From ancient Egypt to Imperial Rome, from Greek medicine to early Christianity, this volume examines how human bodily fluids influenced ideas about gender, sexuality, politics, emotions, and morality, and how those ideas shaped later European thought.

Comprising 24 chapters across seven key themes—language, gender, eroticism, nutrition, d…[Read more]

The seventh-century apocalyptic dialogue text Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati (“Teaching of Jacob, Newly Baptized”) depicts forcibly baptized Jews coming to terms with their new situation in hidden meetings led by Jacob. At a key moment in the text, the last voices of Jewish resistance belong to the wife and mother-in-law of one of the dialogue…[Read more]

In this essay, I consider the ideal ascetic leader depicted in the Life of Moses attributed to Gregory of Nyssa: that leader is not a bishop, but a leader who has more experience with the day-to-day struggles of monks, particularly the kind of struggles described by Evagrius and writers influenced by him.

Khālid b. al-Walīd (d. 642CE/21AH) is among the most distinguished Arab commanders from the period of the early Islamic conquests, and features prominently in the conquests of Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Syria. Among the most famous tales surrounding Khālid is the story of his desert march from Mesopotamia to Syria intending to relieve the Muslim ar…[Read more]

The second Islamic civil war, or fitna, divided the early Islamic community from the years 680-692CE/60-73AH and had as one of its central figures the character of ‘Abd Allāh b. al-Zubayr. He has long been treated in western scholarship as a usurper or “counter-Caliph” to the rightful leadership of the Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwān.…[Read more]

From Albania to Arrān: The East Caucasus Between the Ancient and Islamic Worlds (ca. 330 BCE-1000 CE), 2020
This article is concerned with the historical memory of late antique and early medieval Caucasia, including the territories of Armenia and Arran (often referred to as “Caucasian Albania”). While a contested area between the influence of…[Read more]