granddaughter to the Caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur (the founder of Baghdad) and wife to the fifth Abbasid Caliph, Harun Ar-Rašid 775–785 CE. Therefore, during the reign of Harun Ar-Rašid Caliph, the major pilgrim road was renamed from Darb Heerah to Darb Zubaydah. The archaeological site in Faid was referenced and described by several travellers and scholars and excavated by the Heritage Commission, Ministry of Culture, Saudi Arabia 1998–2012. From 2014–2022, the University of Ha’il conducted nine fieldwork seasons at the site. The authors directed the last four seasons, which revealed numerous new discoveries from stratified excavations. This study aims to reconstruct the occupation chronology at the site based on stratigraphic contexts and supported by radiocarbon dating, artefact studies, and written resources. Three occupation horizons were identified at the site; the early Abbasid period was the dominant occupation. The resulting radiocarbon calibrated ages were consistent with the preliminary archaeological studies carried out by the authors. The results presented in this paper represent an attempt to reconstruct the chronology of the study site.
{"title":"Dating of Stratified Settlement Remains in Faid Pilgrim Station, Northwest of Saudi Arabia","authors":"A. Nassr, Ahmed Elhassan, Mohammed Al-Hajj, Ali Tueaiman","doi":"10.1558/jia.22546","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.22546","url":null,"abstract":"Faid was a major pilgrim Islamic oasis located 120 km southeast of the Ha’il Province, northwest of Saudi Arabia. It was founded on the major Hajj Road between Baghdad/Kufa and Medina and was developed by Zubaydah bint Ja'far, granddaughter to the Caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur (the founder of Baghdad) and wife to the fifth Abbasid Caliph, Harun Ar-Rašid 775–785 CE. Therefore, during the reign of Harun Ar-Rašid Caliph, the major pilgrim road was renamed from Darb Heerah to Darb Zubaydah. The archaeological site in Faid was referenced and described by several travellers and scholars and excavated by the Heritage Commission, Ministry of Culture, Saudi Arabia 1998–2012. From 2014–2022, the University of Ha’il conducted nine fieldwork seasons at the site. The authors directed the last four seasons, which revealed numerous new discoveries from stratified excavations. This study aims to reconstruct the occupation chronology at the site based on stratigraphic contexts and supported by radiocarbon dating, artefact studies, and written resources. Three occupation horizons were identified at the site; the early Abbasid period was the dominant occupation. The resulting radiocarbon calibrated ages were consistent with the preliminary archaeological studies carried out by the authors. The results presented in this paper represent an attempt to reconstruct the chronology of the study site.","PeriodicalId":41225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Archaeology","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41337256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The village of Shad-abad, located at the foot of Sahand Mountain in the south of Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, is known for the impressive Medieval cemetery in which the tomb of Sultan Oways ibn Hasan ibn Hosayn ibn Aqbuqa ibn Ilka ibn Jalayer (1338–1374 CE), the second ruler of the Jalayirid dynasty (1335–1432 CE), is located. This tombstone is of particular importance as no other gravestones of Jalayirid Sultans or their predecessors have otherwise been documented. This research limits itself to studying Sultan Oways' tombstone by focusing on its content and layout in contribution to further future research. Observations suggest that the scheme of the rectangular headstone in Sultan Oways’ tombstone is derived from funerary art associated with stone works in neighboring Caucasia that are replicated in local cemeteries in eastern Anatolia and Northwest Iran, in combination with an oblong horizontal footstone.
Shad-abad村位于伊朗东阿塞拜疆省大不里士南部的Sahand山脚下，以令人印象深刻的中世纪墓地而闻名，其中有苏丹Oways ibn Hasan ibn Hosayn ibn Aqbuqa ibn Ilka ibn Jalayer(公元1338-1374年)的坟墓，他是Jalayirid王朝(公元1335-1432年)的第二任统治者。这座墓碑特别重要，因为贾拉伊里德苏丹或他们的前任没有其他墓碑被记录在案。本研究仅局限于对苏丹奥维斯墓碑的研究，重点关注其内容和布局，以期对未来的进一步研究有所贡献。观察表明，苏丹·奥维斯墓碑中的长方形墓碑的设计来源于邻近高加索地区的石制艺术，这些石制艺术在安纳托利亚东部和伊朗西北部的当地墓地中得到了复制，并结合了一个长方形的水平墓碑。
{"title":"Tombstone of Sultan Oways Jalayeri and its Inscription","authors":"A. Moradi","doi":"10.1558/jia.24718","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.24718","url":null,"abstract":"The village of Shad-abad, located at the foot of Sahand Mountain in the south of Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, is known for the impressive Medieval cemetery in which the tomb of Sultan Oways ibn Hasan ibn Hosayn ibn Aqbuqa ibn Ilka ibn Jalayer (1338–1374 CE), the second ruler of the Jalayirid dynasty (1335–1432 CE), is located. This tombstone is of particular importance as no other gravestones of Jalayirid Sultans or their predecessors have otherwise been documented. This research limits itself to studying Sultan Oways' tombstone by focusing on its content and layout in contribution to further future research. Observations suggest that the scheme of the rectangular headstone in Sultan Oways’ tombstone is derived from funerary art associated with stone works in neighboring Caucasia that are replicated in local cemeteries in eastern Anatolia and Northwest Iran, in combination with an oblong horizontal footstone.","PeriodicalId":41225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45395454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The political landscape of the emergent medieval Georgian nation among the predominant Islamic emirates is a relatively new field for western scholars. The Medieval Georgian polity, led by King Davit IV (Aghmshenebeli), rose to power in the late 11th and early 12th centuries CE. As the crowning jewel of a new architectural scheme, King Davit IV constructed the Gelati Monastery as a symbol of political, social, and religious power in medieval Georgia. King Davit IV’s son, King Demet’re I, finished the monastery in the 12th century and added to its construction with one fundamental piece, the iron gates of Ganja. The gates, taken by King Demetrius I from the Islamic city of Ganja in 1139 CE as a spoil of war, were placed next to the grave of King Davit IV Aghmshenebeli. My paper investigates the symbolic importance of the gates from Ganja in its original context for the local Ganjans and what it later meant to the Georgians. I also address the types of peoples involved with the transformation of the gate’s power as it moved locations. These gates have an Arabic inscription on them that indicates the original purpose of the gates for the Islamic ruler of Ganja. A translation of the Arabic script on the gates is also given in my paper. Finally, I demonstrate how the meanings of the gates of Ganja changed as King Demet’re I moved them from Ganja to their final destination within the Gelati complex and how those meanings related to the political landscape that the Medieval Georgian Kingdom sought to create.
对西方学者来说，新兴的中世纪格鲁吉亚国家的政治格局是一个相对较新的领域。中世纪的格鲁吉亚政体由国王戴维特四世(Aghmshenebeli)领导，在公元11世纪末和12世纪初掌权。在中世纪的格鲁吉亚，国王戴维特四世建造了格拉蒂修道院，作为政治、社会和宗教权力的象征，这是一项新建筑方案的皇冠上的宝石。国王戴维四世的儿子，国王德梅特一世在12世纪完成了这座修道院，并在其建筑中添加了一个基本部分，Ganja的铁门。公元1139年，国王德米特里乌斯一世从伊斯兰城市甘贾(Ganja)夺取了这些城门，作为战利品，它们被放置在国王戴维特四世(Davit IV Aghmshenebeli)的坟墓旁边。我的论文调查了Ganja门在其原始背景下对当地Ganja人的象征意义，以及它后来对格鲁吉亚人的意义。我也提到了在传送之门移动地点时，参与能量转换的人的类型。这些门上有阿拉伯语铭文，表明了Ganja的伊斯兰统治者最初的目的。在我的论文中也给出了门上的阿拉伯文字的翻译。最后，我将展示当Demet国王将Ganja之门从Ganja移至Gelati建筑群的最终目的地时，Ganja之门的意义是如何变化的，以及这些意义如何与中世纪格鲁吉亚王国试图创造的政治景观相关联。
{"title":"Transforming Religious and Monarchial Power","authors":"Jason Hubbert","doi":"10.1558/jia.20436","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.20436","url":null,"abstract":"The political landscape of the emergent medieval Georgian nation among the predominant Islamic emirates is a relatively new field for western scholars. The Medieval Georgian polity, led by King Davit IV (Aghmshenebeli), rose to power in the late 11th and early 12th centuries CE. As the crowning jewel of a new architectural scheme, King Davit IV constructed the Gelati Monastery as a symbol of political, social, and religious power in medieval Georgia. King Davit IV’s son, King Demet’re I, finished the monastery in the 12th century and added to its construction with one fundamental piece, the iron gates of Ganja. The gates, taken by King Demetrius I from the Islamic city of Ganja in 1139 CE as a spoil of war, were placed next to the grave of King Davit IV Aghmshenebeli. My paper investigates the symbolic importance of the gates from Ganja in its original context for the local Ganjans and what it later meant to the Georgians. I also address the types of peoples involved with the transformation of the gate’s power as it moved locations. These gates have an Arabic inscription on them that indicates the original purpose of the gates for the Islamic ruler of Ganja. A translation of the Arabic script on the gates is also given in my paper. Finally, I demonstrate how the meanings of the gates of Ganja changed as King Demet’re I moved them from Ganja to their final destination within the Gelati complex and how those meanings related to the political landscape that the Medieval Georgian Kingdom sought to create.","PeriodicalId":41225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44587912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In celebration of the ten-year anniversary of the journal, this brief editorial note reviews the ways the field of Islamic archaeology has developed in the last decade, and the ways in which the journal has generated growth, facilitated innovation and collaboration, and given visibility to the field.
{"title":"Maturation of a Discipline","authors":"B. Walker","doi":"10.1558/jia.26693","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.26693","url":null,"abstract":"In celebration of the ten-year anniversary of the journal, this brief editorial note reviews the ways the field of Islamic archaeology has developed in the last decade, and the ways in which the journal has generated growth, facilitated innovation and collaboration, and given visibility to the field.","PeriodicalId":41225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48170527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The history of settlements in the Mareotis region or the immediate hinterland of Alexandria in the first century following the Arab conquest of Egypt has not been sufficiently studied. Earlier findings stated that the region had suffered a settlement crisis prior to the second half of the 7th century AD, with an unstable hydrological situation as the contributing factor. Those findings contradicted the results of the archaeological excavations at Philoxenite, a town located in the western part of the Mareotis region. The Byzantine buildings and public spaces studied at that site had been in use until the first half of the 8th century. Upon analysis, the associated sequences of layers and structures imply that their uses were subject to modification. Putting these findings into the context of a regional perspective leads to the conclusion that the settlement history of Alexandria’s western hinterland was more complex than previously thought. Not only does this concern the difficulties in accessing water, but also the decrease in Christian pilgrimage traffic as important factors responsible for the changes.
{"title":"Pilgrim Town of Philoxenite and Settlement Continuation in the Early Islamic Hinterland of Alexandria, Egypt","authors":"M. Gwiazda","doi":"10.1558/jia.24820","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.24820","url":null,"abstract":"The history of settlements in the Mareotis region or the immediate hinterland of Alexandria in the first century following the Arab conquest of Egypt has not been sufficiently studied. Earlier findings stated that the region had suffered a settlement crisis prior to the second half of the 7th century AD, with an unstable hydrological situation as the contributing factor. Those findings contradicted the results of the archaeological excavations at Philoxenite, a town located in the western part of the Mareotis region. The Byzantine buildings and public spaces studied at that site had been in use until the first half of the 8th century. Upon analysis, the associated sequences of layers and structures imply that their uses were subject to modification. Putting these findings into the context of a regional perspective leads to the conclusion that the settlement history of Alexandria’s western hinterland was more complex than previously thought. Not only does this concern the difficulties in accessing water, but also the decrease in Christian pilgrimage traffic as important factors responsible for the changes.","PeriodicalId":41225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43566378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper draws on the preliminary results of the rescue excavation conducted by the Department of Antiquities at Umm Zweitineh in central Jordan in 2012. The goal of the excavation was to take urgent action regarding protecting the site as far as possible. Due to budget constraints, the excavation work lasted for only twenty days. The aim of the article is that of providing a clear regional picture of the Islamic settlement through the seventh/eighth and fourteenth centuries AD through retrieving information from the architectural remains and material culture. The architectural relics and material culture were unearthed under a dense layer of wreckage and accumulated debris because of previous construction work at the site. The accumulation deposits yielded a ceramic assembly of daily life vessels dating primarily to the Umayyad and Mamluk periods. Earlier pottery sherds belonging to the Roman and Byzantine periods have been also uncovered. Ceramic sherds from the Iron Age II sporadically appeared on topsoil. Besides the ceramic, other metal artifacts, including bronze vessels from different periods, have been unearthed. The Umayyad and Early Mamluk settlements were distinguishable because of the distinct corpus typical of both periods. Possible evidence of a religion building belonging to the Umayyad-period Christianity have been unearthed in Area B.
{"title":"Rescue Excavation at the Islamic Site of Umm Zweitineh in Central Jordan, 2012","authors":"H. Khries, Taher al-Gonmeen","doi":"10.1558/jia.21405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.21405","url":null,"abstract":"This paper draws on the preliminary results of the rescue excavation conducted by the Department of Antiquities at Umm Zweitineh in central Jordan in 2012. The goal of the excavation was to take urgent action regarding protecting the site as far as possible. Due to budget constraints, the excavation work lasted for only twenty days. The aim of the article is that of providing a clear regional picture of the Islamic settlement through the seventh/eighth and fourteenth centuries AD through retrieving information from the architectural remains and material culture. The architectural relics and material culture were unearthed under a dense layer of wreckage and accumulated debris because of previous construction work at the site. The accumulation deposits yielded a ceramic assembly of daily life vessels dating primarily to the Umayyad and Mamluk periods. Earlier pottery sherds belonging to the Roman and Byzantine periods have been also uncovered. Ceramic sherds from the Iron Age II sporadically appeared on topsoil. Besides the ceramic, other metal artifacts, including bronze vessels from different periods, have been unearthed. The Umayyad and Early Mamluk settlements were distinguishable because of the distinct corpus typical of both periods. Possible evidence of a religion building belonging to the Umayyad-period Christianity have been unearthed in Area B.","PeriodicalId":41225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Archaeology","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67554745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Islamization in Mande West Africa gradually accompanied the expansion of mercantile groups and was surprisingly accommodating via syncretic processes with local spiritual traditions. Elites of the Empire of Mali were amongst the first to embrace Islam and mediate between it and indigenous earth religions. Yet this process was patchy across different cultural sectors and from the seventeenth century onwards there were upswellings of Bamanaya, earth religions, in open conflict with waves of Islamic jihadism (e.g. the Umarian movement). Thus, historic polities could retain both mosques and non-Islamic shrines, and maraboutic practices incorporated forms of local magic. This article considers results from “Project Segou”: historical and archaeological fieldwork undertaken between 2005 and 2013 in the Segou region of Mali, stretching approximately from Sinsanni in the east to Nyamina in the west. As a heartland of the Empire of Mali (c. AD 1235–1500) and the core of Bamana Segou (c. AD 1700–1861), its oral and archaeological sources inform our deep time appreciation of ideological and spiritual change at the margins of the Middle Niger from the thirteenth through nineteenth centuries AD.
{"title":"“Bamanaya is so difficult to leave behind”","authors":"K. Macdonald","doi":"10.1558/jia.25867","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.25867","url":null,"abstract":"Islamization in Mande West Africa gradually accompanied the expansion of mercantile groups and was surprisingly accommodating via syncretic processes with local spiritual traditions. Elites of the Empire of Mali were amongst the first to embrace Islam and mediate between it and indigenous earth religions. Yet this process was patchy across different cultural sectors and from the seventeenth century onwards there were upswellings of Bamanaya, earth religions, in open conflict with waves of Islamic jihadism (e.g. the Umarian movement). Thus, historic polities could retain both mosques and non-Islamic shrines, and maraboutic practices incorporated forms of local magic. This article considers results from “Project Segou”: historical and archaeological fieldwork undertaken between 2005 and 2013 in the Segou region of Mali, stretching approximately from Sinsanni in the east to Nyamina in the west. As a heartland of the Empire of Mali (c. AD 1235–1500) and the core of Bamana Segou (c. AD 1700–1861), its oral and archaeological sources inform our deep time appreciation of ideological and spiritual change at the margins of the Middle Niger from the thirteenth through nineteenth centuries AD.","PeriodicalId":41225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48699032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Archaeology is in a unique position to offer a material culture based perspective on Islamization and conversion to Islam, particularly in regions where historical sources might be limited or absent. This is explored with reference to two archaeological areas, Gao in Mali, and Harlaa in Ethiopia to assess if similar material markers can recur archaeologically through evaluating mosques, Muslim burials and Arabic epigraphy, settlement structure and domestic architecture, animal and plant remains, ceramics, and miscellaneous artifacts potentially suggestive of Islamization in both regions, primarily for the period between the 11th–13th centuries CE. It is concluded that the evidence from Gao and Harlaa attests the variety of interpretations of Islam that exist, but, correspondingly, through the recurrence of key markers such as mosques, Muslim burials, and Arabic epigraphy, also affirms material similarity, yet without having to make course to a unitary and erroneous concept of “African Islam.”
{"title":"“Becoming Muslim”","authors":"T. Insoll","doi":"10.1558/jia.25864","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.25864","url":null,"abstract":"Archaeology is in a unique position to offer a material culture based perspective on Islamization and conversion to Islam, particularly in regions where historical sources might be limited or absent. This is explored with reference to two archaeological areas, Gao in Mali, and Harlaa in Ethiopia to assess if similar material markers can recur archaeologically through evaluating mosques, Muslim burials and Arabic epigraphy, settlement structure and domestic architecture, animal and plant remains, ceramics, and miscellaneous artifacts potentially suggestive of Islamization in both regions, primarily for the period between the 11th–13th centuries CE. It is concluded that the evidence from Gao and Harlaa attests the variety of interpretations of Islam that exist, but, correspondingly, through the recurrence of key markers such as mosques, Muslim burials, and Arabic epigraphy, also affirms material similarity, yet without having to make course to a unitary and erroneous concept of “African Islam.”","PeriodicalId":41225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43219664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
North Africa (west of Egypt) is a compelling locale to explore how and when a Muslim minority became the Muslim majority. Previous scholarly approaches to medieval religious change rely almost exclusively on much later written sources, and as a result, little is understood about the religious landscape in which believers operated in. This article examines critically the material evidence for mosque construction and church abandonment and proposes certain tipping points in the process by which Islam become the dominant religion. While mosque construction reveals more about state and elite religious investment than the believers who may have used them, other forms of evidence, including funerary evidence, dietary practices and inscribed material culture, occasionally give us an intimate glimpse into the practices of simple believers. The evidence shows that the chronology of religious change differs between those regions under Byzantine rule (eastern Algeria, Tunisia, coastal Libya), and those ruled by Berber chiefdoms in late antiquity. Much of the latter converted in the 8th century, whereas the late 9th century marks the mass conversion of town dwellers from the Byzantine core and a first period of crisis for Christianity. This early conversion was an important factor in the collapse of the caliphate in North Africa and the emergence of successor states that used Islam as the main idiom through which to establish and legitimize their right to rule.
{"title":"Conquest to Conversion","authors":"Corisande Fenwick","doi":"10.1558/jia.25866","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.25866","url":null,"abstract":"North Africa (west of Egypt) is a compelling locale to explore how and when a Muslim minority became the Muslim majority. Previous scholarly approaches to medieval religious change rely almost exclusively on much later written sources, and as a result, little is understood about the religious landscape in which believers operated in. This article examines critically the material evidence for mosque construction and church abandonment and proposes certain tipping points in the process by which Islam become the dominant religion. While mosque construction reveals more about state and elite religious investment than the believers who may have used them, other forms of evidence, including funerary evidence, dietary practices and inscribed material culture, occasionally give us an intimate glimpse into the practices of simple believers. The evidence shows that the chronology of religious change differs between those regions under Byzantine rule (eastern Algeria, Tunisia, coastal Libya), and those ruled by Berber chiefdoms in late antiquity. Much of the latter converted in the 8th century, whereas the late 9th century marks the mass conversion of town dwellers from the Byzantine core and a first period of crisis for Christianity. This early conversion was an important factor in the collapse of the caliphate in North Africa and the emergence of successor states that used Islam as the main idiom through which to establish and legitimize their right to rule.","PeriodicalId":41225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45326620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Islamic towns dotted the northern coasts of Madagascar in the immediate precolonial period. The heritage of these settlements was not unlike their coastal East African contemporaries. Elaborating upon what is known from regional oral traditions and Islamic histories, archaeology has increasingly served as a conduit for understanding, facilitating the investigation of Muslim chronologies and lifeways in Madagascar. Tangible cultural heritage has corroborated Malagasy tradition, attesting to a human landscape sculpted by centuries of colonization, disparate and interconnected micro-migrations, and seasonal visitations. These finds are echoed in the genetics of the present-day Malagasy, where a legacy of Austronesian, African, and Indian Ocean inputs and population fluidity is found (Heiske et al. 2021; Radimilahy and Crossland 2015, 504–505). The compositional peculiarities of Muslim communities along the northern flanks of Madagascar recommend that Islamic beliefs reached the great island via the Comorian Archipelago in the early 2nd millennium CE, arriving via maritime routes and as components of larger southward dispersion phenomena, which included ideological dissemination, socio-religious affiliation, and the physical movement of people over multiple generations. The diffusion of Islamic ideologies to Madagascar was not realized according to a uniform Islamization pathway, nor was the development of member communities constrained within a single moment in time, as told in Antalaotra and Zafiraminia foundational biographies. Recent archaeological investigations at the Islamic town of Kingany in Madagascar’s northwest help clarify the trajectories of said ideological transmission and elaborate on underlying Islamizing mechanisms pertinent to the Mozambique Channel in this period.
在前殖民时期，伊斯兰城镇遍布马达加斯加北部海岸。这些定居点的遗产与他们同时代的东非沿海地区没有什么不同。考古学在阐释地区口述传统和伊斯兰历史中已知的内容时，越来越多地成为理解的渠道，促进了对马达加斯加穆斯林年表和生活方式的调查。物质文化遗产证实了马达加斯加的传统，证明了几个世纪以来的殖民，不同的和相互联系的微迁徙，以及季节性的访问所塑造的人类景观。这些发现在当今马达加斯加的遗传学中得到了回应，在那里发现了南岛、非洲和印度洋输入和人口流动性的遗产(Heiske等人，2021;Radimilahy and Crossland 2015, 504-505)。沿着马达加斯加北部的穆斯林社区的组成特点表明，伊斯兰信仰在公元2000年早期通过科摩罗群岛到达这个伟大的岛屿，通过海上路线到达，作为更大的向南扩散现象的组成部分，包括意识形态传播，社会宗教信仰，以及几代人的身体运动。伊斯兰意识形态在马达加斯加的传播并不是按照统一的伊斯兰化途径实现的，成员社区的发展也不是像Antalaotra和Zafiraminia的基础传记中所说的那样，在一个单一的时间内受到限制。最近在马达加斯加西北部的金安尼伊斯兰城镇进行的考古调查有助于澄清上述意识形态传播的轨迹，并详细说明了这一时期与莫桑比克海峡有关的潜在伊斯兰化机制。
{"title":"Archaeology of Islamization in Northern Madagascar","authors":"N. Anderson","doi":"10.1558/jia.25865","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jia.25865","url":null,"abstract":"Islamic towns dotted the northern coasts of Madagascar in the immediate precolonial period. The heritage of these settlements was not unlike their coastal East African contemporaries. Elaborating upon what is known from regional oral traditions and Islamic histories, archaeology has increasingly served as a conduit for understanding, facilitating the investigation of Muslim chronologies and lifeways in Madagascar. Tangible cultural heritage has corroborated Malagasy tradition, attesting to a human landscape sculpted by centuries of colonization, disparate and interconnected micro-migrations, and seasonal visitations. These finds are echoed in the genetics of the present-day Malagasy, where a legacy of Austronesian, African, and Indian Ocean inputs and population fluidity is found (Heiske et al. 2021; Radimilahy and Crossland 2015, 504–505). The compositional peculiarities of Muslim communities along the northern flanks of Madagascar recommend that Islamic beliefs reached the great island via the Comorian Archipelago in the early 2nd millennium CE, arriving via maritime routes and as components of larger southward dispersion phenomena, which included ideological dissemination, socio-religious affiliation, and the physical movement of people over multiple generations. The diffusion of Islamic ideologies to Madagascar was not realized according to a uniform Islamization pathway, nor was the development of member communities constrained within a single moment in time, as told in Antalaotra and Zafiraminia foundational biographies. Recent archaeological investigations at the Islamic town of Kingany in Madagascar’s northwest help clarify the trajectories of said ideological transmission and elaborate on underlying Islamizing mechanisms pertinent to the Mozambique Channel in this period.","PeriodicalId":41225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44189557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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