ELIZABETH S. BOLMAN is Elsie B. Smith Professor in the Liberal Arts and Professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University. She engages with the visual culture of the eastern Mediterranean in the late antique and Byzantine periods and is best known for her work in Egypt. SCOTT FITZGERALD JOHNSON is Associate Professor of Classics and Letters at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of numerous studies on late antique and Byzantine history and literature and has held fellowships at Harvard University, Dumbarton Oaks, and the Library of Congress and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018. JACK TANNOUS is Associate Professor of History and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, where he is also Director of the Program in Hellenic Studies. His research focuses on the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic-speaking Christian communities of the Middle East in the late antique and medieval periods.

• Preface Elizabeth S. Bolman, Scott Johnson and Jack Tannous; 1. Worlds of Byzantium: problems, frameworks, and opportunity in the Byzantine near east Scott Fitzgerald Johnson; Part I. Patterns, Paradigms, Scholarship: 2. East of Byzantium revisited: the study of the Byzantine near east, past and present Columba Stewart; 3. Byzantium and the turn to the east Averil Cameron; 4. The classical near east Kevin T. van Bladel; 5. Alternatives to commonwealth: modes of connectivity between Byzantium and Medieval Eastern Europe Christian Raffensperger; Part II. Images, Objects, Archaeology: 6. Movement and creation: a reassessment of early Byzantine visual culture Elizabeth S. Bolman; 7. Letters from the edge: mapping Pseudo-Arabic between Byzantium and the near east Alicia Walker; 8. Antioch after dark: archaeology and the 'Dark Ages' in North Syria Michael J. Decker; 9. Ars Sacra in the east and after Byzantium Cecily J. Hilsdale; 10. The church of the virgin in Dayr al-Suryān (Wadi al-Natrun): architecture, art, and history between Coptic and Syriac Christianity Karel C. Innemée, Lucas Van Rompay and Dobrochna Zielińska; 11. Three questions concerning Armenian and Byzantine art Christina Maranci; 12. Makurian visual culture: between Byzantium and Africa Włodzimierz Godlewski; Part III. Languages, Confessions, Empire: 13. Byzantine Syriac: language and religious community in the middle east Jack Tannous; 14. Greek identity in the Sinai Hieromonk Justin of Sinai; 15. Patriarchs, caliphs, monks, scribes, and the Byzantinization of Jerusalem's liturgy Daniel Galadza; 16. Byzantine Judaism in early Islamic Palestine: rethinking the Gaonic model Eve Krakowski; 17. Ethiopia: Christianity, language, and identity George Hatke; 18. Armenia and Byzantium: simultaneously at the center and on the periphery Robin Darling Young; 19. Byzantine Georgia/Georgian Byzantium Stephen Rapp Jr.; 20. Conclusion: ends and means Jack Tannous; Index.