Begins a series based on a long-term interdisciplinary research project investigating relations among the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean from the death of Justinian in AD 565 to the fall of the Umayyad dynasty in the mid-eighth century. The third volume of the first offering focuses on military and fiscal organization, discussing such topics as recruitment in Roman armies, centralized authority and military autonomy in Islamic conquests, financing the military in the Islamic state, and the Roman army in the Persian Wars and the defense of the Byzantine provinces. Of the ten essays, one is in French and another in German. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.