Political Culture in the Latin West, Byzantium and the Islamic world, c.700-c.1500

Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-1-316-51976-9
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 500 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 999 g

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Holmes, Catherine

Shepard, Jonathan

Steenbergen, Jo van

Weiler, Björn

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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.

Über Autor(innen)

Shepard, Jonathan
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. Ancic and T. Vedris, and Viking-Age Trade: Silver, Slaves and Gotland (2020) with J. Gruszczynski and M. Jankowiak.

Steenbergen, Jo van
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).

Holmes, Catherine
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 976–1025 (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.

Weiler, Björn
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. 750–2000 (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.