CSU Professor Ryan Lynch Publishes First Book

November 14, 2019

Dr. Ryan Lynch, Assistant Professor of History, published his first book on early Islamic history and early Islamic state formation. Entitled Arab Conquests and Early Islamic Historiography: The Futuh al-Buldan of al-Baladhuri, the book is published with I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury Academic.

Arab Conquests and Early Islamic Historiography discusses the life, writing, and historical context of the ninth century historian Ahmad b. Yahya b. Jabir al-Baladhuri. Al-Baladhuri wrote one of the earliest surviving Arabic histories of the early Islamic period called The Book of the Conquest of Lands , a text that has been critical for modern reconstructions of the early Arab-Islamic conquest period and the establishment of the first Islamic states in the Middle East. Dr. Lynch’s work is an analysis of the context, form, construction, purpose, and early reception history of al-Baladhuri’s book. His work will be an important contribution to early Islamic history and historiography, as well as late antique, Byzantine, and Mediterranean studies more generally.

Dr. Lynch completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford, and arrived to teach at Columbus State University in the Fall of 2016.