History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East

History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East PDF Author: Philip Wood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199915407
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Book Description
This volume arose out of a seminar series organised at the Classics Centre of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 2009 and a subsequent workshop in 2010.

Heresy and Identity in Late Antiquity

Heresy and Identity in Late Antiquity PDF Author: Eduard Iricinschi
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161491221
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Book Description
"The papers collected in this volume shift the focus away from "heretics" and "heresy" to heresiological discourse, by contextualizing the late antique Jewish and Christian groups that produced our extant literature. The contributors to the volume draw from multiple literary corpora and genres, bringing a variety of late antique perspective to explore the discursive construction of the Other. They unravel ethnic identities, and re-create the multiple voices textured in the dialogue between the "orthodox" and "heretical" writers."--BOOK JACKET.

Civic Identity and Civic Participation in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

Civic Identity and Civic Participation in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages PDF Author: Cedric Brelaz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782503590103
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 425

Book Description
During the Ancient Greek and Roman eras, participation in political communities at the local level, and assertion of belonging to these communities, were among the fundamental principles and values on which societies would rely. For that reason, citizenship and democracy are generally considered as concepts typical of the political experience of Classical Antiquity. These concepts of citizenship and democracy are often seen as inconsistent with the political, social, and ideological context of the late and post-Roman world. As a result, scholarship has largely overlooked participation in local political communities when it comes to the period between the disintegration of the Classical model of local citizenship in the later Roman Empire and the emergence of 'pre-communal' entities in Northern Italy from the ninth century onwards. By reassessing the period c. 300-1000 CE through the concepts of civic identity and civic participation, this volume will reassess both the impact of Classical heritage with regard to civic identities in the political experiences of the late and post-Roman world, and the rephrasing of new forms of social and political partnership according to ethnic or religious criteria in the early Middle Ages. Starting from the earlier imperial background, the fourteen chapters examine the ways in which people shared identity and gave shape to their communal life, as well as the role played by the people in local government in the later Roman Empire, the Germanic kingdoms, Byzantium, the early Islamic world, and the early medieval West. By focusing on the post-Classical, late antique, and early medieval periods, this volume intends to be an innovative contribution to the general history of citizenship and democracy.

Christians and Their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200-450 CE

Christians and Their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200-450 CE PDF Author: Éric Rebillard
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801465559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 145

Book Description
For too long, the study of religious life in Late Antiquity has relied on the premise that Jews, pagans, and Christians were largely discrete groups divided by clear markers of belief, ritual, and social practice. More recently, however, a growing body of scholarship is revealing the degree to which identities in the late Roman world were fluid, blurred by ethnic, social, and gender differences. Christianness, for example, was only one of a plurality of identities available to Christians in this period. In Christians and Their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200–450 CE, Éric Rebillard explores how Christians in North Africa between the age of Tertullian and the age of Augustine were selective in identifying as Christian, giving salience to their religious identity only intermittently. By shifting the focus from groups to individuals, Rebillard more broadly questions the existence of bounded, stable, and homogeneous groups based on Christianness. In emphasizing that the intermittency of Christianness is structurally consistent in the everyday life of Christians from the end of the second to the middle of the fifth century, this book opens a whole range of new questions for the understanding of a crucial period in the history of Christianity.

Late Antiquity on the Eve of Islam

Late Antiquity on the Eve of Islam PDF Author: Averil Cameron
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351923145
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 556

Book Description
This volume reflects the huge upsurge of interest in the Near East and early Islam currently taking place among historians of late antiquity. At the same time, Islamicists and Qur'anic scholars are also increasingly seeking to place the life of Muhammad and the Qur'an in a late antique background. Averil Cameron, herself one of the leading scholars of late antiquity and Byzantium, has chosen eleven key articles that together give a rounded picture of the most important trends in late antique scholarship over the last decades, and provide a coherent context for the emergence of the new religion. A substantial introduction, with a detailed bibliography, surveys the present state of the field, as well as discussing some recent themes in Qur'anic and early Islamic scholarship from the point of view of a late antique historian. The volume also provides an invaluable introduction to recent scholarship, making clear the ferment of religious change that was taking place across the Near East before, during and after the lifetime of Muhammad. It will be essential reading for Islamicists and late antique students and scholars alike.

Cities and the Meanings of Late Antiquity

Cities and the Meanings of Late Antiquity PDF Author: Mark Humphries
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004422617
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 118

Book Description
This study examines how cities have become an area of significant historical debate about late antiquity, challenging accepted notions that it is a period of dynamic change and reasserting views of the era as one of decline and fall.

Readings in Late Antiquity

Readings in Late Antiquity PDF Author: Michael Maas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136617035
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 530

Book Description
Late Antiquity (ca. 250-650) witnessed the transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. Christianity displaced polytheism over a wide area, offering new definitions of identity and community. The Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe to be replaced by new "Germanic" kingdoms. In the East, Byzantium emerged, while the Persian Empire reached its apogee and collapsed. Arab armies carrying the banner of Islam reshaped the political map and brought the late antique era to a close. This sourcebook illustrates the dramatic political, social and religious transformations of Late Antiquity through the words of the men and women who experienced them. Drawing from Greek, Latin, Syriac, Hebrew, Coptic, Persian, Arabic and Armenian sources, the carefully chosen passages illuminate the lives of emperors, abbesses, aristocrats, slaves, children, barbarian chieftains, and saints . The Roman Empire is kept at the centre of the discussion, with chapters devoted to its government, cities, army, law, medicine, domestic life, philosophy, Christianity, polytheism, and Jews. Further chapters deal with the peoples who surrounded the Roman state: Persians, Huns, northern "Germanic" barbarians, and the followers of Islam. This revised and updated second edition provides an expanded view of Late Antiquity with a new chapter on domestic life, as well extra material throughout, including passages that appear for the first time in English translation. Readings in Late Antiquity is the only sourcebook that covers such a wide range of topics over the full breadth of the late antique period.

East and West in Late Antiquity

East and West in Late Antiquity PDF Author: J.H.W.F. Liebeschuetz
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004289526
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 507

Book Description
East and West in Late Antiquity combines published and unpublished articles by emeritus professor Wolf Liebeschuetz. Among the topics discussed are defensive strategies, the settlement inside the Empire of invaders and immigrants, and the modification of identities with the formation of new communities.

Late Antique Responses to the Arab Conquests

Late Antique Responses to the Arab Conquests PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004500642
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
Late Antique Responses to the Arab Conquests is a showcase of new discoveries in an exciting and rapidly developing field: the study of the transition from Late Antiquity to Early Islam. The Arab conquests are shown to have changed both the Arabian conquerors and the conquered.

The Routledge Handbook of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity

The Routledge Handbook of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity PDF Author: Catherine Hezser
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1315280957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 746

Book Description
This volume focuses on the major issues and debates in the study of Jews and Judaism in late antiquity (third to seventh century C.E.), providing cutting-edge surveys of the state of scholarship, main topics and research questions, methodological approaches, and avenues for future research. Based on both Jewish and non-Jewish literary and material sources, this volume takes an interdisciplinary approach involving historians of ancient Judaism, scholars of rabbinic literature, archaeologists, epigraphers, art historians, and Byzantinists. Developments within Jewish society and culture are viewed within the respective regional, political, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts in which they took place. Special focus is given to the impact of the Christianization of the Roman Empire on Jews, from administrative, legal, social, and cultural points of view. The contributors examine how the confrontation with Christianity changed Jewish practices, perceptions, and organizational structures, such as, for example, the emergence of local Jewish communities around synagogues as central religious spaces. Special chapters are devoted to the eastern and western Jewish Diaspora in Late Antiquity, especially Sasanian Persia but also Roman Italy, Egypt, Syria and Arabia, North Africa, and Asia Minor, to provide a comprehensive assessment of the situation and life experiences of Jews and Judaism during this period. The Routledge Handbook of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity is a critical and methodologically sophisticated survey of current scholarship aimed primarily at students and scholars of Jewish Studies, Study of Religions, Patristics, Classics, Roman and Byzantine Studies, Iranology, History of Art, and Archaeology. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Judaism and Jewish history.