This volume provides a synthetic study of the political, social, and economic processes which formed early Islamic Egypt. Looking at a corpus of previously unknown Arabic papyrus letters, Sijpesteijn examines the reasons for the success of the early Arab conquests and the transition from the pre-Islamic Byzantine system to an Arab/Muslim state. ... one of the most useful studies on the history of Arab/Islamic Egypt to appear in many years. ...The scholarship on display is admirable: the book is clearly written, closely and sensibly argued, and thoroughly documented... One is accustomered to being told that this or that book is essential reading. the phrase has become hackneyed, which is a shame: one needs it still precisely for this sort of work. there is very much to learn here and, indeed, a single reading of Shaping a Muslim State hardly suffices.