Alfred J. Butler
Oxford University Press (Clarendon Press), 1998 (reprint of 1978 edition).
796 pp.
Book Number 20399
Butler's classic work on the Arab conquest of Egypt, first published in 1902, has retained its value as a critical and imaginative account of one of the main phases of Islamic expansion. It deals with the conquest both as part of the general history of the reign of Heraclius and as part of the great wave of Muslim conquest of the Middle East and North Africa. Although the central narrative remains authoritative, a great deal of new material had accumulated which would enable the reader to appreciate more fully the general background, in terms of both Byzantine and Arab history. In his introduction to this second edition, PM Fraser sets out the new material in both fields in the form of a critical bibliography, including a brief account of the relevant papyri from Egypt itself. Butler's original text remains unchanged, but two later pamphlets on points of detailed interpretation have been added.