I’ve been doing some work on exotic animals for an upcoming conference paper. Apparently the caliph Yazīd bin Mu‘āwiyah (reigned 680–3) had a pet monkey. Just for fun, here’s what two medieval historians had to say about Yazīd’s monkey. My translations, mistakes all… Continue Reading
There’s a recurring theme in early Arabic literature that foreigners prostrate themselves toward kings, but Muslims only prostrate themselves to God. In the ninth and tenth centuries, when the Abbasid caliphs developed a more complex courtly ceremonial, Muslims of high… Continue Reading
The earliest surviving reference to the Arabic term ‘God is great’ (Allāhu akbar) is in a Syriac text known as the Maronite Chronicle, composed in the second half of the 7th century, perhaps as early as the 660s.[1] The anonymous… Continue Reading
The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad (2013) by John Andrew Morrow is a study of letters and treaties attributed to the Prophet and preserved in documents or medieval Arabic historical literature. I bought a copy (on the recommendations of several… Continue Reading