The Sixth North American Syriac Symposium brought together scholars from
across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and India. Syriac
Encounters offers twenty-four papers that were originally delivered at
the Symposium, and represents a cross-section of both the Symposium and
the current state of Syriac studies more broadly. Although most of the
papers in the volume focus on the late antique heyday of Syriac
Christianity, several papers contribute to the study of other, related
fields, including Islamic studies and Middle Eastern anthropology. The
blossoming of Syriac studies beyond church history and Semitic philology
can be attributed to a wider recognition of the Syriac language and
culture as a bridge linking (and fostering encounters between) Rome
and Persia, Byzantium and Baghdad, and Christianity and Islam.