Petra M. Sijpesteijn, Shaping a Muslim State

Shaping a Muslim State
The World of a Mid-Eighth-Century Egyptian Official
Petra M. Sijpesteijn
Oxford Studies in Byzantium
424 pages | 35 pages of black and white plates | 216x138mm
978-0-19-967390-2 | Hardback | 19 December 2013
Price:  £90.00

Accessible history of the formation of Islam and the first hundred years of Muslim rule in Egypt. 
Examines a corpus of previously unknown Arabic papyrus letters.
Illustrated with 35 black and white plates.

Shaping a Muslim State provides a synthetic study of the political, social, and economic processes which formed early Islamic Egypt. Looking at a corpus of previously unknown Arabic papyrus letters, dating from between AD 730 and 750, which were written to a Muslim administrator and merchant in the Fayyum oasis in Egypt, Sijpesteijn examines the reasons for the success of the early Arab conquests and the transition from the pre-Islamic Byzantine system and its Egyptian executors to an Arab/Muslim state.

By examining the impact of Islam on the daily lives of those living under its rule, the volume highlights the striking newness of Islamic society while also acknowledging the influence of the ancient societies which preceded it. The book applies theoretical discussions about governance, historiography, (social) linguistics, and source criticism to understand the dynamics of early Islamic Egypt, as well as the larger process of state formation in the Islamic world.

Readership: For students and scholars interested in classical and Byzantine studies, ancient history, and the history of Islam and the Islamic Empire.