INTRODUCTIONmean for western Europe.^14 The importance of considering Iraq lies
in understanding the significance of the Islamic conquest for western
Asia rather than for Europe.
Any region in western Asia that came under Islamic rule in the
seventh century could and ought to be examined for this purpose. But
the nature, extent, and accessibility of information about Iraq in this
period make the task relatively more easy compared to other regions.
The availability of information reflects the importance of what was
happening there. Why does Iraq seem ultimately to be more important
than other conquered provinces such as Syria or Egypt in the shaping
of early Islamic civilization? The answer lies partly in the ethnic and
religious diversity of Iraq and partly in its location at a major economic
crossroad and at the cultural crossroad where Semitic and Iranian
cultural traditions came together. Iraq was a place of cultural creativity
and a center for cultural diffusion. Changes that were taking place
there make the region unique during late antiquity but characteristic
of Islamic civilization.
As much as possible, the scope of this discussion will be confined
to that part of the Tigris-Euphrates valley which was under late Sa-
sanian rule. This region was nearly co-extensive with the western
quarter of the Sasanian empire and roughly comparable to the modern
state of Iraq. This book is a local case study of the development of a
regional form of Islamic civilization. The problems created by treating
Iraq in relative isolation from the rest of the Islamic empire are much
less than the danger of generalizing too widely on the basis of local
conditions in a single province. The reader is cautioned not to apply
the conclusions that are reached here to other places without first
verifying the similarity of their conditions.
METHOD
The approach and method of argument and presentation that will
be used here have been conditioned by several problems in modern
scholarship. One of them involves the temporal framework that has
been used to assess the degree of continuity or change following the
Islamic conquests. Historical continuity and change only exist in a
temporal framework and whatever framework is used for comparison
between point A and point B in time will be somewhat arbitrary.
14 H. Pirenne, Mohammad and Charlemagne (New York, 1939). See also A. F. Hav-
ighurst, The Pirenne Thesis: Analysis, Criticism, and Revision (Boston, 1958).