The Byzantine Neighbourhood

The Byzantine Neighbourhood contributes to a new narrative regarding Byzantine cities through the adoption of a neighbourhood perspective. It offers a multi-disciplinary investigation of the spatial and social practices that produced Byzantine concepts of neighbourhood and afforded dynamic interactions between different actors, elite and non-elite. Authors further consider neighbourhoods as political entities, examining how varieties of collectivity formed in Byzantine neighbourhoods translated into political action. By both acknowledging the unique position of Constantinople, and giving serious attention to the varieties of provincial experience, the contributors consider regional factors (social, economic, and political) that formed the ties of local communities to the state and illuminate the mechanisms of empire. Beyond its Byzantine focus, this volume contributes to broader discussions of premodern urbanism by drawing attention to the spatial dimension of social life and highlighting the involvement of multiple agents in city-making.

The thirteen papers in this volume were delivered at the international symposium held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art May 23-25, 1997, in the context of "The Glory of Byzantium" exhibition, which was on view from March 11 through July 6, 1997. One of the main purposes of this exhibition was to explore the Byzantine Empire's complex and varied relationship with its neighbors, recognizing the multi-national, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural character of its artistic traditions. Whereas the symposium was conceived in close conjunction with the exhibition, its intent was somewhat different. It strove to acknowledge the international character and diversity of current scholarship on Byzantine art, and to present not only new material but also the variety of objectives, approaches, and methodologies that shape modern perceptions of the subject. Thus, the symposium was not restricted to a specific theme; instead, the participants were asked to address a broad range of aspects of the "Glory of Byzantium" exhibition. The contributors to this volume, all of whom are scholars of Byzantine art and culture, hail from ten different countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States of America. They all hold prominent positions in the leading scholarly or cultural institutions of their respective countries, and are distinguished experts in their fields of specialization, with established international reputations. Immediately apparent is that many of the authors are from Eastern Europe, and reside in lands that once were under the ecclesiastical and cultural sway of Byzantium. Yet, their perceptions of the Byzantine artistic legacy, which contributed to the cultural identity of their homelands, rarely are included in such English-language symposia and publications.

For those wishing to study the Roman city in Egypt, the archaeological record is poorer than that of many other provinces. Yet the large number of surviving texts allows us to reconstruct the social lives of Egyptians to an extent undreamt of elsewhere. We are not, therefore, limited to a history of the public faces of cities, their inscriptions, and the writings of their elites, but can begin to understand what the transformations of the city meant for ordinary people, and to uncover the forces that shaped the everyday lives of city dwellers. After Egypt became part of the Roman Empire in 30 BC, Classical and then Christian influences both made their mark on the urban environment. This book examines the impact of these new cultures at every level of Egyptian society. The result is a new and fascinating insight into the creation of a specific urban society in the Roman Empire, as well as a case study for the model of urban development in antiquity.

This volume looks at 'visions of community' in a comparative perspective, from Late Antiquity to the dawning of the age of crusades. It addresses the question of why and how distinctive new political cultures developed after the disintegration of the Roman World, and to what degree their differences had already emerged in the first post-Roman centuries. The Latin West, Orthodox Byzantium and its Slavic periphery, and the Islamic world each retained different parts of the Graeco-Roman heritage, while introducing new elements. For instance, ethnicity became a legitimizing element of rulership in the West, remained a structural element of the imperial periphery in Byzantium, and contributed to the inner dynamic of Islamic states without becoming a resource of political integration. Similarly, the political role of religion also differed between the emerging post-Roman worlds. It is surprising that little systematic research has been done in these fields so far. The 32 contributions to the volume explore this new line of research and look at different aspects of the process, with leading western Medievalists, Byzantinists and Islamicists covering a wide range of pertinent topics. At a closer look, some of the apparent differences between the West and the Islamic world seem less distinctive, and the inner variety of all post-Roman societies becomes more marked. At the same time, new variations in the discourse of community and the practice of power emerge. Anybody interested in the development of the post-Roman Mediterranean, but also in the relationship between the Islamic World and the West, will gain new insights from these studies on the political role of ethnicity and religion in the post-Roman Mediterranean.

Is Byzantine Studies a colonialist discipline? Rather than provide a definitive answer to this question, this book defines the parameters of the debate and proposes ways of thinking about what it would mean to engage seriously with the field’s political and intellectual genealogies, hierarchies, and forms of exclusion. In this volume, scholars of art, history, and literature address the entanglements, past and present, among the academic discipline of Byzantine Studies and the practice and legacies of European colonialism. Starting with the premise that Byzantium and the field of Byzantine studies are simultaneously colonial and colonized, the chapters address topics ranging from the material basis of philological scholarship and its uses in modern politics to the colonial plunder of art and its consequences for curatorial practice in the present. The book concludes with a bibliography that serves as a foundation for a coherent and systematic critical historiography. Bringing together insights from scholars working in different disciplines, regions, and institutions, Is Byzantine Studies a Colonialist Discipline? urges practitioners to reckon with the discipline’s colonialist, imperialist, and white supremacist history. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Andrea Myers Achi, Nathanael Aschenbrenner, Bahattin Bayram, Averil Cameron, Stephanie R. Caruso, Şebnem Dönbekci, Hugh G. Jeffery, Anthony Kaldellis, Matthew Kinloch, Nicholas S. M. Matheou, Maria Mavroudi, Zeynep Olgun, Arietta Papaconstantinou, Jake Ransohoff, Alexandra Vukovich, Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, and Arielle Winnik.