Commutatio et contentio

The present volume, dedicated to the memory of the late Zeev Rubin (1942 to 2009), Professor of Ancient History and Languages at Tel Aviv University, includes contributions of friends and colleagues connected with his central fields of research – the Late Roman, Sasanian, and Early Islamic Mediterranean and Near East as well as Iranian and Early Islamic historical traditions. Just like Rubin’s own works, the articles collected in this volume aim to examine the political and mental “landscapes” of the Near East in Late Antiquity, as well as Sasanian and Early Islamic concepts of history and the variety of political and cultural contacts between Oriens and Occidens. The following authors have contributed to this publication: Henning Börm, Matthew Canepa, Geoffrey Greatrex, Rika Gyselen, James Howard-Johnston, Avshalom Laniado, Fergus Millar, Karin Mosig-Walburg, Antonio Panaino, Parvaneh Pourshariati, Peter Riedlberger, Nikolaus Schindel, Joel Walker, Ursula Weber, Michael Whitby and Josef Wiesehöfer.