Silk Industry In The Byzantine Empire

This volume gathers together and updates Anna Muthesius' articles, published over a 20 year period, on Byzantine and related silks. The articles examine all aspects of silk production, distribution and use, including the political, economic, social and religious significance of silks, and illustrates the impact of silk weaving on the Eastern Mediterranean before 1200 AD. The figures have also been updated.

This book deals with the silk trade in Eurasia between the seventh and twelfth centuries and explores how religious ideas and institutions affected economic behavior.

"Already in Greek and Roman antiquity a vibrant series of exchange relationships existed between the Mediterranean regions and China, including the Indian subcontinents along well-defined routes we call the Silk Roads. Among the many goods that found their way from East to West and vice versa were glass, wine, spices, metals like iron, precious stones as well as textile raw materials and fabrics and silk, a luxury item that was in great demand in the Roman Empire. These collected papers connect research from different areas and disciplines dealing with exchange along the Silk Roads. These historical, philological and archaeological contributions highlight silk as a commodity, gift and tribute, and as a status symbol in varying cultural and chronological contexts between East and West, including technological aspects of silk production. The main period concerns Rome and China in antiquity, ending in the late fifth century CE, with the Roman Empire being transformed into the Byzantine Empire, while the Chinese chronology covers the Han dynasty, the Three Kingdoms, the Western and Eastern Jin and Sixteen Kingdoms, ending in 420 CE. In addition, both earlier and later epochs are also considered in order to gather an understanding of developments and changes in long-distance and longer-term relations that involved silk."

This volume complements Anna Muthesius' two earlier ground-breaking volumes in the field of silk as material culture: Studies in Byzantine and Islamic Silk Weaving and Studies in Silk in Byzantium. The publication highlights the fact that similar patterns of selection were at work in the acquisition of silks by secular and ecclesiastical bodies. These patterns of selection were governed not only by fashions of the time, but by access to international trade routes leading to the Great Silk Road linking the Near East to the Mediterranean. The surviving silks prove that Mediterranean/Near Eastern silk trade flourished continuously and for centuries prior to the thirteenth century, contrary to what has previously widely been assumed. It also highlights the crucial role of the Caucasian silk routes in accessing the Great Silk Road in the early period, and the contribution of Georgian (and Armenian) silk weaving after the thirteenth century. Above all, the book demonstrates how important it is to assess the impact of Near Eastern silk manufacture and distribution in relation to Byzantine and Islamic Mediterranean silk production and trade.

“This is the revised English translation from the original work in Russian of the history of the Great Byzantine Empire. It is the most complete and thorough work on this subject. From it we get a wonderful panorama of the events and developments of the struggles of early Christianity, both western and eastern, with all of its remains of the wonderful productions of art, architecture, and learning.”—Southwestern Journal of Theology

This book is a compilation of writings focused on conventional and unconventional insect products. Some of these products are commercials successes, while others are waiting to be launched and are the potential produce of the future. In addition to the well known products honey, mulberry silk, and lac, the book primarily concentrates on silk producing insects other than the mulberry silkworm, insects as food, as sources of medicines, pest and weed managers, and as pollinators. The book highlights the all pervasive role of insects in improving human lives at multiple levels. Accordingly, while most books on insects concentrate on how to limit growth in their population, it instead focuses on how to propagate them. In each chapter, the book brings to the fore how insects are far more beneficial to us than their well publicised harmful roles. This book approaches both unconventional and conventional insect products, such as honey, silk and lac in much more depth than the available literature. It investigates different aspects of the production of these insects, such as the related processes, problems and utilities, in dedicated chapters. Because this book deals with the production of insects or their produce, it has been named Industrial Entomology, perhaps the only book that truly reveals the tremendous potential of insects to help humans live better lives. Based on the research and working experience of the contributors, who are global experts in their respective fields, it provides authentic, authoritative and updated information on these topics. The book offers a unique guide for students, teachers, policy planners, small scale industrialists, and government ministries of agriculture and industry across the globe. It will provide a much required stimulus to insect appreciation and generate enthusiasm for research and the broader acceptance for insect produce. Hopefully, it will also present the Indian perspective on these topics to a global readership.

This is a concise survey of the economy of the Byzantine Empire from the fourth century AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Organised chronologically, the book addresses key themes such as demography, agriculture, manufacturing and the urban economy, trade, monetary developments, and the role of the state and ideology. It provides a comprehensive overview of the economy with an emphasis on the economic actions of the state and the productive role of the city and non-economic actors, such as landlords, artisans and money-changers. The final chapter compares the Byzantine economy with the economies of western Europe and concludes that the Byzantine economy was one of the most successful examples of a mixed economy in the pre-industrial world. This is the only concise general history of the Byzantine economy and will be essential reading for students of economic history, Byzantine history and medieval history more generally.