Islamic archaeology (Arabic: علم الآثار الإسلامي; ʿIlm al-Āthār al-Islāmī) is the recovery and scientific study of material remains from past cultures that help explain the periods and descriptions in the Qur'an and the history of Islam.^[1] Islamic archaeology includes studying how the Islamic faith and Islamic practices can be seen in physical evidence from the 7th century to today.^[2]

The time period of Islamic archaeology is from 622 CE to the present. Many Islamic archaeologists also study how the material remains of pre-Islamic Arabia connect to Islamic periods. Islamic inscriptions and Qur'an manuscripts have been dated to the time of Muhammad (d. 632).^[4][5] During the Marwanid dynasty of the Umayyad Caliphate (684–750), dated Islamic texts become more common and show more kinds of content. After this time, quotations from the Qur'an also begin to appear.^[6] Early Muslim inscriptions include the Uthman ibn Affan inscription, which is similar to the Inscription of Zuhair (Naqsh Zuhair), where the writer recorded the date of death of Umar ibn al-Khattab (d. 644).^[7]

Many figures in the Qur'an also appear in biblical stories, including Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Because of this, archaeological research in ancient Arabia, the Levant, and the wider Near East gives insight into shared prophetic traditions and the sacred places mentioned in the Qur'an and the Bible.^[8] Today, many seminaries, rabbinical schools, and Islamic institutions teach archaeology, focusing on historical-critical, literary, and sociological ways of studying sacred writings.^[9]

Some modern Muslim commentators use archaeology as a method of historical checking and as extra material for tafsir (interpretation of scripture). This is common in modernist or historically focused approaches to Qur'anic studies. This method goes beyond traditional sources of knowledge, especially hadith, and some Muslims believe it is acceptable to critique hadiths using factual archaeological evidence.^[10][11]

Islamic archaeology became a field in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the 20th century continued, Islamic archaeology moved away from its art-history and Oriental studies background.^[12]

Various Muslim-majority countries such as Qatar, Bahrain, and Morocco are notable for their significant archaeological work. Archaeological activities have often been opposed by conservative Sunni and Wahhabi clerics in Saudi Arabia, although interest in early Islamic history has grown under reforms by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.^[13][14][15] Islamic archaeology also exists in the West, particularly in regions that were once part of the Islamic states of Al-Andalus and Sicily.^{[16][17][18][19]}

• Islam
• Muslims
• Muslim Hebraists
• Hadith rejectors
• Mu'tazila
• Neo-Mu'tazilites

1. ↑ "archaeology", Online Etymology Dictionary
2. ↑ Milwright, Marcus. "Islamic Archaeology".
3. ↑ Imbert, Frédéric (2019). "Espaces de liberté et contraintes graphiques dans les graffiti du début de l'islam". In Pinon, Catherine (ed.). Savants, amants, poètes et fous - Séances offertes à Katia Zakharia. Beirut: Presses de l'Ifpo. pp. 161–174. doi:10.4000/books.ifpo.13413. ISBN 9782351595503. S2CID 213324606.
4. ↑ "University in U.K. Finds Muhammad-Era Quran Pages Among Its Possessions | WNYC".
5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2025-10-10. Retrieved 2026-07-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
6. ↑ https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions/earlyislam
7. ↑ Nasrallah, Tawfiq (13 June 2022). "Saudi Arabia discovers 1419-year-old Islamic inscription". Gulf News.
8. ↑ Donner, Fred M. (2010). Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674050976.
9. ↑ Faust, Avraham (2012). "Archaeology, the Bible, and the Israeli Academy". Journal of Religious History. 36 (3): 349–366. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9809.2011.01174.x (inactive 26 July 2026).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2026 (link)
10. ↑ Amin, Tahereh Sadat Tabataba'i (2022). "The Place of Archaeological Studies and Historical Geography in ‎Contemporary Interpretations". Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences. 61 (2): 442–457. doi:10.36473/ujhss.v61i2.1299.
11. ↑ "Hadiths at odds with science". 11 June 2021.
12. ↑ "Islam". The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion. Oxford University Press. 27 October 2011. ISBN 978-0-19-923244-4.
13. ↑ "The struggle for Saudi Arabia's buried past". Archived from the original on 2026-06-07. Retrieved 2026-07-11.
14. ↑ https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/ai/article/id/308/print/#:~:text=A%20significant%20number%20of%20worked,2020).&text=This%20phase%20also%20ended%20abruptly,or%20be%20yet%20later%20still.
15. ↑ "Saudi bid to protect pre-Islamic sites upends religious dictates". Reuters.
16. ↑ "Identity and the life course in Islamic Ecija | Archaeology | University of Southampton".
17. ↑ Gomes, Rosa Varela (2020). "Portuguese Medieval Islamic Archaeology". Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. pp. 1–17. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2674-1. ISBN 978-3-319-51726-1.
18. ↑ Gleize, Y.; Mendisco, F.; Pemonge, M. H.; Hubert, C.; Groppi, A.; Houix, B.; Deguilloux, M. F.; Breuil, J. Y. (2016). "Early Medieval Muslim Graves in France: First Archaeological, Anthropological and Palaeogenomic Evidence". PLOS ONE. 11 (2) e0148583. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1148583G. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0148583. PMC 4765927. PMID 26910855.
19. ↑ Rotolo, Antonio (2016). "Framing the Archaeological Data in Islamic Sicily. An Outlook from the Trapani Mountains". Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies. 3 (1–2). doi:10.1515/jtms-2016-0006.