Published since January 1, 2004

Millennium

Jahrbuch zu Kultur und Geschichte des ersten Jahrtausends n. Chr. / Yearbook on the Culture and History of the First Millennium C.E.

ISSN: 1867-0318

Edited by: Wolfram Brandes, Peter von Möllendorff, Dennis Pausch, Rene Pfeilschifter, Karla Pollmann

About this journal

Millennium transcends boundaries – between epochs and regions, and between disciplines. Like Millennium-Studien, the journal Millennium-Jahrbuch pursues an international, interdisciplinary approach that cuts across historical eras. The editorial and the advisory board represent a broad spectrum of disciplines: contributions from the fields of art and literature are just as well represented as historical, theological and philosophical contributions, and studies on Latin and Greek cultures as well as North African and Near Eastern cultures.

The rich diversity of articles published by Millennium-Jahrbuch encourages dialog between disciplines and national research cultures. The journal welcomes the submission of long manuscripts. While the journal does not publish individual review articles, it now accepts literature surveys. It primary accepts publications in German and English, but also considers submissions in French, Italian, and Spanish.

Editorial Board

Phil Booth, University of Oxford, UK
Patricia Ciner, National University of San Juan, Argentinia
Babett Edelmann-Singer, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Philip Forness, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Claudia Rapp, Universität Wien, Austria
Verena Schulz, Katholische Universität Eichstätt, Germany
Chiara Tommasi, Università di Pisa, Italy

If you want to submit a manuscript please send it to the editor who is responsible for the area:

Wolfram Brandes, Frankfurt (Byzantine Studies and Early Middle Ages): brandeswolfram@gmail.com
Peter von Möllendorff, Gießen (Greek language and literature): peter.v.moellendorff@klassphil.uni-giessen.de
Dennis Pausch, Marburg (Latin language and literature): dennis.pausch@uni-marburg.de
Rene Pfeilschifter, Würzburg (Ancient History): Rene.Pfeilschifter@uni-wuerzburg.de
Karla Pollmann, Tübingen (Early Christianity and Patristics): karla.pollmann@uni-tuebingen.de

Manuscripts should be submitted in anonymized form. All submissions are assessed by the responsible editor and one outside specialist (double-blind peer review).

If your manuscript is accepted, please send us a print-ready Word document that incorporates any change requests from the review process. Please also include an English-language abstract not exceeding 2,000 characters (including spaces).

Abstracting and Indexing

Millennium is covered by the following services:

ATLA Religion Database
Baidu Scholar
Base d’information bibliographique en patristique / Bibliographic Information Base in Patristics (BIBP)
Brepols: L'Année philologique
CNKI Scholar (China National Knowledge Infrastructure)
CNPIEC - cnpLINKer
Dimensions
EBSCO (relevant databases)
EBSCO Discovery Service
Genamics JournalSeek
Google Scholar
IBR (International Bibliography of Reviews of Scholarly Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences)
IBZ (International Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences)
Index Copernicus
International Philosophical Bibliography - Répertoire bibliographique de la philosophie
J-Gate
JournalTOCs
KESLI-NDSL (Korean National Discovery for Science Leaders)
MLA International Bibliography
MyScienceWork
Naver Academic
Naviga (Softweco)
PhilPapers
Primo Central (ExLibris)
ProQuest (relevant databases)
Publons
QOAM (Quality Open Access Market)
ReadCube
RelBib - Religionswissenschaftliche Bibliografie
Scilit
Semantic Scholar
Sherpa/RoMEO
Summon (ProQuest)
TDNet
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory/ulrichsweb
WanFang Data
WorldCat (OCLC)
X-MOL
Yewno Discover

Topics

Volume 20 Issue 1

January 2023

Frontmatter

Publicly Available November 17, 2023

Titelseiten

Page range: I-IV

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Publicly Available November 17, 2023

Inhalt

Page range: V-VI

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November 17, 2023

Abkürzungen (Editionen, Zeitschriften, Reihen, Nachschlagewerke)

Page range: VII-XVII

Articles

Open Access November 17, 2023

Introduction. Epigraphy, the Qurʾān, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia

Valentina A. Grasso, Ana Davitashvili, Nadja Abuhussein

Page range: 1-14

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Abstract

A wide range of archaeological finds is rapidly expanding our knowledge of the pre-Islamic cultural milieu and the political structures of the Arabian Peninsula during Late Antiquity, and thereby of the Qurʾān’s cultural context. This material can offer a complementary reading to the literary accounts on pre-Islamic Arabia, which were mostly composed outside of Arabia or long after the late antique period. There is a growing need to make the recent exciting discoveries of scholars working on the Qurʾān and Arabia more widely accessible to historians who may not have a solid background in archaeology and epigraphy. As such, the ERC project “The Qur'an as a Source for Late Antiquity” (QaSLA) organized a conference, titled “Epigraphy, the Qur'an, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia”, which took place in Tübingen on 8 – 10 September 2022. The three-day international conference brought together specialists in epigraphy as well as scholars of the Qurʾān to explore how recent epigraphic and archaeological findings and research have been changing our understanding of the Qurʾān and the Arabian religious, cultural, and political landscape. Accordingly, the conference sought to integrate new archaeological finds with ongoing studies on the genesis of the Qurʾān, its Arabian background, and the broader cultural milieu of pre-Islamic Arabia with a special focus on the dawn of Islam. The conference also featured an important contribution by Peter Webb on pre-Islamic poetry, another neglected corpus of inquiry into the history of pre-Islamic Arabia. Aiming to foster discussion between scholars, each panel was paired with a specialist on the Qurʾān or the wider history of Arabia.

November 17, 2023

Pilgrimage in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Continuity and Rupture from Epigraphic Texts to the Qur’an

Suleyman Dost

Page range: 15-32

Abstract

References to the pilgrimage in the Qur’an, called ḥajj and ʿumra , are often very brief, but recent studies have shown that most of what is gleaned from the Qur’an about the practice can find parallels in pilgrimages to other sites in Arabia. In this article, I read the Qur’anic data on ḥajj and ʿumra in the light of Arabian inscriptions that mention pilgrimage rituals. In particular, the annual pilgrimage to the Awām Temple in Ma’rib in South Arabia, about which we know a great deal, can shed light on the larger context of the ritual in pre-Islamic Arabia. I argue based on a discussion of Qur’anic and epigraphic materials that the ḥajj and ʿumra of the Qur’an share many elements with other Arabian pilgrimages, but the Qur’an clearly expresses discontent with certain practices of pre-Islamic pilgrimage such as ritual hunt while endorsing or approving others such as the procession between the hills of al-Ṣafā and al-Marwa. Most importantly, I contend that the Qur’an attempts to decouple pilgrimage and animal sacrifice especially due to the latter’s strong association with physical objects of veneration called awthān and nuṣub in the Qur’an.

Open Access November 17, 2023

The Hajj Before Muhammad: The Early Evidence in Poetry and Hadith

Peter Webb

Page range: 33-63

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Abstract

Scholarly debate on the nature of the Hajj before Muhammad and radical questions of whether Mecca was a ritual site at all in pre-Islamic times are answerable from the large corpus of pre-Islamic poetry, which has been underutilised as a source for pre-Islamic history. This paper reveals the poetry to be both a reliable and valuable witness. It demonstrates that the Hajj was performed in the generation before Muhammad in substantially similar terms to subsequent Muslim practice. Some modifications and shifts are discernible, but ritual continuity emerges as a major theme. The poetry also underscores the restricted ambit of the pre-Islamic Hajj: we uncover a highly-localised ritual followed primarily by groups living near Mecca – the expansion of the Hajj into a pan-Arabian phenomenon with an intimate role in informing communal identity and political power are new in the Islamic period. This paper closes with comparison of the poetry and hadith on the Hajj, which reveals a major Muslim-era reinterpretation of the pilgrimage as an Abrahamic rite.

November 17, 2023

Slavery in First Millennium Arabia: Epigraphy and the Qurʾān

Valentina A. Grasso

Page range: 65-89

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that slavery was a widespread practice in pre-Islamic Arabia. This assumption is based on references to enslaved people in the Qurʾān. At the same time, it replicates biased accounts of the region’s inhabitants found in (mostly Graeco-Roman) “external” sources. Finally, the claim builds on the existence of “societies with slaves”' and “slave societies” in the surroundings of late antique Arabia. No thorough attempt to examine slavery in pre-Islamic Arabia has been carried out by engaging with the abundant epigraphical records. People in subordinate positions towards other men could carve inscriptions in bronze and leave them in temples (which were open to people of all stations), but it is unclear if these people should be considered “servants” or “enslaved people”. As such, it is impossible to tell if the people mentioned as ʿbd, for example, offered their services as servants or were obliged to do so and worked against their will as enslaved people. Prisoners and privileged guests at royal courts were often one and the same. The presence of captives in these inscriptions points to the fact that some people were bought or sold as personal property in the first millennium. As religious and secular practices overlapped in ancient times, bronze votive inscriptions should not be considered mere votive objects but as holding legal value with a profound ceremonial role in the correct functioning of the stratified society of pre-Islamic South Arabia. In continuity with pre-Islamic times, the Qur’ān regards servants as part of the master’s household and the community of the believers ( Ummah ): Islam was neither a rupture nor an alien product in the region.

November 17, 2023

From the Aramaic raḥmānāʾ to raḥmānān and al-raḥmān

Maria Gorea

Page range: 91-106

Abstract

The oldest record of the notion of “mercy”, raḥmān , in Aramaic is known from a bilingual text in which the word is the translation of the Akkadian rēmēnû. The latter is used in Mesopotamian onomastics, hymns and prayers, which delivered the oldest formulae of calls for the mercy of gods, especially in a recurrent expression: “the merciful god, that is good to pray,” translated verbatim in the Aramaic text of the statue of Tell Fekheryeh. Almost a thousand years later, the same wording has been inherited unchanged in Palmyrene Aramaic. Nevertheless, the Palmyrene interest on the divine epithet raḥmān and its revival in Palmyrene epigraphy may be explained by the influence of the new Roman concept of clementia. Meanwhile, this contribution proposes to outline a chronology of the Aramaic inscriptions from Syria and Palestine, in which raḥmānāʾ is either the main substitute for the divine name, or a major divine epithet. As the Akkadian phonetic assimilates the consonant <ḥ> to the laryngeal <ʾ> but preserves the velar <ḫ>, the supposed East Semitic root was rḥm , not rḫm. On the contrary, in the Arabian Peninsula, the earliest attested root is rḫm , as evidenced by South Arabic onomastics or toponymy. A late use of rḥm in South Arabic as a verb or noun is the result of a loan from Aramaic and does not appear until the fifth century AD. The first South Arabian inscriptions naming the monotheistic god raḥmānn are preceded by the Palmyrene inscriptions by almost two centuries and are contemporary with the Jewish-Aramaic inscriptions in the Palestinian synagogues, which call the God Raḥmānāʾ. Late, the Aramaic epithet was transferred to the Arabic al-raḥmān , through South Arabian.

Open Access November 17, 2023

The Development of the Hijazi Orthography

Marijn van Putten

Page range: 107-128

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Abstract

This paper examines the main orthographic innovations of the early Islamic orthography in comparison to the Nabataean orthography and traces through new epigraphic evidence when and where these innovations came to be used. It is shown that a number of them clearly develop already in the pre-Islamic period. Besides this, the paper looks at the complexities of Arabic orthography and morphophonological spelling as it is reflected in the Quranic orthography as well as pre-Islamic inscriptions and argues that the early Islamic orthography represents the continuation of a developed Hijazi scribal tradition.

November 17, 2023

Timolaos oder Freundschaft. Philia und eironeia in Lukians Navigium

Niklas Kaiser

Page range: 129-147

Abstract

Traditionally, Lucian’s Navigium is regarded as a moralizing dialogue, which criticizes unrealistic aspirations. Lycinus incorporates this criticism by attacking his friends ironically. This essay elaborates that the dialogue also offers a more ethical interpretation that problematizes Lycinus’ moralizing attitude towards his friends. It argues that Timolaus, one of Lycinus’ interlocutors and friends, introduces a discourse about the reciprocal connection between the act of storytelling on the one hand, and friendship on the other. By doing so, aesthetics (stories) and ethics (friendship) appear as complementary. To emphasize this perspective on the dialogue, the modern concept of narrative communities is connected with ancient concepts of friendship. Lycinus’ ironizing voice and behavior can then be seen as antagonistic rather than dominant. Timolaus, however, appears as subtle narrator, who by his own wish tries to make Lycinus aware of the importance of storytelling for friendship.

November 17, 2023

Modestus at Edessa. Imperial officials in the ecclesiastical histories of Rufinus, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret

Robin Whelan

Page range: 149-192

Abstract

This article considers the depictions of imperial officials and their interactions with Christian communities in the genre of ecclesiastical history. It focuses on one particular episode where the emperor Valens ordered his praetorian prefect Domitius Modestus to disperse an assembly of Nicene Christians at the martyrium of Thomas at Edessa. The four fifth-century Nicene ecclesiastical historians Rufinus, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret offer the same basic narrative of the events which led to the prefect’s abandonment of his mission. Yet they construe the causes and implications of his reluctance to persecute in strikingly different ways. These adaptations reveal their differing views of the role of imperial officials in matters concerning the church and, more broadly, of what Christian communities might expect from the imperial state in a Christian empire.

Open Access November 17, 2023

„Monophysiten“ und „Nestorianer“. Überlegungen zu zwei Bezeichnungen aus der christlichen Theologie- und Kirchengeschichte

Christian Lange

Page range: 193-253

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Abstract

This paper challenges the traditional notions of ‘Monophysitism’ and ‘Nestorianism’ or ‘The Nestorian Church’. With regard to ‘Monophysitism’, it argues that two interpretations of the basic ‘Alexandrian’ Christological formula of the ‘one nature of the God-Logos incarnate’ need to be distinguished. One, according to which the individual properties of the two ‘natures’ of Christ were lost and mixed, and which can, indeed, be referred to as ‘Monophysitism’ – in contrast to another interpretation which insisted that the individual characteristics of the two ‘natures’ were preserved and the ‘God-Logos incarnate’ remained consubstantial with human beings ( homoousios hēmin ). This second approach might be better referred to as ‘Miaphysitism’. Similarly, this contribution suggests that it seems necessary to differentiate between what Nestorius of Constantinople himself taught and what his opponent Cyrill of Alexandria imputed to him. When analyzing Nestorius’ own writings, it becomes clear that Nestorius neither challenged the true union between the God-Logos and the ‘Man’ nor assumed a time in which the ‘Man’ existed prior to his unification with the God-Logos. Therefore, Nestorius taught no ‘Nestorianism’ in the sense in which Cyrill of Alexandria introduced it. Likewise, the Christology of the Apostolic Church of the East is based on the views of Theodore of Mopsuestia. It is not before the 6 th century that representatives of this Church discovered Nestorius as a martyr for the ‘orthodox belief’ who was persecuted by the Egyptian ‘Pharaoh’, just as had been John Chrysostom before him. Because of its loyalty to the Christology of Theodore of Mopsuestia, it seems rather fitting to abandon the inappropriate title ‘Nestorian Church’ – a polemical title that has been pinned on the ‘Church of the East’ by its theological opponents from the 6 th century onwards.

Open Access November 17, 2023

Ein ungebildeter Bischof oder ein unterschätzter Gelehrter? Prämissen, Probleme und Perspektiven einer neuen Edition der Historien des Gregor von Tours

Rebekka Schirner

Page range: 255-286

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Abstract

The Histories of Gregory of Tours are among the most important literary testimonies for the transition period from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The verdict on the Latin literature and language of the first centuries of the Frankish Empire has often been very negative. Krusch and Levison, who published today’s still authoritative critical edition of the Histories , also assumed that Gregory’s original text could only have been written in poor Merovingian Latin. This paper presents arguments for a new edition of the Histories from different perspectives. Gregory’s testimonies in which he addresses his own linguistic and grammatical deficiencies or the necessity of writing in a simple language, have to be viewed and evaluated within the larger tradition of statements of this kind in (Late) Antiquity. They should, thus, not be read as evidence for the argument that Gregory’s Histories were written in poor and incorrect Latin. An assumption of this kind, however, has influenced Krusch’s and Levison’s evaluation of the manuscripts of Gregory’s Histories and is thus reflected in their reconstructed text, even though quite a few manuscripts offer a much better text. This approach has repeatedly been criticised by different scholars; my paper joins this criticism. In assessing the various manuscripts of Gregory’s Histories , the editors have to make a decision regarding the presumed quality and state of Gregory’s Latin. My paper, therefore, also offers a case-study of Gregory’s stylistic and rhythmic arrangement of his text. The analysis of the so-called prose rhythm provides important evidence in favour of a positive assessment of Gregory’s level of education and thus of his linguistic and grammatical proficiency. This can also be viewed as an argument for a new and appropriate edition.

Open Access November 17, 2023

Inkarnationsdeutung bei Johannes von Damaskus in Auseinandersetzung mit der „koranischen“ Bewegung

Nikolai Kiel

Page range: 287-320

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Abstract

John of Damascus (ca. 650/660 – 754 AD) is one of the first contemporary witnesses to critically examine the emergence of Islam and its holy scripture, the Qur’an. John came from a distinguished Melkite family that held political offices in state finance for generations. Like his father, he was initially a civil servant under the Arab rule of Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik (685 – 705). The anti-Christian movement that began in that time forced him to withdraw from public life and enter the Mar Saba monastery near Jerusalem. While at the monastery, John grappled with the text of the “new” religion and defended the Christian position. In this milieu, the interpretation of the divine incarnation occupied a central position. By demonstrating the divine incarnation in Jesus Christ, John makes convergences with the Qur’anic movement of the new rulers. In doing so, he highlights the Qur’ans high esteem of the Virgin Mary as well as the birth and humanity of her Son, Jesus Christ. In this way, he seeks to bring Christianity into agreement with the Qur’an and to break down theological barriers.

Open Access November 17, 2023

Oikoi stratiōtikoi. Open Questions on Land and Military Service in Byzantium (c. 7th–10th centuries)

Salvatore Cosentino

Page range: 321-339

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Abstract

The expression oikoi stratiōtikoi , used in Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus as opposed to oikoi politikoi , designates all those families who were bound to military service. They, in the tenth century, were listed in various enlistment registers that were periodically updated, among which one was kept in Constantinople. There is solid evidence to argue that such an administrative practice originated in the eighth century, coinciding with a significant transformation in the enrolment of soldiers and their maintenance. A conscription procedure was devised in the age of the Isaurians, which, although it is not known whether it was on a voluntary or compulsory basis, entailed the entry in the military records (in Constantinople and the provinces) of every person in charge ( oikodespotēs ) of the family that had assumed the military burden. This implied in later periods a strong uncertainty in the relationship between service and its performance because registration rested on an ambiguous vocabulary. The ambiguity, in fact, was rooted in the polysemy of the concept of oikos , family unit, home and patrimony at the same time. While such a notion allowed the recruitment in thematic armies to function flexibly through the wide network of the family’s cognate and agnatic structure, precisely because the oikos was also a set of economic interests, it exposed the landed patrimony of military families to splitting and erosion. This ambiguity ended with Constantine VII’s famous law of 949, which regulated the property regime of the stratiōtikoi oikoi , a regime that, as the same provision explicitly states in several points, already existed previously throughout the empire. The law provided a precise economic quantification of the assets needed for each ‘military family’ to perform the service. Historiography has generally interpreted Constantine VII’s measure as an act breaking with the previous tradition, since military service appears in it much more markedly connoted as a patrimonial burden, rather than as a personal one. However, this ‘oppositional’ interpretation does not seem adequate for understanding the concept of oikos stratiōtikos , which from the outset must have implied a profound interrelationship between the personality of the service and its patrimonial basis, since the one did not exist without the other.

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(Deutsch)

Online ISSN: 1867-0318
Print ISSN: 1867-030X
Type: Yearbook
Languages: German, Multiple languages
Publisher: De Gruyter
First published: January 1, 2004
Publication Frequency: 1 Issue per Year