Past Exams

The Near East in the Age of Justinian & Muhammed c.527 – 700

2006 Exam

1. What were the underlying causes of tension between Romans and Persians?
2. How successful was the use of client management by the great powers during the sixth
and early seventh centuries in either: a) Transcaucasia or (b) Arabia?
3. What role did politics play in factional unrest during this period?
4. Did urban life decline across the Near East during this period and if so, why?
5. What was the impact of theological controversy upon the established imperial church
across this period?
6. Did Muhammad's teaching owe more to its immediate Arabian context or to the wider
world of Near Eastern monotheism?
7. What features of a state do you detect within the Umayyad caliphate by 700?
8. How did the Byzantine state survive the Arab conquest of the Near East?
9. Has the testimony of the early Islamic historical tradition been undervalued?
10. Were the Arabic conquests the product of directed campaigns or random raids?

2007 Exam

1. What provoked urban rioting in Late Antiquity?

2. What are the best indicators of economic production and performance across the Near
East in Late Antiquity?
3. How did Justinian exacerbate doctrinal conflict in the sixth century?
4. Why did relations between East Rome and Persia deteriorate in the sixth century?
5. How and with what results did East Rome and Persia impinge upon EITHER (a)
Transcaucasia OR (b) Arabia in the pre-Islamic era?
6. Explain Muhammad’s success in Arabia.
7. Why were the Roman and Sasanian Empires unable to resist the Islamic conquests?
8. How far had the process of state-formation advanced in the Caliphate by the year 100
A.H. [August 718-July 719]?
9. How receptive was Islamic art and architecture to late Antique influence?
10. To what extent did Byzantium’s survival depend upon Constans II?

2008 Exam

1. What role did great estates play in rural society across the Near East in Late
Antiquity?
2. How helpful is the notion of urban decline when studying the Late Antique Near
East?
3. How significant was the role of Theodora in the emergence of a separate miaphysite
church?
4. In what circumstances did the relationship between East Rome and Persia come to
be characterised by conflict rather than peace during the sixth and early seventh
centuries?
5. How did the great powers differ in their approaches to client management in
EITHER (a) Transcaucasia OR (b) Arabia in the pre-Islamic era?
6. To what extent did the teaching of Muhammad reflect its Arabian context?
 7. Has the Islamic historical record for the conquest of the Near East been
undervalued?
8. How did Abd al-Malik secure the Marwanid caliphate?
9. What determined the survival of Byzantium after the Arab conquests?

2009 exam

1. To what extent is the Nika riot representative of urban violence in Late Antiquity?
2. How did Justinian provoke theological controversy in the sixth century?
3. How do you assess the state of the economy in the Eastern Mediterranean in Late
Antiquity?
4. Why did the East Roman and Persian Empires spend the first three decades of the
seventh century at war with one another?
5. What impact did the East Roman and Persian Empires have upon EITHER (a)
Transcaucasia OR (b) Arabia in the pre-Islamic era?
6. Have the non-Islamic sources for the Arab conquests of the Near East been overvalued?
7. To what extent was the teaching of Muhammad a response to contemporary
monotheistic traditions and practices?
8. How did Mu'awiya and Abd al-Malik differ in their approaches to government?
9. To what extent did the survival of Byzantium in the seventh and early eighth centuries
depend upon its Christian culture?

*****

Mediaeval Apocalyptic Traditions 400 – 1200

2008 Exam

1. To what extent did Augustine’s views on time and its end dominate mediaeval
debate?
2. How important was the concept of ‘6 World Ages’ to historical interpretations of
time and apocalypticism?
3. Was there a link between apocalypticism and heresy?
4. To what extent did apocalyptic traditions shape mediaeval politics?
5. Why were illustrated Apocalypses so popular?
6. Did ‘barbarian’ invasions signify the end of time or the end of civilization in
mediaeval thought?
7. Assess the importance of Greek and Syrian apocalyptic traditions forWestern
thought.
8. Why were secular rulers so interested in visionaries like Hildegard and Joachim?
9. How convincing is Landes’s ‘conspiracy of silence’ about apocalypticism and
chronological change?

2009 Exam

1. ‘Crisis fuelled apocalyptic anxiety’. To what extent is this true of the ‘decline’ of
the Roman world up to 600?
2. Was medieval chronology inherently apocalyptic?
3. Assess the role of apocalyptic rhetoric in medieval movements for church reform.
(You may focus on either the period 400-1000 or 1000-1200 if you wish).
4. Why did commentators disagree about whether Viking raids were a sign of the
End?
5. Why was Adso’s Letter on Antichrist so popular?
6. Account for the growing interest in illuminated apocalyptic books after 1000.
7. Was the legend of the Last World Emperor anything more than an intellectual
curiosity?
8. How Augustinian was Joachim of Fiore in his apocalyptic beliefs?
9. Were the ‘terrors of the year 1000’ nothing more than a modern ‘romantic fiction’?