Rituals Of Royalty

Heads of state today mark their rites of passage with splendid ceremonial, from Reagan's inaugural to Andropov's funeral. Such spectacles continue to be a prominent part of modern political systems, of varied ideological hue, but their precise meaning and importance often remain unclear. The essays in this book - all specially written for it - address the central problem in the understanding of royal rituals, namely the relation between power and anthropologists, and the traditional societies examined range from ancient Babylon to nineteenth-century Madagascar, from medieval Europe to contemporary Ghana.

Royal events such as coronations and jubilees encompass a wide spectrum of planned events involving monarchs and their families that are strategically designed to reinforce the role of royalty within social and political structures. Royal events may have a long heritage, but often involve traditions that are invented, revived or undergoing major innovations in response to changing times or to meet different purposes. The change from absolutism towards constitutional monarchies has seen a shift towards using royal events to promote national identity, community and inclusiveness. While the function and meaning of royal ritual and ceremony is a product of its particular political, economic and cultural context, conversely, royal events are often an influence on the broader milieu. This book is the first to explore royal events within the context of Events Studies, and takes an historical approach, examining the development of royal events through different periods. It starts with four broad pre-modern eras, namely Classical, Byzantine, the Dark Ages and the Medieval Period, then moves through to the early modern dynasties such as the Tudors, Stuarts, Georgians and Bourbons and on to contemporary times, incorporating the Victorian and Edwardian eras and the current reign of Elizabeth II, including the legacy of Diana and an analysis of current issues affecting royal events. Themes emphasised throughout include the institutional dynamism of royalty, the invention of tradition, the ritual structure of events, the impact of the media and the influence of individual tastemakers. This multidisciplinary work will appeal to postgraduate students and academics from a wide variety of disciplines, including cultural studies, history, tourism, events and sociology.

This fascinating history explores the ceremony of the oath of allegiance to the caliph from the time of the Prophet Muhammad until the fragmentation of the caliphate in the late ninth and tenth centuries.The study of royal rituals of accession and succession in Christian Rome, Byzantium and the early Medieval West has generated an extensive literature. This has however remained unexplored in scholarship on the Islamic world. This book redresses that by examining the ceremonial of accession to the caliphate in early Islam, covering the following aspects of the subject:* The place of ritual in political practice* Changes and continuities in that practice* The problem of how best to understand accounts of ritual. It also offers a contribution to major, current debates in Islamic history: the development of Arab-Muslim identity and the formation of the 'Islamic state'. It presents an accessible discussion of 'royal' ritual in early Islam which situates developments in the Islamic world in a late antique and early medieval context, adding an important comparative context to the book.

The internal stability and cohesion of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to a very considerable degree rested on the public image of the King as an omnipotent earthly representative of God. Many elaborate rituals were designed and performed in order to promote this image and firmly implant it in the minds of the king's subjects, vassals and enemies. The corpus of royal rituals known to us includes a long series of ritual acts to be performed by the king in the temples of Assur, Istar and other gods; rituals performed during the New Year's festival and other seasonal festivals in front of audiences consisting of domestic and foreign dignitaries as well as common people; coronation, battle and victory rituals; rituals designed to secure the continuity of the royal line; a protocol for the royal dinner; directions for performing the daily liturgy in Assyrian temples, and so on. The present volume is a critical edition of all currently known Assyrian royal rituals and related cultic texts written in the Neo-Assyrian language. Many of these texts are previously unpublished or inadequately edited, and very few of them have been previously translated into English. They constitute an extremely important source for the study of Assyrian religion, cult and royal ideology and ancient Near Eastern religion and cult in general.

English royal funeral ceremony from Mary, Queen of Scots to James I gives fascinating insight into the relationship between power and ritual at the renaissance court.