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A review by ehays84
Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor by Kenneth W. Harl
5.0
This is really Professor Harl's bread and butter subject. He knows the history of Asia Minor like he knows the back of his hand. To have such a longitudinal perspective done in such a masterful way was an excellent learning experience. I have never really understood much about how Asia Minor became Hellenized or Turkicized (if that is a term) and this work goes a long way towards explaining those, although resources on those are mostly archaeological, so it will always be hard for historians to give a lot of concrete detail.
A couple of interesting facts I learned which I had not known before just a sample of what I learned: 1. that many of the Hellenized Jews living in Asia Minor in New Testament times had originally been planted there by the Selucid rulers as military colonies to help sustain Selucid rule in Asia Minor in the centuries leading up to the birth of Christ. 2. That estimates are that roughly 500,000 Turkish people migrated to Asia Minor in the period from roughly 900 AD to 1400 AD.
All in all, the conclusion of this work is that many things have stayed the same over the years in Asia Minor and that most of the people living there are descended from ancestors who have lived in Asia Minor probably for thousands of years, despite the enormous differences in religion, language, military/political rule, etc. This was also the general conclusion about Britain in Vikings, Saxons, and Celts.
For now, I am taking a break from Harl, but I will be back for his Romans and Barbarians ones very soon.
A couple of interesting facts I learned which I had not known before just a sample of what I learned: 1. that many of the Hellenized Jews living in Asia Minor in New Testament times had originally been planted there by the Selucid rulers as military colonies to help sustain Selucid rule in Asia Minor in the centuries leading up to the birth of Christ. 2. That estimates are that roughly 500,000 Turkish people migrated to Asia Minor in the period from roughly 900 AD to 1400 AD.
All in all, the conclusion of this work is that many things have stayed the same over the years in Asia Minor and that most of the people living there are descended from ancestors who have lived in Asia Minor probably for thousands of years, despite the enormous differences in religion, language, military/political rule, etc. This was also the general conclusion about Britain in Vikings, Saxons, and Celts.
For now, I am taking a break from Harl, but I will be back for his Romans and Barbarians ones very soon.