Publisher's Synopsis
In these essays the author's aim has been to build a framework for understanding the many changes that took place in the societies of the Eastern Mediterranean in the period either side of the Arab conquests. In Constantinople itself, in North Africa, and in the eastern provinces, the culture of late antiquity continued to flourish and develop; Hellenism remained a vital factor in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, while the Byzantine reconquest of the 6th century brought Greek and eastern influences to North Africa. Several papers show also how these developments continued in the 7th century, and how the ideas then established in the East provide the context for later Byzantine iconoclasm.
