The Mediterranean is the meeting point of three continents--Asia, Africa, and Europe--as well as three major monotheistic religions--Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Focusing on global networks and cultural exchanges, Mediterranean Passages collects writings from across 3,000 years to provide a pan-Mediterranean perspective of the cultural, political, and economic relations that crisscross the region, linking people and places from antiquity to the present.

From Homer's hymn to Apollo to the writing of French-Algerian philosopher Jacques Derrida, from the contemporary accounts of North African Berber conqueror Tariq ibn al-Yazid to the journalism of American I. F. Stone, this chronologically organized anthology juxtaposes the voices and experiences of travelers, exiles, and colonizers who have lived in or visited the Mediterranean region since before 1200 B.C.E. Literary and historical texts and a gallery of maps, architecture, photographs, and paintings provide glimpses of travel and migration, trade routes, military conquest, and cultural exchange. Together, these selections highlight the networks of connections, intersections, and interruptions that animate a vital and contested geographical space.