A Concise History of the Middle East

Bibliographie Essay ••• 501

Prentice-Hall, 2002). For ethnographic data, beginners may refer to Joyce Moss

and George Wilson, Peoples of the World: The Middle East and North Africa (De¬

troit: Gale Research, 1992).

CHAPTER 2

The history of the Middle East before Muhammad is a field unto itself. The best
introduction now available is William W. Hallo and William Kelly Simpson, The
Ancient Near East: A History, 2nd ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1997). Also see Milton Covensky's The Ancient Near Eastern Tradition (New York:
Harper 8c Row, 1966); and Jacquetta Hawkes, The First Great Civilizations (New
York: Knopf, 1973). Byzantine history is covered in detail by George Ostrogorsky,
History of the Byzantine State, trans. Joan Hussey (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 1986). Beginners may prefer John Julius Norwich, Byzantium:
The Early Centuries (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989) and later volumes, or
Tamara Talbot Rice, Everyday Life in Byzantium (New York: Dorset Press, 1987).
On the Eastern Christian churches, see Aziz S. Atiya, A History of Eastern Chris¬
tianity (South Bend, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 1968). On Zoroastrianism,
see Janet Kestenberg Amighi, The Zoroastrians of Iran (New York: AMS Press,
1990); Mary Boyce, The Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (New
York: Routledge, 1985); and Peter Clark, Zoroastrianism: An Introduction to an
Ancient Faith (Brighton, U.K.: Sussex Academic Press, 1998). For quick reference,
G. W. Bowersock, Peter Brown, and Oleg Grabar, eds., Late Antiquity (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1999) has detailed articles and short entries.
General books on Iran (or Persia) require special attention. Probably the best for
beginners is Elton Daniel, History of Iran (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000).
Advanced students should consult The Cambridge History of Iran, 8 vols. (Cam¬
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968-1991). Increasingly useful is the Encyclo¬
pedia Iranica, edited by Ehsan Yarshater (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1982-1992; Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1993-), which has now reached
vol. 12, or "Historiography." It is also available online at http://www.iranica.com/
articlenavigator/alphabetical/bodya.html. The Islam Chamber Society has a Web
site on Iranian history that includes narratives, illustrations, and sources. The Lev¬
ant, often called "Greater Syria" also poses a challenge, but start with William W.
Harris, The Levant: A Fractured Mosaic (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers,
2003), a comprehensive survey.
The Arabs before Islam are covered in Robert G. Hoyland, Arabia and the
Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (London & New York: Rout¬
ledge, 2001); and Jan Retsô, The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyri¬
ans to the Umayyads (London & New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003). Richard
Bulliet's The Camel and the Wheel (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,