Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 28

2/2/2016

Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

document with no analogous documents found in the contemporaneous Mediterranean or Near East, but she finds companions for many of the
individual rules found in the Shurūt Umar in legal treaties related to the treatment of the metoikoi in Athens, the gerim in Israel, as well as Jews and
Samaritans under Byzantine rule. Uncovering a similar pattern in the Sasanian world for the treatment of non-Zoroastrians is more difficult due to
the lack of a well-documented legal system, but, instead, Levy-Rubin can here focus on the better understood rules of Sasanian social hierarchy and
associated laws of distinction, including sumptuary laws, which she argues is a model for the later Muslim ghiyār codes.
In the end, Levy-Rubin argues that the Shurūt Umar “thus reflects the completion of a process in which Muslim society was redefining itself versus
the conquered societies” (p. 167). While the conclusions, both that the Shurūt Umar developed over time as the Muslim community evolved, and
that these laws were largely inspired by Byzantine and Sasanian predecessors, are not that surprising, the detail with which she builds her argument
solidifies our understanding of this transformation. The manner in which Levy-Rubin brings together Greco-Roman, Byzantine, Sasanian, and early
Islamic sources provides a great resource for scholars interested in the development of early Islamic society. Levy-Rubin’s work here is an
important contribution to a growing body of research that is seeking to understand the development of the early Muslim community in its broader
historical context.

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