From Arabian tribes to Islamic empire : army, state and society in the Near East c.600-850 / Patricia Crone

Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction -- The Arabian background -- The tribe and the state -- Tribes and states in the Middle East -- The first-century concept of higra -- The later evolution -- Were the Qays and Yemen of the Umayyad period political parties? -- A note on Muqatil b. Hayyan and Muqatil b. Sulayman -- The significance of wooden weapons in al-Mukhtar's revolt and the Abbasid revolution -- On the meaning of the Abbasid call to al-Rida -- The Abbasid Abna and Sasanid cavalrymen -- The early Islamic world -- The pay of client soldiers in the Umayyad period -- Mawali and the prophet's family : an early Shiite view -- Imperial trauma : the case of the Arabs