- Athens, Greece
- Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada), with special interest in teaching and research in:... moreProfessor Emeritus, University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada), with special interest in teaching and research in: the History of Religions, Islamic Studies, Muslim-Christian relations, Byzantium-Arabs-Islam.edit
"Saracens and the Syrians In the Byzantine Anti-Islamic Literature and Before", Orientalia Christiana Analecta 256 (1998) 387-408. Reprinted in Daniel J. Sahas, Byzantium and Islam. Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters... more
"Saracens and the Syrians In the Byzantine Anti-Islamic Literature and Before", Orientalia Christiana Analecta 256 (1998) 387-408.
Reprinted in Daniel J. Sahas, Byzantium and Islam. Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters (Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2022), ch. 12, pp. 182-202.
Reprinted in Daniel J. Sahas, Byzantium and Islam. Collected Studies on Byzantine-Muslim Encounters (Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2022), ch. 12, pp. 182-202.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Art and Iconoclasm
Research Interests: Philosophy and Prayer
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT The tensions, controversies and even civil wars in the political and the cultural spheres are phenomena observed frequently within the Graeco-Roman Byzantine and the Achaemenid Persian world, and in the Arab-Muslim world that... more
ABSTRACT
The tensions, controversies and even civil wars in the political and the cultural spheres are phenomena observed frequently within the Graeco-Roman Byzantine and the Achaemenid Persian world, and in the Arab-Muslim world that followed. The two first forces in clashing against each other and using as their battlefield the vast zone in between them, the zone which we call today the Middle East, weakened this space to the point of making its populations in the middle to seek, on the first
occasion, whatever other alternatives. The rise and consolidation of the Arab-Muslim urban community rather the desert and of Medinan origin (ansar) one, with its intense and ideologically oriented expeditions, continued and expanded the “philosophy” of conquest. Thus, they cannot be considered as an irrelevant phenomenon to the evolution of neither the Byzantine nor of the Muslim Arab society. A sketchy examination of two Conciliar Byzantine sources f o680/ and 691/2 which otherwise
might be bypassed unnoticed, allow us contemporary glimpses of a mutual manifestation and influence upon each other. If nothing else, the Arab conquests seem to have finalized and further defined the brake and the alienation of the former Eastern byzantine provinces from Byzantium proper, in the geographical, political and doctrinal sphere; albeit this being in the course of history neither monolithic nor absolute.
The tensions, controversies and even civil wars in the political and the cultural spheres are phenomena observed frequently within the Graeco-Roman Byzantine and the Achaemenid Persian world, and in the Arab-Muslim world that followed. The two first forces in clashing against each other and using as their battlefield the vast zone in between them, the zone which we call today the Middle East, weakened this space to the point of making its populations in the middle to seek, on the first
occasion, whatever other alternatives. The rise and consolidation of the Arab-Muslim urban community rather the desert and of Medinan origin (ansar) one, with its intense and ideologically oriented expeditions, continued and expanded the “philosophy” of conquest. Thus, they cannot be considered as an irrelevant phenomenon to the evolution of neither the Byzantine nor of the Muslim Arab society. A sketchy examination of two Conciliar Byzantine sources f o680/ and 691/2 which otherwise
might be bypassed unnoticed, allow us contemporary glimpses of a mutual manifestation and influence upon each other. If nothing else, the Arab conquests seem to have finalized and further defined the brake and the alienation of the former Eastern byzantine provinces from Byzantium proper, in the geographical, political and doctrinal sphere; albeit this being in the course of history neither monolithic nor absolute.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
La litterature byzantine du VIII e siecle qui fait reference a l'islam est un melange d'idees, d'information et de desinformation. Ces prejuges sont accentues par la doctrine et la pratique de l'islam et particulierement... more
La litterature byzantine du VIII e siecle qui fait reference a l'islam est un melange d'idees, d'information et de desinformation. Ces prejuges sont accentues par la doctrine et la pratique de l'islam et particulierement la politique des musulmans. Cette litterature est egalement influencee par les propres presuppositions theologiques et politiques du monde byzantin, notamment l'iconoclasme. Globalement, il s'agit d'une litterature assez sobre, tres concernee par le traumatisme et les besoins pastoraux de la population chretienne d'un Empire secoue de maniere interne et externe au niveau de ses fondations
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Vassa Kontouma, John of Damascus: New Studies on his Life and Works. (Variorum Collected Studies Series.) Farnham, Surrey, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015. Pp. xxvi, 258. $154.95. ISBN: 978-1-4094-4637-8.Table of contents available online at https://www.routledge.com/John-of-Damascus-New-St...more
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
La litterature byzantine du VIII e siecle qui fait reference a l'islam est un melange d'idees, d'information et de desinformation. Ces prejuges sont accentues par la doctrine et la pratique de l'islam et particulierement... more
La litterature byzantine du VIII e siecle qui fait reference a l'islam est un melange d'idees, d'information et de desinformation. Ces prejuges sont accentues par la doctrine et la pratique de l'islam et particulierement la politique des musulmans. Cette litterature est egalement influencee par les propres presuppositions theologiques et politiques du monde byzantin, notamment l'iconoclasme. Globalement, il s'agit d'une litterature assez sobre, tres concernee par le traumatisme et les besoins pastoraux de la population chretienne d'un Empire secoue de maniere interne et externe au niveau de ses fondations
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Βιβλιοκρισία:Greg, PETERS, Peter of Damascus. Byzantine Monk and Spiritual Theologian (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Studies and Texts 175, 2011), 182 p. + Appendices and Bibliography.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Arabs and the Middle East were among the first to embrace Christianity, leaving their print on its culture. Thus Byzantium, by geography and culture, encoundered Islam at its birth. No wonder that many saw and treated Islam as a... more
Arabs and the Middle East were among the first to embrace Christianity, leaving their print on its culture. Thus Byzantium, by geography and culture, encoundered Islam at its birth. No wonder that many saw and treated Islam as a contemporary Christian "heresy" - whatever the word may connote. Radical events fill the history of Byzantium (330-1453) encountering the world of Islam: conquests, wars, cultural and diplomatic relations, manifestations of mutual admiration - and exclusion. The history makes for a fascinating branch of either Byzantine or Islamic studies; the literature about each other forming a distinguished section in either field.
The 29 Collected Studies in this Volume provide a taste of such Byzantine-Muslim encounters.
The 29 Collected Studies in this Volume provide a taste of such Byzantine-Muslim encounters.
The Orthodox Church in the Arab World 700-1700. An Anthology of Sources. Edited by Samuel Noble and Alexander Treiger (Northern Illinois University Press, 2014), pp. 375 .
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
A newly canonized saint (Nov. 27, 2013), Porfyrios Kausokalyvites (1906-1991) in the Orthodox Church (feast day Dec. 2nd), expresses in his own powerful words and deeds the meaning and the content of "Religion" in a way in which the... more
A newly canonized saint (Nov. 27, 2013), Porfyrios Kausokalyvites (1906-1991) in the Orthodox Church (feast day Dec. 2nd), expresses in his own powerful words and deeds the meaning and the content of "Religion" in a way in which the academic Relionswissenschaft has struggled to articulate - not always convincingly.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The seventh century Muslim‐Byzantine relations are revealing and paradigmatic of the political, religious and “national” forces (Persian, Greek and Arab), each striving to dominate the land and the heart of the region. Notwithstanding the... more
The seventh century Muslim‐Byzantine relations are revealing and paradigmatic of the political, religious and “national” forces (Persian, Greek and Arab), each striving to dominate the land and the heart of the region. Notwithstanding the deeply‐rooted Christian tradition, orthodox or heretical, among the populations of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) empire, integrally Arab in temperament and Greek in appearance, the Muslim expansion