Pre-Islamic Arabia: Societies, Politics, Cults and Identities during Late Antiquity

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Valentina A. Grasso (Catholic University of America, Washington DC)

Pre-Islamic Arabia

Societies, Politics, Cults and Identities during Late Antiquity

Valentina A. Grasso (Catholic University of America, Washington DC)

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English

Cambridge University Press
17 April 2025

History; European history; Middle Eastern history; Ancient history: to c 500 CE

This book delves into the political and cultural developments of pre-Islamic Arabia, focusing on the religious attitudes of the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension into the Syrian desert. Between the third and the seventh century, Arabia was on the edge of three great empires (Iran, Rome and Aksūm) and at the centre of a lucrative network of trade routes. Valentina Grasso offers an interpretative framework which contextualizes the choice of Arabian elites to become Jewish sympathisers and/or convert to Christianity and Islam by probing the mobilization of faith in the shaping of Arabian identities. For the first time the Arabians of the period are granted autonomy from marginalizing (mostly Western) narratives framing them as 'barbarians' inhabiting the fringes of Rome and Iran and/or deterministic analyses in which they are depicted retrospectively as exemplified by the Muslims' definition of the period as Jāhilīyah, 'ignorance'.

By: Valentina A. Grasso (Catholic University of America Washington DC)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 458g
ISBN: 9781009253000
ISBN 10: 100925300X
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 17 April 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

VALENTINA A. GRASSO is an Assistant Professor at the Catholic University of America. She was previously Visiting Assistant Professor at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, and an affiliate member of the ERC project 'The Qur'an as a Source for Late Antiquity'.

Reviews for Pre-Islamic Arabia: Societies, Politics, Cults and Identities during Late Antiquity

'[A] wonderful exploration of a neglected area of late antiquity studies. It is this rarity that makes this work immensely important. … Essential.' J. Tucci, Choice