West and Central Asia

Abstract

As cradle for probably the oldest documented literary cultures, West Asia presents many features that seem to be perennial and prove to repeat themselves over and over again in the later cultures, either through immediate or intermediate contacts, or because they simply embody some human paradigms and patterns. The most important part of the period 200–1500 ce is dominated by the Islamic culture that spread with the Arab conquests in the first half of the seventh century ce and “inherited” the old cultures of West and Central Asia and beyond. A particularly notable feature is the large number of literary texts that have been translated into Syriac; these came from Greek, Middle Persian, Coptic, Arabic, and Latin. Prior to the sixth century, almost all Syriac literature was produced east of the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia; subsequently, however, its geographical spread extended eastwards, westwards, and southwards.