THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN – A REGION IN FERMENTUmayyads. The shift away from Greek that only becomes apparent in monas-
teries in the early ninth century refl ects the move to Arabic that accompanied
the change from Umayyad to Abbasid rule.
In art and iconography, we have seen that classicizing motifs and styles
were freely used and if necessary adapted, often in very striking ways.^37 But
whether contemporaries themselves had any concept of Hellenism is another
matter entirely.
Jews and JudaismA substantial Jewish presence and corresponding Jewish infl uence are fea-
tures of this area in Palestine itself and also more widely. In southern Arabia
a substantial body of epigraphic material has shown that between 470 and
493 the kingdom of Himyar adopted a strongly monotheistic religious stance;
Jews are attested in the fourth century and Jewish inscriptions begin in the
fi fth, with Christians also making an appearance. The kingdom came under
direct Christian infl uence when after the episode at Najran it was subject to
Axum, but it had already had a bishop in the reign of Anastasius^38 the presence
and infl uence of both Jews and Christians in Arabia at the time of Muham-
mad provides an important context for the emergence of Islam (Chapter 9).
The Babylonian Talmud emerged over a period of centuries within the Sasa-
nian empire, and eventually overshadowed its Palestinian counterpart, and
the Jewish diaspora is attested all over the eastern empire in synagogues and
inscriptions. In Palestine itself a considerable Jewish population existed in the
sixth century and on the eve of Islam, centred on Galilee and the Golan and
with Tiberias as its main intellectual and religious centre. Some synagogues
went out of use by the mid-sixth century, but many others continued to func-
tion until the early seventh century. We have already seen the astonishing
richness of synagogue mosaics, which are still being revealed and interpreted,
and this indicates a confi dent Jewish life in the context of the increasing pre-
ponderance of Christians. Nevertheless imperial legislation was becoming
more intolerant by the sixth century. It has been suggested that the growing
infl uence of imperial Christianity acted as a stimulus to others to crystallize
their own religious identity. In the words of Seth Schwartz, ‘Jewish life was
transformed by Christian rule’; he goes on, ‘the Jewish culture that emerged in
late antiquity was radically distinctive and distinctively late antique – a product
of the same political, social and economic forces that produced the same no
less distinctive Christian culture of late antiquity’.^39 The development began
with the imperial support for Christianity adopted by Constantine, which
entailed a new attitude to contemporary Jews, as inheritors with Christians
of the religious past of both religions, albeit having taken the wrong track.
Constantine’s successors were at the same time protective and restrictive in
their approach, but gradually became more and more controlling. The Jewish
patriarchate had been fi rst limited in 415 and then abolished, and Justinian’s
legislation on the subject of Jews is distinctly negative. His Novel 146 (issued in