Timothy Pettipiece, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottawa
'Early Islam and the Concept of 'Late Antiquity''
One of the key factors that has influenced the evolution of the historiographic concept of “Late Antiquity” has been the willingness, or for that matter, unwillingness of scholars to include Islam within their historical frameworks. Taking the final pages of Stephen Mitchells’ A History of the Later Roman Empire as a springboard, this paper will explore some of the methodological issues and biases associated with the integration or rejection of Islam in the study of Late Antiquity.