Scholarship on the Red Sea in the post-Classical period has traditionally focused on the India trade, which was revitalized under the Fatimids and Ayyubids beginning in the 11th and 12th centuries. By the 13th century the Red Sea was the hub of a widespread international network, leading Janet Abu-Lughod to propose the beginnings of a World System economy. This thriving economic system, however, did not appear out of nowhere. Instead, it represents the expansion of earlier trading networks in the region. Several scholars have recently proposed the presence of significant maritime activity in the Red Sea prior to the 11th century. Timothy Power has argued that the rediscovery of the ancient gold mines of northeastern Africa resulted in a 9th – 10th century Arab “gold rush” into the Sudan and a subsequent boom in the slave trade. Kristoffer Damgaard dates the expansion of maritime trade to the later 8th and early 9th centuries based on the appearance of new ceramic forms from Iraq and China. This paper will push the timeline for maritime intensification back further, proposing that the roots of these later mercantile networks were founded under the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs. The importance of this period has largely been overlooked due to the paucity of literary and archaeological data. However, a close survey of the available material reveals evidence for expanding connectivity and resource development, including the rise of state-sponsored grain export, the intensification of agriculture and mining around the Red Sea periphery, and the establishment of new ports. These case studies will demonstrate how the consistent movement of ‘non-luxury’ goods created persistent maritime pathways. This paper will draw parallels with the Roman annona (state-sponsored grain trade), which stimulated economic exchange and helped define trade routes in the Mediterranean by establishing regular shipping patterns. This study will demonstrate that the maritime connections arising from these early economic phenomena laid the groundwork for an integrated network in the Red Sea basin. Ultimately, this network gave rise to a "commercial crescent" – an economic region that, through burgeoning commerce and exchange, would stimulate the growth of coastal communities and trade within the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf.

This paper argues that family relations factored into the political appointment of Abu Hadir al-Usayyidi as governor of the Istakhr district, by showing that the accounts concerning Abu Hadir al-Asadi (i.e., of the tribe of Asad) and Abu Hadir al-Usayyidi (i.e., of the Banu Usayyid of Tamim) refer to the same person, who was in fact a member of the tribe of Tamim. Abu Hadir al-Asadi and Abu Hadir al-Usayyidi are linked in the Muslim sources to Istakhr in different ways, and when the accounts of these links are put together, they enrich our knowledge about administrative practices in the early Islamic period. More specifically, Abu Hadir al-Asadi was reportedly scolded by Mus’ab ibn al-Zubayr (d. 72/691) with the words “you son of a woman from Istakhr,” while Abu Hadir al-Usayyidi was appointed by Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (d. 95/714) as governor of that same district. The paper thus suggests that (1) Abu Hadir’s maternal relations were behind his appointment over Istakhr, and that (2) his affiliation with Tamim, which had connections with the Persian Empire before and after the advent of Islam, likewise played a role in his selection for this office. The significance of Abu Hadir’s links with Istakhr is enhanced by the fact that we learn about them from two accounts that are entirely independent from one another. Reading these accounts together, the connection between them becomes clear: the population of Istakhr would be more likely to support the appointment of someone with a close link to them to wield authority over them. The Muslim sources do not typically provide reasons as to why a certain person was given an administrative office. The accounts of Abu Hadir can thus be taken as a case study showing that something as simple as correcting a nisba from al-Asadi to al-Usayyidi can advance our knowledge of early administrative practices. More broadly, it demonstrates that familiarity with the various Arab tribes and the groups that comprised them is crucial for the study of the history of the early Islamic period. Abu Hadir is far from being a prominent figure in the Muslim sources, and hence has not hitherto received much scholarly attention. The findings of this paper, which show that there are benefits to collecting the information available in the Muslim sources concerning one individual, will hopefully encourage others to engage in a similar close reading of these sources.

Arabization and Islamization are often invoked in discussions of the administrative and numismatic reforms of the Umayyads. Nevertheless, scholars have long pointed out that non-Arabic languages continued to be used well after the reforms of ‘Abd al-Malik and that non-Muslims continued to staff important administrative positions—leading some to shift the discussion to the degree of Arabization or Islamization. However, less attention has been paid to how the growing administration of the Umayyads and their reforms, regardless of the degree of its uniformity, impacted society as a means of social mobility or social reproduction. The paper argues that the term Islamization places too much emphasis on the religious identity of bureaucrats and overlooks the underlying change of bureaucratic positions and their relation to power and economics. The paper argues that attention should be focused on the changing socio-economic backgrounds of individuals, and not their religious identity. They were bureaucrats who happened to be Muslims—not bureaucrats simply because they were Muslims absent of additional social networks, economic control, or cultural capital. There were plenty of Muslims and Christians who were not bureaucrats; so, how did they achieve their positions and what were the socio-economic results of bureaucratic appointments? By tracing the changing socio-economic backgrounds of Umayyad-era bureaucrats based on tabaqat and adab al-kuttab literature (Ibn ‘Asakir’s Ta’rikh madinat Dimashq and al-Jahshiyari’s Kitab al-wuzara’ wa-l-kuttab etc.), the paper argues that appointments in the bureaucracy reflected diminishing Late Antique and emerging Islamic forms social and cultural capital. This framework allows us to examine the role of bureaucratic positions in the wider Umayyad political economy. Were positions in the bureaucracy merely apparatuses of the Umayyad caliphate aimed at preserving a growing class of Muslim elites? That is, a means to reproduce privilege, reward loyalty, or appease potential rivals? Or, on the contrary, was the access to bureaucratic positions based on meritocracy as the growing need for Arabic in the administration created opportunities of social mobility for astute or qualified individuals? Ultimately, the paper does not reject Arabization and Islamization as interpretive terms, but argues that these should be situated within a broader historiographical tradition of social reproduction in Late Antique societies and the wider Umayyad political economy in which competing social networks and cultural capital (education, religion, language, etc.) were carving out a distinctive identity and place in Late Antiquity.

This paper examines the role and representations of dower, mahr, in early Islamic literature. Previously, works of jurisprudence have been the primary guide for our understanding; thus, most of the focus has been on mahr's theoretical place and prescriptive ideals of its function. Modern anthropological and ethnographic studies attempt to supplement this weakness, and they do an admirable job in following developments in its role and status in society. However, there is still little information on the actual specifics about mahr in the early period, and it is dangerous to try and extrapolate from prescriptive rulings or modern understandings. Historical and literary works, on the other hand, can inform us about how mahr functioned in early Islamic society, rather than how it was theorized to function. This paper examines the presence of mahr in these texts from the first three centuries after the spread of Islam, looking at literary compilations, histories, and poetry. The focus is on the vocabulary surrounding the idea of mahr, the situations where mahr is referenced (and where it is not), what kinds of exchanges (both in type and quantity) take place, and the way that it is discussed by men and women—narrators, compilers, and characters. From this study emerges a number of individual observations on exchange and marriage in the early period, from the actual exchange of property to cultural and religious attitudes towards that exchange. First, while actual amounts vary, there does seem to be a standard baseline found in early texts for what is proper. Furthermore, there is an understanding of what is proper or improper, and implications on status. Women and mahr is a touchy subject, and questions of women’s demands are accompanied by judgment. Mahr functions as more than just a bride-price, even in this period; it is security for not only women, but for men, as well. Finally, its vocabulary is associated not only with gifts (hada) or with early vocabulary derived from the movement of livestock (saq), but also with law and command (ihtakam). Based around these results, mahr functioned in a larger context than just the two individuals in bound in marriage; it was also more complicated than an exchange between men of two household. The mahr is economic exchange, social exchange; and in its inclusion in narratives and poetry, it opens the door to better understanding the social circumstances of the early Islamic world.