Charlemagne as Saint. The Religious Transmutation of the Early Medieval Myth: the Zürcher Buch vom Heiligen Karl (Fifteenth Century)

Fortified settlements in Eastern Rif (eighth-fifteenth centuries): new data on Ghassasa and Tazouda (Nador, Morocco)The present paper attempts to aproximate to the archaeological research of two of the most relevants fortified settlements of the Medieval Rif (north of Morocco), Ghassasa and Tazouda. Reviewing the written sources –Ibn Ḥawqal, al-Bakrī, al-Idrīsī, Ibn Ḥayyān, al-Bādisī, etc.– and comparing the data they offer with the archaeological records of surface, we report here the recent hypothesis deduced from the analysis of their emerging structures and pottery, trying to trace some new information of the fortification process in the Rif since Early Medieval centuries to the fifteenth century and to detect the development of the interrelations and influences by the commercial exchanges between twice Mediterranean coasts: North African and al-Andalus. So, we offer the planimetry of both settlements, Ghassasa and Tazouda, which haven´t been documented before, and also some typologies of Magrib’s medieval pottery founded there, contributing with an original research to the study of medieval urbanism in Magrib al-Aqṣā and the role that they take on the trade routes existing between Bilād al-Sūdān, to Siŷilmāsa, and al-Andalus.

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A case study on the evolution of Chinese religious symbols from talismanic paraphernalia to Taoist liturgy

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies ◽

10.1017/s0041977x15000439 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 78 (3) ◽

pp. 493-514 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Grégoire Espesset

Keyword(s):

Early Modern ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Portable Devices ◽

Historical Evolution ◽

Chinese Word ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Modus Operandi ◽

Religious Symbols

AbstractThe mid-fifteenth-century Taoist Canon (Zhengtong daozang正統道藏) contains five specimens of a religious artefact called “Great Peace Symbol” (“Taiping fu” 太平符), dispersed between five texts spanning about a millennium. The introduction to this paper discusses the meaning of the Chinese wordfu符 and its most widely used English rendition, “talisman”. The article briefly presents the source of each specimen, attempts a deconstruction of its morphology, and analyses itsmodus operandi, thus providing a basic methodological model to outline the historical evolution of the category of “fu” artefacts from early medieval portable devices endowed with specific apotropaic functions – like charms and amulets – to multipurpose ritual implements designed for use within the framework of early modern Taoist liturgy. The epilogue introduces a sixth specimen, differently named but morphologically and functionally related to the latest three “Great Peace Symbols”.

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Early Medieval Bengal and the Trade In Horses: a Note

Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient ◽

10.1163/1568520991446839 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 42 (2) ◽

pp. 194-211 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Ranabir Chakravarti

Keyword(s):

Fifteenth Century ◽

Thirteenth Century ◽

Economic Life ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Northwestern India

AbstractThis essay brings into focus a relatively neglected aspect of economic life in early medieval Bengal. Like many other parts of India, Bengal during ancient and early medieval times did not have any indigenous, good quality war horses. The emergence of Bengal as a regional political entity to reckon with during the early medieval times (c. AD 600 - 1300) must have increased the demand for war horses. The paper analyses the epigraphic accounts of the procurement of these indispensable war animals from northern and northwestern India by the rulers of early medieval Bengal. The Tabaqat-i-Nasiri of the thirteenth century gives an indication of the availablity of northeastern horses - probably Tibetan ones - in Bengal. Chinese accounts of the fifteenth century and some Arabic accounts of the invasions of the Deccan by the Delhi Sultante have been utilised here to suggest that early medieval Bengal not only received regular supplies of imported horses, but also witnessed the transportation of some of these war machines to the Deccan and China.

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Trade and traders: An exploration into trading communities and their activities in early medieval Odisha

Studies in People’s History ◽

10.1177/2348448919875282 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 134-145

Author(s):

Bhairabi Prasad Sahu

Keyword(s):

Social Competence ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Different Types ◽

Medieval India ◽

Marketable Surplus

The article makes an effort to locate the emergence of merchant groups in the context of agrarian growth, availability of a marketable surplus, the rise of different types of exchange centres and political enterprises, which must have created their own requirements and facilitated the movement of goods and commodities. It also tries to factor in the transport and communication routes because coastal Odisha had a large hinterland moving up to the Chhattisgarh plains, as also access to southern Bengal and Jharkhand and beyond through the eastern littoral, especially Dandabhukti, among other routes. The rise of transregional states under the Somavaṁśīs and Later Eastern Gangas must have widened the orbit of activity for the regional mercantile groups. Practices and customs followed by the trading communities and their social competence are also investigated. The idea is to situate the developments in the region in the larger context of the issues and debates in the field of ancient and early medieval India. This essay is largely based on inscriptional sources and charts developments up to the fifteenth century.

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