Research Catalog

Title

Dreams and divination from Byzantium to Baghdad, 400-1000 CE / Bronwen Neil.

Author

Neil, Bronwen

Publication

• Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2021.
• ©2021

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 240 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

Why did dreams matter to Jews, Byzantine Christians, and Muslims in the first millennium? Dreams and Divination from Byzantium to Baghdad, 400-1000 CE shows how the ability to interpret dreams universally attracted power and influence in the first millennium. In a time when prophetic dreams were viewed as God's intervention in human history, male and female prophets wielded was unparalleled power in imperial courts, military camps, and religious gatherings. The three faiths drew on the ancient Near Eastern tradition of dream key manuals, which offer an insight into the hopes and fears of ordinary people. They melded pagan dream divination with their own scriptural traditions to produce a novel and rich culture of dream interpretation. Prophetic dreams enabled communities to understand their past and present circumstances as divinely ordained and helped to bolster the spiritual authority of dreamers and those who had the gift of interpreting their dreams. Bronwen Neil takes a gendered approach to the analysis of the common culture of dream interpretation across late antique Jewish, Byzantine, and Islamic sources to 1000 CE, in order to expose the ways in which dreams offered women a unique opportunity to exercise influence. The epilogue to the volume reveals why dreams still matter today to many men and women of the monotheist traditions.

Series Statement

Oxford studies in the Abrahamic religions

Uniform Title

Oxford studies in the Abrahamic religions.

Subject

• To 1500
• Dreams > Religious aspects > History > To 1500
• Dream interpretation > History > To 1500
• Dream interpretation
• Dreams > Religious aspects

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-229) and indexes.

Call Number

JFD 21-2151

ISBN

• 0198871147
• 9780198871149

LCCN

2020942627

OCLC

1161218645

Author

Neil, Bronwen, author.

Title

Dreams and divination from Byzantium to Baghdad, 400-1000 CE / Bronwen Neil.

Publisher

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2021.

Copyright Date

©2021

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Oxford studies in the Abrahamic religions

Oxford studies in the Abrahamic religions.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-229) and indexes.

Chronological Term

To 1500

Other Form:

Electronic version: Neil, Bronwen. Dreams and divination from Byzantium to Baghdad, 400-1000 CE. First edition. Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2021 9780191914171 (OCoLC)1197720488

Research Call Number

JFD 21-2151