The Mediterranean basin was a multicultural region with a great diversity of linguistic, religious, social, and ethnic groups. This dynamic social and cultural landscape encouraged extensive contact and exchange among different communities. This book seeks to explain what happened when different ethnic, social, linguistic, and religious groups, among others, came into contact with each other. What means did they employ to mediate their interactions? How did each group construct distinct identities while interacting with others? What new identities came into existence because of these contacts? Denise Demetriou brings together several strands of scholarship that have emerged recently, especially ethnic, religious, and Mediterranean studies. It reveals new aspects of identity construction in the region examining the Mediterranean as a whole and focuses not only on ethnic identity but also other types of collective identities, such as civic, linguistic, religious, and social identities.