This paper examines the cultural appropriation of Beirut, a town on the margins of the Empire, and its integration into the nascent Islamic cultural landscape within the context of the sacralization of the Umayyad maritime frontier. Two processes demarcate this phenomenon. The first is the development of the rib? and its application to Beirut and other Syrian frontier towns. The second process, and the primary concern of this paper, is that of the implantation of 'sacred figures', both real and fictitious, such as ascetics and holy warriors in the liminal space between the Muslims and Byzantines. In the case of Beirut, narratives of early ascetic figures such Abs al-Dard a (d. 32/652) and Salm)n al-Fariss (d. 35/655-6 or 36/656-7) and later wandering ascetics such as Sacsd b. Abs Sa d al-Maqbar (d.126/743) and Ibr(h.m b. Adham (d. 161/777-8) in Beirut's landscape mark the transformation of Beirut from a late antique town into a 'sacred' Islamic one-a transformation culminating with the arrival of the pious scholar aAbd al-Ra mhn b. uAmr al-Awz-A (d. 157/774). This is not to deny the historicity of the presence of these pious individuals in the town. Indeed, Beirut, a frontier town hiding in the shadow of the Lebanon mountains but still geographically close to the Umayyad center, did attract jihod seekers, dissidents and other trouble makers such as the Qadarite rUmayr b. Hanir (d. 127/744) and the controversial exegete Muq2til b. Sulaymen (d. 150/767). Nonetheless, the remembrance and inclusion of these individuals in the historical narrative is seen here as an integral part of the wider process of the elaboration and creation of an Islamic landscape in Syria during the Umayyad period.