Acknowledgements Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors Notes on Transliteration, Names and Dates Introduction Petra M. Sijpesteijn, Marie Legendre and Alain Delattre Part 1 A Question of Sources 1 New Governors Identified in Arabic Papyri Khaled Younes 2 "I'll Not Accept Aid from a mushrik" Rural Space, Persuasive Authority, and Religious Difference in Three Prophetic hadiths Luke Yarbrough Part 2 Territoriality 3 The Rural Hinterland of the Visigothic Capitals of Toledo and Reccopolis, between the Years 400-800 CE Javier Martinez Jimenez 4 Authority and Control in the Interior of Asia Minor, Seventh-Ninth Centuries James Howard-Johnston 5 Church Building in the Tur 'Abdin in the First Centuries of the Islamic Rule Elif Keser-Kayaalp 6 Les amenagements agricoles dans les Marges arides de Syrie du Nord (5e-10e siecles) Des temoins des modalites d' appropriation et d' exploitation des campagnes Marion Rivoal and Marie-Odile Rousset 7 The Ghazi Movement Performative Religious Identity on the Byzantine-Islamic Frontier Jessica L. Ehinger 8 The Coming of Islam to Balkh Arezou Azad and Hugh Kennedy Part 3 Land Use and Resources 9 Controle et exploitation des campagnes en Sicile Le role du grand domaine et son evolution du VIe siecle au XIe siecle Annliese Nef and Vivien Prigent 10 Murtaba' al-jund et manzil al-qaba'il Penetration militaire et installation tribale dans la campagne egyptienne au premier siecle de l' Islam Sobhi Bouderbala 11 Landowners, Caliphs and State Policy over Landholdings in the Egyptian Countryside Theory and Practice Marie Legendre 12 Monastic Control over Agriculture and Farming New Evidence from the Egyptian Monastery of Apa Apollo at Bawit Concerning the Payment of APARCHE Gesa Schenke 13 Caliphal Estates and Properties around Medina in the Umayyad Period Harry Munt 14 Land Tenure, Land Tax and Social Conflictuality in Iraq from the Late Sasanian to the Early Islamic Period (Fifth to Ninth Centuries CE) Michele Campopiano 15 Land Reclamation and Irrigation Programs in Early Islamic Southern Mesopotamia Self-Enrichment vs. State Control Peter Verkinderen Part 4 Local Rule and Networks 16 Checkpoints, sauf-conduits et controle de la population en Egypte au debut du VIIIe siecle Alain Delattre 17 Policing, Punishing and Prisons in the Early Islamic Egyptian Countryside (640-850 CE) Petra M. Sijpesteijn Index