Read more
Syria down to Saladin is the first comprehensive historical study of post-Umayyad Syria based on Ibn ꜤAsākir's
Tā'rīkh madīnat Dimashq (History of the City of Damascus). As the largest work that has ever appeared documenting pre-modern Syria, Ibn ꜤAsākir's
History is a major source for the study of the region. It has, however, been underutilised for the simple reason that it is vast. This book makes this unique local history newly accessible to a broader scholarly audience.
Basing his analysis on 6,066 biographical entries from Ibn ꜤAsākir's text, David Cook reconstructs the history of Syria between the fall of the Umayyads and the rise of the Seljuqs. He provides vital context for pre-Crusader Syria, as well as offering new perspectives on Damascus during the First Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. He considers topics such as the emergence of new elites, changes in religious and economic bases, and the narration of prophetic tradition, placing these events within a broader pan-Islamic context. Containing over 150 original genealogical tables, 40 maps and 7 appendices, this book stands as a monument to the intellectual and religious breadth of Ibn ꜤAsākir, highlighting how his text can shed light on a diversity of topics and inviting historians to use it systematically when discussing post-Umayyad Syria.
About the author
David Cook is professor of religion at Rice University specializing in Islam. He did his undergraduate degrees at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2001. His areas of specialization include early Islamic history and development, as well as Muslim apocalyptic literature and movements (classical and contemporary). His first book,
Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, was published by Darwin Press in the series Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. Two further books,
Understanding Jihad (University of California Press) and
Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature (Syracuse University Press) were published during 2005, and
Martyrdom in Islam (Cambridge University Press 2007) as well as
The Syrian Muslim Apocalyptic Heritage: An Annotated Translation of NuꜤaym b. Ḥammād al-Marwazī's Kitāb al-fitan (The Book of Tribulations) (Edinburgh University Press, 2018).
Summary
Fills a 400-year gap in Syrian history, based on the largest and most significant source for medieval Syria.
