Session 19 | Jund Urdunn and Jund Filastin – The Land as Part of the Early Islamic Empires
#76-78

#76. Introduction

This lecture will cover the progress of the first three Islamic dynasties that ruled over Palestine and modern-day Jordan, namely, the Umayyads, Abbasids, and Fatimids. This will bring us up to the time period just prior to the Christian Crusades to Palestine. The reading materials accompanying lecture 19 will concentrate upon the interactions between the inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean world and their Islamic superiors who ruled from Damascus, Baghdad, and Cairo.

#77. Al-Tabari

For this assignment, five excerpts have been taken from Al-Tabari’s history – The Early ‘Abbasi Empire – which deal with the political system in place during the reign of Haroon al-Rasheed, who ruled from Baghdad, the City of Peace. Note the portions of the below excerpts that portray the nature of Haroon’s rule as well as the administration system of the kingdom.


Translated by J.A. Williams, Al-Tabari, Vol. 2, Cambridge 1989, pp. 182-184, 191, 203-206, 216-217, 260-263.
077. Williams, 182-184, 191, 203-206, 216-217, 260-263Download

Question

In one or two paragraphs answer this question: what was the system of government under Haroon al-Rasheed in terms of political and economic structure and the centrality of administration?

#78. Amikam Elad

In the following essay, Elad analyzes the effects that the establishment of an Arab empire had upon the coastal cities of Palestine, a region which for many years played a vital role in the exchange of commerce.


A. Elad, The Coastal Cities of Palestine During the Early Middle Ages, pp. 146-167 in The Jerusalem Cathedra, Vol. 2, ed. by L.I. Levine, Jerusalem and Detroit 1982.
078. Elad, 146-167Download