Book excerpt: This volume brings together essays from different fields of the humanities and social sciences that offer a fresh look at the complexity of artistic and cultural contacts, transfers, and exchanges between Europe and the Middle East. The studies reach far beyond the geographical regions where Europe and the Middle East have met and interacted throughout their long histories, such as the eastern Mediterranean, the south Caucasus, and the Balkans. Their focus is on the variety of “contact zones” of the two worlds with specific artistic creativity, characterized by dynamic processes of movement and interchange between various cultural entities in the broadest and most complex sense of the word. The studies shed new light on diverse phenomena of the “in-between” or “liminal” spaces in art and culture, with special interest in artists and art works from ancient to modern times, from fine arts and architecture to music and video.