Abstract
<p>One of the most formative areas and periods of historical inquiry, across the fields of Mediterranean history, Byzantine history, Islamic history, and the history of Muslim-Christian relations, is the long warfare between the Islamic and Christian worlds in the period that began with the Islamic conquests of the formerly Byzantine lands of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 630s ended with the closing of the Crusades in the Levant c. 1300. This cross-disciplinary book offers a broad spectrum of essays on important aspects of the political, social, religious, and historical importance of the Islamic-Byzantine border in this period, and in particular the manifold ways in which the Islamic-Byzantine border affected the internal development and culture of each of the two civilizations. The articles are written by twelve of the leading scholars in the field, including experts on both the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world.</p>