The naming of the frontier: ՙAwāṣim, Thughūr, and the Arab geographers

Abstract

The Arabic geographical literature of the Middle Ages used several terms to indicate limits and frontiers, includingāfāq, ḥudūdandtukhūm. For the external frontiers of Islam itself the term most commonly used wasthughūr(sg.thaghr). And among these it was the Arab-Byzantine frontier, which to some was the frontierpar excellence, which came closest to having a nomenclature peculiar to itself. In this essay I wish to demonstrate that this nomenclature, and the picture which we have of this region, do not derive from administrative history so much as from a series of superimpositions made by medieval writers on geography and related subjects. I intend to follow Professor Wansbrough's lead, by showing the consequences of the ‘use by many of the same (limited) sources of information’. I also wish to emphasize that differences over how things are to be named reflect conflicts over who is to have power over them.

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