Transregional and regional elites: connecting the early Islamic Empire

Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East are published as supplement to Der Islam which was founded in 1910 by Carl Heinrich Becker, an early practitioner of the modern study of Islam. The mission of the series is the study of past societies of the Middle East, their belief systems, and their underlying social and economic relations--in their aim to cover the entire spectrum of the historically oriented humanities and social sciences.

Frontmatter --Table of Contents --Introduction: Transregional and Regional Elites -- Connecting the Early Islamic Empire /Heidemann, Stefan --Studying Elites in Early Islamic History: Concepts and Terminology /Hagemann, Hannah-Lena / Mewes, Katharina / Verkinderen, Peter --Arabia and Iraq --Insult the Caliph, Marry al-Ḥasan, and Redeem Your Kingdom: Freiheitsgrade of Kindī Elites During the 7th to 9th Century /Leube, Georg --Landowners in Lower Iraq during the 8th Century: Types and Interplays /Lucas, Noëmie --The Rise and Fall of the Early 'Abbāsid Political and Military Elite /Kennedy, Hugh --The East --Who Were the Mulūk Fārs? /Paul, Jürgen --An Empire of Elites: Mobility in the Early Islamic Empire /Khan, Ahmad --Preliminary Notes on the Term and Institution of al-Shākiriyya in Early Islam (ca. 14-218 H/635-36-833 CE) Mainly According to the Arabic Sources /Elad, Amikam --The Eastern Mediterranean and the North --Khurāsānī and Transoxanian Ostikans of Early 'Abbāsid Armenia /Vacca, Alison --The Governors of al-Shām and Fārs in the Early Islamic Empire -- A Comparative Regional Perspective /Gundelfinger, Simon / Verkinderen, Peter --Muslim Elites in the Early Islamic Jazīra: The Qāḍīs of Ḥarrān, al-Raqqa, and al-Mawṣil /Hagemann, Hannah-Lena --Christian Elite Networks in the Jazīra, c.730-850 /Wood, Philip --The West --Establishing Local Elite Authority in Egypt Through Arbitration and Mediation /Sijpesteijn, Petra --The Civilian Ruling Elite of the Ṭūlūnid-Ikhshīdid Period /Lev, Yaacov --Connecting the Ibāḍī Network in North Africa with the Empire (2nd-3rd/8th-9th Centuries) /Aillet, Cyrille --Indices --Index of names --Index of places --Index of subjects

To integrate the regions of the early Islamic Empire from Central Asia to North Africa, transregional and regional elites of various backgrounds were essential. The papers analyze elite groups, their structures and networks, within selected regions across geographical, religious and social boundaries. While each region seems to be different, certain common patterns of governance and interaction made the largest empire of Late Antiquity work.