Mirage of the Saracen

Christians and Nomads in the Sinai Peninsula in Late Antiquity
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-0-520-28377-0
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 493 g

Reihe: Transformation of the Classical Heritage

Mirage of the Saracen analyzes the growth of monasticism and Christian settlements in the Sinai Peninsula through the early seventh century C.E. Walter D. Ward examines the ways in which Christian monks justified occupying the Sinai through creating associations between Biblical narratives and Sinai sites while assigning uncivilized, negative, and oppositional traits to the indigenous nomadic population, whom the Christians pejoratively called “Saracens.” By writing edifying tales of hostile nomads and the ensuing martyrdom of the monks, Christians not only reinforced their claims to the spiritual benefits of asceticism but also provoked the Roman authorities to enhance defense of pilgrimage routes to the Sinai. When Muslim armies later began conquering the Middle East, Christians also labeled these new conquerors as Saracens, connecting Muslims to these pre-Islamic representations. This timely and relevant work builds a historical account of interreligious encounters in the ancient world, showing the Sinai as a crucible for forging long-lasting images of both Christians and Muslims, some of which endure today.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ward, Walter D.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte Frühes Christentum, Patristik, Christliche Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Spätantike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface and Acknowledgments
Note on Translation and Transliteration
Acronyms

One: The Beginnings of the Humanitarian Era the Eastern Mediterranean

Two:  The Humanitarian Imagination and the Year of the Locust:  International Relief in the Wartime Eastern Mediterranean, 1914-1918

Three: The Form and Content of Suffering: Humanitarian Knowledge, Mass Publics and the Report, 1885-1927

Four:  ‘America’s Wards:’ Near East Relief and American Humanitarian Exceptionalism, 1919-1923

Five: The League of Nations Rescue of Trafficked Women and Children and the Paradox of Modern Humanitarianism, 1920-1936

Six: Between Refugee and Citizen: The Practical Failures of Modern Humanitarianism in the Interwar Eastern Mediterranean, 1923-1939

Seven: Modern Humanitarianism’s Troubled Legacies, 1927-1948

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Walter D. Ward is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.