salm ibn amr khasir the first abbasid poet born in basra.he was a pupil and narrator of the poet bashar ibn burd. he acquired his nickname (the loser),when he sold a copy of the quran in exchange for a book of verse; other explanations are also given. when young,he moved to baghdad and became a panegyrist of the ‘abbasid caliphs,the barmakids, in especial fadl barmaki,and other leading persons....

Introduction During the course of archaeological research completed in the area of Bilad al-Qadim in the northeast of Bahrain in 2001, trial excavations and survey were undertaken at the spring of Abu Zaydan (N26 12¢ 24.5¢¢ E050 32¢ 50.7¢¢). The focus of this research project was to investigate the Islamic period on Bahrain, hence the remains recorded at Abu Zaydan were unexpected, comprising a...

The Melkites, Jacobites, and Nestorians were the main Christian communities under Muslim rule. Several pre-Islamic Arab Christian authors wrote treatises concerning their beliefs in Arabic, some of which date back to the early Islamic centuries. The multiplicity of such polemical works suggests an intellectually open society and a degree of tolerance shown by Muslim leaders. Abu Raʾita...