Robert Joseph Haug

Bio: Robert Joseph Haug is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Frontier & Islam. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 14 citations.

Islam on the Margins

Abstract: Islam on the Margins commemorates the contributions Michael Bonner made to Near Eastern Studies. It consists of fourteen contributions by his students and colleagues that focus on various aspects of his work. The contributions coalesce around four major themes of Bonner’s endeavours: Holy War and the Frontier, Qurʾan and Law, Geography and Ethnography, and Books, Coins and Titles. Collectively, the contributions underscore the breadth of Michael Bonner’s erudition and impact on the field.

Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.‐Mexico Borderlands

Abstract: Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. Oscar J. Martinez. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1994. 375 pp. $50.00 (cloth), $24.95 (paper). ISBN 0-8165-1396-1, ISBN 0-8165-1414-3.

God's Rule: Government and Islam

Abstract: God's Rule: Government and Islam, by Patricia Crone. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. x + 400 pages. Charts to p. 413. Bibl. to p. 446. Index and gloss, to p. 462. $39.50. For many Muslim believers, it is an article of faith that religion and politics are fused. Patricia Crone accepts this doctrine and begins her new book by firmly grounding Islam in a Middle Eastern tradition of religious and political unity. The two examples she uses as evidence are the Sumerian city-states with their priest-rulers and "the federation of Israelites that Moses took out of Egypt for the conquest of Palestine" (p. 15). These examples are perhaps not the best choices since archaeologists have discovered military strongmen as well as priests among the earliest rulers in Sumeria. They also tell us of early popular assemblies (pukhrum), indicating that Iraq (!) and not Greece was the place displaying the earliest traces of participatory politics.1 As for the Israelites, many archaeologists are skeptical of the historicity of the Exodus and are inclined to regard the ancient Israelites as villagers of long standing in the Palestinian hills.2 In the case of Islamic origins as well, the scholarship of the past quarter century - in which Dr. Crone occupies a prominent position has cast doubts on the historicity of early 7lh-century events in Arabia as told by the 9lh-century religious scholars. While Islamic theology and law may posit a unity of religion and politics, historical research demonstrates their distinctiveness - more often in tension than in harmony. Apart from the initial fusion argument, the book is a masterpiece on the history of the tension existing between religion and politics during the formative period of Islamic civilization (7'h to 13th centuries C.E.). It begins with a discussion of the Umayyad caliphs, governors, and judges who ruled the expanding Islamic Empire in the early 70Os by religious as well as political decree. From the start, however, these rulers had to deal with critics, such as the Kharijis, Jama'i Muslims, and Shi'is, who advocated rival models of religio-political organization under either weaker or stronger caliphs. Crone coins the felicitous term jama'i (p. 28) to describe those early "communitarian" (later Sunni) Muslims who were critical of Umayyad religious functions but did not seek to overturn Umayyad rule. While admittedly the Kharijis and Shi'is espoused religio-political fusion, the very fact of their active hostility shows the unavoidable tensions between religion and politics in the historical process. Crone convincingly argues that Shi'ism in the mid-700s was still more generally Hashimite (family of the Prophet) than 'Alid (family of the Prophet's cousin 'AH) in orientation. Consequently, the 'Abbasid revolution of 750 appears as a victory for the Shi'i model of a strong caliphate, especially in religious matters. …

Non-Muslim Provinces under Early Islam: Islamic Rule and Iranian Legitimacy in Armenia and Caucasian Albania

Abstract: Eighth- and ninth-century Armenia and Caucasian Albania were largely Christian provinces of the then Islamic Caliphate. Although they formed a part of the Iranian cultural sphere, they are often omitted from studies of both Islamic and Iranian history. In this book, Alison Vacca uses Arabic and Armenian texts to explore these Christian provinces as part of the Caliphate, identifying elements of continuity from Sasanian to caliphal rule, and, more importantly, expounding on significant moments of change in the administration of the Marwanid and early Abbasid periods. Vacca examines historical narrative and the construction of a Sasanian cultural memory during the late ninth and tenth centuries to place the provinces into a broader context of Iranian rule. This book will be of benefit to historians of Islam, Iran and the Caucasus, but will also appeal to those studying themes of Iranian identity and Muslim-Christian relations in the Near East.

Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing, by Fred M. Donner. (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam 14) 360 pages, appendices, bibliography, index. Princeton, NJ: The Darwin Press, 1998. $29.95 (Paper) ISBN 0-87850-127-4

Abstract: relatively advanced texts, and at the same time to give beginners a sense of their limitations. Examples are often repeated to illustrate points in later sections. (I was troubled, however, by one case in which a scene has been edited by the authors in its first occurrence to make it simpler. Despite the fact that an accurate copy is given later, editing a facsimile seems to me problematic.) Overall, How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs gives more information than most grammars for amateurs, but considerably less than a scholarly grammar. In addition to self-instruction, it might be useful in university course, to give students a quick competence in reading the most common monumental inscriptions before they face the complexities of stories and narratives. It is certainly well priced for either audience.