These two volumes introduce the sources of Judaism in late antiquity to scholars in adjacent fields, such as the study of the Old and New Testaments, ancient history of Classical Antiquity, earliest Christianity, the ancient Near East, and the history of religion. Here, in two volumes, leading American, Israeli, and European specialists in the history, literature, theology, and archaeology of Judaism offer factual answers to the two questions that the study of any religion in ancient times must raise. The first is, what are the sources -- written and in material culture -- that inform us...

This volume deals with orality and literacy in ancient Greece and what consideration of these areas yields for that society, its literature, traditions and practices. Individual chapters focus on art, comedy, historiography, oratory, religion, rhetoric, philosophy, poetry, tragedy, and on orality in contemporary cultures (Greek and South African), which have a bearing on the ancient world.
By considering such factors as oral elements in various genres and practices and how these have shaped the texts we have today, as well as the extent of literacy and the impact of literacy on oral...

Dialect, Culture, and Society in Eastern Arabia is a three-volume study of the Arabic dialects spoken in Bahrain by its older generation, and of the socio-cultural factors which produced them. The material on which the study is based consists of hundreds of hours of transcribed conversations gathered in the mid-1970s. All major social variables are covered in the speaker sample. Volume I, Glossary, lists all the words, with extensive contextual exemplification, which occur in the complete set of texts. Volume II will present these complete texts, and an annotated and translated...

The present volume is fascicle A of volume III of Arabic Literature of Africa, edited by J.O. Hunwick and R.S. O'Fahey. The fascicle, compiled by O'Fahey and several collaborators, covers the Islamic writings of Northeastern Africa in Arabic and in several local languages, including Amharic, Tigrinya, Harari and Somali. Geographically, the fascicle covers the modern states of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. Although the Islamic literature of the region is limited, it includes an important poetic tradition in Somali and Harari and the writings of a major scholar of the colonial period...

This collection of systematic Auseinandersetzungen articulates difference and spells out what is at issue. Learning atrophies when political consensus substitutes for criticism, and when other than broadly-accepted viewpoints, approaches, and readings find a hearing only with difficulty, if at all. The editors therefore have invited colleagues systematically to outline their views in an Auseinandersetzung with contrary ones. The several participants explain how, in broad and sweeping terms, they see the state of learning in their areas of special interest. The editors invited...