Focusing on the shared vocabulary of images and ideas with which late ancient Christians and Muslims imagined the past, present, and future, this book seeks to understand why violent expressions of religious devotion became central to the self-understandings of Christian and Muslim communities between the fourth and ninth centuries.

Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity
Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam

Thomas Sizgorich

2008 | 408 pages | Cloth $55.00
Religion | History

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1. "The Devil Spoke from Scripture": Boundary Maintenance and Communal Integrity in Late Antiquity
Chapter 2. "The Living Voice of Kindred Blood": Narrative, Identity, and the Primordial Past
Chapter 3. "What Has the Pious in Common with the Impious?" Ambrose, Libanius, and the Problem of Late Antique Religious Violence
Chapter 4. "Are You Christians?" Violence, Ascetics, and Knowing One's Own
Chapter 5. "Horsemen by Day and Monks by Night": Narrative and Community in Islamic Late Antiquity
Chapter 6. "The Sword Scrapes away Transgressions": Ascetic Praxis and Communal Boundaries in Late Antique Islam
Chapter 7. "Do You Not Fear God?" The Khawarij in Early Islamic Society
Chapter 8. "This Is a Very Filthy Question, and No One Should Discuss It": The Messy World of Ibn Hanbal
Conclusion

Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments