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Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam (SLAEI) # 1, Volume I

The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East

Problems in the Literary Source Material

(Papers of the First Workshop on Late Antiquity and Early Islam)

Edited by Averil Cameron and Lawrence I. Conrad

About the Book:

    This book is a critical analysis of the basic written material essential to an understanding of the earliest phase of the transition from Byzantine to Islamic culture in the eastern Mediterranean provinces. Specialist scholars address the issues of cultural change and historical reliability by direct comparison and analysis of the written sources. This book will be of special interest to scholars and specialists in Byzantine history, later Greek theology, Greek historiography and Byzantine literature, Syriac literature and history, apocalyptic literature and early medieval culture, Arabic literary development, the emergence of Islam, comparative literature (medieval), the history of Palestine and Syria, and religion. Contributors include: Michael Whitby, Averil Cameron, John Haldon, G.J. Reinink, Han J.W. Drijvers, Wadad al-Qadi, Stefan Leder, and Lawrence I. Conrad.

About the Editors:

    Averil Cameron is Warden of Keble College, University of Oxford. Lawrence I. Conrad is Historian of Near Eastern Medicine at the Wellcome institute for the History of Medicine (London).

Reviews:

This book is a laudable inquiry into this "period of transition," providing valuable perspectives about changes taking place in the Byzantine Empire prior to the Arab conquests as well as during Islam's establishment as a "world religious order." It breaks new ground in several areas: demonstrating the importance of utilizing external information to reconstruct early Islamic history, approaching the problem of authenticity, and emphasizing the value of studying how and why various narrative traditions were written.

—MESA Bulletin

1992; third printing, 1997

Illustrations; index

Size: 6 1/8 x 9 ½ (15.6 x 24.1 cm); xiv, 428 pages

CIP L.C. 92-352

ISBN 978-0-87850-080-2  $45.00  Buy it at Amazon.com!