FOCUS ON ISLAM I

What is ‘Islamic’ archaeology?Andrew Petersen∗

The flight of Muhammad and his companions from Mecca to Medina in AD 622 (the hijra)initiated one of the world’s great intellectual and cultural movements, which in a few centurieswas to extend from China to the Atlantic. As western archaeologists, we have probably accordedrelative neglect to the study of the material culture arising from Islam, although it clearly hasmuch to offer for the understanding of all societies. To help redress the balance, Antiquity hasinvited a number of scholars active in the archaeology of Islamic culture to give us a taste ofwork in progress. This special series, which will feature in each issue in 2005, is introduced by itsconvenor, Andrew Petersen.

Keywords: Islam, Ummayad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Mamluk, Ottoman

Given the popularity of archaeology today and the prominence of the Muslim faith incontemporary world affairs, it is perhaps surprising that these two factors have not resultedin a flourishing discipline of Islamic archaeology. The reasons for this situation are diverse andcomplicated, and yet the material culture of such a great intellectual movement undoubtedlyhas much to tell us about its own and the other societies with which it has interacted overmany centuries. For the purposes of our special series, ‘Islamic archaeology’ will be takento describe the investigation of the material culture of Muslim peoples from the origins ofIslam (c. AD 630) to the recent past. We shall show examples of fieldwork and interpretationin progress and hope to reveal something of the potential for new approaches and broaderunderstanding that the subject undoubtedly contains.

The origins of Islamic archaeology have been investigated in some detail by Vernoit (1997)who has shown how it began with the collection of medieval Middle Eastern antiquities in thenineteenth century, later extending to the learned appreciation of Islamic architecture.The focus on Islamic Art (cf. Grabar 1987) and architecture (e.g., Creswell 1989) has meantthat Islamic archaeology has, in the past, often appeared to be more concerned with theaesthetics of the buildings and objects than the societies which produced them (see alsoRogers 1976). This brings us to the problem of how to best define ‘Muslim society’ forpurposes of archaeological study. One approach, most recently exercised by Tim Insoll(1999), is to define the society by its religion, so that Islamic archaeology (such as ‘ChristianArchaeology’, Frend 1996) is structured primarily as the archaeology of a religion. Othershave interpreted ‘islamic’ more broadly to apply to a society where Islam is the religion of theruling class, but may not be professed by a majority of the population. This appears to havebeen the case in Syria during the Umayyad period (AD 661-750) where the majority of thepopulation were non-Muslim at least up to the end of the seventh century (see, for example,∗ Department of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, UAE University, P.O. Box

17771, al-Ain, UAE (Email: ammanextra@myrealbox.com and Petersena@cardiff.ac.uk)

antiquity 79 (2005): 100–106

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Schick 1995). Whilst not mutually exclusive in practice, these two approaches have focusedon different themes, the one concerned with defining and understanding Muslim thinkingand the other looking at structures of power in Muslim states. Within this special series itwill be apparent that both approaches have been followed, and in some cases combined,producing a rich band of interpretation.

There have been several previous attempts to bring Islamic archaeology to a wider publicstarting with the publication of an issue of World Archaeology devoted to the subject in1983. In 1990, the first journal devoted to Islamic archaeology was published in Parisunder the title Archeologie Islamique, but unfortunately problems of distribution havemeant that the journal has not achieved a wide readership outside France. More recently,the publication of Tim Insoll’s book The Archaeology of Islam (1999) has provided afocus for debate on the scope and purpose of Islamic archaeology. In addition to thesepublishing ventures, Islamic archaeology has been the subject of special sessions at variousconferences such as BANEA (British Association of Near Eastern Archaeologists) heldin Edinburgh in 1990 and at sessions of ICNEA (International Conference of NearEastern Archaeologists) in Copenhagen in 2001 and in Paris in 2002. A majority of theseinitiatives has understandably concentrated on the archaeology of western Asia (the MiddleEast) and north Africa. But sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian sub-continent and southeastAsia were fully integrated into the medieval Muslim world. This can be seen from thewritings of Ibn Battuta, who in the fourteenth century AD travelled from West Africa toChina staying predominantly within Muslim communities (Defremery & Sanguinetti ed.1853-8).

The medieval Islamic world was more than twice the size of medieval Christendom

Figure 1. Map showing the extent of Islam in the fifteenthcentury AD.

(Figure 1), covering a huge area from Kazanin the north (on the same latitude asMoscow) to southern Indonesia (on thesame latitude as northern Australia). Givenits vast geographical scope, the question ofwhy the archaeology of Islam is not betterknown outside the few specialists in thefield initially appears even more puzzling.It could be argued that, despite its size,the Muslim world is of limited interestto British, European and North Americanarchaeologists because it lies outside theircultural sphere. However, this has notprevented Egyptology from becoming asubject in its own right both on a popularand academic level. Even Assyriology (thestudy of the cultures of ancient Iraq) and Levantine/Biblical archaeology have had morepopular coverage and considerably more academic resources than the archaeology of Islamwhose heartland lies in the same areas (it is interesting to note that the Egypt ExplorationSociety specifically excludes the Islamic period from its area of interest). The reason for thisfocus on the pre-Islamic periods may appear to be promoted by famous and spectacular

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monuments (e.g. the Sphinx and pyramids at Giza, the Ziggurats of Iraq or the wallsof Jericho) or on the contributions said to have been made by these societies to worldcivilisation. However, Islamic civilisation is not short of great monuments, for example,the 52m high minaret of Jam in Afghanistan or the ninth century town of Samarra inIraq, currently recognised as the world’s largest archaeological site, nor great intellectualachievements (for example, the invention of algebra). Other causes must be found for itsrelative neglect.

One explanation may be connected with the relative status of archaeology and history.Islam has been a literate culture from its inception and consequently most academic inquiryhas focused on written texts. But whilst the documents provide a wealth of informationon many areas of life (see, for example, the documents of the Cairo Geniza publishedby Goitein (1967-83)), there are areas and periods for which there is little or no writtendocumentation. It is equally significant that, as in other areas of historical archaeology,the information provided by written texts does not necessarily provide the answers to thequestions in which we are interested. Areas of particular significance for which archaeologymay be able to provide answers include the origins of Islam in Arabia, conversion to Islamin the early Islamic period (AD 630-750), trade in the Indian Ocean and the origins anddevelopment of cities.

The answer of course, as with medieval archaeology in general, is to create a forum of studyin which both written and material evidence are equally respected, but equally subjected tosource criticism (Carver 2002). A fine example of such research is given by Watson’s (1983)thesis which, noting that the orange, the lemon, spinach and other foodstuffs were Arabicwords, studied their provenance and incidence in literature and on the ground. He showedhow the deeply rooted love of poetry and gardens amongst the early Caliphs allowed fruitssuch as the orange to migrate as gifts from caliph to caliph from their point of discoveryin the vegetation of Burma to the groves of Seville, making use of the qanat (invented inPersia) to provide irrigation in desert lands. This, and the cultivation of the cotton plant,provided the lands of the Maghreb and al-Andalus with an affluent industrial base not seensince the Romans.

A more serious obstacle to the archaeological study of Islam may be connected to theproblem of western academic and popular attitudes. Unlike many of the foreign culturesstudied by western archaeologists, Islam is a living project that is still developing. Analysing anarea of suspicion between west and east, and defining it by the term orientalism, Said (1978)drew a contrast between the cultures of Islam and the more ancient cultures of westernAsia which had occupied the same areas. Western historians and archaeologists adoptedthe more ancient peoples as ancestors of their own, and so belonging to the ‘Western’heritage. By contrast, Muslim civilisation has been regarded as a recent development, alater overlay by communities having no connection (neither cultural nor genetic) with theancient civilisation. Western orientalism is a negative attitude which characterises Islamiccivilisation as backward, changeless, cruel and corrupt.

In the modern academic world, this attitude easily provokes a high sensitivity amongIslamic thinkers, as among those of many other non-western cultures, in the matter of investi-gatory science. On the one hand, there need be no necessary acceptance of the primacy ofscientific scrutiny – as though the ineffable could be reduced to the simplistic explanations

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of the western enlightenment. On the other hand, over the past few decades the westernarchaeological project has been especially militant, substituting for its previous hungerfor exotic artefacts an equally domineering belief in its epistemological powers. Fortunately,modern archaeological theory has already taken several steps towards softening and broaden-ing, and thus enhancing, the manner of its study. Approaches to interpretation now inviteus to appreciate not only the intelligence expressed by the makers of buildings, tombs andartefacts, but the dangers of failing to reflect on the views of modern ‘descendant commun-ities’, often strongly held in the case of Islam, and the weakness inherent in ourown potential lack of understanding of their values and perceptions (Hodder 1992;Smith 2004).

For all that, we believe that scientific archaeology, properly and respectfully positioned,has much to contribute to the understanding of Islamic communities, and that Islamicarchaeology has a great deal to contribute to the understanding of world history, and perhapsin particular the history of the medieval West. Through its oriental ancestry, western Islamicarchaeology has, up to now, been confined in the field of Oriental Studies thus separatingit from mainstream archaeological theory and practice. The consequences of this situationhave been that access to Islamic archaeology at an undergraduate level has been restrictedto those few universities which have Oriental Studies Departments and that there has beenvery little theoretical cross-fertilisation with mainstream archaeology. But whilst this maybe true on the institutional level (there are very few university posts in Islamic archaeology),it is less true when we look at the actual research and fieldwork carried out. It is this newlocation in the mainstream of archaeological research that we hope the articles in our specialseries will demonstrate.

The guiding ambitions in selecting articles for this special series were that they should bebased on recent fieldwork, they should reflect the diversity of the Islamic world and theyshould employ a variety of approaches. All of the articles fulfil the first criterion: the majorityare based on fieldwork carried out since 2000, indicating a significant number of ongoingprojects. The diversity of the Islamic world is reflected in the wide geographical range of thearticles, from Morocco to southeast Asia. Within this wide array of sites there are certainareas which stand out. For example, it is noticeable that three of the articles relate to easternArabia, which reflects the continuing rapid economic development of this area in the wakeof the mid-twentieth century oil boom (see Potts et al. 2003). At the same time, it acts asa corrective to Creswell’s famous dismissal of the Arabian peninsula as a source for Islamicarchitecture (for a discussion of this see King (1991)).

We begin with three papers which well reflect the spirit of the new inquiry: an investigationof the Gulf states in the pre-Islamic period, a topical survey of Samarra and the large-scaleexcavations of the early glass industry in Syria. In June, we focus on origins with recent workin the Umayyad period in Jordan and Syria. The September issue offers a sample of currentresearch widely spread in time and space; and our envoi in December provides thoughtfuloverviews on current and future work in the Iberian peninsula, the Gulf, south-east Asiaand Israel.

That future agenda undoubtedly promises some exciting and important topics: the con-version to Islam, too often over-simplified in terms of conquest, the growth of the Islamicworld trading system or the construction and development of the Islamic town. Such studies

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might advance understanding of early and modern societies in both east and west, andperhaps, at the same time, make a small contribution to their further mutual understandingand appreciation of each other.

NoteDates: Islamic scholars use the dating convention A.H. (after the hijra) so that 1 A.H. =AD 623. In these papers, we have used the BC/AD terminology simply to achieve consistencywith the rest of the journal and no disrespect is intended.

Spelling: Transliteration of names and places follows the usage in Freeman-Grenville andMunro-Hay (2002).

ReferencesCarver, M.O.H. 2002. Marriages of true minds:

archaeology with texts, in B. Cunliffe, W. Davies &C. Renfrew (ed.). Archaeology: the widening debate.London: British Academy.

Cresswell, K.A.C. 1989, in J.A. Allan (ed.). A shortaccount of Islamic architecture. London: Ashgate.

Bosworth, C.E. 1996. New Islamic dynasties: achronological and genealogical guide. New York:Columbia University Press (paperback edition2004)/Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Defremery, C. & B. Sanguinetti (ed.). 1853-8.Voyages d’Ibn Battuta, 4 vols. Reprint 2000 withtranslation by C.F. Beckingham, Hakluyt Society2nd series vols 110, 117, 141, 178, 190.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P. & S.C. Munro-Hay.2002. Historical atlas of Islam. New York &London: Continuum Publishing Group.

Frend, W.H.C. 1996. The archaeology of EarlyChristianity. London: Fortress Press.

Goitein, S.D. 1967-83. A Mediterranean society: theJewish communities of the Arab world as portrayedin the documents of the Cairo Geniza, 5 vols.Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Grabar, O. 1987. The formation of Islamic art. Yale:Yale University Press.

Hodder, I. 1992. Theory and practice in archaeology.London: Routledge.

Ibn Battuta, M.A.A. 1853-8. Voyages d’Ibn Battuta,4 vols. (trans. and ed. by C. Defremery &B. Sanguinetti). Paris.

Insoll, T. 1999. The archaeology of Islam. Oxford:Blackwell.

King, G.R.D. 1991. Creswell’s appreciation of Arabianarchitecture, in O. Grabar (ed.). Muqarnas VIII: Anannual on the visual culture of the Islamic World.Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Potts, D., H. Nabooda & P. Hellyer. 2003.Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates.Proceedings of the first international conference on thearchaeology of the UAE. London: Trident Press.

Rogers, M. 1976. The spread of Islam. Oxford: Elsevier-Phaidon.

Said, E. 1978. Orientalism (Peregrine edition 1985).Middlesex: Penguin.

Schick, R. 1995. The Christian communities of Palestinefrom Byzantine to Islamic Rule: an historical andarchaeological study (Studies in Late Antiquity andIslam 2). Princeton (New Jersey): Darwin Press.

Smith, L. 2004. Archaeological theory and the politicsof cultural heritage. London & New York:Routledge.

Vernoit, S. 1997. The rise of Islamic archaeology, inGulru Necipoglu (ed.). Muqarnas: An annual on thevisual culture of the Islamic World, vol. XIV: 1-10.

Watson, A.M. 1983. Agricultural innovation in theearly Islamic world: the diffusion of crops and farmingtechniques, AD 700-1100. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

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Archaeological time frame

c. AD 570-632 Life of Muhammad, the Prophet.

610-628 Taught in Mecca.628-632 Resided in Medina 628-632. The Hijra, or migration of Muhammad and his

Companions from Mecca to Medina took place c. AD 615 (ascribed to 622).661-750 Umayyad dynasty, a Sunni Caliphate active in Syria and Jordan, centred on Damascus.691 Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al Sakhra) constructed.7-8th centuries ‘Desert castles’ palatial, semi-fortified sites of the Umayyads constructed in Syria and

Jordan.712 Sind (India) conquered.715 North Africa (the Maghreb) and Spain (al-Andalus) conquered.750 Abbasid dynasty, a Sunni Caliphate based in Iraq, ruled eastern half of Islamic empire

for nearly 200 years.762 Baghdad constructed as Abbasid capital.836 Samarra founded as new Abbasid capital.892 Samarra abandoned as imperial capital, caliph returns to Baghdad.909-1171 Fatimids: a Shi’ite dynasty active in North Africa, centred on Cairo.1062-1147 Almoravid dynasty in North Africa and Spain.1130-1269 Almohad dynasty in North Africa and Spain.1171-1250 Ayyubid dynasty rulers of Syria, Egypt and Yemen.1250-1517 Mamluk rulers of Egypt and Syria.1281-1924 Ottoman Turkish dynasty active.1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.1526-1858 Mughuls Muslim emperors of India.1631-48 Taj Mahal constructed.

For more detailed information about dynasties and chronology, see Bosworth (1996).

Glossaryal-Aqsa: the great Mosque of al-Haram al-Sharif, Temple Mount, Jerusalemburj: towercaliph: originally political and religious leaders of the Muslim world, later this role was reduced

to symbolic quasi-religious leadershipcaravanserai, khan: hostel, lodging for travellers and merchantsdikka: raised platform in front of the mihrabDome of the Rock: octagonal Muslim shrine in Jerusalemhammam: bathsjami: the principal ‘Friday’ mosque in a cityKa’aba: the large cubical structure containing the Black Stone in the centre of the Great Mosque

at MeccaKufic script: Arabic decorative script originating in al-Kufa, Iraqmasjid: local mosquemaydan: open square in front of a mosque or palacemamluks: slave soldiers of non-Muslim originmihrab: niche in the wall of a mosque indicating the direction of Meccaminbar: pulpit in a mosquemusalla: the space for the congregation in a mosque

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qal‘a, qasba, husn: citadel or fortqanat: underground aqueductqiblah: direction of prayer for Muslims (towards Mecca)Qur’an: the sacred book of Islamribat: fortified monasterySunni: followers of MuhammadShi’ite: followers of Muhammad’s son in law, Ali, murdered 661.For further architectural terms see http://archnet.org/library/dictionary

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