Alison Vacca is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. A recipient of the Fulbright Islamic Civilization Initiative award and the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund fellowship, her research focuses on intercultural transmission of historical texts, the use of Arabic sources to tell Armenian history, the relationship between the South Caucasus and Central Asia, and inter-communal conflict between Muslims and Christians under early Islamic rule.
'In the super-complex literature on the history of Armenia and the Caucasus, Vacca's work is both the best general introduction and a significant contribution to on-going debates.' Hugh Kennedy, Journal of Islamic Studies 'Alison Vacca makes a fascinating case for Sasanian, and possibly Arsacid/Parthian, legacies in matters of administrative geography, frontier culture, religious policy, mechanisms of control, treaties, and taxation in the historiography of the tenth-century Iranian intermezzo in the sub-Caucasus region, and makes the important points that legacy is not necessarily actual continuity, that the Sasanian legacy consisted of how they were remembered, and that the use of Sasanian-period texts by tenth century authors as models to describe caliphal rule encouraged a perception of continuity.' Michael Morony, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles 'Alison Vacca has produced an exciting, ambitious, and groundbreaking investigation that unfurls across a massive cross-cultural canvas. Deploying a bold interdisciplinary approach grounded in an impressive array of sources, this is the most important monograph on early Islamic Caucasia since Ter-Ghewondyan's Arab Emirates in Bagratid Armenia. It will immediately establish itself as a 'go to' book not only for Armenologists and Caucasiologists but also specialists of Sasanian Iran, the early Islamic world, and Byzantium.' Stephen Rapp, Jr, Professor of Eurasian History, Sam Houston State University