The Crucible of Consensus: How the Byzantium-Aksumite "Frenemy" Dynamic Birthed the Islamic Era

The emergence of Islam in the 7th century is traditionally viewed as a sudden, isolated eruption from the deserts of the Hijaz. However, a growing body of revisionist scholarship—pioneered by figures such as G.W. Bowersock, Timothy Power, and Robert Hoyland—reframes this era as the inevitable resolution of a century-long "frenemy" relationship between t…