Through an archeological survey and series of test excavations this project will examine a local Islamic period Syrian landscape in the region of Qinnasrin, just south of Aleppo. This investigation of the archeological record will provide the basis for a study of the spatial practices and social interactions of urbanities, settled agriculturists and nomadic pastoralists that all shared this particular geographical space. These material spatial practices combined with textual research on Islamic period spatial representations and land use will serve to develop a picture of the landscape as a “social product.” As such I argue that it provides a unique lens for reading and evaluating the transformative effects of larger religious, political, and economic forces that operate within and against the authority of an emerging Islamic discursive tradition and an expanding imperial structure.