The Making of the Medieval Middle East: Religion, Society, and Simple Believers

Description

A bold new religious history of the late antique and medieval Middle East that places ordinary Christians at the center of the story In the second half of the first millennium CE, the Christian Middle East fractured irreparably into competing churches and Arabs conquered the region, setting in motion a process that would lead to its eventual con

Jack Tannous is assistant professor of history at Princeton University.

"Winner of the James Henry Breasted Prize, American Historical Association" "Honorable Mention for the Albert Hourani Book Award, Middle East Studies Association" "This is a large, wide-ranging and important book. . . . The Making of the Medieval Middle East is, in sum, an impressive tome that will undoubtedly help us to rethink how this region became Muslim and make us reconsider the many blind spots and assumptions our traditional paradigms have included."---Aaron W. Hughes, Reading Religion "This is an excellent book that undergraduates, graduate students and established scholars could all engage with at different levels, and all read with great profit."---Philip Wood, Medieval Encounters "A remarkable achievement that energetically articulates a little-studied research field: the fate of the Christian population in the era of Muslim conquests and the beginning of the formation of Muslim civilization in the Middle East."---Rustam M. Shukurov, Journal of Church and State "Its greatest contribution is that it opens up many new lines of research."---R. Stephen Humphreys, Journal of Medieval Worlds "A tour de force."---Ramez Mikhail, Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies "This is a book that will sit on the desks of social historians of the eastern Mediterranean for the foreseeable future. . . . [Tannous] excels in persuasive rhetoric and transmits his enthusiasm in a very compelling manner. . . . Ultimately his message is incontrovertible."---Arietta Papaconstantinou, Bustan: The Middle East Book Review "An ingenious study of the history of the late Roman and early medieval Middle East."---Valentina A. Grasso, Journal of the American Oriental Society