by Tom Holland
Shapur I (King of Persia), 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 6.1
Sheba, 4.1, 4.2
Sicily, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3
Simeon of Antioch, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1, 7.1
Simeon the “stylite”, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4
Simon Peter, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3
Slavs (nomadic tribes), 5.1, 5.2
social justice, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 5.1, 7.1
Sodom and Gomorrah, 4.1, 6.1
Sogdians
Solomon, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
Sozomen (scholar), 4.1, 5.1, 6.1
Spain, 1.1, 3.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1
Sri Lanka (Taprobane)
stylites, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1, 7.2
Sukhra (head of the Karin)
Suleiman, Caliph, 7.1, 7.2
Sunna (body of laws): origin in hadiths, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3; compilers’ suspicion of Caliphate, 1.4, bm1.1; length of time taken over, 1.5; doubts over authenticity, 1.6; traditional version of origins, 1.7; as binding force, 4.1; authentication of, 7.1; school of Islamic law at Kufa, 7.2, 7.3, bm1.2; influence of Torah on, 7.4; Medina as origin of, 7.5; warrior-scholars, 7.6
Sura (Mesopotamian city), 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, bm1.1
synagogues, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1
Syria: Arab invasion and conquest, 1.1, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3; stories of Alexander in, 1.2, 6.4, 6.5; Persian Empire and, 2.1, 2.2; Monophysites in, 3.1, 3.2; ascetics of, 4.1, 5.1, 7.1, 7.2; Roman frontier policy and, 4.2, 4.3, 5.2; Mundhir rampages through (529), 4.4; prosperity of, 5.3; Khusrow’s invasion of (540), 5.4, 5.5; battle at Chalcis (554), 5.6; effects of plague on, 5.7; annexed by Khusrow II, 5.8, 6.6; Ghassanids foederati roam across, 6.7; Mu’awiya as governor of, 6.8, 6.9, 6.10, 7.3; Mu’awiya-Ali battle in, 6.11; support for Umayyad cause, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6; Islamic anti-Christian regulations, 7.7; lifestyles of Arab ruling classes, 7.8, 7.9; unrest during Hisham’s reign, 7.10, 7.11; see also Antioch
Syriac language, 1.1, 1.2, 3.1, 3.2, 6.1
Ta’if (oasis town in Hijaz)
Tanakh (compendium of holiest Jewish scriptures), 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 6.1; as Christian “Old Testament”, 3.4
Taprobane (now Sri Lanka)
Tertullian (Christian philosopher), 3.1, 3.2, 3.3*, 3.4
Thamud confederation, 4.1, 4.2, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
Theoderic (Ostrogoth commander), 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 7.1; state-building and, 7.2
Theodora (consort of Justinian), 3.1, 5.1
Theodore
Theodoret (bishop from Antioch), 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 6.1
Theodosiopolis, 2.1, 2.2
Theodosius I (Roman emperor)
Theodosius II (Roman emperor), 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 7.1
Tiridates III (Parthian king), 3.1, 3.2
Torah (“Instruction”) (body of law), 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2; secret Torah, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 7.1; Jewishness as obedience to, 3.2; Paul’s rejection of, 3.3, 3.4; Christian Church’s rejection of, 3.5; Christian obeying of, 3.6; received by Moses, 4.3, 7.2; Qur’an and, 6.1, 6.2; influence on Sunna, 7.3
Troy, 3.1, 3.2, 7.1
Turks, 2.1, 5.1, 5.2
ulama (scholarly legal experts), 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, bm1.1
Ulfilas (bishop of Gothic extraction)
Umar bin al-Khattab, Caliph, 1.1, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2; piety and asceticism of, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.3; historicity of as beyond dispute, 6.5; hailed as lover of Israel, 6.6, 6.7; proclaimed al-Faruq (“the Redeemer”), 6.8; murder of (644), 6.9
Umayyad dynasty, 1.1, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5; fall of (750), 1.2, 7.6; as “deputies of God”, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9; map(s) of Caliphate under, 7.10; Christianity in Iraq and, 7.11; ulama and, 7.12, 7.13; renewed gaze on Constantinople, 7.14; failures in 717–40 period, 7.15, 7.16; unrest during Hisham’s reign, 7.17; Abbasid threat to, 7.18, 7.19; factional blood-letting amongst, 7.20; Abbasid burning of exhumed corpses, bm1.1; see also individual Caliphs
Ur (Abramic city)
Uthman, Caliph, 1.1, 6.1, 7.1; “qur’an” and, 1.2, 6.2, 7.2
Valerian (Roman emperor), 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 5.1
Vandals, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 6.1
Veh-Ardashir (Sasanian capital city), 2.1, 2.2
Virgil, Aeneid, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 4.1, 6.1
Visigoths, 1.1, 5.1, 7.1, 7.2
Walid, Caliph, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4
Wasit (Islamic city in Iraq)
Yathrib (Medina) see Medina (Yathrib)
Yazdegird (King of Persia), 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 7.1
Yazid (brother of Mu’awiya)
Yazid, Caliph, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
Yemen
Yusuf As’ar Yath’ar (Himyarite king), 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 6.2
Zamasp (brother of Kavad), 2.1, 2.2
Zaranj (fortress)
Zayd (figure in Qur’an)
Zenobia (Queen of Palmyra)
Zera, Rabbi
Zeus
Zoilus (patriarch of Alexandria)
Zoroastrians: beliefs of, 1.1, 2.1; Fire of the Stallion, 2.2, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1; Mihr and, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 3.1, 5.2, 6.2, 7.2; sacred fire temples, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 5.3, 6.3, 6.4, 7.3, 7.4; Asha (truth and order), 2.9, 2.10, 2.11; Zoroaster’s revelations from Ohrmazd, 2.12, 2.13, 2.14; royal power and, 2.15, 2.16, 2.17, 2.18; mowbeds’ political power, 2.19, 2.20; mathra (word of God), 2.21; mowbeds put Zoroaster’s sayings into writing, 2.22, 2.23, 2.24, 6.5; birth and origins of Zoroaster, 2.25, 2.26*, 2.27, 6.6; mowbeds’ demotion of Mihr’s fire, 2.28; End Days and, 2.29, 5.4, 5.5; millennium prophet awaited, 2.30; mowbeds and Kavad’s abdication, 2.31; chronicling of the past, 2.32, 2.33; mowbeds and memories of Alexander, 2.34; mowbeds and downfall of Mazdak, 2.35; support for Khusrow candidacy, 2.36; Khusrow supports, 2.37; Jews as “spawn of Dahag”, 2.38; mowbeds’ hostility to Jews, 2.39; suspicion of Christianity, 3.2; Bahram Chobin’s rebellion and, 5.6; mowbeds and Bahram Chobin, 5.7; Islamic attitudes to, 6.7, 7.5; rejection of Manichaeism, 6.8; mowbeds and Fire of the Stallion, 7.6; obedience of women and, 7.7; mowbeds and collapse of Sasanian power, 7.8; collapse of Sasanian power and, 7.9; converts to Islam, 7.10; mowbeds converting to Islam, 7.11, 7.12; use of toothbrushes and, 7.13; see also Ohrmazd (Persian god)
Illustrations
The angel Gabriel speaks to Muhammad. According to Muslim tradition, the sum of the revelations granted to the Prophet were assembled after his death to form a single “recitation” – a “qur’an.” Where, when and how the Qur’an was actually compiled are all hotly contested questions in contemporary academic circles. (Bildarchiv Steffens/Bridgeman Art Library)
A receipt for 65 sheep, issued in AD 642 by an Arab war band to officials in a city on the Nile. It is written in Arabic as well as Greek, and contains a mention of “the year Twenty-Two”: the oldest surviving mention of what would end up enshrined as the Muslim calendar.
Peroz hunting. Martial prowess, flamboyant clothing and an aptitude for slaughtering animals: the ideal attributes of a Persian King of Kings. (akg-images/De Agostini Picture Library)
The site of the “Fire of the Stallion”, in the mountains of northern Iran. The temple that enclosed it was probably built in the reign of Peroz – although it took only a couple of generations for Zoroastrians to locate its origins back in the mists of time. (Paul Rudkin)
The throne room of the royal palace at Ctesiphon: all that remains of what was once the vast capital of Iranshahr. (The Print Collector/HIP/Topfoto.co.uk)
Iranshahr triumphant. One Caesar – Philip – bends the knee before a mounted Shapur I, while a second – Valerian – is taken captive by the wrist. Victory over Rome was always regarded by the Sasanians themselves as the supreme measure of their imperial prowess. (Tom Holland)
The Ark of the Law, from a sixth-century synagogue in the Roman province of Palestine. The most celebrated of the schools devoted to the study of the Jewish Law were located, not in the Promised Land itself, but in Mesopotamia. (Zev Radovan/Bridgeman Art Library)
A view from beyond the Golden Horn of what, in ancient times, was the Gre
ek city of Byzantium. It was here, in AD 324, that the emperor Constantine arrived to found a new capital. With becoming modesty, he christened it “The City of Constantine”: Constantinople. The waters around the city, it was said, adorned it “like a garland.” (Tom Holland)
A column raised by Constantine to mark the inauguration of his city. Originally, it was surmounted by a statue of the Emperor, crowned as though by the sun, with seven glittering rays. Beneath its base was believed to lie the “Palladium”: a talisman that had supposedly been brought, via Rome, from the sack of Troy. (Tom Holland)
A tiny surviving fragment of what for centuries was the hub of Roman power: the palace of the Caesars in Constantinople. Those privileged to enter the vast complex of halls, secretariats and gardens hailed it as “another heaven.” (Tom Holland)
The emperor Justinian. “He was entrusted by God with this commission: to watch over the whole Roman Empire and, so far as was possible, to remake it.” (Byzantine School [sixth century], San Vitale, Ravenna/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library)
Emperor and crowds at the Hippodrome. The passions roused by chariot-racing were violent in the extreme – and in January 532, they exploded into an orgy of looting and savagery that briefly threatened Justinian’s entire regime. (Tom Holland)
Christ the Good Shepherd, painted in a catacomb in Rome in the late second or early third century AD. An image drawn from a Gospel is combined with the smooth cheeks and skimpy tunic of a Greek god. (De Agostini Picture Library/G. Cargagna/Bridgeman Art Library)
Debates about the relationship between God the Father and God the Son convulsed the Christian world for centuries. This mosaic, illustrating the baptism of Jesus, was commissioned by a follower of Arius, who taught that the Father had preceded the Son. The doctrine was condemned as heretical at the great Church Council of Nicaea, summoned by Constantine in 325. (Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library)
In the Near East, Jews and Christians tended to be far more familiar with one another’s beliefs than their respective leaders cared to acknowledge. This bowl was inscribed by someone who had looked to play safe by invoking both the God of the Jews – “I-Am-That-I-Am” – and the Christian Trinity.
The conversion of Constantine to Christianity saw the old religious order of the empire spectacularly superseded. Here, in a cistern below Constantinople, the positioning of a toppled pagan sculpture symbolises an entire world turned upside down. (Tom Holland)
The Empress Theodora: reformed whore and Monophysite saint. (The Art Archive/Collection Dagli Orti)
Like a phoenix from the ashes, Justinian’s great cathedral of Hagia Sophia rose from the smouldering ruins left by three days of terrible rioting in Constantinople. So vast was its dome that it seemed to stupefied contemporaries “like the very firmament that rests upon the air.” (Tom Holland)
The twin founders of Constantinople: Constantine stands on the left-hand side of the Virgin, and Justinian – holding the Hagia Sophia – on the right. (Tom Holland)
Caves in the Judaean desert: the haunt of Christian hermits. (Tom Holland)
A mosaic at Saint Catherine’s monastery, at the foot of a mountain that was identified in the fourth century as Sinai, where Moses had received the Ten Commandments. In this image, the standing figure on the left is Moses himself: the great prophet of the Jews, recast as a Christian prophet. (Tom Holland)
Christian Jerusalem. From a mosaic in the floor of a church in Madaba, on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. (Tom Holland)
Mount Gerizim. The holiest place in the world, according to the Samaritans. (www.bibleplaces.com)
Mamre, as shown on the Madaba map. The church built by Constantine is shown to the left of the oak of Abraham. (Tom Holland)
This niche at Petra once held an image of the goddess al-’Uzza – the “Mighty Queen” of the Arabs. In 527, an Arab king sacrificed four hundred Christian virgins in her honour. (Tom Holland)
From Petra in the north of Arabia – where this photograph was taken – to Najran in the south, the cube, or “ka’ba”, seems to have been a shape held in peculiar reverence by the Arabs. (Tom Holland)
Theodoric, viceroy of the Roman emperor in Italy, and King of the Ostrogoths. He poses like a Caesar, and sports a thoroughly Germanic moustache. (akg-images)
Under Khusrow I, the image of the Persian monarchy attained an unprecedented magnificence. Khusrow himself was hailed by his subjects as “divine and virtuous, peace-loving and powerful, a giant among giants, the favourite of the heavens.” (Ullstein Bild)
Saint Mark, who was believed by Christians to have founded the Church of Alexandria, is shown surrounded by his successors as bishop, with the balconies and rooftops of the great city rising behind them. (akg-images/Erich Lessing)
The tomb of a plague victim in Avdat, a predominantly Arab city in the Negev Desert. Although the plague tended not to penetrate deep into the desert, those who lived on its margins were always susceptible to its visitations. (Tom Holland)
Heraclius. His reign witnessed some of the greatest triumphs and most calamitous defeats in all Roman history. (Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Washington, DC)
The skulls of monks slain by the invading Persians – and preserved to this day in the monastery of Mar Saba, in the Judaean desert. (Tom Holland)
Heraclius, before leaving Constantinople for Iranshahr, made sure to reinforce the already massive walls that surrounded his capital. This stretch buttressed the approach to the Golden Horn – from where, in 626, the Byzantine navy sallied out to sink the transport fleet of the invading Persians. (Tom Holland)
A page from one of the Qur’ans found stuffed into the ceiling of the oldest mosque in Sana’a, in Yemen. It has been provisionally dated to the end of the first Islamic century – making it one of the oldest Qur’ans in existence.
Alexander the Great, shown on a coin wearing the horns of Amun. In the Qur’an, Alexander appears as Dhu’l Qarnayn – “The Two-Horned One.” (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library)
Mecca. Despite the starring role that the city is given by Muslim tradition, no source prior to the Qur’an so much as mentions it. The first dateable reference to it in any foreign text appears in 741 – more than a century after the death of Muhammad – and locates it in a desert south of Iraq. (AFP/Getty Images)
A church built in the sixth century to commemorate the cave beside the Dead Sea where Lot was believed to have taken shelter after the destruction of Sodom. The episode is first mentioned in the Bible, but is also alluded to in the Qur’an. One verse implies something puzzling: that the Prophet and his audience lived within easy reach of the petrified remains of the Sodomites. “You pass by them morning and night; will you not understand?” (Tom Holland)
The outline of an early mosque found at Be’er Ora, in the Negev Desert. It has two semi-circular architectural features that indicate the direction – the qibla – in which the faithful should pray. The oldest, pointing directly ahead, is oriented towards the east; the later, on the right of the photograph, points towards Mecca. (Tom Holland)
The river Yarmuk, with the Golan Heights in the background. Nowadays, the river constitutes the border between Syria and Jordan; back in the seventh century, it was the site of a stunning and decisive Arab victory over the Romans. (Tom Holland)
A coin issued in 685 or 686. It is stamped with the first dateable inscription on any coin or building to mention a Muhammad who is also “the Messenger of God.”
The Dome of the Rock. (Tom Holland)
Abd al-Malik, the Deputy of God, girt with a whip. (The Art Archive/Ashmolean Museum)
The marker of a revolution. For a thousand years, the Greek and Roman rulers of the Near East had been issuing coins stamped with the human image – but in 696, Abd al-Malik brought an end to that tradition by issuing coins that featured nothing but writing. (The Trustees of the British Museum)
The Great Mosque in Damascus, like the Dome of the Rock, made something novel and stunningly beautiful out of the inheri
tance of the past. (Tom Holland)
Faded and damaged as it is, this painting on the wall of a caliphal palace in the desert beyond Syria demonstrates just how vibrant and enduring classical traditions might be, even a whole century after the Arab conquests. (Tom Holland)
The Caliphs – and the Arab conquerors generally – were great connoisseurs of female flesh. This particular statue comes from the exquisite palace built at Jericho by Hisham, the last of Abd al-Malik’s sons to rule as Caliph. “He who wishes to take a slave girl for pleasure”, so Abd al-Malik himself had advised, “let him take a Berber.” (Tom Holland)
The failure of the great Arab siege of Constantinople in 716 owed much to the devastating Roman weapon of hygron pyr – liquid fire. (Bridgeman Art Library)