Between Rebels and Rulers in the Early Islamicate WorldPower, Contention and Identity

Studies rebellion as historical phenomenon and literary construct in early Islamicate contexts

• Re-centres the long-neglected subject of rebellion in the early Islamic period as a category in its own right
• Sets out paradigmatic features of early Islamicate rebellion, offering historians in other fields a model for comparative analysis
• Transcends traditional confessional boundaries in Islamic Studies by putting into conversation scholarship on Sunnī, Shīʿī, Ibāḍī, Khārijite and non-Muslim revolts
• Pursues a multidisciplinary approach by bringing together social historians, scholars of religion and literary scholars
• Embraces case studies from a wide geographical canvas and diverse contexts (e.g., Mashriq and Maghreb; mountains and waterscapes; rural and urban; elites and non-elites)

Between Rebels and Rulers in the Early Islamicate World offers the first dedicated examination of the phenomenon of rebellion across the early Islamicate world. It combines discourse analysis with a return to long-neglected social-historical analysis in its study of contention and the ways in which it was narrated and enacted. These approaches are pursued through 14 case studies, ranging geographically from North Africa to Central Asia and chronologically from the sixth to tenth centuries CE.

These diverse examples reveal several patterns. First, rebellion operated as a normative means of negotiating power and obtaining justice. Secondly, the main constituencies of rebellion were local elites, both Muslims and non-Muslims, Arabs and members of pre-conquest societies, separately or together. Accordingly, this volume challenges the ‘othering’ of rebels found in written sources and reflected in scholarship and reframes them and their discourses as integral parts of an imperial system. And thirdly, they show how social ties provided a framework for the mobilisation of rebellious constituencies and the resolution of conflict.