MIDDLE EASTERN RELIGION

any of the religious beliefs, attitudes, and practices developed in the ancient Middle East (extending geographically from Iran to Egypt and from Anatolia and the Aegean Sea to the Arabian Peninsula and temporally from about 3000 to 330 BC, when Alexander the Great conquered much of the area). They have had an enduring influence on Western civilization. While this article treats only those religions of Middle Eastern antiquity that have not survived to modern times, special attention is given in the introduction to their role as antecedents of the major Western religions (i.e., Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), all of which originated in the region. For full treatment of these inheritors of the Middle Eastern tradition, including also the surviving Zoroastrianism and Parsiism, see under the names of the individual religions. Additional reading An excellent unified cultural history of the ancient Middle East is Eduard Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, 5 vol. in 8 (18841902), available also in numerous later printings in various editions. Articles on the individual religions are to be found in Mircea Eliade (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Religion, 16 vol. (1987); and in Geoffrey W. Bromiley et al., The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, rev. ed., 4 vol. (19791988). Essays in various volumes of The Cambridge Ancient History (1923 ), are also useful. Overviews include Helmer Ringgren, Religions of the Ancient Near East (1973; originally published in Swedish, 1967); Cyrus H. Gordon, The Ancient Near East, 3rd ed., rev. (1965), a concise treatment; and John Gray, Near Eastern Mythology, new rev. ed. (1983). Two excellent works that provide a background for the whole subject are Sabatino Moscati, The Face of the Ancient Orient: A Panorama of Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations in Pre-Classical Times (1960; originally published in Italian, 1956); and Henri Frankfort et al., The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (also published as Before Philosophy, 1946, reissued 1977), a collection of essays on ancient Near Eastern speculative thought. Cyrus H. Gordon