Here we summon up a lost world, the Graeco-Roman Christian society of the Near East, as it existed for almost a millennium prior to the Islamic Invasions of 636 AD.

The evidence for this world lies all about us, in monumental ruins just as spectacular as those on the northern shores of the Mediterranean and on our library shelves. But our shared historical memory has no image of this world after the time of Cleopatra. Our forgetfulness renders the subsequent history of medieval Christendom unintelligible.

This episode tries to fill in the void in our memory, to summon forth how a rich Graeco-Roman life was once lived in what have long since become Muslim societies.

How Graeco-Roman society became a Muslim society is a long story, but it begins with a sudden conquest by a very different people, emanating from the wastes of central Arabia.