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Towards the end of the 7th century A.D., Iraq was in a state of near civil war, caused by social and political malaise. Factional and tribal feuds and fierce antagonism to the Umayyad reign threatened the survival of the dynasty as the unifying force of the empire. Into this situation, al-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya (d.c. 100/718), a grandson of 'Alī, introduced a peace formula which was intended to pacify the rival religio-political parties. This idea found adherence especially among religious scholars, who quickly broadened its basis, attracting followers to its pacific message. Despite an unstable record of relations with the court, the movement basically supported with its ideology the legitimacy of the Umayyad reign. The popularity of the movement, especially in some scholarly circles in Kufa, led to the formation of a school of religious thought, which had relied on the basic political and religious attitudes of the early Murji'a, but transformed it into a comprehensive theological system. Although not responsible for the actual forging of Murji'ite attitudes, Abū Ḥanīfa had emerged as the eponymous epitome of the movement and the theological school. The first chapter, "Irjā', The Development of the Idea", investigates several possibilities as the source of this notion, among them the alleged Qur'ānic origin, and the Kitāb al-Irjā' attributed to al-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya. The second chapter, "The Formation of the Murji'a as a ReligioPolitical Movement" surveys the social and the historical background of the Kufan milieu, the formation of the Murji'ite circle and the social elements it was comprised of, and the position of the movement in political and religious affairs in the first two decades of the 8th century .A.D. The third and last chapter, "The Transformation of the Murji'a from a Political into a Religiously-Oriented School" studies and analyses what is believed to be genuine Murji'ite treatises of religious thought, in comparison to sources of a contemporary rival school and the heresiographers. Special emphasis was laid in the analysis on the subject of theology as a medium for political views.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Despite the recent interest in late antique archaeology and the increasing number of publications on the transformations of towns (both in Spain and in the Roman world as a whole), the concern shown towards aqueducts has been almost non-existent. Some studies have focused on exceptional local examples, such as Rome or Constantinople, but there have been neither general nor regional syntheses of the chronology of the abandonment of aqueducts on a broad regional scale. This thesis consequently fills this gap in our knowledge by offering an all-encompassing study and compilation of the available material and written evidence for aqueducts in Spain in Late Antiquity, it looks at aqueducts in the late Roman period, and how they evolve through the Visigothic and the Umayyad centuries. For this purpose, each aqueduct in the Iberian Peninsula is assessed according to the available information and studied in its wider urban context. By the end of the thesis it is possible to put forward some clear results on the degree of continuity of aqueducts in Spain. The information is used to analyse how the presence or absence of aqueducts affected the development of urban settlement and housing patterns away from a traditional Roman context. Aqueducts had not been at first an essential part of urban life, yet by Late Antiquity they had become so intimately related to it that the end of aqueduct supply modified urban landscapes. Finally, I present various scenarios to explain why aqueducts ceased to function and how the various elite groups of the period (urban aristocrats, the Church, the Visigothic monarchy and the Umayyads) tried to take over the control of the aqueducts, as they were not only extremely useful functional monuments, but also reminders and legitimising links to the Roman past.

Le haut Moyen Âge ibérique se caractérise par un changement brutal initié en 711 avec la conquête musulmane du royaume wisigothique. Cet évènement qui bouleversa l’histoire de l’Espagne n’est éclairé que de manière très lacunaire par les sources latines et arabes. Au cours des dernières années, le développement de l’archéologie a néanmoins contribué à une meilleure connaissance de la fin de la monarchie de Tolède et du début d’al-Andalus. Parmi le matériel exhumé, les monnaies sont souvent privilégiées dans les travaux scientifiques et la numismatique bénéficie pour ces périodes d’une bibliographie abondante. Cela permet aujourd’hui une approche plus exhaustive et une meilleure compréhension de leur rôle, de leur utilisation et de leur circulation. Mais les monnaies représentent également un précieux témoignage des difficultés de la fin du royaume wisigothique qui facilitèrent l’entrée et les avancées des troupes arabo-berbères en Hispanie. De même, elles sont les vestiges matériels presqu’exclusifs de la conquête, en particulier pour les régions du Nord du royaume au sujet desquelles les textes se montrent très lacunaires. Enfin, elles furent un outil administratif des Omeyyades au sein d’un émirat dont la centralisation s’accentua avec les réformes réalisées sous ‘Abd al-Raḥmān II (822-852). Cette évolution est perceptible dans la nature même du numéraire employé : alors que les Wisigoths perpétuèrent un monnayage sur le modèle antique en frappant une division du solidus, les musulmans privilégièrent le dirham, rattachant la Péninsule au « monométallisme » argentifère caractéristique du haut Moyen Âge occidental. / The Iberian Early Middle Ages are generally characterized by a rough change began in 711 with the Muslim conquest of the Visigothic kingdom. Latin and Arabic textual sources throw few lights on this event that profoundly marked the history of Spain. During the last years, archaeology’s development contributed to a better knowledge about the last years of Toledo Kingdom and beginning of al-Andalus. Among the exhumed material, coins are generally very used in historical studies and numismatic benefits from a large bibliography for this period. That’s why it allows a more exhaustive approach and a better understanding of their role, utilization and circulation. These coins represent an invaluable evidence of the kingdom’s difficulties before the conquest that make easier the Arabic progress in this territory. They are nearly exclusive traces about the conquest, especially for the North part of the kingdom which is little informed by the sources. Finally, they were an administrative tool for Umayyad in the Emirate’s construction and centralization in effect under ‘Abd al-Raḥmān II (822-852). This evolution could be symbolized by monetary changes: Visigoths perpetuated antique coinage with the emission of parts of solidus, Muslims preferred dirham, bringing the Iberian Area under “monometallic” plate zone characteristic of High Middle Ages Occident.

This dissertation is a study of the Futūḥ Miṣr (Conquest of Egypt) of Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam (d. 257/871), the earliest extant Arabic history of Egypt. Its primary aim is not to assess whether its information is 'authentic' - i.e. corresponding to an objective historical reality - though my findings are of relevance for those engaged in debates over authenticity. My goal instead is to explore the ideas about the past which are conveyed by this particular conglomeration of historical information and to propose methods through which we can expose and analyse different layers and types of authorial activity within a multi-vocal text like Futūḥ Miṣr. Ultimately, I use this analysis as the basis of a case study suggesting how we might more effectively historicise the generation and transmission of historical ideas in the early Islamic period. Part I of the thesis consists of three chapters which explore Futūḥ Miṣr as a whole, literary text which can be understood as an instantiation of the historical worldview of its composer. Part II of the thesis contains three chapters which each illuminate features of Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam's historical practice which are important prerequisites for the stratigraphic reading of Futūḥ Miṣr performed in Part III. Part III of the thesis uses the understanding of Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam's authorial techniques developed in Part II to expose the earlier packages of historical information which underpin Futūḥ Miṣr. These final three chapters demonstrate how Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam reinvested these pre-existing narratives with meaning at a micro-level - by interjecting commentary and accounts from other sources - and at a macro-level - by integrating them into the larger narrative structure of Futūḥ Miṣr. In sum, this thesis is the first systematic study of the sources, structure, and authorship of an early Arabic history, which both tests and expands our current understanding of the dynamics of early Islamic historical writing, and sheds light on numerous aspects of the changing uses of the past among the Muslim scholars of Umayyad and 'Abbāsid Egypt.

When considering the available sources for Islamic history between the seventh and eighth centuries CE, there are few which have greater importance than al-Balādhurī's (d. ca. 892 CE/279 AH) Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān (The Book of the Conquest of Lands). While the text and its author are recognized for their importance as a historical source for the early Islamic period, there has previously been no in-depth study of either. This dissertation works to correct these gaps in knowledge of the author and his text by investigating the construction, form, content, and early reception history of al-Balādhurī's book. This research begins by providing a manuscript tradition of Futūḥ al-Buldān, including a discussion of a previously unpublished manuscript. It thereafter illuminates the background of al-Balādhurī, bringing together much of the previous scholarship on the author while augmenting that information with an analysis of biographical sources and the text itself. It situates the author and his text in its ninth/third century milieu, a period of history where the early Arabic historical tradition was still in its infancy and only just being committed to writing. It suggests the text was likely completed at the end of the "anarchy at Sāmarrā'" in the late 860s CE, and highlights the author's role at the court of several 'Abbāsid Caliphs. After this, it discusses a number of al-Balādhurī's most important (and, in some cases, previously understudied) sources of information, and argues that the author chose to differentiate when he was learning information directly from a teacher and when he had access to written sources. It then analyzes the content and themes of the text, placing special attention on the unique form of Futūḥ al-Buldān and its importance in providing modern scholars with information on the conquest, settlement, and building projects of the early Islamic world. In considering these key themes, this research then argues that Futūḥ al-Buldān defies traditional modern genre classification by borrowing form and content from several different Arabic genres including conquest literature (futūḥ), legal texts, and administrative geographies. It contends that both the text's content and form suggest that it was written to be read by courtly administrators in the service of the state as both a site of memory (lieu de mémoire) and as an "administrator's handbook" during a time of upheaval in the 'Abbāsid realm. Finally, it considers the legacy of Futūḥ al-Buldān and the popularity of al-Balādhurī's book throughout the medieval period through an analysis of textual reuse.

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