This book gathers twenty-four contributions on several matters dealing with Byzantine and Oriental lands, people and cultures through different perspectives. History, maritime trade, manuscripts and documents, travelers and artistic works are the main areas on which articles are focused. The twenty-two contributions trace the history of the relations among the Greek and the peoples of the Middle East from Late Antiquity up to the 17th century. Investigating the role of such relations illuminates the often murky knowledge of some parts of the history in Greece and in relation to the Middle Eastern lands as well. Contributions are eloquently argued, and present clear readings of texts. An extensive bibliography is included with each contribution. They all help to understand the rich religious, cultural, artistic, ecconomical, social and historical framework of the different periods through creative approaches of the several authors.

• Table of Contents (page 7)
• Preliminary note (page 11)
• Across the history (page 13)
• LAfrique dans les Ethnika de Stéphane de Byzance by Jehan Desanges (page 15)
• Arabs, Turks and Chinese in Central Asia during the first third of the 8th century, under the light of the Turkic Orkhon inscriptions: War and Diplomacy by Stephanos Kordoses (page 29)
• The Arabs t through Byzantine eyes (11th-12th centuries): A change in perception? by Nike Koutrakou (page 39)
• Regional Government and Social Strife in the Exarchate of Africa between the Persian Invasion and the Arab Conquest by Maria Leontsini (page 67)
• Had the Arabs Military Skills or Tactics during their Early Conquests of Bilad al-Sham? by Tarek M. Muhammad (page 83)
• East and West: From the Ottoman Empire to Turkey by George Tsoutsos (page 97)
• Byzantins et Arabes dans lespace grec aux IXe et Xe siècles selon les sources hagiographiques locales et contemporaines by Panayotis A. Yannopoulos (page 103)
• Sea and trade (page 119)
• Mamluk amluk ships and seamanship: a reappraisal by V. Christides (page 121)
• The Fatimid State and Egypts Mediterranean Trade 10th…12th Centuries by Yaacov Y. Lev (page 133)
• The reconstruction of the average Arab-Byzantine warship dromon-shini by George K. Livadas (page 139)
• Sulayman al-Mahri and his major work on navigation al-`Umda al-mahriyya fi ? ab? al-`ulum al-ba?riyya (“Mahrian base in precise rendering of navigational sciences”) by Theodore Shumovsky (page 145)
• Early Islamic ports of Morocco:situational and socio-economical considerations by Athena Trakadas (page 167)
• Texts and documents (page 179)
• On Greeks and Greek culture in Sudan according to Ibn ?ayfallah’s Kitab al-?abaqat fi khu?u? al-awliya' wa-l-?ali?in wa-l-`Ulama' wa-l-shu'ara' fi l-Sudan by Igor V. Guerasimov (page 181)
• An Arabic will written on a ship P. ACPSI. No. 15 (P. Rag.) by Alia Hanafi (page 189)
• Diabolus in figur a Aethiopis tetri Ethiopians as demons in hagiographic sources: Literary stereotypes versus social reality and historic events by Dimitris Letsios (page 197)
• Egyptian major issues in Eutychius of Alexandria’s Kitab na?m al-gawahir by Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala (page 213)
• Medieval inscriptions from the renovated Museum at Jebel Barkal (Sudan) by Alexandros Tsakos (page 231)
• The index of kephálaia in the Gospel of Luke in a Greek-Arabic MS from the 11th century (BnF, Suppl. gr. 911) by Ángel Urbán (page 259)
• Lands, commerce and travellers (page 279)
• Sir Thomas Glover, English Ambassador and Consul in Istanbul, 1606-11by C. Edmund Bosworth (page 281)
• Andreas Libadenos’ travel to Egypt and Palestine and its description (1325 or 1326) by J. Dimitroukas (page 289)
• Hellenic Elements in a Third Century Chinese Source on Roman Empire by Lin Ying (page 297)
• Art in its context (page 309)
• The Perception of the Crusader in Late Byzantine and Early Post-Byzantine Ecclesiastical Painting in Epiros by Konstantinos Giakoumis (page 311)
• The First Siege of Constantinople by the Arabs (674 … 678): Problems … Iconograpy by Katerina Karapli (page 337)
• The Majestatic Representations in the Syriac Vat. Cod. 559 by Manuel Marcos Aldón (page 349)