Muslim Expansion and Byzantine Collapse in North Africa
Muslim Expansion and Byzantine Collapse in North Africa
£28.00
GBPWho 'lost' Christian North Africa? Who won it and how? Walter Kaegi examines these perennial questions, with maps and on-site observations, in this exciting book. Persisting clouds of suspicion and blame overshadowed many Byzantine attempts to defend North Africa, as Byzantines failed to meet the multiple challenges from different directions which ultimately overwhelmed them. While the Muslims forcefully and permanently turned Byzantine internal dynastic and religious problems and military unrest to their advantage, they brought their own strengths to a dynamic process that would take a long time to complete - the transformation of North Africa. An impartial comparative framework helps to sort through identity politics, 'Orientalism' charges and counter-charges, and institutional controversies; this book also includes a study of the decisive battle of Sbeitla in 647, helping readers to understand what befell Byzantium, and indeed empires from Rome to the present.
- Offers the first large-scale reinterpretation in English of the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the light of the Arabic, Greek and Latin sources, the latest modern scholarship, and visits to the sites with Maghribi scholars
- Surveys the cultural and historiographical dimensions of the end of Roman and Byzantine North Africa, with a separate chapter on 'historiographical hurdles' that block current understanding of Maghrib history
- Re-examines localities and terrain based on a reading of neglected Arabic sources and archives, travels, and on-site consultation
Reviews & endorsements
'… Kaegi has produced an interesting and learned book. He clearly knows the range of surviving literary, numismatic, epigraphic and archeological sources extremely well …' Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Product details
June 2015Paperback
9781107636804
366 pages
229 × 150 × 20 mm
0.52kg
10 b/w illus. 10 maps 1 table
Available
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Table of Contents
- 1. Challenges of the subject and the sources
- 2. Historiographical hurdles
- 3. Fragmented geographical and logistical realities
- 4. Christian contexts in seventh-century North Africa
- 5. The military heritage of Heraclius on the eve of Muslim military operations
- 6. The shock of Sbeitla
- 7. Options for offensives and resistance
- 8. The riddle of Constans II
- 9. Muslim interests, calculations, and leadership
- 10. The shift to tribal resistance
- 11. The fall of Carthage and its aftermath
- 12. The failures of two cities of Constantine.
