Maria S. Thomas

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.

A Short History of the Entanglement between Syriac and Armenian Christianities | Mary Jaharis Center

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/...

Click here to support Chance Bonar's story *AncientGazanLitTranslation *spotfund is the easiest place to create beautiful and free online fundraisers. It takes just minutes to start raising money today.

🗣️ 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

Syriac AI Manuscripts and Fragments: Reimagining Digitally the Damaged Past The field of Syriac Digital Humanities continues to advance rapidly, moving from basic text recognition (as discussed in my previous posts on OCR/HTR, particularly our launch of the first public Sy…

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!

Opened palimpsest codex (Leiden UL Or. 14236) with Syriac upper text and Armenian undertext. The upper text is written in black and red ink and decorated braided band patterns. There's also a fragment with Arabic on it between the two pages of the opened codex.

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 Memory of Violence — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW A Memory of Violence offers a useful overview for anyone interested in understanding Chalcedon and its effects at a more detailed level, as well as those interested in the history of Christianity…

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.)

Death Rituals Cambridge Core - Global History - Death Rituals

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...

Photo of text from the book _All Roads Lead to Rome_ by Rhiannon Garth Jones. The text reads: Want to know more? ‘Citation is how we acknowledge our debt to those who came before; those who helped us find our way when the way was obscured because we deviated from the paths we were told to follow.’ Sara Ahmed, Living a Feminist Life, Duke University Press, 2017. There are so many scholars whose brilliant work I have relied upon to form my thoughts in the process of researching and writing this book. Here, I have highlighted the people whose research I particularly relied upon and suggested some of their public scholarship that you might enjoy, if you want to learn more. I have included podcasts and writing intended for a popular audience, as well as books that you might be able to find in your local bookstore or library. These suggestions are organised by chapter to help the reader, although, of course, the influence of these scholars is not limited to just one section or chapter. This is intended as a way for me to properly acknowledge those who helped me find my way and as a place for interested readers to start exploring. If you are looking for a more exhaustive list of references, a full bibliography follows.

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

CFA: Join the DO Team 2025/26 The Digital Orientalist is pleased to announce its annual open call for editors, contributors, and team members for the 2025-2026 academic year. As we continue to expand our coverage, we seek …

#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...

It's not too late to sign up for this summer Coptic course!
www.religiondepartment.com/coptic

Begins July 8th. Available Asynch. or Synch.

Lectures live Tuesdays at 10:00am Atlanta/EDT
(3:00pm London/BST, 4:00pm Amsterdam/Zurich/CEST, 5:00pm Cairo/EEST, and 12:00am July 9th Australia/AEST).

Almost here!

Please also come by to our roundtable on Digital Prosopography! It will be fun, I promise!

Digital Late Antique Prosopography, II: Between Fragmented Knowledge and Formal Methods - A Round Table Discussion @ International Medieval Congress 2025 imc-leeds.confex.com/imc/2025/mee...

1. that “Byzantium” and “Byzantine Empire” are both anachronistic terms to avoid the fact that the Roman empire kept going until 1453.
2. that they weren't the first terms people came up with to do this.
3. that this terminology actually creates *more* confusion, not less.

A thread!

How (Not) to Flatter a King A 9th-century Poem from Iraq on Power, Buildings, and Memories of Rome

I *loved* writing this for @lollardfish.bsky.social and @profgabriele.com's newsletter - it highlights some longstanding shared ideas about power.

It also offers a glimpse of some of the many connections West Asia has always had with Europe. For more, get the book!

buttondown.com/ModernMediev...

Tomorrow!

There is a special place in my heart for the archaeological museums who have offered me images for the book with absolutely no charge. They have made both my day and my book infinitely better.

Rylands BlogFar from Being in the ‘Most Useless’ Place: Linking John Rylands Coptic Manuscripts with the Coptic Community Dr Sarah Parkhouse and Professor Peter Oakes write about their pilot project exploring the treasure trove of Coptic manuscripts at the John Rylands Library.

Peter Oakes and I have written about our Coptic Manuscripts & Community pilot project @thejohnrylands.bsky.social, where we share initial insights on how the manuscripts came to be in Manchester & how we might connect these ancient artefacts with folks today. rylandscollections.com/2025/06/13/f...