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

by Edited by Hannah M. Cotton , Robert G. Hoyland , Jonathan J. Price , David J. Wasserstein

• ISBN13: 9780521875813
• ISBN10: 0521875811
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-09-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

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, emphasising 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.

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. viii
List of tables	p. ix
List of contributors	p. x
Preface	p. xiv
List of abbreviations	p. xxi
Introduction: documentary evidence, social realitiesand the history of language Fergus Millar	p. 1
The Language Of Power: Latin In The Roman Near East	p. 13
The presence, role and significance of Latin in theepigraphy and culture of the Roman Near East	p. 15
Latin in cities of the Roman Near East	p. 43
Social And Legal Institutions As Reflected In The Documentary Evidence	p. 73
Euergetism in Josephus and the epigraphic culture of first-century Jerusalem	p. 75
Legal and social status of threptoi and related categoriesin narrative and documentary sources	p. 93
Ritual performances of divine justice: the epigraphy of confession, atonement, and exaltation in RomanAsia Minor	p. 115
Continuity of Nabataean law in the Petra papyri: A methodological exercise	p. 154
The Epigraphic Language Of Religion	p. 175
'Languages' and religion in second- to fourth-century Palestine: In search of the impact of Rome	p. 177
The epigraphic habit and the Jewish Diasporas ofAsia Minor and Syria	p. 203
Religion and language in Dura-Europos	p. 235
Linguistic Metamorphoses And Continuity Of Cultures	p. 255
On the margins of culture: the practice of transcriptionin the ancient world	p. 257
Edessene Syriac inscriptions in late antique Syria	p. 289
Samaritan writing and writings	p. 303
The Jewish magical tradition from late antiquePalestine to the Cairo Genizah	p. 324
Greek Into Arabic	p. 343
The Nabataean connection of the Benei Hezir	p. 345
Greek inscriptions in transition from the Byzantine tothe early Islamic period	p. 352
Arab kings, Arab tribes and the beginnings of Arab historical memory in late Roman epigraphy	p. 374
Greek, Coptic and the 'language of the Hijra': the rise and decline of the Coptic language in late antique and medieval Egypt	p. 401
'What remains behind': Hellenism and Romanitas in Christian Egypt after the Arab conquest	p. 447
Index	p. 467
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