Fourth Century Research Articles

The impact of (Imam Malik's Muwatta) on the intellectual movement in Andalusia until the end of the fourth century AH

Since its emergence, the Maliki school of jurisprudence has been widely spread in Andalusia, and after a short period it became the official doctrine of the state and Al-Muwatta became the first book in the circles of the intellectual movement in Andalusia unchallenged. The Muwatta had a prominent and influential role on the intellectual and scientific life after it was adopted by the Arab Islamic state in Andalusia and since the beginning of the era of the emirate. Intellectual and its data until the end of the fourth century AH, I divided my research into three sections: The first: sheds light on the life of Imam Malik bin Anas, the author of the book. The second topic: deals with the book of Al-Muwatta and how it was spread. The third topic deals with the impact of Al-Muwatta’ on intellectual life in Andalusia. However, the most prominent of them is the book “Arranging Perceptions and Approaching the Paths to Know the Media of Malik’s School of Thought” by Judge Iyadh bin Musa Al-Sabti (T.: 544 AH/1149 AD). The research relied on it a lot. The importance of this book lies in the fact that its author is one of the most prominent figures of the Imam Malik bin Anas school of jurisprudence. The books on which the research relied is also the book ((Al-Dibaj Al-Madhhib)) by Ibn Farhoun

HISTORY OF EMOTIONAL SUFFERING: FROM EMOTIONS TO NEEDS IN THE HISTORY OF EMOTIONS

ABSTRACTQuestions about the nature of emotions and the role of emotional expressions have been addressed frequently in the study of the history of emotions. However, the extent to which emotional suffering is present in the cultures and societies of the past is seldom queried. Our first goal is to identify criteria that historians of emotions can use to evaluate the emotional suffering of the people they study. We locate these criteria not in the theory of emotions, whether Norbert Elias's psychoanalytic theory or William M. Reddy's theory of emotives, but in the theory of basic, universal human needs proposed by Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci. Although we agree with most contemporary historians of emotions that emotions themselves can be understood only within the context of a particular culture, we propose that additional inquiry into basic needs and their satisfaction could help historians of emotions cast more light on the inner lives of the members of the societies they investigate. Our second goal is to apply these insights to the case of acedia, a peculiar psychological state experienced by the Desert Fathers. We examine what acedia was for the Desert Fathers by analyzing Evagrius's writings. Our goal here is to capture what historians of emotions regularly do; that is, we aim to reconstruct how monks of the fourth century felt, expressed, and thought about emotions from within their own monastic culture. In addition, we analyze acedia from the perspective of the theory of needs. In this way, we hope to show how the theory of needs can help historians in their endeavors to understand the past.

Al-Farabi and Philosophical Analysis of Language

TThe book of Al-Huruf (The Letters), as the most important philosophical works of Farabi in the philosophical study of language, refers to his precise philosophical thinking and is a reflection of the intellectual state of the Islamic world in the fourth century AH. The main purpose of this article is to find out why Farabi has studied language, word formation, language levels, and how language evolves in this work. A philosophical reading of the book Al-Huruf shows that ten centuries ago, Farabi›s linguistic meditations were closely linked to his ontology, as well as to the question of philosophy and religion. Unfortunately, so far research on Farabi›s thoughts about language has been based on a logical or linguistic approach. The scholars, disregarding Farabi›s philosophical approach to language, offered views that considered “Letters” to be merely a description of syntax or letters or words. In this article, in addition to explaining Farabi›s philosophical view of language, we seek to explore three fundamental issues: First, we will examine his intellectual foundations on the evolution of language. Second, we expound on the relationship between language with syntax and logic, which was the most important topic of the debate which occurred in 320 AH, and finally, we discuss the philosophical achievements of language to reveal the importance of Farabi›s linguistic thought, which has been neglected so far. Key words: Al-Farabi, Al-Huruf, language, logic, philosophical reading.

تطور خط النسخ من القرن الثالث حتى القرن السابع الهجري

F rom each type of Arabic script, long independent stages were drawn from their emergence to the stages of their completion. These lines were able to gradually develop from their primitive and incomplete forms to their complete or more perfect status over many successive centuries until they reached it today. Likewise, the naskh script developed gradually, successively, as did other Arabic scripts. This paper offers to describe how the Naskh script developed from the third to the seventh century AH. The results of this research is (1) The forms of letters, the Naskh script, were in the stage of script development in the third and fourth centuries influenced by the line of inquisitor. In the fourth and sixth centuries it was affected by the Rayhani line, and in the seventh century it was affected by the third line, And (2) The naskhi script in early Islam was used among people other than official writings until the minister, Abu Ali Muhammad bin Muqla, produced a great improvement in the aforementioned calligraphy and introduced it to writing Qur’ans and writing collections, since the third century.

Why Did the Origenist Controversy Begin? Re‐thinking the Standard Narratives

AbstractThe Origenist controversy at the end of the fourth century was largely played out within a monastic context, and had, moreover, an immediate and extensive impact on the movement. In spite of this, studies of the controversy and its causes have mainly focused on the dogmatic issues foregrounded in the controversy, neglecting the more fundamental issues about why the legacy of Origen was important, but also considered dangerous, to the monastic tradition. In my contribution I draw on suggestions by Rowan Williams and Sarah Coakley on a growing tension between the monastic tradition with its emphasis on individual spiritual growth, and the gradually institutionalized church under the bishops with an emphasis on the society. I question previous approaches and propose an analysis of how the work of Origen related to the early monastic movement. Instead of a presumed inner‐monastic conflict between ‘Origenists’ and ‘non‐Origenists’, for which there is little evidence, I suggest that the legacy of Origen, being an essential element in the Christian transformation of classical paideia, was fundamental to the making of monasticism. Based on recent work on early Egyptian monasticism as basically an educational movement in its broadest sense, I argue that Origen’s views on how and why to read the Scriptures, and how reading relates to prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit, were crucial in early monastic tradition and clearly mirrored in our fourth‐century monastic sources.

African Arts — Global Conversations

African Arts — Global Conversations

Faecal microbiota transplantation for bipolar disorder: A detailed case study.

Faecal microbiota transplantation for bipolar disorder: A detailed case study.

Article Review :Klebsiella Pneumonia: Epidemiology, Virulence Factors and Treatment

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a rare cause, excluding alcoholics, of community-acquired pneumonia. Klebsiella can resemble lung tuberculosis because it occurs with hemoptysis and lesions of the lumen. K. Pneumoniae is an infection hard to handle because of the organism's thickened capsule. Klebsiella is best handled with cephalosporins, quinolones or carbapenems of the third and fourth century. In lung inflammation, monotherapy is just as effective as combination therapy because newer agents are used. Older agents with less Klebsiella involvement were used for successful treatment in the past. Initially, the patient that we attended was believed to have pulmonary tuberculosis and the recommended medication was ceftriaxone monotherapy until it was discovered to be pneumococcal disease. The patient was initially treated with injection, then orally for 3 weeks. The purpose of this article is to address this type of bacteria, its epidemiology, virulence factors and treatment methods, due to its widespread spread within the country, which causes many respiratory diseases and can share with other pathogens such as viruses, particularly the Corona virus, which can inevitably cause death in a particular individual.

Religious Plurality and Mixture in the Persianate North: Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Manichaeans in Late Antique Georgia


 Persistent images of late antique Caucasia belonging naturally to the Byzantine world obscure the isthmus’ deep multi- and cross-cultural condition. They rest on the flawed assumption that shared Christian affiliation necessarily linked Byzantium and Caucasia. Moreover, such conjectures elide Caucasia’s longstanding integration into the Persianate world, a status enduring for centuries after the fourth-century Christianization of the Georgian, Armenian, and Caucasian Albanian monarchies. This essay engages the religious dimensions of Caucasia’s cross-cultural fabric through the example of sixth-century Georgia. Before the formation of a Georgian "national" church in the seventh century and the accompanying obsession with orthodoxy, Georgian religious life was remarkably diverse and mixed. But in the fourth and fifth centuries, the longstanding dominance of Zoroastrianism—particularly in hybrid local forms—was being eclipsed by various confessions of Christianity. Manichaeism and Judaism also had a visible presence. While there is much we do not know about actual Jewish, Manichaean, and Zoroastrian communities in late antique Georgia, surviving Georgian texts offer valuable, if occasional, glimpses of their existence. And they deploy carefully crafted imaginaries of non-Christian religions embedded in an increasingly Christian environment.

The Forum-Basilica at Caerwent (Venta Silurum): A History of the Roman Silures

ABSTRACTLying at the heart of the city of Venta Silurum, the forum-basilica at Caerwent tells the public, municipal, story of the Civitas Silurum in south Wales. The re-excavation of this complex between 1987 and 1995 revealed a wealth of new information that has a great deal to tell us about the history of the city and the fortunes of its inhabitants. Constructed in the early second century and rebuilt in the middle of the fourth century, the forum-basilica was where the administrative, judicial, commercial and religious functions of the city were located. The modifications to the basilica at the very end of the Roman period indicate continued use of this civic space in the later fourth and fifth centuries.

The Status and Role of Doorkeepers in the Early Medieval West

Although the functions associated with someone charged with responsibility for the doors of a church—and by extension for the church building as a whole—were required, the development of a specific office that would be institutionally and ritually recognized was not inevitable. The ambiguities attached to the office relate to its name, where and whether it was situated in the clerical cursus, and the range of presumed actual and symbolic duties. Gathering together the scattered evidence for Gaul, Spain, and Italy from the later fourth century until the eighth century merely exacerbates the confused situation. That it became the first step in the clerical cursus is mainly due to the dominant influence of three sources deemed to be authoritative: the Statuta ecclesiae antiqua, the De septem ordinibus ecclesiae, and certain writings of Isidore of Seville.

Review: Food, Virtue, and the Shaping of Early Christianity, by Dana Robinson

“Virtue is a fruit, a sacrifice, a state of health” (5). In this excellent monograph, Dana Robinson unites case studies of three of the most influential authors of late ancient Mediterranean Christianity to reconstruct the ideological uses and social possibilities of food discourse in early Christian communities. John Chrysostom, Shenoute of Atripe, and Paulinus of Nola were engaged in transforming the religious landscape of the Roman Empire in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, and they did so to a substantial degree using the subject of food. Since they wrote from three sides of the Mediterranean and in three of its most important languages, Syria/Greek, Egypt/Coptic, and Italy/Latin, respectively, they form an especially representative triad. In Robinson’s analysis of Shenoute, virtue is a fruit, while ascesis is the labor of cooking and farming. In Paulinus, piety and ascesis are both sacrificial gifts embodied through the mouth as a threshold for eating and speech. In Chrysostom, virtue is health and ascesis medicine.Robinson’s approach to the subject of early Christian food discourse is robustly interdisciplinary. She makes use of three primary analytical tools: the concept of food as embodied material culture, taken from anthropology; cognitive metaphor theory, taken from linguistics and literary theory; and the idea of space and place as socially constructed entities, taken from cultural geography. Together these allow her to analyze a variety of food metaphors and practices of early Christianity in productive ways that delineate a social and religious world marked by a series of embodiments.She devotes two chapters to food discourse in the sermons of Chrysostom. In the first, she examines his treatment of elite food consumption from a medical, philosophical, and economic perspective with a focus on his multivalent, and sometimes rather elusive, understanding of moderation. Of particular interest to the social historian is a section in which Robinson reconstructs an elite Roman diet. She accomplishes this by subjecting the food purchased by Theophanes of Hermopolis, which he had recorded on a series of papyri during his sojourn at Antioch in 322 or 323, to rigorous economic and sociological analyses (53–65). The results allow her to contextualize Chrysostom’s admonitions to dietary moderation with a precision that would otherwise be impossible. In the second chapter, she focuses on Chrysostom’s project to make the late Roman dining room into a place where the correct relationships of human beings with God as well as with each other are enacted in the everyday rituals of food consumption.Robinson also devotes two chapters to food discourse in the sermons and canons of Shenoute, in particular the sermons “You, O Lord” and “Righteous Art Thou.” In the first chapter, she elucidates the duality of Shenoute’s imagery of fruit as virtue: the individual body is both the site that produces fruit and the final product that is consumed and assimilated into the communal body. In the second chapter, she again shifts the focus from metaphors of food production and consumption to locations and practices, demonstrating how Shenoute’s food discourse places the monastery, at the expense of the Christian household and martyr festival, at the center of the Christian landscape. The feeding of thousands of refugees for three months at Shenoute’s monastery during the 340s forms a social-historical parallel to the purchase history of Theophanes in its potential to connect words with experience (146–53). Unfortunately, Robinson leaves this episode underdeveloped by comparison. This is due in part to the nature of the sources, but this fascinating event should have been brought into clearer focus.Paulinus of Nola receives one chapter, rather than two, which Robinson focuses on his Natalicia, a series of poems he delivered on the feast days of St. Felix. Through his sacrificial poetics, Paulinus attempts nothing less than to assimilate Roman votive religion to Christian martyr piety and provide a framework for Christianization itself. Given the necessary abstractions of her largely theoretical analyses, Robinson’s reproduction of the plan of the shrine of St. Felix and accompanying discussion provide a welcome entry into the physical spaces created by Paulinus in conjunction with his verbal ones (208). This diagram, however, would have benefited from labeling specific to Robinson’s analyses, and a more thorough integration of visual evidence into the argument would have been welcome. The same holds for her reproductions of the excavations of Shenoute’s White Monastery (6, 173). Yet these concerns are minor, and Robinson has indeed demonstrated that food is “good to think with” (222) by modeling the incisive utilization of mutually reinforcing theoretical approaches to explicate the complexities of the apparently simple language of food and reminding us that “a meal is never just a meal” (225).

Metaphor of the ancients: A study in the critical Arab heritage until the end of the fourth century AH

عنيت هذه الدراسة بإبراز قيمة الاستعارة ومكانتها في تراث العرب النقدي إلى نهاية القرن الرابع الهجري. كما سعت إلى تبيان الضوابط التي تكفل صحَّتها وجودتها، والموقف النقدي العامّ منها إذا خالف الشاعر العرف في استعماله لها.

ON THE DISCOURSE OF THEOLOGY AS A MEDICAL SCIENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF CARITATIVE SOCIAL WORK

Social work theory and practice today follow a concept born in mid-19th century industrialised society; however, it is not the sole concept. Even since the fourth century, an alternative concept of caritative social work (CSW) has been known, and it is currently embedded in the European Social work model. The article shows the therapeutic potential of the concept of CSW based on the Judaeo-Christian model, which is based on the revelation of Biblical and patristic anthropology elaborated since the first decades of the Christian era (mainly in Alexandria and Antioch, ancient centres of learning). Today, with the Covid-19 crisis, and with European society undergoing traumatic experiences, described as alienation, unemployment, depression, etc, the therapeutic potential of CSW should be recalled by social work professionals. The therapeutic potential of CSW is revealed through an interdisciplinary approach. Patristic anthropology is an interdisciplinary approach showing ways to encourage human social activity, encompassing both personal and societal perspectives. The concept of deification provided by Judeo-Christian anthropology touches the ontological structure of man, and is described as a method for the proper conceptualisation of the complexity of the client’s problem, without ignoring its spiritual aspects. The potential of CSW is helpful for people in a society who are at risk to recover from setbacks.

Reexamining Syncretism in Late Antique Iconography of a Vault Mosaic

Late Antiquity, third to seventh centuries, is a period recognized for the continuity and change of Roman culture despite a new religion and political instability. This continuity allowed space for syncretism: an amalgamation of different art, religion, and culture in the Empire. In the following pages, I discuss the understanding of a vault mosaic featuring a charioteer or solar figure within the necropolis in Vatican City, Rome, Italy. For this paper, I use material culture from Rome and Constantinople that dates from the first to fourth centuries in order to contextualize the mosaic with other syncretic works of art and to demonstrate multiple readings of artworks. My focus for this paper is the vault mosaic found in Tomb M, built in the second century (Figure 2). I begin with an examination of the decorative programs of the necropolis including the room with the vault mosaic. Next, I briefly investigate iconographies of the ascension to demonstrate a concern with the afterlife by different audiences. Then, I analyze visual evidence of continuity and change in meaning of imperial iconography on material culture during the reign of Constantine I (r. 306–337) to show more examples of syncretic art by a single patron. My methodological approach decenters Christianity—a point to which I will return—seeking a more accurate contextualization of Late Antique material culture.

Canonical Supervision of Rural Communities in Early Byzantium

The author attempts in this study to analyse the canonical texts of the Orthodox Church in order to identify certain canonical institutions used by the Church for its pastorship and mission in rural communities and how rural parishes were canonically supervised. To Christianise villages, the Byzantine Church manifested a certain canonical creativity, creating the institution of chorepiscopate responsible for rural ecclesial life and the care for the poor in rural communities. The author emphasizes the full episcopal status of the chorbishops. At the end of the fourth century, the canonical texts limit the canonical privileges of chorbishops even for their rural jurisdiction, prohibiting not just the ordination for the village but the right to ordain priests and deacons for rural communities. Simultaneously with the development of the office of chorbishops, the rank of periodeutai also appeared. These priests resided in the city and were sent by the urban bishop to visit the rural communities as well. They were supervisors of rural communities under the authority of the urban bishop and they can be considered an important link between urban and rural communities, but as well an instrument of exercising episcopal power and control in rural parishes that were previous dominated by the figure of chorbishops.

Quarry origin determination of marble statues from Umm Qeis Antiquities Museum, Gadara, Jordan by multi-analytical techniques

This study examines the quarry origin of seven statues displayed in the archaeological museum of Gadara (Umm Qeis), Jordan. The statues were excavated in Gadara in past decades and have been dated to the Roman period between the first and third centuries (or later). They represent the most important Gods and the masterpieces of the city, including an enthroned Zeus, an enthroned Tyche, a Maenad with Silenus, a Satyr with an animal’s skin, an Athlete, an Artemis of Ephesos, and a Seasonal Genius of the “Hermes Erbach” type. The results of the isotopic, mineralogical, petrographic and chemical analyses indicate that the island of Paros was the main source for the marble of the statues: the Lakkoi quarries produced the Maenad with Silenus, the Seasonal Genius “Hermes Erbach,” and the Tyche statue, and the Marathi quarries produced the marble for the most important deity of Gadara the Enthroned Zeus “Nikephoros” statue. The quarries of Pentelikon (Athens) and Cape Vathy (the island of Thassos) produced the Satyr with an animal’s skin and the Athlete statues, respectively, while the Artemis of Ephesos statue was carved of the Aphrodisian marble. The results reflect the high state of art of the Gadarenes and the wealth of the city, and they reflect the development of the city during the first to the fourth centuries AD.

Cults and Beliefs in Pre-Christian Dardania

Since there are not any epigraphic sources from the times before the Roman invasion of the Dardanian Kingdom (Mbretëria dardane), stone monuments with Latin inscriptions from the period of Roman invasion represent a source of enormous importance for the study of beliefs and cults on Dardan soils, both before the invasion and during the Roman rule, forgods and various cults, which were relicts of earlier times, are represented on epigraphic monuments of the first century A.D.According to the results of studies on about 600 epigraphic monuments dating from the beginning of our era until the time of expansion of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, it was attested that cults of native gods, official as well as nonofficial Roman cults, were worshipped on Dardan soils. From the cults of native gods epigraphically was testified worshipping of the cult of Andin (Deus Andinus, protector of family, home and community), Dardania (Dea Dardania, a goddess who personified Dardanian soils). Zbeltiurdusor Zbeltiurdud (the main Thracian god worshipped as a native godas well), Tatto (Illyrian god honoured by all Illyrian tribes particularly in Dalmatia), Silvan (Roman god, native gods were honoured by his name), Dracco andDraccena (divine couple connected with the cult of snake), Quadrivia (the goddess of crossroads), then certain local variants of the cult of Jupiter in forms of IOM Ulpianensis and IOM Paternus Aepilophius,IOM Propulsator, IOM Cohortalis, cults of some Genii (genii sttationis Municipi DD, Genii loci Illyrici, GeniiIllyrici), and also two unknown gods: Atta Sacra and Deus Mund(ritus?). From official cults of the Roman state worshippingof the cult of Jupiter alone was testified, or the cult of Jupiter together with goddesses Junona and Minerva,forming the divine trinity of Capitol, further worshippingof the cult of Diana, Mars, Bellone, Mercury, Neptun,Hercules, the Nymphs, Hercules, Liber and Libera,Terra Mater, Fortuna, Genii, Lares, Dii Manes as wellas the cult of the current emperor was also attested.Among nonofficial cults epigraphically were testifiedcults of greek and of oriental Origin such as: the cult of Zeus Ezaios, Apollo, Dionysus, Sabazios, Asclepios or Aesculapus, Heracles, Jupiter Dolichenus, Jupiter Melcid, Jupiter Melano, as well as the cults of Greek goddesses Hera, Hygia, Nemesis and Hylara, the cult of Egyptian gods Serapis and Isis, syrian goddess Atargatis or Dea Syria, honoring of the cults of personswho were made heroes after their death (Antinous and Alexander) and of mortals (Omphale, the queen of Lydia and one of the wives of Heracles). Honouring of all the above mentioned cults proves the presence of genuine liberalism of Dardanian soilas far as religious belief is concerned, which spread until the time when Christianity, despite persecutions of Roman officials and the rivalry of Mithraism, prevailed and became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Christian inscriptions on Dardanian soil began to appear by the end of the fourth century A.D. and became more frequent during the fifth and the sixth century, a time when earlier Social and Economic crises reached their culmination, when all strata ofpopullation turned to Church, seeking the meaning of life, hope and saviour.Thus church gained strength and became one of most important pillars of cultural and institutional continuity of the world of antiquity. Neverless, in the provinces where was centred the Roman Army, the christianism prevailed only until in the IVth and Vth century BC because the Roman Army was the last stronghold of the paganism.

The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300–525 CE By Robin Fleming. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2021. Pp. 303. $45. ISBN 978-0-8122-5244-6 (cloth).

<i>The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300–525 CE</i> By Robin Fleming. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2021. Pp. 303. $45. ISBN 978-0-8122-5244-6 (cloth).

Portraits and Identity: “Roman” and “Elite” in the Late Antique Villas of Aquitania

This article examines late antique marble portraits from three Roman villas in Aquitania (southwestern France). These objects are striking evidence for a vibrant, Theodosian-era (r. 379–95 CE) portrait tradition, which contrasts with the absence of contemporary portraiture elsewhere in the western provinces. This raises questions about the motivations and identities of the patrons, which I investigate by approaching the portrait as a tool for the construction and navigation of “elite” and “Roman” identities. Such claims were politically charged in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, which witnessed the admission of outsiders (the nouveaux riches and “barbarians” like the Visigoths) into high society.