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Book reviewed in this article:The Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: Rudolph PetersThe Last Great Muslim Empires: History of the Muslim World: Hans J. Kissling et al

This study revisits one of the most extensive examples of the spread of ideas in the history of civilization: the diffusion of Indian religious and political ideas to Southeast Asia before the advent of Islam and European colonialism. Hindu and Buddhist concepts and symbols of kingship and statecraft helped to legitimize Southeast Asian rulers, and transform the political institutions and authority of Southeast Asia. But the process of this diffusion was not accompanied by imperialism, political hegemony, or "colonization" as conventionally understood. This book investigates different explanations of the spread of Indian ideas offered by scholars, including why and how it occurred and what were its key political and institutional outcomes. It challenges the view that strategic competition is a recurring phenomenon when civilizations encounter each other

This study revisits one of the most extensive examples of the spread of ideas in the history of civilization: the diffusion of Indian religious and political ideas to Southeast Asia before the advent of Islam and European colonialism. Hindu and Buddhist concepts and symbols of kingship and statecraft helped to legitimize Southeast Asian rulers, and transform the political institutions and authority of Southeast Asia. But the process of this diffusion was not accompanied by imperialism, political hegemony, or "colonization" as conventionally understood. This book investigates different explanat

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Early Greece: 776-480 BCE -- A Millennium of Greek Love -- Homer's Iliad -- Crete, Sparta, Chalcis -- Athletics and the Cult of Beauty -- Sappho -- Alcaeus, Ibycus, Anacreon -- Theognis of Megara -- Athens' Rulers -- The Tyrannicides -- 2. Judea: 900 BCE-600 CE -- The Judgment of Leviticus -- The Threat to Population -- Sodom's Gold -- Who Were the Kedeshim? -- Philo of Alexandria -- The Talmud -- 3. Classical Greece: 480-323 BCE -- Pindar's Odes -- Greek Tragedy -- Phidias -- The Comedies of Aristophanes -- Plato's Symposium -- The Phaedrus and the Laws -- Xenophon -- Aristotle's Dicta -- Zeno and the Stoics -- Aeschines' Against Timarchus -- The Sacred Band of Thebes -- Philip and Alexander -- 4. Rome and Greece: 323 BCE-138 CE -- Sexuality and Empire -- Cicero and Roman Politics -- Greek Love in the Aeneid -- Meleager and Callimachus -- Catullus and Tibullus -- Theocritus and "Corydon -- Horace's Odes -- Ovid's Myths -- Lesbianism -- Petronius' Satyricon -- Suetonius and the Emperors -- Statius, Martial, Juvenal -- Hadrian and Antinous -- 5. Christians and Pagans: 1-565 CE -- The Gospels -- Intertestamental Judaism and Paul -- "Moses" and the Early Church -- Greek Love in Late Antiquity -- Plutarch's Dialogue on Love -- The Lucianic "Affairs of the Heart" -- Two Romances and an Epic -- Roman Law before Constantine -- The Edicts of 342 and 390 -- Sodom Transformed -- Saint John Chrysostom -- The Persecutions of Justinian -- 6. Darkness Descends: 476-1049 -- The Fall of Rome -- Visigothic Spain -- Church Councils and Penitentials -- The Carolingian Panic -- Love in Arab Spain -- The Growth of Canon Law -- The Book of Gomorrah -- 7. The Medieval World: 1050-1321 -- The Fortunes of Ganymede -- Scandal in High Places -- The Theological Assault -- The Inquisition and Its Allies -- The Fate of the Templars.

A review essay on a book by Efraim Karsh & Inari Karsh, Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1798-1923 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press, 1999) contends that the book discounts Western imperialism & the clash of civilizations, as articulated by Samuel Huntington, as the most significant factors in determining the fate of the Middle East. The Karshes insist that, from 1798 to 1923, the region's destiny remained in the hands of local actors, who played their parts in accordance with indigenous trends & patterns of behavior as they attempted to withstand the pressures of external forces by using time-honored wiles & stratagems. The authors rely heavily on original documents that record in minute detail the twists & turns of political events. These documents refute many traditional assumptions about the Eastern Question & European diplomacy. In addition, they shed light on what has been called "Britain's moment" in the Middle East. Although Empires in the Sand is sometimes carping & astringent in tone, it is a bold & imaginative reinterpretation of a controversial stretch of Middle Eastern history. 2 References. A. Funderburg