The title of the present publication reflects the concern of its publishers. It is an invitation to think and to collaborate across the established academic and institutional boundaries of Islamic and Byzantine art history and neighbouring disciplines. Contemporary scholarship is often still framed in terms of traditional ethnic, linguistic or religious categories, fields of scholarship are defined in terms of territory or politics. Loose labels such as »Byzantine«, »Arab«, »Christian« or »Muslim« are used as if they described homogenous, self-contained units. Alternatively the present publication introduces the idea of a cultural »osmosis«. Instead of just thinking in terms of giving or receiving, of immediate mutual influence of motives, vocabulary of forms, technique etc. rather more general considerations about the exploration of transcultural processes of transmission and transformation might be developed, that negotiate artistic and human differences across traditional boundaries. Eight authors from the fields of Near Eastern Archaeology (STEFAN HAUSER), Byzantine Art History (ARNE EFFENBERGER, NESLIHAN ASUTAY-EFFENBERGER, ANTJE BOSSELMANN-RUICKBIE, ULRIKE KOENEN) and Islamic Art History (AVINOAM SHALEM, MARTINA MÜLLER-WIENER) illustrate in exemplary fashion transcultural processes of transmission and transformation. The geographical focus of the collected essays lies on the Eastern Mediterranean, their chronological framework comprises the 6th to 15th century. The essays are supplemented by introductory remarks that attempt a non-comprehensive overview of relevant studies, concentrating on subjects of artistic exchange, interaction and cultural hybridity. weiterlesen