Proofs day for A Workshop of Eloquence: A Collection of Gazan Literature from Late Antiquity! I'm grateful to be working with DAK University Press in Bethlehem and a Gazan Arabic translator to offer an introduction and selection of translated texts by, from, and about late ancient Gaza.

Tomorrow!

GenAut recording | Philipp Pilhofer, "The Circle of Barnabas: Generative Authority in Cypriot Hagiography" The online seminar: genaut.univie.ac.at?page_id=671

Tomorrow ! GenAut online seminar | Philipp Pilhofer (Vienna), "The Circle of Barnabas. Generative Authority in Cypriot Hagiography" Tuesday, 24 March (10 AM CET). See you there! •Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts• genaut.univie.ac.at

New release 📚 The Martyrdom of Polycarp: Translation, Introduction, and Commentary 📜 N. Clayton Croy's magnum opus provides a detailed introduction and a section-by-section commentary on the earliest, full-length narrative of an early Christian martyrdom. Read it here: brill.com/display/ti...

Rounding off this busy week, I’m looking forward to presenting this year’s Peake Lecture with my friend and colleague Samuel Hildebrandt tomorrow on our current research: ‘From Miriam to the Magdalene: Women Witnesses in the Bible and Beyond’ (no points for guessing which bit I’ll be covering!).

Please join us on Thursday 26 March at 10 am CET for the next TeTra talk by Julia Schwarzer (KU Leuven): "A Mischievous Manuscript or Infidel Rule Reimagined: Julian in Coptic Sources"

This has been out a little while but it only just landed on my doormat - containing a little chapter I wrote on my OGs (Deleuze and Guattari). Congratulations to the editors! 📘

This is great news for late antiquity: top journal turns full Open Access. Way to go, Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum! More info here: www.degruyterbrill.com/.../10.../za...

New article about Chalcedonian Armenians in eleventh-century Byzantium! Open Access: austriaca.at?arp=0x00416251

Check out "Miss Piggy and the Pretty Woman of Proverbs 11:22: Beauty, Animality, and Gender" by Anne Létourneau in Ask the Animals: Developing a Biblical Animal Hermeneutic edited by Arthur W. Walker-Jones, Suzanna R. Millar. buff.ly/USlwpnC #WomensHistorySBL26

🎉The first 3 books have now published in The Islamicate East series, edited by @arezouazad.bsky.social, Hugh Kennedy and Teresa Bernheimer🎉 @invisibleeast.bsky.social Find out more at edinburghuniversitypress.com/series-the-i...

So, here's the article I have out as of today and it's #OpenAccess. It deals with one of the earliest Christian Arabic scribal workshops in the Sinai monastery, where many of the mss produced there have been preserved to this day. In this 🧵 I do a quick rundown of the most important findings. 1/n

Since it's still Library Lovers' Month, you might as well expand your collection by learning about other collections!

If you're in Vienna next week, this is a very interesting conference.

#NewPublication #OpenAccess #ChristianEast #ManuscriptStudies #BookHistory #ArabicBible “Monastic Literature in Early Islamic Palestine and Sinai: Manuscripts, Scribes, Translators, Authors, and Later Readers”, COMSt Bulletin Special Issue, ed. by Adrian C. Pirtea

A TeTra paper by @dekayra.bsky.social tomorrow!

GenAut talks | Maria S. Thomas, "Publishing in a Twelfth-Century Syriac Monastery: Manuscript Production, Authority, and Scribal Practice at the Monastery of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem," Thursday 26 February, online. @dekayra.bsky.social.

I see "Western Civilisation" is back in the discourse and I'd love to do a thread all about it but... I have no time this week so maybe read my book instead? All good bookshops etc... uk.bookshop.org/p/books/all-...

Conference Announcement! Sanctity and Ritual Remembrance: Comparative Approaches to Christian Liturgical Memory from Medieval Iberia to Central Asia ÖAW, Vienna | 5–6 March 2026

Congrats to our collaborators @worldlyscribe.bsky.social, Giorgia Nicosia, @madalinatoca.bsky.social, and Adrian Pirtea for their articles in the newly published thematic issue of the Journal of Eastern Christian Studies (co-edited by Marion). Several in Open Access! brill.com/view/journal...

The first talk of this years online seminar: Jakob Engberg, "The Care for the Remains of Polycarp in the Martyrdom of Polycarp in its Second Century Context." Tuesday, 17 February (10 AM CET) •Followers of the Apostles in Cultic Contexts• genaut.univie.ac.at

Read Nabataean!

Next week we are hosting another paper, this time by Nicolas Atas (KU Leuven) on Syriac lexica! Tune in on Thursday 5 Feb at our regular time of 10 AM CET. As always, don't forget to register w/ @andyhilkens.bsky.social if you're not yet on our mailing list!

We're thrilled to share with you the programme for the 2026 online seminar of the project! The series is curated by our colleague Maria S. Thomas (@dekayra.bsky.social). All welcome! Let us know if you'd like to add you to the email list. genaut.univie.ac.at/?page_id=671

We have now a bsky page for the Vienna project, which just announced the 2026 online seminar. Check it out, it's a nice series of talks – organised by @dekayra.bsky.social.

My (free) website for learning to read from Greek manuscripts is available. Still some tweaks to be made but it’s ready with 12 lessons, tips and hints, downloadable reports if you use it for a class, and links to lots of resources. Please share and give feedback! xeirographa.com

today’s the day!!

it’s officially book promo time! so, hey, i wrote this book; it comes out in a week! would you mind signal boosting and asking your library to buy it? if you’d like a copy, the code AUFLY30 will get you 30%off.

Attend: A Short History of the Entanglement between Syriac and Armenian Christianities, lecture by Andy Hilkens, Princeton University, November 13, 2025, 4:30–6:00 PM maryjahariscenter.org/blog/a-short...

Later today (at 1pm CET): Chance Bonar (Virginia), "Onesimus: Apostle and Martyr in Eastern Mediterranean Literature"

Since we mourn for the dead and fight like hell for the living, I’m bumping my thread about how from my perspective as a former Junior Olympic level track runner, this “fairness” transphobia is fucking bullshit blacksky.community/profile/did:...

A reminder that we have no colloquium event this week! However, our affiliated program, the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins, is holding a book event on Zoom with Prof. Ellen Muehlberger (Michigan) from 6:30–8:00 pm on Thursday, Oct. 30. Details here: rels.sas.upenn.edu/events/2025/...

🗣️ PLEASE SHARE 🗣️ I'm writing an intro & sourcebook on late ancient Gazan literature for Dar al-Kalima University Press. The press and I plan to produce an Arabic translation to make Gazan literature more accessible to Palestinians. Help me compensate the Gazan translator! spot.fund/dn8t744sc

In today's post, Ephrem Aboud Ishac writes about using #AI to visually reconstruct and complete partially damaged or fragmented #Syriac manuscripts, exploring its benefits and the ethical obligations involved. 🔗 digitalorientalist.com/2025/10/21/s...

Also next week!

It’s hard to overstate how important these resources are!

Mind-numbing how many layers of history there can be to a single manuscript page: Syriac upper text (10th c.), Armenian undertext (pre-10th c.), Arabic material used for binding (11-12th c.?), Coptic foliation in the margin (date?), modern foliation at the bottom. Image: Leiden UL Or. 14236, link ⬇️

Next week!!!

God, Slavery, and Early Christianity is out in the real world with @universitypress.cambridge.org! I have some extra, so retweet this by the end of Oct. 19 if you’re interested in receiving a copy! Book info here: www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...

A new #review on AJR! Briana Grenert writes about A Memory of Violence: Syriac Christianity and the Radicalization of Religious Difference in Late Antiquity by Christine Shepardson #lateantiquity #syriacstudies @ucpress.bsky.social www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2025/9/...

i didn't get to include the epigraph i wanted but i really wanted y'all to know that i'd picked the following from terry pratchett's _the wee free men_: "it didn't stop being magic just because you found out how it was done." (a good choice, right? but alas, permissions.)

My friend wrote an Element! and a *really* cool one: it's a guide to the Arabic and Persian sources on Rūs death rituals, including new translations of them*. It's still free to download until 2nd October 2025 so get it now (and try not to forget about it...) www.cambridge.org/core/books/d...

Later today, at 4pm CET: Ángel Narro (València), "Thecla’s Increasing Authority from Early Christianity to Late Antiquity" genaut.univie.ac.at/?page_id=671

Thanks to Herman Teule, the Maurits Sabbe Library has recently acquired 11 new manuscripts in Syriac and Arabic, see theo.kuleuven.be/apps/press/t...

Exhibition of 15 Syriac manuscripts at KU Leuven on Thursday 11 September 2025 at 4 PM at the Maurits Sabbe Library in Leuven: "Treasures from the East: Syriac Manuscripts in the Collection of the Maurits Sabbe Library" Registration: bib.kuleuven.be/msb/over/nie...

A lot of people have mentioned they loved the 'Want to Know More?' section of my book – basically an annotated bibliography but with a clear statement on citation ethics (shout out to Sara Ahmed) and a focus on *accessible* scholarship. That means blogs, podcasts, books for a popular audience. 🧵

An actionable way for classicists and ancient historians in particular to support Gazan students in this moment

#Reminder! The deadline for our #cfa for new contributions, editors, and social media team members ends this Sunday (July 13)! Check out the details at the link below if you are interested in joining our team: digitalorientalist.com/2025/06/03/c...