Annales islamologiques 54 – Acts of Protection in Early Islamicate Societies

This special issue presents a collection of studies of “acts of protection” – specific instances in which protection is offered, enforced, requested, or withheld – in different contexts within and beyond the early Islamic empire. In nine case studies, literary scholars and historians examine varied mechanisms of social protection, based on literary and documentary sources in Arabic, Bactrian, Coptic, Pahlavi and Persian, and covering a variety of contexts such as pre- and early Islamic Arabia, eighth-century Egypt, Iraq and Sogdiana, as well as twelfth-century Afghanistan and Iran.