Byzantium from Below: Rural Identity in Byzantine Arabia and Palaestina, 500–630

Rural identity in Arabia and Palaestina has received comparatively little attention from Byzantinists, despite the intensity of excavation at rural sites compared to other areas of the empire’s former territories. This is a rather problematic omission in view of the region’s later history as an area where we have explicit evidence of attempts by the Umayyads to formulate a public image distinct from that of their Roman predecessors and the region’s diverse Christian population. As one of the earliest environments of Christian–Muslim interaction, this has placed Arabia-Palaestina centrally within debates about shifting identities in the wake of Islam. The