This volume includes papers on ancient apocalypticism and eschatology in
the crucial period prior to the advent of Islam in the Mediterranean
basin, and through the period (the sixth to the eighth centuries) when
this new religion took roots and established itself in the area. As
these were important social, religious, and cultural phenomena, the
contributors to this volume - specialists in Late Antique and Byzantine,
Syriac, Jewish, and Arabic studies - have investigated them from a
variety of angles and foci, rendering this volume unique in terms of its
interdisciplinary approach and broad scope. In this regard,
Apocalypticism and Eschatology in Late Antiquity should be read
as complimentary to the previous volume in the series, New Themes,
New Styles in the Eastern Mediterranean, where similar goals were
set and met, namely to understand not only how the Christian and Jewish
populations responded to the dramatic political and military changes,
but also how they expressed themselves in existing, reinvented, and new
literary means at their disposal.