Table of Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations Abbreviations Preface 1. Musil's Fairy-Tale Castle 2. Luxuries of the Bath 3. The Hunt 4. "O God, Bless the Amir" 5. The Princely Patron 6. Maintaining the Dynasty 7. The Six Kings 8. A Captive Sasanian Princess 9. Qusayr 'Amar Contextualized 10. Umayyad Self-Representation Appendix: The Value of Arabic Literary Sources Bibliography Index

About the Author

Garth Fowden is Research Professor at the Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity, National Research Foundation in Athens. He is author of The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (reprinted 1993) and Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity (1993).

Reviews

"Three features make this book remarkable. First, its scholarship is impeccable, unusually broad, and complete. Second, its author has a clear story to tell. Third, it illuminates the world of Late Antiquity, which is only now beginning to be understood." - Oleg Grabar, author of The Shape of the Holy"