For over a millennium and a half, Egypt was home to at least two commonly used languages of communication. Although this situation is by no means exceptional in the ancient and medieval worlds, the wealth of documentary sources preserved by Egypt's papyri makes the country a privileged observation ground for the study of ancient multilingualism. One of the greatest contributions of papyri to this subject is that they capture more linguistic registers than other ancient and medieval sources, since they range from very private documents not meant by their author to be read by future generations, to official documents produced by the administration, which are preserved in their original form. This collection of essays aims to make this wealth better known, as well as to give a diachronic view of multilingual practices in Egypt from the arrival of the Greeks as a political force in the country with Alexander the Great, to the beginnings of Abbasid rule when Greek, and slowly also Coptic, receded from the documentary record. The first section of the book gives an overview of the documentary sources for this subject, which for ancient history standards are very rich and as yet under-exploited. The second part contains several case studies from different periods that deal with language use in contexts of varying breadth and scope, from its the ritual use in magic or the liturgy to private letters and state administration.

The volume explores linguistic practices and choices in the late antique Eastern Mediterranean. It investigates how linguistic diversity and change influenced the social dimension of human interaction, affected group dynamics, the expression and negotiation of various communal identities, such as professional groups of mosaic-makers, stonecutters, or their supervisors in North Syria, bilingual monastic communities in Palestine, elusive producers of Coptic ritual texts in Egypt, or Jewish communities in Dura Europos and Palmyra. The key question is: what do we learn about social groups and human individuals by studying their multilingualism and language practices reflected in epigraphic and other written sources?

This volume brings together articles on various aspects of the intellectual and social histories of Islamicate societies and of the traditions and contexts that contributed to their formation and evolution. Written by leading scholars who span three generations and who cover such diverse fields as Late Antique Studies, Islamic Studies, Classics, and Jewish Studies, the volume is a testament to the breadth and to the sustained, deep impact of the corpus of the honoree, Professor Patricia Crone. Contributors are: David Abulafia, Asad Q. Ahmed, Karen Bauer, Michael Cooperson, Hannah Cotton, David M. Eisenberg, Khaled El-Rouayheb, Matthew S. Gordon, Gerald Hawting, Judith Herrin, Robert Hoyland, Bella Tendler Krieger, Margaret Larkin, Maria Mavroudi, Christopher Melchert, Pavel Pavlovitch, David Powers, Chase Robinson, Behnam Sadeghi, Adam Silverstein, Devin Stewart, Guy Stroumsa, D. G. Tor, Kevin van Bladel, David J. Wasserstein, Chris Wickam, Joseph Witztum, F. W. Zimmermann

An authoritative and multidisciplinary Companion to Egypt during the Greco‑Roman and Late Antique period With contributions from noted authorities in the field, A Companion to Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt offers a comprehensive resource that covers almost 1000 years of Egyptian history, starting with the liberation of Egypt from Persian rule by Alexander the Great in 332 BC and ending in AD 642, when Arab rule started in the Nile country. The Companion takes a largely sociological perspective and includes a section on life portraits at the end of each part. The theme of identity in a multicultural environment and a chapter on the quality of life of Egypt's inhabitants clearly illustrate this objective. The authors put the emphasis on the changes that occurred in the Greco-Roman and Late Antique periods, as illustrated by such topics as: Traditional religious life challenged; Governing a country with a past: between tradition and innovation; and Creative minds in theory and praxis. This important resource: Discusses how Egypt became part of a globalizing world in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times Explores notable innovations by the Ptolemies and Romans Puts the focus on the longue durée development Offers a thematic and multidisciplinary approach to the subject, bringing together scholars of different disciplines Contains life portraits in which various aspects and themes of people’s daily life in Egypt are discussed Written for academics and students of the Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt period, this Companion offers a guide that is useful for students in the areas of Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and New Testament studies.

Most readers of religious literature have no knowledge of the Bible that was used almost universally by early Christians, or of how that Bible was birthed, how it grew to prominence, and how it differs from the one used as the basis for most modern translations. Timothy Michael Law offers the first book for non-specialists to illuminate the Septuagint and its significance for religious and world history.

"The authors of this volume set themselves one task, to trace the extra-biblical primary texts that are relevant for understanding Jesus' trial and crucifixion. With that goal in mind, the book is built on three major themes: (1) Jesus' trial / interrogation before the Sanhedrin, (2) Jesus' trial before Pontius Pilatus, and (3) crucifixion as a method of execution in antiquity. In chronologically sequential order (where possible), the authors select and arrange an overwhelming amount of extra-biblical primary texts -- 462 to be exact -- underneath these three categories (75, 46, and 341 texts respectively)."--Brian J. Wright in Religious Studies Review

This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to the field of language contact and multilingualism in ancient Egypt before the Greco-Roman period (4th millennium BCE–4th c. BCE). It gives a survey of the historical evidence of linguistic interference of Egyptian with languages in Africa, the Near East and the Mediterranean, discusses the different attested phenomena of language contact and offers a case study of foreign language communities in ancient Egypt. Detailed indexes makes this book a rich source of linguistic information for general linguistics and neighboring disciplines.