Law and Religion between Petra and Edessa

Contents: Preface; Part I Petra and Nabataean Script: Nabataean inscriptions: language and script; Were the Nabataeans Arabs?; Nabataean to Arabic: calligraphy and script development among the pre-Islamic Arabs; Sources for the study of Nabataean Law; The Nabataeans and Mada'in Salih; A Nabataean sundial from Mada'in Salih; Jaussen-Savignac 17: the earliest dated Arabic document (A.D. 267), (with G. Rex Smith); Nabataeo-Arabic: Jaussen-Savignac nab. 17 and 18; A Nabataean papyrus fragment (Bodleian MS Heb. d. 89); 'Sicherheit des Auges': the contribution to Semitic epigraphy of the explorer Julius Euting (1839-1913). Part II Edessa and Early Syriac: The Edessan milieu and the birth of Syriac; The early history of the Syriac script: a reassessment; A new Syriac mosaic inscription; Lexical loans in early Syriac: a comparison with Nabataean Aramaic; Variety in early Syriac: the context in contemporary Aramaic; Some lexical and legal notes on a Syriac loan transfer of 240 CE. Part III Aramaic and Society in the Roman Near East: 'Romans always conquer'. Some evidence of ethnic identity on Rome's eastern frontier; New evidence for the Aramaic legal tradition: from Elephantine to Edessa; The writing on the wall: law in Aramaic epigraphy; 'May he be remembered for good': an Aramaic formula; Dushara as Sun-God; The kindly and merciful God: on some Semitic divine epithets; From Sapanu/Sapunu to Kasion: the sacred history of a mountain; Addenda and corrigenda; Index.