Byzantium to China comprises a collection of essays commemorating Samuel Lieu's achievements in the fields of late Roman and Byzantine history, Manichaean studies and the study of Eastern Christianity. A list of Samuel Lieu's publications included among the front matter of the book (pp. xxi–xliii) provides a useful reminder of the breadth of his publications across a wide range of fields and topics. The chapters comprising this edited collection fittingly reflect the influence of Lieu's publications and the role he has played in opening up new horizons and directions in the above-named fields, specifically the contribution that Lieu's work has made in sharpening the cross-cultural and comparative study of late antiquity.

This is a large collection comprising a total of thirty-two chapters and running to six hundred and fifty pages and as such this review will draw attention to those papers which appear to best reflect the cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary achievements of the volume's honorand. A number of chapters highlight recent developments in the global study of late antiquity, a central aspect of many of Samuel Lieu's publications and wider pedagogy. Jason BeDuhn's lengthy contribution opens the volume by reevaluating recent research on the Chinese Manichaean texts from Xiapu and proposes the adoption of Hindu sage, Nara Nārāyana, as one of the five apostles charged with the responsibility of revealing divine truths to the world according to Manichaean theology. The incorporation of this figure, the putative author of the Puruṣasūkta, whom BeDuhn carefully distinguishes from Nārāyana as an epithet for Visnu, represents an adaptation of the famous Manichaean prophetology to include one of the ‘founders’ (from a Manichaean point-of-view) of Hinduism via the cultural transmission of Sogdian Manichaean traditions to the religious communities of Central Asia. Max Deeg's contribution examines the representation of Sasanian Persia in Xuanzang's Datang Xiyu ji (‘Record of the western regions of the Great Tang’) from the seventh century. A Chinese Buddhist monk, Xuanzang compiled an account of his return journey to India over two decades, an account infused with striking historiographic and ethnographic details. As Deeg explains, while Xuanzang's description of Persia in the eleventh chapter of his work is rather brief, it nevertheless contains an important account of Persia's religious environment from the viewpoint of a Buddhist observer. While some of these details replicate established ethnographic tropes regarding, for example, Zoroastrian marriage and funerary rites, the author also includes important claims about the veneration of the Manichaean elect within Sasanian society. As Deeg points out, the work dates from the time of the demise of the Sasanian dynasty; as a result, the predominately negative characterisation of Persia as a land of barbarians reflected the author's propagandistic view that the empire declined as a result of its ruler's materialistic focus and errant religious beliefs. Peter Edwell's chapter examines some of the key issues involved in the Roman Empire's trade with ‘the East’. Edwell highlights the anxieties about trade with the East in Roman literature as signs of the decadence and decline of Roman society, surveys evidence for trade in key eastern regions (notably the caravan trade focused on Palmyra) and offers a valuable re-evaluation of recent trends in the study of Rome's eastern trading practices. Edwell revisits the question of trade's role as a contributory factor in Roman imperial expansion eastwards and presents a compelling case for modifying recent minimalist interpretations of trade which regard it as a negligible factor in imperial and military decision-making. Zsuzsanna Gulácsi offers a precise study of the social history surrounding Mani's fabled Book of pictures. Gulácsi notes correctly that the priority accorded by Manichaeans to canonical images (along with texts) is unique in the religious history of the ancient world, and Gulácsi makes an important contribution towards answering ‘Who’ curated Mani's Book of pictures and ‘Where’ it was specifically utilised. Through a careful sifting of the evidence, Gulácsi demonstrates that the curation of Mani's canonical book images was restricted to the dual upper tier of Manichaeans, viz. the leaders (archegoi) and teachers and, by mapping citations and allusions to the work, Gulácsi illustrates that the communal role of the Book of pictures was concentrated predominantly in the central Iranian and southern Mesopotamian heartlands of Manichaeism.

A change of direction is heralded by Torbjörn Lodèn's contribution which examines the possibility of a universal (‘global’) ethic based on Chinese and ‘Western’ sources. Beginning with a survey of contemporary arguments proposing (seemingly) fundamental differences between Chinese and western philosophical teachings, Lodèn establishes the principle that both traditions exhibit a near identical humanistic ethic posited around the idea of human dignity (illustrated by Confucius’ maxim, ‘The noble man is no utensil’). Readers should find Lodèn's discussion of Chinese and European teachings on humanism fairly illuminating, even if it can be shown that western-leaning conceptions of free will significantly predate the Copleston-inspired reading of Augustine of Hippo's contribution to the topic presented by the chapter. Lodèn's discussion culminates with an encouraging list of eight points, drawn from a comparative evaluation of Chinese and western philosophies, presented as remedies for combating the most pressing issues facing humanity in the first half of the twenty-first century.

Changing gear once again, this eclectic volume also contains contributions celebrating the honorand's work on the late antique Near East of the Romans and the Sasanians. Notable in this regard is the chapter authored by Fergus Millar (published here posthumously) which revisits a range of works composed in Syriac and considers them as examples of ‘historical fiction’, literary writings including martyrologies which offer favourable reconstructions of first- and second-century Christian history from the position of an emergent Syrian orthodoxy from the mid-400s onwards. Millar surveys a diverse number of texts including the Teachings of Addai, the Acta of Sharbil and Barsamya and the Julian romance, all of which display similar themes including a hostile portrayal of Jews and Judaism and the importance of Edessa as a religious and cultural centre of power. The martyr narrative of Asher Bar Levi is discussed as an example of an imaginative attempt to represent Jewish conversion to Christianity, together with the Heroic deeds of Mar Qardagh, which imagines the conversion of a Persian nobleman and devotee of Zoroastrianism to the Christian religion. Millar's chapter highlights the barely concealed anachronisms contained in all these texts which reveal the preoccupations of the places and times of their authors.

The importance of Central Asian history to late antique scholarship is considered across a number of chapters, including an excellent contribution by Nicholas Sims-Williams which traces the emergence of Sogdian studies from the early twentieth century onwards and reappraises the role that Sogdian texts have played in extending knowledge and understanding of Syriac literature and language, Manichaeism and Christianity in Central Asia. Glen L. Thompson's chapter offers a revisionist evaluation of the tradition linking St Thomas with the foundation of Christianity in China and should be viewed as a masterclass in the critical treatment of legendary history.

While the volume and individual contributions would have been improved considerably by being arranged in thematic terms, for example the contributions of Manichaeism are scattered throughout the book, Byzantium to China stands as a fitting monument to the prodigious intellectual talent of Samuel Lieu.