Introduction Chase F. Robinson; Part I. The Late Antique Context: 1. The resources of Late Antiquity John Haldon; 2. The late Roman/early Byzantine Near East Mark Whittow; 3. The late Sasanian Near East Josef Wiesehöfer; 4. Pre-Islamic Arabia Michael Lecker; Part II. Universalism and Imperialism: 5. The rise of Islam, 600-705 Chase F. Robinson; 6. The empire in Syria, 705-763 Paul M. Cobb; 7. The empire in Iraq, 763-861 Tayeb El-Hibri; 8. The waning of empire, 861-945 Michael Bonner; 9. The late Abbasid pattern, 945-1050 Hugh Kennedy; Part III. Regionalism: 10. Arabia Ella Landau-Tasseron; 11. The Islamic East Elton L. Daniel; 12. Syria R. Stephen Humphreys; 13. Egypt Michael Brett; 14. The Iberian Peninsula and North Africa Eduardo Manzano Moreno; Part IV. The Historiography of Early Islamic History: 15. Modern approaches to early Islamic history Fred M. Donner; 16. Numismatics Stefan Heidemann; 17. Archaeology and material culture Marcus Milwright; Conclusion: From formative Islam to classical Islam Chase F. Robinson.