RESOURCES132): A New Interpretation (Cambridge, 1971). 'A. A. Dixon's study
of the reign of 'Abd al-Malik and the last years of the second fitna
called The Umayyad Caliphate: 65-86/684-705 (A Political Study)
(London, 1971) is revisionist in its argument that 'Abd al-Malik was
a serious Muslim. It contains an extensive bibliography of Arabic
sources and has been translated into Arabic as al-Khilafah al-uma-
wiyah: dirasah siyastyah (Beirut, 1973). M.G.S. Hodgson's The Ven-
ture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization (Chi-
cago, 1974) is also revisionist in tone but much broader in scope. The
first volume, The Classical Age of Islam, includes the Sasanian back-
ground. But Hodgson's choice of terminology and emphasis has been
charitably described as idiosyncratic and his discussion of matters is
at the level of high culture in spite of his own denials. One should
consult the reviews such as those by C. Geertz in The New York Review
of Books 22, no. 20 (Dec. 11, 1975): 18-26, or E. Burke Ill, "Islamic
History as World History: Marshall Hodgson 'The Venture of Islam',"
IJMES 10 (1979): 241-64.
Since some of the most crucial developments in the first century of
Islamic history took place in Iraq, all of these works pay some attention
to that region. For more closely focused treatments of early Islamic
Iraq, see A. H. al-Kharbutli, Ta'rtkh al-'Iraq ft?ill al-~ukm al-Umawt
(Cairo, 1959); M. an-Najjar, ad-Dawla al-Umawiyya fi-sh-sharq (Cairo,
1962); and T. I. ar-Rawi, al-'Iraq fi-l-'Asr al-Umawt (Baghdad, 1965).
All of these studies discuss matters in the framework of the standard
interpretation.
For the reasons given above, and because Iraqi Muslim forces cam-
paigned in Iran in the seventh and eighth centuries, works on early
Islamic Iran reflect conditions in Iraq. This applies to B. Spuler's Iran
in fruhislamischer Zeit (Wiesbaden, 1952), especially pages 5 to 34;
'A. I;I. Zarrinkiib's Do qarn sokiit (Teheran, 1344); and even C. E.
Bosworth's Ststan under the Arabs, from the Islamic Conquest to the
Rise of the Saffarids (30-250/651-864) (Rome, 1968). The best treat-
ment of early Islamic Iran in the previous decade is R. N. Frye's The
Golden Age of Persia: The Arabs in the East (London, 1975), which
has an instructive introductory chapter on Sasanian Iran.
Middle Persian Inscriptions
Monumental Sas ani an inscriptions appear to be confined to the early
Sasanian period and are found outside of Iraq, but they are indispen-
sable sources of information about early Sasanian history and admin-