Between Rebels and Rulers in the Early Islamicate World offers the first dedicated examination of the phenomenon of rebellion across the early Islamicate world. It combines discourse analysis with a return to long-neglected social-historical analysis in its study of contention and the ways in which it was narrated and enacted. These approaches are pursued through fourteen case studies, ranging geographically from North Africa to Central Asia and chronologically from the sixth to tenth centuries CE. These diverse examples reveal several patterns: first, rebellion operated as a normative means of negotiating power and obtaining justice. Secondly, the main constituencies of rebellion were local elites, both Muslims and non-Muslims, Arabs and members of pre-conquest societies, separately or together. Accordingly, this volume challenges the ‘othering’ of rebels found in written sources and reflected in scholarship and reframes them and their discourses as integral parts of an imperial system. And thirdly, this book shows how social ties provided a framework for the mobilisation of rebellious constituencies and the resolution of conflict.

This collective volume with its extensive temporal and regional treatment of cases of contention, rebellion and revolt in early Islamic history, paired with the detailed and thought-provoking approach to each specific case, will become the reference book on the topic. -- Maribel Fierro, Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo
Through fourteen case studies, ranging geographically from North Africa to Central Asia and chronologically from the sixth to tenth centuries CE, this book presents an innovative and long-overdue holistic approach to rebellions in the Islamicate medieval world. -- Petra Sijpesteijn, Leiden University

Hannah-Lena Hagemann is the Principal Investigator of the Emmy Noether research group “Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period” (SCORE) at the University of Hamburg. She is author of The Khārijites in Early Islamic Historical Tradition (Edinburgh University Press, 2021) and co-editor (with Stefan Heidemann) of Transregional and Regional Elites: Connecting the Early Islamic Empire (De Gruyter, 2020). Alasdair C. Grant is Research Associate in the Emmy Noether project “Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period” (SCORE) at the University of Hamburg. He is author of Greek Captives and Mediterranean Slavery, 1260–1460 (Edinburgh University Press, 2024).