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mods: Damascus after the Muslim conquest text and image in early Islam Khalek, Nancy A. 1977- creator text bibliography Electronic books. History nyu New York Oxford University Press ©2011 2011 monographic eng remote 1 online resource (viii, 204 pages) : illustrations, maps Before it fell to Muslim armies in AD 635-6 Damascus had a long and prestigious history as a center of Christianity. How did the city, which became capital of the Islamic Empire, and its people, negotiate the transition from a late antique, or early Byzantine world to an Islamic culture? In this innovative study, Nancy Khalek demonstrates that the changes that took place in Syria during the formative period of Islamic life were not 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 multi-faceted social and cultural setting. Even as late antique forms of religion and culture persisted, the formation of Islamic identity was effected 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, story-telling, and the interpretations of material culture. -- Book description. 1. Narrative and Early Islamic History --- 2. Telling Stories: Historical Texts in Early Islamic Syria --- 3. Icons: John the Baptist and Sanctified Spaces in Early Islamic Syria --- 4. Iconic Texts: Damascus in the Medieval Imagination. Nancy Khalek. Includes bibliographical references and index. a-sy--- aw----- Damascus (Syria) History Syria History 634-750 Syria Civilization Middle East History Syrie Histoire 634-750 Moyen-Orient Histoir…