Islamic archaeology

File:Signature Believed To Be Of ʿUmar B. Al-Khaṭṭāb.png or Amir al-Mu'minin, claimed to be Umar's signature{{cite book |last1=Imbert |first1=Frédéric |date=2019 |chapter=Espaces de liberté et contraintes graphiques dans les graffiti du début de l'islam |title=Savants, amants, poètes et fous - Séances offertes à Katia Zakharia |pages=161–174 |location=Beirut |publisher=Presses de l'Ifpo |chapter-url=http://books.openedition.org/ifpo/13413|isbn=9782351595503 |doi=10.4000/books.ifpo.13413 |s2cid=213324606}}]]

File:First_Islamic_coins_by_caliph_Uthman-mohammad_adil_rais.jpg coins during the Rashidun period,{{cite encyclopedia|author1-last=Album|author1-first=Stephen|author2-last=Bates|author2-first=Michael L.|author3-last=Floor|author3-first=Willem|author3-link=Willem Floor|title=COINS AND COINAGE|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/coins-and-coinage-|volume=VI/1|pages=14–41|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica|publisher=Columbia University|location=New York|date=30 December 2012|orig-date=15 December 1992|doi=10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_7783|doi-access=free|issn=2330-4804|access-date=23 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150517020427/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/coins-and-coinage-|archive-date=17 May 2015|url-status=live|quote=As the Arabs of the Ḥejāz had used the drahms of the Sasanian emperors, the only silver coinage in the world at that time, it was natural for them to leave many of the Sasanian mints in operation, striking coins like those of the emperors in every detail except for the addition of brief Arabic inscriptions like besmellāh in the margins. [...] In the year 79/698 reformed Islamic dirhams with inscriptions and no images replaced the Sasanian types at nearly all mints. During this transitional period in the 690s specifically Muslim inscriptions appeared on the coins for the first time; previously Allāh (God) had been mentioned but not the prophet Moḥammad, and there had been no reference to any Islamic doctrines. Owing to civil unrest (e.g., the revolt of ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān b. Ašʿaṯ, q.v., against Ḥajjāj in 81/701), coins of Sasanian type continued to be issued at certain mints in Fārs, Kermān, and Sīstān, but by 84/703 these mints had either been closed down or converted to production of the new dirhams. The latest known Arab-Sasanian coin, an extraordinary issue, is dated 85/704-05, though some mints in the east, still outside Muslim control, continued producing imitation Arab-Sasanian types for perhaps another century.}} similar designs were minted in the names of important leaders such as Muawiyah I and Ibn Zubayr. (crescent-star, fire altar, depictions of the last Sasanian emperor Khosrow II, Arabic bismillāh in margin)]]

File:Dehio 10 Dome of the Rock Section.jpg in 1833).{{cite web |url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/architecture/architecture_features/alternating_currents/collections/domeoftherock/index.html |title= Drawings of Islamic Buildings: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. |publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum |quote= Until 1833 the Dome of the Rock had not been measured or drawn; according to Victor von Hagen, 'no architect had ever sketched its architecture, no antiquarian had traced its interior design...' On 13 November in that year, however, Frederick Catherwood dressed up as an Egyptian officer and accompanied by an Egyptian servant 'of great courage and assurance', entered the buildings of the mosque with his drawing materials... 'During six weeks, I continued to investigate every part of the mosque and its precincts.' Thus, Catherwood made the first complete survey of the Dome of the Rock, and paved the way for many other artists in subsequent years, such as William Harvey, Ernest Richmond and Carl Friedrich Heinrich Werner. |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090309001858/http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/architecture/architecture_features/alternating_currents/collections/domeoftherock/index.html |archive-date= 9 March 2009 }}]]

Islamic archaeology involves the recovery and scientific investigation of the material remains of past cultures that can illuminate the periods and descriptions in the Quran, and early Islam.{{citation|title=archaeology|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=archaeology|work=Online Etymology Dictionary}} The science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. The Egyptian "Antiquities Authority" was established in 1858 and remains a government organization which serves to protect and preserve the heritage and ancient history of Egypt.

Early pioneers in Islamic archaeology included Eduard Glaser and Alois Musil. Khaled al-Asaad was principal custodian of the Palmyra site from 1963, overseeing its elevation to a UNESCO World Heritage Site.{{Cite news|title=Khaled al-Asaad profile: the Howard Carter of Palmyra|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/19/khaled-al-asaad-profile-syria-isis-howard-carter-palmyra-archaeology|newspaper=The Guardian|date=19 August 2015|access-date=19 August 2015|first=Caroline|last=Davies}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/08/palmyra-isis-khalid-al-asaad-beheading-isis/402148/|title=ISIS Killed Khalid al-Assad for Refusing to Betray Palmyra|first=Joanna|last=Paraszczuk|work=The Atlantic|date=24 August 2015|access-date=27 August 2015}} Some of the earliest areas investigated in Saudi Arabia include Al Faw Village and Madain Saleh. Jodi Magness has covered the archaeology of early Islamic settlement in Palestine. The Museum of Islamic Archaeology and Art of Iran was opened in 1972. It houses tools dating back 30,000 to 35,000 years and crafted by Mousterian Neanderthals in Yafteh. Among the oldest human artifacts are 9,000-year-old and animal figurines from the Sarab mound in Kermanshah Province. The Gaza Museum of Archaeology was opened in 2008. Objects protected from display include Aphrodite in revealing gown, images of ancient deities and oil lamps featuring menorahs. Since 2016 the Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic Archaeology at the University of Exeter, Timothy Insoll, has directed the Centre for Islamic Archaeology.{{Cite web|title=Centre for Islamic Archaeology |publisher=University of Exeter|url=http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/iais/research/centres/centreforislamicarchaeology/|access-date=2021-12-12|website=socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk}} Insoll is on the editorial board of the Journal of Islamic Archaeology.

The oldest extant Islamic monument is The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem which contains some of the earliest extant qurānic text, dated to 692CE. They vary from today's standard text (mainly changes from the first to the third person) and are mixed with pious inscriptions absent from the Quran. During a six-week period in 1833, Frederick Catherwood produced the first known detailed survey.

Pre-Islamic In-situ archaeology includes south Arabian 4th CE rock inscriptions that evidence fewer pagan expressions and the start in use of the monotheistic "rahmān".Robert Schick, Archaeology and the Quran, Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an

Fewer archaeological surveys have taken place in the Arabian peninsula and are considered taboo in Mecca (The Noble) and Medina (The Enlightened City). There is no architecture from the time of Mohammed in either city and the battlefields of the Quran have not been unearthed. Known settlements from the time, such as Khaybar, remain uninvestigated. Archaeologial evidence for Quranic narratives yet to be uncovered include that for the ʿĀd who built monuments and strongholds at every high pointQuran 26 and their fate evident from the remains of their dwellings.Quran 29Quran 46

A political dispute in the Uttar Pradesh city of Ayodhya, as noted by academic, K. K. Muhammed, has revolved around archaeological Issues: whether an archaeological plot, believed the temple birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama, was demolished or modified to create the Babri Masjid mosque.{{sfnm|1a1=Jain|1y=2013|1p=121|2a1=Kunal|2y=2016|2pp=xvi, 135–136|3a1=Layton|3a2=Thomas|3y=2003|3pp=8–9}}