M. Doerfler - Böcker

The Sixth North American Syriac Symposium brought together scholars from across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and India. Syriac Encounters offers twenty-four papers that were originally delivered at the Symposium, and represents a cross-section of both the Symposium and the current state of Syriac studies more broadly. Although most of the papers in the volume focus on the late antique heyday of Syriac Christianity, several papers contribute to the study of other, related fields, including Islamic studies and Middle Eastern anthropology. The blossoming of Syriac studies beyond church history and Semitic philology can be attributed to a wider recognition of the Syriac language and culture as a bridge linking (and fostering encounters between) Rome and Persia, Byzantium and Baghdad, and Christianity and Islam.