Posts com a Tag ‘Between Empire/ Arabs/ Romans and Sasanians in Late Antiquity. (T)’

FISHER, Greg. Between Empires, Arabs, Romans and Sasanians in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 254p. Resenha de: FUNARI, Pedro Paulo. Revista Mundo Antigo, v. 4, n.7, jun. 2015.

One of the main challenges to scholars is to explain the Muslims revolution, dating from the first decades of the 7th c. AD, from the Hegira in 622. This is so for several reasons, not least the fact that there is a lack of documents in Arabic script prior to that period, but also because it is apparently difficult to figure out the Arab upsurge from the relative obscurity of the previous centuries. Greg Fisher, associate professor at Carleton, Canada, has studied this intricate subject under the supervision of professor Averil Cameron, in Oxford, resulting in this volume published at Oxford University Press. From a theoretical standpoint, Fisher considers that religious, linguistic, ethnic, and cultural identities are a core research interest in studies of Late Antiquity. Then, the author stresses the importance of the study of the sources, as the Greek and Syriac ancient authors, as well as archaeological and epigraphic data form the foundation of the study. Third, and less intuitive, is an anthropological comparative approach, including colonial American history, such as borderland studies about Spanish colonizers, missionaries, Native Americans, British and French in North America. He emphasizes that the borderlands framework offers a flexible way to approach the engagement between empires, peripheries, and frontiers, encouraging us to view history of people such as the Jafnids from a macro historical perspective which is not confined to the context of the ancient world. A key concept is “in-between”, for people living in the outskirts of empires. Leia Mais