Liturgical Objects

2021 ◽  
pp. 494-514
Author(s):  
Holger A. Klein
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Precious Metals ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Artistic Development ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Important Evidence

From the Late Antique period through the end of the Byzantine Empire and beyond, liturgical objects were used for the preparation and celebration of the Eucharistic rites. Often of precious metals, these objects are documented in both written sources and the archaeological record. They provide important evidence for the development of Christian liturgical and artistic practices as well as elite attitudes towards charitable giving and expectations for the afterlife. This chapter discusses material and documentary evidence surviving from Late Antique Italy, North Africa, Syria, Britain, and Germany to Late Byzantine Asia Minor, Greece, and the Balkans, providing an overview of types, their relationship to objects of domestic silverware, and their material, artistic development, and epigraphic as well as iconographic decoration.

Rome, Ravenna, and Venice, 750-1000

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica West-Harling
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Art History ◽  
Social World ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Documentary Evidence

The richest and most politically complex regions in Italy in the earliest Middle Ages were the Byzantine sections of the peninsula, thanks to their links with the most coherent early medieval state, the Byzantine Empire. This comparative study of the histories of Rome, Ravenna, and Venice arises from their unifying element: their common Byzantine past, since all three escaped being incorporated into the Lombard kingdom in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. By 750, however, their political links with the Byzantine Empire were irrevocably severed, except in the case of Venice. Thus, after 750, and in the ninth and tenth centuries, did these cities remain socially and culturally heirs of Byzantium in their political structures, social organization, material culture, ideological frame of reference, and representation of identity? Did they become part of the Western political and ideological framework of Italy: Frankish Carolingian in the ninth, and German Ottonian in the tenth, centuries? This book attempts to identify and analyse the ways in which each of these cities preserved the continuity of structures of the late antique and Byzantine cultural and social world; or in which they adapted each and every element available in Italy to their own needs, at various times, and in various ways. It does so through a story which encompasses the main contemporary narratives, the documentary evidence, recent archaeological discoveries, and discussions on art history, and it follows the markers of status and identity through titles, names, ethnic groups, liturgy and ritual, foundation myths, representations, symbols, and topographies of power

scholarly journals Figurative Images in the Early Christian Funeral Paintings of Chersonese

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 38-54
Author(s):  
Irina Anatol’evna Zavadskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Artistic Tradition

The paintings of the 11 early Christian burial vaults of Chersonese uncovering the image of the Garden of Eden fully correspond to the traditions of the Late Antique art. There figurative images are very rare, and not all of them have been interpreted properly. Single man’s figures preserved in the painting of three vaults (of the years 1853/1905, 1909 and in the vault on N. I. Tur’s land) are of particular interest for the determination of the time and ways of penetration of this artistic tradition into early Christian Chersonese. A comparative analysis of funeral paintings from different regions of the Eastern Roman Empire makes it possible to determine the function of the mentioned images of men in the painting of these tombs and to explain their origin in early Christian burials. According to the fragments that survived, all three figures of young men are very similar in dress and posture. Probably, they all held a burning candle in the hands, the image of which survived only in the vault of the year 1909. These images are comparable to the figures of servants from a number of tombs discovered in the Balkans, Asia Minor, North Africa, and Levant. The young men from Chersonese are most close to the images of male servants from the tombs in Bulgaria and Serbia. From the analogies given in this paper there are reasons to interpret the figures of young men in the three vaults of Chersonese as images of servants. Figures of servants were widespread in ancient art and also in Christian burials to the end of the fourth century. Most likely, these figures appeared in the paintings of Chersonese under the influence of the Eastern Balkan artistic tradition.

scholarly journals Developing Deroko's theories: Looking for the "incunabula" of Byzantine housing

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-96
Author(s):  
Serena Acciai
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Geographical Isolation ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
South Italy ◽  
The People ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Vast Territory

Looking at the Byzantine palaces that have survived through centuries until today, such as the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (Palace of Belisarius) in Istanbul, Aleksandar Deroko has underlined the essential distinction between two fundamental genres of Byzantine houses: monumental palaces made of stone and bricks and everyday houses made with a wooden structure. For centuries, the ordinary Byzantine house was considered as a "Turkish type". Deroko maintained that this classification was erroneous, as the Ottomans actually inherited "the Byzantine house" when they conquered the vast territory of the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine house was adopted by the Ottomans and the people under their domination, and over the centuries it spread over a broad geographical area - from Anatolia to North Africa and to the Balkans. Unsurprisingly, it did not reflect a single heritage; instead, it mirrored the various cultures that fell under its rule. Based on Deroko's theories, one could consider locations such as Mount Athos, Ioannina, Prizren, Ohrid, Elena and even certain villages of Arbëreshë (Italo-Albanian) communities of South Italy as the "incunabula (the first examples, the origins) of Byzantine housing". Probably, thanks to their morphological characteristics and geographical isolation, some elements of this building type are still visible in these locations, even though they have been integrated into the local housing cultures. These buildings give subtle glimpses of the everyday Byzantine house.

Regional Identities and Cultures of Medieval Jews

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Rich Variety ◽  
Regional Cultures ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Middle Ages

Though the existence of Jewish regional cultures is widely known, the origins of the most prominent groups, Ashkenaz and Sepharad, are poorly understood, and the rich variety of other regional Jewish identities is often overlooked. Yet all these subcultures emerged in the Middle Ages. Scholars contributing to the present study were invited to consider how such regional identities were fashioned, propagated, reinforced, contested, and reshaped — and to reflect on the developments, events, or encounters that made these identities manifest. They were asked to identify how subcultural identities proved to be useful, and the circumstances in which they were deployed. The resulting volume spans the ninth to sixteenth centuries, and explores Jewish cultural developments in western Europe, the Balkans, North Africa, and Asia Minor. In its own way, each chapter considers factors — demographic, geographical, historical, economic, political, institutional, legal, intellectual, theological, cultural, and even biological — that led medieval Jews to conceive of themselves, or to be perceived by others, as bearers of a discrete Jewish regional identity. Notwithstanding the singularity of each chapter, they collectively attest to the inherent dynamism of Jewish regional identities.

Muslim Roma in the Balkans

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Crowe
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Middle Ages

The Roma entered the Balkans from India during the Middle Ages. They reached Persia sometime in the ninth century and by the eleventh century had moved into the Byzantine Empire. According to the eleventh-century Georgian Life of Saint George the Athonite, the Emperor Constantine Monomachus asked the Adsincani to get rid of wild animals preying on the animals in his royal hunting preserve. Adsincani is the Georgian form of the Greek word Atsínganoi or Atzínganoi, from which the non-English terms for Roma (cigán, cigány, tsiganes, zigeuner) are derived. Adsincani means “ner-do-well fortune tellers” or “ventriloquists and wizards who are inspired satanically and pretend to predict the unknown.” “Gypsy” comes from “Egyptian,” a term often used by early modern chroniclers in the Balkans to refer to the Roma. Because of the stereotypes and prejudice that surround the word “Gypsy,” the Roma prefer a name of their own choosing from their language, Romani. Today, it is preferable to refer to the Gypsies as Rom or “Roma,” a Romani word meaning “man” or “husband.” Byzantine references to “Egyptians” crop up during this period as Byzantine political and territorial fortunes gave way to the region's new power, the Ottomans. There were areas with large Roma populations in Cyprus and Greece which local rulers dubbed “Little Egypt” in the late fourteenth century.

Islamization in Classical Arabic Central Asia

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher I. Beckwith
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
Persian Empire ◽  
Intimate Contact ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Classical Arabic

This chapter examines Islamization in Classical Arabic Central Asia. The Arab Empire founded by the prophet Muhammad expanded rapidly, defeating the Byzantine Empire and capturing Syria (637) and Egypt (640). At the same time, the Arabs defeated the Sasanid Persian Empire (637) and raced across Persia into Central Asia. Within a very short time, early Arab Islamic culture came into direct, intimate contact with several major civilized areas, including the Graeco-Roman-influenced cultures of the Levant and North Africa, Persian culture, and the Buddhist cultures of Central Asia. From them the Muslims adopted various cultural elements. This chapter considers when, where, and how the Muslims acquired the recursive argument method and the Islamic college or madrasa. It shows that the recursive argument method is used in Arabic works by the Central Asian scientist and philosopher Avicenna.

TV Series in Turkish Foreign Policy: Aspects of Hegemony and Resistance

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantinos Constantinou ◽  
Zenonas Tziarras
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Soap Operas ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Turkish Foreign Policy ◽  
The World ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
The Impact

This article examines the ways in which (pop or) popular culture may fall within the context of foreign policy. More specifically, it situates our analysis against such backdrop by delving into how Turkey effectively exports pop culture, propaganda and positive images of itself via the use of television (TV) shows. To that end, notable Turkish soap operas market its ancient glorious past. Admittedly, these telenovelas form a salient cultural product export for Turkey as they reach diverse and far-away audiences – from Latin America to Russia, Central Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, to merely name a few. Paradoxically, the frenzy has even reached places like Greece. Not to mention, Serbia or Israel, with the latter’s phenomenal success accompanied also with some backlash. Therefore, the current study seeks to better understand the magnitude alongside the impact of Turkey’s achievement given how it comprises a multi-million-dollar industry, by partially unearthing what makes Turkish TV series so powerful the world over. Further, this research firstly presents an analysis of the hegemonic efforts before presenting the limitations to its success by thoroughly covering the empirical data while, theoretically framing it.  

The Allies Do Not Come; the Italians Withdraw 1943

2020 ◽  
pp. 151-214
Author(s):  
Stevan K. Pavlowitch
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Independent State ◽  
East Europe ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
South East Europe ◽  
Economic Position ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Fortress Europe

This chapter reviews the outcomes of the Allied victories at Stalingrad and in North Africa at the end of 1942. It analyses the expected assault on 'Fortress Europe', interest in the Balkans, and the mood in the peninsula. The chapter also discusses Yugoslavia's partisans safe base — the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). Along with pro-Allied anti-communist armed groups, they became a concern for the Germans, who wanted to destroy all native enemies, real and potential, before an Anglo-American landing. The chapter then takes a look at Germany's preparations for the imminent Italian withdrawal and the fear of an Allied attack. It also claims that Italy's economic position in the NDH had been weak from the start and its zone was the poorest. Ultimately, the chapter assesses the Italian withdrawal and how the Germans had to take over responsibility for the whole of south-east Europe.

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