From Hellenism to Islam: Cultural and Linguistic Change in the Roman Near East

Description

The eight hundred years between the first Roman conquests and the conquest of Islam saw a rich, constantly shifting blend of languages and writing systems, legal structures, religious practices and beliefs in the Near East. While the different ethnic groups and cultural forms often clashed with each other, adaptation was as much a characteristic of the region as conflict. This volume, emphasizing the inscriptions in many languages from the Near East, brings together mutually informative studies by scholars in diverse fields. Together, they reveal how the different languages, peoples and cultures interacted, competed with, tried to ignore or were influenced by each other, and how their relationships evolved over time. It will be of great value to those interested in Greek and Roman history, Jewish history and Near Eastern studies.

Hannah Cotton is Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Robert Hoyland is Professor of Arabic and Middle East Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Jonathan Price is Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. David Wasserstein is the Eugene Greer, Jr. Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University.