This comparative study explores three key cultural and political spheres the Latin west, Byzantium and the Islamic world from Central Asia to the Atlantic roughly from the emergence of Islam to the fall of Constantinople. These spheres drew on a shared pool of late antique Mediterranean culture, philosophy and science, and they had monotheism and historical antecedents in common. Yet where exactly political and spiritual power lay, and how it was exercised, differed. This book focuses on power dynamics and resource-allocation among ruling elites; the legitimisation of power and property with the aid of religion; and on rulers' interactions with local elites and societies. Offering the reader route-maps towards navigating each sphere and grasping the fundamentals of its political culture, this set of parallel studies offers a timely and much needed framework for comparing the societies surrounding the medieval Mediterranean.
How did elites gain and retain power and resources in the medieval Latin West, Byzantium and the Islamic world? This set of parallel studies offers readers an invaluable framework for understanding and comparing the political cultures and societies surrounding the medieval Mediterranean.
Recenzijas
'Three medieval civilizations, at least partially derived from the Roman world and based on monotheism, confronted each other in the Mediterranean area. The authors, highlighting similarities as well as differences, have brilliantly explored the evolution of their political cultures (rulers, military class, role of families and women, resource allocation ).' Jean-Claude Cheynet, Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) 'A marvellous work of collaborative scholarship. Ideas take centre stage in this study of political dynamics in the West, Byzantium and Islam. It is comparative history at its best, seeking out the general from the particular and forming a very useful introduction to the medieval history of western Eurasia.' James Howard-Johnston, University of Oxford 'This is an illuminating and thought-provoking exploration of elite political culture--the theory and practice of power - across three cultural spheres that dominated medieval Eurasia. Carefully plotted and thoughtfully framed, the editors are to be congratulated for producing a sequence of interfoliated essays about medieval Eurasia that is sober and judicious.' Paul M. Cobb, University of Pennsylvania ' a comprehensive and well-structured insight into the development of power and elite structures between the 8th and 15th centuries in the Latin-Western, Byzantine and Islamic world. one can congratulate the editors of the volume on a successful basic work that achieves its goal.' Miriam Salzmann, H/Soz/Kult (hsozkult.de)
Papildus informācija
A comparative study of how elites gained and retained power and resources in the medieval Latin West, Byzantium and the Islamic world.
List of figures and maps; Preface and acknowledgements; List of
abbreviations; List of contributors; General maps;
1. Political culture in
three spheres: introduction Catherine Holmes, Jonathan Shepard, Jo Van
Steenbergen and Björn Weiler;
2. Reflections on political culture in three
spheres R. Stephen Humphreys; Part I. Sources:
3. Comparing the three spheres
through the prism of the sources Jonathan Shepard;
4. The Latin west: sources
Björn Weiler and Jonathan Shepard;
5. Byzantium: sources Jonathan Shepard;
6.
The Islamic world: sources Jo Van Steenbergen and Jonathan Shepard; Part II.
Historical Contexts:
7. The Latin west: pluralism in the shadow of the past
Len Scales;
8. Byzantium: one or many? Catherine Holmes;
9. The Islamic
world: conquest, migration and accommodating diversity Andrew Marsham, Eric
Hanne and Jo Van Steenbergen; Part III. Norms, Values and their Propagation:
10. The Latin west: expectations and legitimisation Björn Weiler;
11.
Byzantium: imperial order, Constantinopolitan ceremonial and pyramids of
power Judith Herrin;
12. The Islamic world: community, leadership and
contested patterns of continuity Andrew Marsham, Eric Hanne and Jo Van
Steenbergen; Part IV. Practice and Organisation:
13. The Latin west: multiple
elites and overlapping jurisdictions Daniel Power;
14. Byzantium: 'To have
and to hold' the acquisition and maintenance of elite power Rosemary
Morris;
15. The Islamic world: nomads, urban elites and courts in competition
Andrew Marsham, Eric Hanne and Jo Van Steenbergen; Part V. Conclusions:
16.
Comparisons, connections and conclusions Jonathan Shepard; Appendix;
Glossary; Index.
Catherine Holmes is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford. She is the author of books including Basil II and the Governance of Empire 9761025 (2005) and co-editor of Literacy, Education and Manuscript Transmission in Byzantium and Beyond (2002) with J. Waring, Between Byzantines and Turks (2012) with J. Harris and The Global Middle Ages (2018) with N. Standen. Jonathan Shepard was Lecturer in History at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of books including The Emergence of Rus (1996) with S. Franklin, editor of The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire (2008) and co-editor of Byzantine Diplomacy (1992) with S. Franklin, Byzantium and the Viking World (2016) with F. Androshchuk and M. White, Imperial Spheres and the Adriatic (2018) with M. Ani and T. Vedris, and Viking-Age Trade: Silver, Slaves and Gotland (2020) with J. Gruszczyski and M. Jankowiak. Jo Van Steenbergen is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Ghent University. He is the author of Order out of Chaos (2006), Caliphate and Kingship in a Fifteenth-Century Literary History of Muslim Leadership and Pilgrimage (2017), A History of the Islamic World, 600-1800: Empires, Dynastic Formations, and Heterogeneities in Islamic West-Asia (2020), and editor of Trajectories of State Formation across Fifteenth-Century Islamic West-Asia: Eurasian Parallels, Connections and Divergences (2020). Björn Weiler is Professor of Medieval History at Aberystwyth University. He is the author of books including Paths to Kingship in Medieval Latin Europe, 950-1200 (2021), Kingship, Rebellion and Political Culture: England and Germany, c. 1215 c. 1250 (2007; 2011) and co-editor of How the Past was Used: Historical Cultures, c. 7502000 (2017) with P. Lambert, Authority and Resistance in the Age of Magna Carta [ Thirteenth Century England XV] (2015) with J. Burton and P. Schofield, and Representations of Power in Medieval Germany (2006) with S. MacLean.
