Routes and Realms explores the ways in which Muslims expressed attachment to land from the ninth through the eleventh centuries, the earliest period of intensive written production in Arabic. The conceptual innovation at the heart of the book is its identification of a "discourse of place," a framework for approaching formal texts devoted to the representation of territory across genres. The discourse of place included such varied works as topographical histories, literary anthologies, religious treatises, world geographies, poetry, travel literature, and maps. By subjecting these works to close reading and analysis, Antrim argues that their authors imagined plots of land primarily as homes, cities, and regions and associated them with a range of claims to religious and political authority. The discourse of place constitutes evidence of the powerful ways in which the geographical imagination was tapped to declare loyalty and invoke belonging in the early Islamic world. Now more than ever, when the competing forces of nationalism and globalism inspire new notions of rootedness, it is vital to ponder the changing ways in which land has mattered over the centuries.

About the Author
Zayde Antrim is Associate Professor of History and International Studies at Trinity College.

Reviews
this extremely well-referenced book deals with Abbassid territorial concepts. * Ali Abd al-Malik, The Islamic Quarterly *
With Routes and Realms Zayde Antrim has produced an innovative analysis of real importance which should be considered carefully by all who work on early Islamic history and the Arabic and Persian literary texts of the period. * Harry Munt, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies *
Antrim's study is a real contribution and will effectively stimulate discussion on the very nature (and study) of early Islamic geography. * Paul L. Heck, Journal of Historical Geography *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199913879
Author Zayde Antrim
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 562g
Dimensions(mm) 163mm * 239mm * 20mm