PDF Dachau and the SS: A Schooling in Violence by Christopher Dillon in History

Description

Before it fell to Muslim armies in AD 635-6 Damascus had a long and prestigious history as a center of Christianity. How did this city; which became the capitol of the Islamic Empire and its people; negotiate the transition from a late antique or early Byzantine world to an Islamic culture? In Damascus after the Muslim Conquest; Nancy Khalek demonstrates that the changes that took place in Syria during this formative period of Islamic life were not simply a matter of the replacement of one civilization by another as a result of military conquest; but rather of shifting relationships and practices in a multifaceted social and cultural setting. Even as late antique forms of religion and culture persisted; the formation of Islamic identity was affected by the people who constructed; lived in; and narrated the history of their city. Khalek draws on the evidence of architecture and the testimony of pilgrims; biographers; geographers; and historians to shed light on this process of identity formation. Offering a fresh approach to the early Islamic period; she moves the study of Islamic origins beyond a focus on issues of authenticity and textual criticism; and initiates an interdisciplinary discourse on narrative; storytelling; and the interpretations of material culture.