17th Annual Postgraduate Colloquium of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies... more 17th Annual Postgraduate Colloquium of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies 4 June, 2016 European Research Institute, University of Birmingham
This article assembles the evidence for the presence of Greek refugees in early modern Scotland. ... more This article assembles the evidence for the presence of Greek refugees in early modern Scotland. These refugees came in two distinct waves: one in the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and another in the seventeenth century. In both periods, inter-regional religious networks brought Greeks to Scotland: in the first phase, these were structured around the church institutions of the Latin West; in the second, they followed ecumenical interest in Protestant Northern Europe. The wanderers were mostly clergymen. This movement of refugees, alongside the capture of Scots by North African corsairs, linked Scotland with the distant Ottoman world.
This is a study of an apocalyptic Latin letter (incipit "Ad flagellum humani generis"), surviving... more This is a study of an apocalyptic Latin letter (incipit "Ad flagellum humani generis"), surviving in manuscripts from the mid-thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, that describes an apparent aggressive invasion of an ascetic army in the distant East, led by a figure claiming to be Christ and bearing a new volume of scripture. This article offers the first comprehensive study of the letter's manuscript tradition and presents a new critical edition of the text. It argues that this letter was composed in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem sometime in the years 1235–36 as a response to intelligence brought by eastern Christian envoys (quite possibly from Georgia or Greater Armenia) concerning the second wave of Mongol invasions in Transcaucasia. These envoys had spent some time in the presence of a Mongol army, possibly that of the general Chormaghan, receiving an edict that probably demanded their submission and stated the Mongols' divine right to universal domination. This edict, accompanied by other information, was ultimately translated into Latin for the benefit of the authorities of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. These authorities interpreted both the edict and the oral and/or written intelligence that the eastern Christian envoys delivered within the intellectual framework of Latin Christianity. This particular interpretation was then written into a letter that was sent to Western Europe, where it circulated probably quite widely for around a century. Crusade theorists' need for intelligence about the Middle and Far East, together with the vogue of apocalyptic prophecy in the later Middle Ages, encouraged the continued copying of the text.
Captivity and enslavement were characteristic experiences of Greek Christians in the late medieva... more Captivity and enslavement were characteristic experiences of Greek Christians in the late medieval Mediterranean. During this time, Muslim Turks and Christian western Europeans conquered and traded at the expense of the shrinking Byzantine Empire. By bringing together literary and documentary sources spanning a geographical canvas from the Aegean to Egypt and from Cyprus to Catalonia, this book tells that story in full for the first time. It traces this crisis of captivity from its origins in thirteenth-century Asia Minor to its explosion into a Mediterranean-wide phenomenon, interrogating different types of unfreedom and forced movement and evaluating their significance for Greeks’ religious and diplomatic relationships with their neighbours, both Christian and Muslim.
The research group “Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period” (SCORE) is funded b... more The research group “Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period” (SCORE) is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Emmy Noether scheme. SCORE studies social contexts of rebellion in the early Islamic period, from the reign of ʿAbd al-Malik (c.692-705 CE) until the defeat of the last major ‘Alid revolts in c.815-816 CE. This ‘long 8th century CE’ (692-816 CE) saw a high frequency of rebellions across the entire Islamic Empire.
17th Annual Postgraduate Colloquium of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies... more 17th Annual Postgraduate Colloquium of the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies 4 June, 2016 European Research Institute, University of Birmingham
This article assembles the evidence for the presence of Greek refugees in early modern Scotland. ... more This article assembles the evidence for the presence of Greek refugees in early modern Scotland. These refugees came in two distinct waves: one in the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and another in the seventeenth century. In both periods, inter-regional religious networks brought Greeks to Scotland: in the first phase, these were structured around the church institutions of the Latin West; in the second, they followed ecumenical interest in Protestant Northern Europe. The wanderers were mostly clergymen. This movement of refugees, alongside the capture of Scots by North African corsairs, linked Scotland with the distant Ottoman world.
This is a study of an apocalyptic Latin letter (incipit "Ad flagellum humani generis"), surviving... more This is a study of an apocalyptic Latin letter (incipit "Ad flagellum humani generis"), surviving in manuscripts from the mid-thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, that describes an apparent aggressive invasion of an ascetic army in the distant East, led by a figure claiming to be Christ and bearing a new volume of scripture. This article offers the first comprehensive study of the letter's manuscript tradition and presents a new critical edition of the text. It argues that this letter was composed in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem sometime in the years 1235–36 as a response to intelligence brought by eastern Christian envoys (quite possibly from Georgia or Greater Armenia) concerning the second wave of Mongol invasions in Transcaucasia. These envoys had spent some time in the presence of a Mongol army, possibly that of the general Chormaghan, receiving an edict that probably demanded their submission and stated the Mongols' divine right to universal domination. This edict, accompanied by other information, was ultimately translated into Latin for the benefit of the authorities of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. These authorities interpreted both the edict and the oral and/or written intelligence that the eastern Christian envoys delivered within the intellectual framework of Latin Christianity. This particular interpretation was then written into a letter that was sent to Western Europe, where it circulated probably quite widely for around a century. Crusade theorists' need for intelligence about the Middle and Far East, together with the vogue of apocalyptic prophecy in the later Middle Ages, encouraged the continued copying of the text.
Captivity and enslavement were characteristic experiences of Greek Christians in the late medieva... more Captivity and enslavement were characteristic experiences of Greek Christians in the late medieval Mediterranean. During this time, Muslim Turks and Christian western Europeans conquered and traded at the expense of the shrinking Byzantine Empire. By bringing together literary and documentary sources spanning a geographical canvas from the Aegean to Egypt and from Cyprus to Catalonia, this book tells that story in full for the first time. It traces this crisis of captivity from its origins in thirteenth-century Asia Minor to its explosion into a Mediterranean-wide phenomenon, interrogating different types of unfreedom and forced movement and evaluating their significance for Greeks’ religious and diplomatic relationships with their neighbours, both Christian and Muslim.
The research group “Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period” (SCORE) is funded b... more The research group “Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period” (SCORE) is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Emmy Noether scheme. SCORE studies social contexts of rebellion in the early Islamic period, from the reign of ʿAbd al-Malik (c.692-705 CE) until the defeat of the last major ‘Alid revolts in c.815-816 CE. This ‘long 8th century CE’ (692-816 CE) saw a high frequency of rebellions across the entire Islamic Empire.
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European Research Institute, University of Birmingham
European Research Institute, University of Birmingham