Palestine in Late Antiquity

by: Sivan, H.

Palestine in Late Antiquity
 

Hagith Sivan

• An original study, emphasizing themes of polyethnicity, and cultural, topographical, architectural, and religious diversity
• Essential to an understanding of the present-day Middle East

Description
Hagith Sivan offers an unconventional study of one corner of the Roman Empire in late antiquity, weaving around the theme of conflict strands of distinct histories, and of peoples and places, highlighting Palestine's polyethnicity, and cultural, topographical, architectural, and religious diversity. During the period 300-650 CE the fortunes of the 'east' and the 'west' were intimately linked. Thousands of westerners in the guise of pilgrims, pious monks, soldiers, and civilians flocked to what became a Christian holy land. This is the era that witnessed the transformation of Jerusalem from a sleepy Roman town built on the ruins of spectacular Herodian Jerusalem into an international centre of Christianity and ultimately into a centre of Islamic worship. It was also a period of unparalleled prosperity for the frontier zones, and a time when religious experts were actively engaged in guiding their communities while contesting each other's rights to the Bible and its interpretation.

Table of Contents
Introduction
1:Prologue: From Constantine to Abd al Malik
2:The Periphery of Dreams and Deserts
3:Recalcitrance, Riots and Rebellion: The Samaritans and the Emergence of Intolerance
4:Contesting the Sacred: Forms of Ritualized Violence
5:Jerusalem: The Contrasting Eyes of Beholders
6:Contesting Scripture and Soil: Liturgical Dates and Seasonal Dieting
7:Flesh and Blood? Women in Palestinian Societies
8:Urban Stories: Caesarea, Sepphoris, Gaza
9:Epilogue

Palestine in Late Antiquity

by: Sivan, H.

• ISBN-13: 9780199284177
• ISBN-03: 0199284172
• Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008