This book examines Byzantine political attitudes towards the Ottomans and western Europeans during the critical last century of Byzantium. It explores the political orientations of aristocrats, merchants, the urban populace, peasants, and members of ecclesiastical and monastic circles in three major areas of the Byzantine Empire in their social and economic context.
This is a detailed analysis of Byzantine political attitudes towards the Ottomans and western Europeans during the critical last century of Byzantium. The book covers three major regions of the Byzantine Empire - Thessalonike, Constantinople, and the Morea - where the political orientations of aristocrats, merchants, the urban populace, peasants, and members of ecclesiastical and monastic circles are examined against the background of social and economic conditions. Through its particular focus on the political and religious dispositions of individuals, families and social groups, the book offers an original view of late Byzantine politics and society that is not found in conventional narratives. Drawing on a wide range of Byzantine, western and Ottoman sources, it authoritatively illustrates how late Byzantium was drawn into an Ottoman system in spite of the westward-looking orientation of the majority of its ruling elite.
A detailed introduction provides a broad geopolitical context to the contributions and discusses at length the broad themes which unite the articles and which transcend traditional interpretations of the eastern Mediterranean in the later medieval period.
This book draws on the latest archival releases – including those from the secret world of British intelligence – to offer the first comprehensive analysis of Anglo-Turkish relations during the Second World War, with a particular emphasis on Turkey's place in the changing relationship between Britain and the Soviet Union.
The first study that focuses on the extent of the knowledge of Latin and Roman culture by Post-Byzantine scholars (15th - 19th cent.)00This volume aims at filling a major gap in international literature concerning the knowledge of the Latin language and literature by Post-Byzantine scholars from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth centuries. Most of them, immigrants to the West after the Fall of Byzantium, harmoniously integrated into their host countries, practiced and perfected their knowledge of the Latin language and literature, excelled in arts and letters and, in many cases, managed to obtain civil, political and clerical offices. They wrote original poetic and prose works in Latin, for literary, scholarly and/or political purposes. They also translated Greek texts into Latin, and vice versa. The contributors to this volume explore the multifaceted aspects of the knowledge of the Latin language and literature by these scholars. Among the many issues addressed in the volume are: a) the reasons that urged Post-Byzantine scholars to compose Latin works and disseminate Ancient Greek works to the West and Latin texts to the East, b) their audience, c) the fate of their projects, d) their relations among them and with Western scholars. In the contents of the volume one can identify well known Post-Byzantine scholars such as Bessarion or Isidore of Kiev, as well as less known ones like Ioannis Gemistos, Nikolaos Sekoundinos and others. Hence, hereby is provided a canon of scholars who, albeit Greek, are considered essentially as representatives of Neo-Latin literature, along with others who, through their translations, contributed to the rapprochement - literary and political - of East and West.
Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to the Byzantine Empire that was the equal of any in its achievements, appetites, and enduring legacy. For more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture. And the emperors who ruled Byzantium enacted a saga of political intrigue and conquest as astonishing as anything in recorded history. Lost to the West is replete with stories of assassination, mass mutilation and execution, sexual scheming, ruthless grasping for power, and clashing armies that soaked battlefields with the blood of slain warriors numbering in the tens of thousands.
"Studies the reconstruction of Byzantine Constantinople as the capital city of the Ottoman empire following its capture in 1453, delineating the complex interplay of socio-political, architectural, visual, and literary processes that underlay the city's transformation"--Provided by publisher.
By 1400, the once-mighty Byzantine Empire stood on the verge of destruction. Most of its territories had been lost to the Ottoman Turks, and Constantinople was under close blockade. Against all odds, Byzantium lingered on for another fifty years until 1453, when the Ottomans dramatically toppled the capital's walls. During this bleak and uncertain time, ordinary Byzantines faced difficult decisions to protect their livelihoods and families against the death throes of their homeland. In this evocative and moving book, Jonathan Harris explores individual stories of diplomatic maneuverings, covert defiance, and sheer luck against a backdrop of major historical currents and offers a new perspective on the real reasons behind the fall of this extraordinarily fascinating empire.
Late Byzantium Reconsidered offers a unique collection of essays analysing the artistic achievements of Mediterranean centres linked to the Byzantine Empire between 1261, when the Palaiologan dynasty re-conquered Constantinople, and the decades after 1453, when the Ottomans took the city, marking the end of the Empire. These centuries were characterised by the rising of socio-political elites, in regions such as Crete, Italy, Laconia, Serbia, and Trebizond, that, while sharing cultural and artistic values influenced by the Byzantine Empire, were also developing innovative and original visual and cultural standards. The comparative and interdisciplinary framework offered by this volume aims to challenge established ideas concerning the late Byzantine period such as decline, renewal, and innovation. By examining specific case studies of cultural production from within and outside Byzantium, the chapters in this volume highlight the intrinsic innovative nature of the socio-cultural identities active in the late medieval and early modern Mediterranean vis-à-vis the rhetorical assumption of the cultural contraction of the Byzantine Empire.
