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Byzantines and Jews: some recent work on early Byzantium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Averil Cameron
Averil Cameron*
Affiliation:
Keble College, Oxford
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Extract

The publication of David Olster’s book, Roman Defeat, Christian Response and the Literary Construction of the Jew (Philadelphia 1994) marks a further stage in the recent tendency to draw attention to the role played by Jews in the events of the early seventh century. As several other scholars have done, Olster draws attention to what seems to have been a heightened awareness of Jews and Judaism by the Christian majority in Byzantium in this period and during the next century or so. A number of contemporary examples survive of the Christian anti-Jewish literary dialogue form familiar in Greek since the second century AD; what is perhaps even more striking, anti-Jewish comments and whole passages on this topic also feature in many other kinds of writing in the period, even when they have no obvious relevance to the topic. Iconophile texts are pervaded by such material, in particular the Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea in AD 787, and Jewish subject matter also appears in visual art. This review combines comments on Olster’s book with a wider consideration of the topic itself and of other recent publications touching on it; it also asks why the subject became so pressing to contemporary Christians, and makes some suggestions about the interpretation of the relevant material.

Type
Critical Studies
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 20 , 1996 , pp. 249 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1996

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References

1. See e.g. Haldon, John, Byzantium in the Seventh Century. The Transformation of a Culture (Cambridge 1990) 345–48 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who also notes the derogatory use of the terms ‘Jew’, ‘Jewish’ in Byzantine literature in contexts detached from reference to real Jews. Anti-Jewish polemic in this period is also seen as expressing anxiety about Muslim success in the recent book by Ulster’s teacher Kaegi, Walter E., Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests (Cambridge 1992) 210–27 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially 220-22, following his earlier article ‘Initial Byzantine reactions to the Arab invasions’, Church History 10 (1969) 139-49, to which Olster explicitly refers as an inspiration for his doctoral thesis.

2. Dagron, G. and Déroche, V., ‘Juifs et chrétiens dans l’Orient du VIIe siècle’, Travaux et Mémoires 11 (1991) 17–273 Google Scholar (17-46 Introduction historique, G. Dagron; 47-229 critical text, V. Déroche; 230-47 Commentaire I, G. Dagron; 248-73 Commentaire ü!, V. Déroche). Equally important is Dagron’s article in the same volume, ‘Judaïser’, ibid., 359-80.

3. Déroche, V., ‘La polémique anti-judaïque au VIe et au VIIe siècle, un mémento inédit, les Kephalaia ’, ibid., 275–311 Google Scholar.; see also Kaegi, , op. cit., 220-27, 231–35 Google Scholar on dating the works. The appearance of Thümmel, H.G., Die Frühgeschichte der ostkirchlichen Bilderlehre. Texte und Untersuchungen zur Zeit vordem Bilderstreit, TU 139 (Berlin, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with detailed discussion of the complex and interconnected manuscript tradition of some of these works, especially at 253-68, marks an important further stage in the discussion, though Thummel’s interest is confined to passages referring to religious images, and he stops with John of Damascus.

4. Winkelmann, F., ‘Die Quellen zur Erforschung des monoergetisch-monotheletischen Streites’, Klio 69 (1987) 515–59 Google Scholar.

5. See Cameron, Averil, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1991)Google Scholar chap. 1; also ‘The eastern provinces in the seventh century AD: Hellenism and the emergence of Islam’, in Said, S., ed., . Quelques jalons pour une histoire de l’identité grecque, Actes du colloque de Strasbourg 25-27 octobre 1989 (Leiden 1991) 287–313 Google Scholar’; ‘Byzantium in the seventh century: the search for redefinition’, in Fontaine, J. and Hillgarth, J., eds., The Seventh Century (London 1992) 250–76 Google Scholar. Also relevant for Olster’s argument is the thoughtful discussion by Stroumsa, G., ‘Religious contacts in Byzantine Palestine’, Numen 36 (1989) 16–42 Google Scholar.

6. For the other see Olster, D., The Politics of Usurpation in the Seventh Century: Rhetoric and Revolution in Byzantium (Amsterdam 1993)Google Scholar; in it, Olster deals with the disturbances connected with the last year of Phocas, A.D. 609/10, in which Jews also feature prominently in the sources: see Dagron, , ‘Juifs et chrétiens’, 18–22 Google Scholar.

7. Lange, N. de, ‘Jews and Christians in the Byzantine Empire: problems and prospects’, in Wood, D., ed., Christianity and Judaism, Studies in Church History 29 (Oxford 1992) 15-32, cf. p.23 Google Scholar.

8. Cameron, Averil, ‘The Jews in Seventh-Century Palestine’, Scripta Classica ¡sradica 13 (1994) 75–93 Google Scholar; see 77, n. 7.

9. Discussion in Cameron, , art. cit. 84–86 Google Scholar; synagogues: Levine, Lee I., ed., The Synagogue in Late Antiquity (Philadelphia 1987)Google Scholar; see Wilken, , The Land Called Holy, 194–202 Google Scholar. The Gaza synagogue had a fine mosaic of King David in the garb of Orpheus.

10. See Gregg, Robert and Urman, Dan, Jews, Pagans and Christians in the Golan Heights (forthcoming)Google Scholar; for separation: Dauphin, C., ‘Jewish and Christian communities in the Roman and Byzantine Gaulanitis: a study of evidence from archaeological surveys’, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 114 (1982) 129–82 Google Scholar, with Ma’oz, Z., ‘Comments on Jewish and Christian communities in Byzantine Palestine’, ibid. 117 (1985) 59–68 Google Scholar. Further remarks on settlement and on the Jewish and Samaritan presence in Palestine, with bibliography, in Haldon, John, ‘The Ajnäd and the “thematic myth”’, in Cameron, Averil, ed., The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East III. States, Resources and Armies (Princeton 1995) 379-423, at 410–11 Google Scholar; a map showing synagogue locations is published in Tsafrir, Y., Segni, L. Di and Green, J., Tabula Imperii Romani: Iudaea. Palaestina: Maps and Gazetteer (Jerusalem 1994)Google Scholar, and for settlement in our period see 18-19.

11. Avi-Yonah, M., The Jews of Palestine (Oxford 1976) 289 Google Scholar; contrast Alon, G., The Jews in their Land in the Talmudic Age (70-640 CE) (Eng. trans. Jerusalem 1984) 36 Google Scholar.

12. Avi-Yonah, chap. XII is a fairly typical example of acceptance of this scenario; more critical is Schäfer, P., Histoire des juifs dans l’antiquité (French trans., Paris 1989) 219–23 Google Scholar; Dagron, , ‘Judaïser’, 370 Google Scholar, allows for real activism.

13. Leder, S., ‘The attitudes of the population, especially the Jews, towards the Arab-Islamic conquest of Bilad al-Sham and the question of their role therein’, Die Welt des Orients 18 (1987) 64–71 Google Scholar; critical account of the events: Dagron, , TM 11 (1991) 22–26 Google Scholar.

14. Olster, , Roman Defeat, 79–84 Google Scholar; however, Olster does not explain the complex transmission of the account of the capture of Jerusalem by Strategios, for which see Flusin, B., Saint Anastase le Perse et l’histoire de la Palestine au début du VU’ siècle, 2 vols. (Paris, 1992) II 130–33 Google Scholar; Wilken, , The Land Called Holy, 319, n. 28; 324-25, nn. 5–6 Google Scholar. For Jews in Strategios’s account, see Flusin II 162-64, 168. For the Persian episode see Flusin II 151-63, a new and important discussion, with Wilken, , The Land Called Holy, chaps. 10–11 Google Scholar, emphasising the immense psychological and emotional impact of the loss of Jerusalem for Christians; Wilken is particularly good in his use of Sophronius’s anacreontic laments for the fall of the city. Sophronius’s anacreontic poems are edited by Gigante, M., Sophronii Anacreontica, Opuscula. Testi per esercitazioni academiche 10/12 (Rome, 1957)Google Scholar, but see Donner, H., Die anakreontischen Gedichte Nr. 19 und Nr. 20 des Patriarchen Sophronius von Jerusalem, Sitz. Heidelberger Akad. der Wiss, philosoph.-hist. Klasse 1981, 10 (Heidelberg 1981)Google Scholar. Olster discusses the continuation of this demonising of Jews in the context of the Arab invasions at 84-92.

15. I have also discussed these events in ‘The Trophies of Damascus: the Church, the Temple and sacred space’, in Les cahiers du CEPOA, Actes du colloque de Cartigny 1988 (Leuven 1995) 203-12, with further bibliography; for their ideological importance see Flusin II 136-40.

16. For Jewish apocalyptic and for the evidence of contemporary Hebrew liturgical poetry see Cameron, , art. cit. (n. 12) 204 n. 4 Google Scholar; Wilken, , The Land Called Holy, 207–15 Google Scholar; Dagron, , TM 11 (1991) 26-28, 41–43 Google Scholar (the most detailed and reliable discussion); Peters, F.E., Jerusalem. The Holy City in the Eyes of Chroniclers, Visitors, Pilgrims and Prophets from the Days of Abraham to the Beginning of Modern Times (Princeton 1985) 201 ff Google Scholar., with id., Jerusalem and Mecca. The Typology of a Holy City (New York 1986) especially 80-122. On Jerusalem see also Mango, Cyril ‘The Temple Mount, AD 614-638’, in Raby, J. and Johns, J., eds. Bayt al-Maqdis. ‘Abd al-Malik’s Jerusalem I, Oxford Studies in Islamic Art IX (Oxford 1992) 1-16, at 5–6 Google Scholar.

17. Above, n. 14, at II 67-93, 265-92; Heraclius in Jerusalem: 293-319.

18. Seen. 6 above; see also Dagron, 7M11 (1991) 18-22; brief account in Herrín, Judith, The Formation of Christendom (Princeton 1987) 187–91 Google Scholar. The main source is the Chronicle of John of Nikiu, also in need of critical study; the Doctrina Jacobi is also important on these events for its account of Jacob’s youth as a participant in the urban rioting in various eastern cities during these years (1.40-41, on which see Dagron, TM 11 [1991] 235-37). The association of Jews with the Blue and Green circus factions, especially the Blues, that is mentioned in connection with these episodes has often been accepted by modern scholars in too strong a sense; seat inscriptions show them sitting together with Blues at Aphrodisias, Antioch and Tyre, but this need not imply a close or consistent political connection, see Roueché, Charlotte, Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity (London 1989) 222 Google Scholar, following on from Cameron, Alan, Circus Factions (Oxford 1976) 149–52 Google Scholar. Jews sat together in groups, as did cult- or trade associations (Charlotte Roueché, Performers and Partisans at Aphrodisias in the Roman and Late Roman Periods [London 1993] 124, cf. 130, 154).

19. See Rabello, A.M., Giustiniano, Ebrei e Samaritani, alla luce delle fonti storico-letterarie, ecclesiastiche e giuridiche (Milan 1987)Google Scholar.

20. Theoph., Chron. 206 de Boor; Michael the Syrian, Chron. X.25; Chron. Pasch. s.a. 610; see Frendo, J.D., ‘Who killed Anastasius II?’, Jewish Quarterly Review 72 (1982) 202–204, with note ad loc. in Whitby, Michael and Whitby, Mary, Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD (Liverpool 1989) 150 Google Scholar.

21. See further below.

22. The patriarch Zachariah accompanied the prisoners and the Cross into captivity after the city’s capture, in which the Jews, Christianity’s forerunners and symbolic enemies, were envisaged as assisting the Persians; see the vivid discussion by Wilken, , The Land Called Holy Google Scholar, chap. 11. Narrative also in Schick, R., The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule. A Historical and Archaeological Study (Princeton 1995)Google Scholar.

23. Flusin, B., ‘Les premières constructions musulmanes sur l’Esplanade du Temple selon deux “récits édifiants” byzantins’, REG 101 (1988) xxv–xxvi Google Scholar; id., ‘L’esplanade du Temple à l’arrivée des Arabes, d’après deux récits byzantins’, in Raby, and Johns, , eds., Bayt al-Maqdis (n. 16) 17–31 Google Scholar.

24. Mango, , ‘The Temple Mount’ (n. 16)Google Scholar; for an Umayyad date, Rosen-Ayalon, M., The Early Islamic Monuments of al-Haram al-Sharif, Qedem 28 (Jerusalem 1989) 39 Google Scholar, see Cameron, , ‘The Jews in seventh-century Palestine’, 80 n. 20 Google Scholar.

25. Chron., p.401 de Boor; see on this Yannopoulos, P., La société profane dans I ‘empire byzantin des VIIe, VIIIe, et IXe siècles (Louvain 1975) 247–51 Google Scholar, and for the later repetitions de Lange, ‘Jews and Christians in the Byzantine empire’ (n. 7) 23; G. Dagron has published a ninth-century treatise on the subject of baptism of Jews which seems to relate to the episode under Basil I: Dagron, G., ‘Le traité de Grégoire de Nicée sur le baptême des Juifs’, TM 11 (1991) 313–57 Google Scholar, and see the comments on this legislation at 347-53. There is also a valuable brief discussion of Heraclius’s measure in its historical and ideological context by Dagron, G. in Dagron, G., Riche, P. and Vauchez, A., eds., Histoire du Christianisme IV. Evêques, moines et empereurs (610-1054) (Paris 1993) 70–79 Google Scholar.

26. Dagron, , ‘Judaïser’, 363 Google Scholar; for conversion stories, see below.

27. Dagron, , TM 11 (1991) 30–31 Google Scholar; see Devreesse, R., ‘La fin inédite d’une lettre de S. Maxime: un baptême forcé de Juifs et Samaritains à Carthage en 632’, Rev. des sciences religieuses 17 (1937) 25–35 Google Scholar; further discussion in Laga, C., ‘Judaism and Jews in Maximus Confessor’s works. Theoretical controversy and practical attitude’, Byzantinoslavica 51 (1990) 177–88 Google Scholar (cf. 188 ‘a brutal and at any rate inefficient act of repression’).

28. Chron. XI.4, Dagron, 32; cf.Olster, , Roman Defeat, 84–85 Google Scholar with useful discussion of other more dubious sources, which he describes as ‘contradictory and confusing’.

29. Trophies of Damascus, ed. Bardy, G., PO 15 (Paris, 1920), 221 Google Scholar; on the themes and their ancestry, see Cameron, , ‘The Trophies of Damascus ’ (n. 15), 207–208 Google Scholar; for the Trophies see also Waegemann, M., ‘Les traités adversus Iudaeos: aspects des relations judéo-chrétiens dans le monde grec’, Byzantion 56 (1986) 195–313 Google Scholar. For some themes, see Wilken, R., ‘The restoration of Israel in Biblical prophecy: Jewish and Christian responses in the early Byzantine period’, in Neusner, J. and Frerichs, E., eds., ‘To see ourselves as others see us’: Christians, Jews and “Others” in Late Antiquity (Chicago 1985) 443–71 Google Scholar.

30. So, e.g. Olster, , Roman Defeat, 123 Google Scholar.

31. See King, G.R.D., ‘Islam, iconoclasm and the declaration of doctrine’, BSOAS 48 (1985) 267–77 Google Scholar; Griffth, S.H., ‘Images, Islam and Christian icons. A moment in the Christian/Muslim encounter in early Islamic times’, in Canivet, and Rey-Coquais, J.-P., eds., La Syrie de Byzance à l’Islam, Actes du colloque international (Damascus 1992) 121–38 Google Scholar; Reinink, G.J., ‘The beginnings of Syriac apologetic literature in Greek’, Oriens Christianus 11 (1993) 165–87 Google Scholar (plausibly redating to this period the Syriac dialogue between the patriarch John and an emir usually assigned the early date of AD 644: see e.g. Cook, M.. ‘The origins of kaldm ’, BSOAS 43 (1981) 171f. Google Scholar; Crone, Patricia and Cook, Michael, Hagarism. The Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge 1977) 162 n. 11)Google Scholar. The Syriac Apocalypse of Ps. Methodius, quickly translated into Greek, also seems to belong to this period: Reinink, G.J., ‘Ps-Methodius: a concept of history in response to the rise of Islam’, in A veril Cameron, and Conrad, Lawrence I., eds., The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East I. Problems in the Literary Source Material (Princeton 1992) 149–87 Google Scholar. Apocalyptic and messianism, characteristic of the period beginning with the reign of Heraclius and coinciding with the rise to prominence of religious images, brought with them a heightened ideological awareness of the theme of conversion of the Jews: see Magdalino, Paul, ‘The history of the future and its uses: prophecy, policy and propaganda’, in Roderick Beaton and Charlotte Roueché, eds., The Making of Byzantine History. Studies dedicated to Donald M. Nicol (Aldershot 1993) 3-34, at 18–21 Google Scholar.

32. Examples of which are listed in Schreckenberg, H., Die christlichen Adversus-Iudaeos Texte und ihr literarische Umfeld I-II (Frankfurt a.M./Bern 1982, 1988)Google Scholar; for our period, see especially Déroche, , ‘La polémique anti-judaïque’ (n. 3)Google Scholar.

33. Jews more the aim than Muslims, even in eighth-century texts: see Reinink, , ‘The beginnings of Syriac apologetic’, 169–70 Google Scholar.

34. See n. 2 above.

35. See no. 29 above.

36. McGiffert, A.C., ed., Dialogue between a Christian and a Jew (Marbourg 1889)Google Scholar; further bibliography cited by Déroche, , art. cit. 279 Google Scholar. Deficiencies of McGiffert’s edition: Thümmel, Friihgeschíchte, 256-57.

37. Nos. 42 and 137 in the collection are relevant; see PG 28, 621-24, 684-700, 709; discussion of the collection in John Haldon, ‘The works of Anastasius of Sinai: a key source for the history of seventh-century East Mediterranean society and belief, in Cameron, and Conrad, , eds., The Early Byzantine and Islamic Near East I, 107-47, at 120–25 Google Scholar; see also Martinez, F.J., Eastern Christian Apologetic in the Early Muslim Period (PhD. diss., Catholic U. of America 1985) 529–30 Google Scholar. On the date of the Ps.-Athanasian Quaestiones (before Anastasius of Sinai, Quaestiones), see Thümmel, , Frühgeschichte, 246–52 Google Scholar, and on the relationship between the Trophies, the Dialogue of Papiscus and Philo and the Dialexis of Anastasius of Sinai (PG 89, 1203-72) ibid., 253-68.

38. Thümmel, he. cit.; see also Kaegi, , Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests, App. I, 231–25 Google Scholar, on the date of the Dialexis ascribed to Anastasius of Sinai, with general discussion at 220-27. Olster, , Roman Defeat, 131–33 Google Scholar puts the Dialogue of Papiscus and Philo first, then the Trophies of Damascus, and last the Quaestiones, but the Dialogue of Papiscus and Philo in particular seems to have gone through a number of stages of redaction; Thümmel, Frühgeschichte, 268, with discussion of manuscripts and textual borrowings, sees the Dialexis of Anastasius of Sinai (third quarter, seventh century) as preceding the Dialogue, the Trophies and the Quaestiones of Ps. Athanasius. The Disputation of Gregentius, S., bishop of the Himyarites, with Herbanus the Jew, PG 86, 621–784 Google Scholar, is dated by Déroche, , art. cit., 276–77 Google Scholar’, with full bibliography, to the late sixth or early seventh century, by Olster, , Roman Defeat Google Scholar, chap. 7, to the mid-seventh century; Olster places its composition in Jerusalem. For other dialogues with a ‘foreign’ dramatic setting see Olster, , ibid., 155 n. 2 Google Scholar.

39. Roman Defeat, chap. 6.

40. Ed. Hayman, P.A., CSCO 338–39 (Louvain 1973)Google Scholar; see also Hayman, P., ‘The image of the Jew in the Syriac anti-Jewish literature’, in Neusner, and Frerichs, , eds., ‘To see ourselves as others see us’ (n. 29) 423–41 Google Scholar. Olster’s identification of the authors of the dialogues as ‘Syrian Melkites’ (ibid., 138) is very misleading: not only does it ascribe to them the unsatisfactory label ‘Syrian’, but it ignores the much broader context of this literature, with examples from, e.g. Cyprus, and elsewhere.

41. For Leontius’s Life of John the Almsgiver and his Life of S. Spyridon, see Mango, C., ‘Leontius of Neapolis: a Byzantine hagiographer at work’, in Hutter, I., ed., Byzanz und der Westen (Vienna 1985) 25–41 Google Scholar; Cameron, Averil, ‘Cyprus at the time of the Arab conquests’, Journal of the Cyprus Historical Society 1 (1992) 27-50, at 34-35, 39–40 Google Scholar. Krueger, D., Symeon the Holy Fool. Leontius’s Life and the Late Antique City (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1996)Google Scholar discusses Leontius and his literary work in chap. 1, and see now the detailed treatment in Déroche, V., Etudes sur Léontios de Neapolis (Uppsala 1996)Google Scholar.

42. For the authenticity and date, see Déroche, V., ‘L’ authenticité de l’ “Apologie contre les Juifs” de Léontios de Néapolis’, BCH 110 (1986) 655–69 Google Scholar, with id., ‘La polémique anti-judaïque’, 278, against Speck, P., ‘Zu dem Dialog mit einem Juden des Léontios von Neapolis’, Poikila Byzantina 4, Varia 1 (1984) 242–49 Google Scholar; ibid. 6, Varía 2 (1987) 315-22, who sees in it the hand of a later iconophile writer. Thümmel, Frtthgeschichte, 340-64, prints the passages in these texts relevant to images, from Leontius of Neapolis to Stephen of Bostra; for the relation of other texts to the fragment by Leontius of Neapolis, see the discussion at 246-52. The issue of images in the anti-Jewish literature was already discussed by Baynes, Norman, ‘The icons before Iconoclasm’, Harvard Theological Review 44 (1951) 93–106 Google Scholar (repr. in his Byzantine Studies and Other Essays, London 1955) no. XV.

43. PG 89, 933; the Hexaemeron itself defends the doctrine of the Trinity against Jews, barbarians and Samaritans, with most emphasis on the Jews.

44. PG 40, 847-60, 865; 94, 1409; see Kotter, B., Johannes von Damaskos III (1975), 194 Google Scholar; Schreckenberg, 468. Mention of images (94, 1409) points to later in our period.

45. PG 94, 1376 B-D; for the date (seventh to early eighth-century) see Déroche, , ‘L’authenticité’, 663 n. 45 Google Scholar; Sartre, M., Bostra. Des origines à l’Islam (Paris 1985) 116–17 Google Scholar.

46. See Schreckenberg, 473; for the ‘Answers to the Jews’ preserved in Armenian see Beck, H.-G., Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 479, with 486 Google Scholar.

47. Geerard, M., Clavis Patrum Graecorum III (Louvain 1974), nos. 7798–7802 Google Scholar; cf. the reference by Déroche, , ‘L’authenticité’, 660 n. 34, to ‘textes inédits ou quasi-inaccessibles’Google Scholar.

48. Munitiz, J., ‘Catechetical teaching-aids in Byzantium’, in Chrysostomides, J., ed., Kathegetria. Essays presented to Joan Hussey (Camberley, 1988), 69-83, at 78 Google Scholar.

49. PG 87.3, 3040-41; see Déroche, , ‘La polémique anti-judaïque’, 285 Google Scholar, who takes Cosmas to be producing texts (perhaps florilegio) for others to use in their own arguments (translation from de Lange, ‘Jews and Christians in the Byzantine Empire’, 26).

50. Hodegos XIV.1, ed. Uthemann, K.-H. (Turnhout 1981) 257–58 Google Scholar, and see the discussion in Déroche, , ‘La polémique anti-judaïque’, 284–86 Google Scholar.

51. Greek text and French translation in Déroche, , ‘La polémique anti-judaïque’, 299–307 Google Scholar, with commentary at 308-11; the editor supposes a seventh-century date.

52. See Cameron, , ‘The eastern provinces’, 306–307 Google Scholar; Dagron, , TM 11 (1991) 370 Google Scholar, and for the Christian-Muslim texts, Reinink, ‘The beginnings of Syriac apologetic literature’, 169; see also Blumenkranz, B., Juifs et chrétiens dans la monde occidental, 430-1096 (Paris, The Hague 1960)Google Scholar.

53. Déroche, , ‘La polémique anti-judaïque’, 284 f. Google Scholar; Dagron, , ‘Judaïser’, 370 Google Scholar.

54. See Cameron, Averil, ‘Disputations, polemical literature and the formation of opinion in early Byzantine literature’, in Reinink, G.J. and Vanstiphout, H.J.L., eds., Dispute Poems and Dialogues in the Ancient and Medieval Near East, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 42 (Leuven 1991) 91-108, at 102–104 Google Scholar.

55. ‘Jews and Christians in the Byzantine empire’, 26-27.

56. See Cameron, , ‘The Jews in seventh-century Palestine’, 83–84 Google Scholar.

57. Lange, De, ‘Jews and Christians in the Byzantine empire’, 27–29 Google Scholar; one could add Jewish apocalyptic. See also Rosenthal, E.I.J., ‘Anti-Christian polemics in medieval Bible commentaries’, Journal of Jewish Studies 11 (1960) 115–35 Google Scholar.

58. See also Cameron, , ‘The Jews in seventh-century Palestine’, 90 Google Scholar; it is argued by Déroche, , ‘La polémique anti-judaïque’, 296 Google Scholar, and Dagron, , ‘Judaîser’, 365–66 Google Scholar, that open polemic by Jews against Christians was a fundamental feature of seventh-century life, though Déroche, loc. cit., has to find an explanation for the lack of surviving examples.

59. See Cameron, Averil, ‘Texts as weapons: polemic in the Byzantine dark ages’, in Alan Bowman and Greg Wolf, eds., Literacy and Power in the Ancient World (Cambridge 1994) 198–215 Google Scholar, and review of Coz, R. Le, ed., Jean Damascène. Écrits sur l’Islam, Sources chrétiennes 383 (Paris 1991) in/7>¡5 n.s. 46 (1995) 368–72 Google Scholar. The development and rhetorical techniques of heresiology in this period deserve a full study.

60. Doctrina II.5.

61. Notable here are den Ven, P. Van, ‘La patristique et l’hagiographie au concile de Nicée de 787’, Byzantion 25-27 (1957) 325–62 Google Scholar; Cameron, , ‘Texts as weapons’, 203–206 Google Scholar and Mango, C., ‘The availability of books in the Byzantine Empire, AD 750-850’, in Byzantine Books and Bookmen (Washington, D.C. 1975) 29–45 Google Scholar.

62. Cameron, , ibid., 207–208 Google Scholar; see Haldon, , ‘The works of Anastasius of Sinai’Google Scholar.

63. See Cameron, , ‘The Trophies of Damascus ’, 207–208 Google Scholar; these slink away in dudgeon, but some conversion is also envisaged. See Thiimmel, , Fruhgeschichte, 268 Google Scholar on the idiosyncrasy of this text.

64. See Dagron, , ‘Judai’ser’, 364 Google Scholar.

65. Ibid., 365-66.

66. Ed. and trans. Breydy, M., Das Annalen werk des Eutychios von Alexandrien, CSCO 471–72 Google Scholar, Script, arab. 50-51 (Leuven 1985); cf. id., Études sur Sa’îd ibn Batriq et ses sources, CSCO Subsidia 69 (Leuven 1983).

67. Recognisable for example in the well-known Christmas homily of Sophronius of AD 634 (ed. H. Usener, Rh.Mus. n.f. 41 [1886] 500-16, e.g. at 514). For a sixth-century example cf. P. Allen and C. Datema, eds. Leontiipresbyteri Constantinopolitani: Homiliae, CCSG 17 (Leuven 1987) 54; the theme has a long history (see especially R. Wilken, John Chrysostom and the Jews. Rhetoric and Reality in the Late Fourth Century [Berkeley and Los Angeles 1983]).

68. Cf. his homily on Lazarus, PG 97, especially 964, 976-77.

69. Chron., pp.401-402 de Boor.

70. See Lange, de, ‘Jews and Christians’, 19 Google Scholar. The messiahship of Jesus and the geneaology of the Virgin Mary were two of the key components in Christian-Jewish debate: question 137 in the Quaestiones of Ps. Athanasius asks how Jews can be persuaded to recognise Jesus as the Messiah, and the genealogy of Mary is the subject, for example, of a letter by Jacob of Edessa to the stylite John of Litarb (d.737), for which see Reinink, , ‘The beginnings of Syriac apologetic’, 168–70 Google Scholar. The ‘Jew from Tiberias’ and the story of the genealogy of Mary also appear in the Doctrina Jacobi.

71. On the Life, dating from the 640s, see Krueger, , Symeon the Holy Fool, with translation at 131–71 Google Scholar. For Jews see ibid., 12-13, 43, 122 (on the stories of a Jewish glassblower and another Jewish artisan brought to baptism by Symeon). For the theme of conversion see also Dagron, , ‘Judäiser’, 369, 372–76 Google Scholar, who is however inclined to place more weight on some of the stories than I might do myself.

72. See Hayman, (n. 40), CSCO 339, 25 f., 15 Google Scholar. A Syriac translation of a Greek collection of testimonies (proof texts) against Jews has been suggested as another source, though one should bear in mind the multiplicity and variety of the collections apparently in circulation.

73. The restoration of the Cross to Jerusalem in 630: Flusin, , Saint Anastase II 293–319 Google Scholar; the Cross and Jews: ibid., 317. Cross and images: Thümmel, Friihgeschichte, 246-47; icons in anti-Jewish texts: ibid., 340-64.

74. Cameron, Averil, ‘The language of images: the rise of icons and Christian representation’, in Wood, D., ed., The Church and the Arts, Studies in Church History 28 (Oxford 1992) 1–42 Google Scholar.

75. See Kartsonis, Anna, Anastasis (Princeton 1986) 40–63 Google Scholar.

76. See also Cameron, , ‘The Jews in seventh-century Palestine’, 88–89 Google Scholar.

77. Paper delivered to the Fourth Workshop of the Late Antiquity and Early Islam Project, London, 1994. The attempt by Sanas, D., “The Arab character of the disputation with Islam. The case of John of Damascus (ca. 655-ca. 749)’, in Religionsgespräche im Mittelalter, Wolfenbiitteler Mittelalter-Studien (Berlin 1993) 185–205 Google Scholar, to present John as an ‘enlightened Arab’ is not convincing; more critical, if not actually over-sceptical, is Auzepy, M.-F., ‘De la Palestine à Constantinople (VIJJe-IXe siècles): Etienne le Sabaïte et Jean Damascène’, TM 12 (1994) 183–218 Google Scholar.

78. McGiffert, 59 f., 68; in the later recension, where this hardening of attitudes is to be seen, the Old Testament signs are not adduced as elsewhere to point to the coming of Christ, but rather to demonstrate the victory of Christianity over Judaism. That the Old Testament was problematic for Christians is clearly shown by their continuing concern, even in this late period, to demonstrate that it could indeed be put to their own uses; see Dagron, ‘Judai’ser’, 377-80.

79. Ed. I Dick, Théodore Abuqurra, Traité du culte des icones (Jounieh and Paris 1986); see Griffith, S.H., ‘Theodore Abu Qurrah’s Arabie tract on the Christian practice of venerating images’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 105 (1985) 53–73 Google Scholar.

80. E.g. Mansi XIII. 41; 24-32; Jews are linked with ‘Hagarenes and other infidels’ in their objections to images and the Cross: 357D. See further Dagron, ‘Judaïser’, 367 for Iconoclasts as Judaizers.

81. Corrigan, K., Visual Polemics in the Ninth-Century Byzantine Psaltes (Cambridge 1992), especially chaps. 2–3 Google Scholar. This book has already been interestingly discussed in this journal by Brubaker, L., ‘Life imitates art: writings on Byzantine art history, 1991-92’, BMGS 17 (1993) 173-223, at 180–86 Google Scholar.

82. See Brubaker, , art. cit., 182–83 Google Scholar.

83. Kessler, H., ‘“Pictures fertile with truth”: how Christians managed to make images of God without violating the Second Commandment’, Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 49/50 (1991/2) 53–65 Google Scholar, also discussed by Brubaker, art. cit., 187.

84. See Kessler, H., ‘Through the Temple veil: the holy image in Judaism and Christianity’, Kairos 32/33 (1993) 53–77 Google Scholar; for Jews in Byzantine art see also Revel-Neher, E., The Image of the Jew in Byzantine Art (Oxford 1992)Google Scholar.

85. Above, n. 31; cf.Crone, Patricia, ‘Islam, Judaeo-Christianity and Byzantine Icono-clasm’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 2 (1980) 59–95 Google Scholar.

86. Art. cit., 63.

87. Fowden, G., Empire to Commonwealth. Consequences of Monotheism in late Antiquity (Princeton 1993)Google Scholar; Millar, Fergus, The Roman Near East, 31BC-AD 337(Cambridge, Mass., 1993)Google Scholar; while the latter deals with an earlier period, it lays heavy emphasis on Judaism as a carrier of cultural identity in the Near East (and strenuously denies a ‘Syrian’ or ‘Arab’ identity), and Millar’s arguments, especially in the Epilogue, have considerable implications for the events of the seventh century, emphasising in particular the profound influence of external, Jewish-Christian, conceptions on the development of Arab identity. See also in this connection Bowersock, G. W., Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Kaegi, , Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests, poses the ‘problem’ of Arab success in terms of military strategy, and regards Jews as probable allies of the Muslims against a hostile Byzantine state (see e.g. 116–17)Google Scholar.

88. For the attitudes expressed towards Christians and Jews in the Qur’an see Khoury, A.-T., Les théologiens byzantins et l’Islam. Textes et auteurs (VIIIe-XIIIe s.) (Louvain-Paris 1969) 15–30 Google Scholar.

89. Griffith, S. H., ‘Anastasios of Sinai, the Hodegos, and the Muslims’, Greek Orthodox Quarterly Review 32 (1987) 341-58, see 358 Google Scholar.

90. See Griffith, , ‘Anastasios of Sinai’Google Scholar.

91. PG 94.768A. For some of the apologetic themes, see Sahas, D., ‘The formation of later Islamic doctrines as a response to Byzantine polemics: the miracles of Muhammad’, ibid. 27 (1982) 307–24 Google Scholar; Stroumsa, S., ‘The Signs of Prophecy: the emergence and development of a theme in Arabic theological literature’, Harvard Theological Review 78 (1985) 104–14 Google Scholar. For John of Damascus on Islam (treated as a ‘heresy’), and the authenticity of De Haeresibus 100 and the Dialogue between a Saracen and a Christian, see now Coz, R. Le, Jean Damascène: Écrits sur l’Islam, Sources chrétiennes 383 (Paris 1992)Google Scholar, with rev. by Cameron, Averil, JTh.S n.s. 46 (1995) 368–72 Google Scholar.

92. Above, n. 31.

93. Cook, , ‘The origins oi kaläm ’, 34 Google Scholar, criticising Ess, J. Van, ‘Disputationspraxis in der islamischer Théologie, eine vorlaufiger Skizze’, Rev. des et. islamiques 44 (1976) 23–60 Google Scholar.

94. On which see Griffith, S.H., ‘Disputes with Muslims in Syriac Christian texts: from patriarch John (d.648) to Bar Hebraeus (d.1286), in Religionsgespräche im Mittelalter, Wolfenbiitteler Mittelalter-Studien (Berlin 1993) 251–73 Google Scholar; for the date of the letter of the Patriarch John see above, n. 31. Also valuable is Ducellier, A., Le Miroir de l’Islam. Musulmans et chrétiens d’orient au Moyen Age (VIIe-XIe siècle) (Paris 1971)Google Scholar. (After John of Damascus, the Christian-Muslim debates move largely, though not wholly, from Greek into Arabic: see e.g. Griffith, S.H., “The first Christian Summa Theologiae in Arabic: Christian Kaldm in ninth century Palestine’, in Gervers, and Bikhazi, R.J., eds., Conversion and Continuity: Indigenous Christian Communities in Islamic Lands, Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries (Toronto 1989) 15–31 Google Scholar; ‘Greek into Arabic. Life and letters in the monasteries of Palestine in the ninth century: the example of the Summa Theologiae Arabica’, Byzantion` 56 (1986) 117-38.

95. Even, e.g. S. Reif, in an otherwise valuable article (above, p.252), 139, claims Islamic rule as a ‘golden age’ for Jews; many historians simply assume without question that Jews were ill-treated by, and hostile to, Byzantines.

96. Ye’or, Bat, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam (Eng. trans., New Jersey, London, Toronto 1985)Google Scholar.

97. See Cohen, M., ‘Islam and the Jews: myth, counter-myth and history’, The Jerusalem Quarterly 38 (1986) 125–37 Google Scholar.

98. See the archaeological evidence presented in King, G.R.D. and Cameron, Averil, eds., The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East II. Land Use and Settlement Patterns (Princeton 1994)Google Scholar.

99. Cameron, , ‘Texts as weapons’, 211–12 Google Scholar; the abuse heaped on Constantine V by iconophile writers is a good example of their style, which was shared by lay and clerical authors alike.

100. See as well as the publication edited by Raby and Johns (n. 23) the collection of papers in Clover, F.M. and Humphreys, S., eds., Tradition and Innovation in Late Antiquity (Madison 1989)Google Scholar; the project on Late Antiquity and Early Islam, with the publication series Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam (Darwin Press, Princeton), led by Averil Cameron, Lawrence I. Conrad and Geoffrey King, grew out of an interdisciplinary colloquium held in London in 1986.

101. Conspicuous among them is the work of G. Dagron and his colleagues in Paris, represented in the articles cited above from Travaux et Mémoires 11 (1991) and in Flusin, Saint Anastase.