The Archaeology of Islam: What Digging Tells us that Reading Doesn’t

For Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the study of Islam usually equates to the reading of books. But in recent decades, archaeological excavations have revealed a more complex picture of the Muslim past than written sources have recorded. This has been especially the case for the history of Islam in Africa, where excavations in different regions of the continent have shown not only distinctive local patterns of Islamization, but also the connections of locales such as Gao in Mali with Andalusia and Harlaa in Ethiopia with India. In this episode we’ll learn about of excavations ranging from Madinat al-Zahra in Spain to Bilad al-Qadim in Bahrain and Ethiopian Harar, as well as the implications of what was discovered in these digs. Shedding light on periods, places, or social groups that scarcely registered in the textual tradition, Nile Green talks to Timothy Insoll, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology (Oxford, 2020).