The Islamic-Byzantine Border in History: From the Rise of Islam to the End of the Crusades

This cross-disciplinary book offers a broad spectrum of essays on important aspects of the political, social, religious and historical importance of the Islamic-Byzantine border between 630-c.1300CE, and in particular on the manifold ways in which the Islamic-Byzantine border affected the internal development and culture of each of the two civilisations. The chapters are written by twelve of the leading scholars in the field, including experts on both the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world, and explore developments ranging from anti-government riots and dynastic revolutions to the border's influence on religious law, apocalyptic literature, population policy and heroic culture.

D.G. Tor is Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, specialising in the history of the pre-thirteenth century Medieval Middle East and Central Asia. Tor's publications include the books Violent Order: Religious Warfare, Chivalry, and the ʿAyyār Phenomenon in the Medieval Islamic World (2007); The ʿAbbasid and Carolingian Empires: Studies in Civilizational Formation (2017); together with A.C.S. Peacock, Medieval Central Asia and the Persianate World: Iranian Tradition and Islamic Civilisation (2015); and, with Minoru Inaba, The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia: From the Pre-Islamic to the Islamic Period (2022). Tor has won numerous major research grants and awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; the American Council of Learned Societies; the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies; the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies; and Harvard University. Tor is also the Medieval History editor and a board member of the journal Iranian Studies.

Alexander D. Beihammer is Heiden Family College Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in Byzantine History. His books include Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim-Turkish Anatolia, ca. 1040-1130 (2019); with Maria Parani and Christoph Schabel, Diplomatics in the Eastern Mediterranean 1000-1500: Aspects of Cross-cultural Communication (2008); Quellenkritische Untersuchungen Zu Den Agyptischen Kapitulationsvertragen Der Jahre 640-646 (2000).