Economic and Territorial Power Relations from Islamic Empire to ‘Commonwealth’

The study of imperial phenomena in the early Islamic period is a developing field, which, in its present state, offers more questions than answers. The state of the art tells the story of the early empires mainly as a literary phenomenon, with some reflections on the nature of early Islamic ideology. This literary expression of imperial questions is that of the 9th and 10th century Arabic narratives which are not ideal in order to approach questions of territoriality and economy. The present paper will broaden the selection of sources. By focusing on the Umayyad and Abbasid empires, it will look at the power relations that allowed (or failed) to maintain imperial structures under those two dynasties. It will also present the finances that underpinned both territorial expansion and imperial ideology, through the fiscal system and beyond.