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IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 1205: Cultural Interaction and Exchange in the Medieval Mediterranean

Wednesday 13 July 2011, 14.15-15.45

Moderator/Chair:Jonathan Shepard, Independent Scholar, Oxford
Paper 1205-aFrom the Palace to the Forum: The Experiences of Ambassadors and Prisoners of War in Constantinople in the Reign of Constantine VII
(Language: English)
Prerona Prasad, Keble College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Military History, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1205-bByzantium and Scandinavia in the High Middle Ages
(Language: English)
Roland Scheel, Institut für Skandinavistik, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main
Index terms: Art History - Painting, Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 1205-cA Gift of Knowledge: An Intercultural Exchange in the Medieval Mediterranean
(Language: English)
Louise Marlow, Department of Religion, Wellesley College, Massachusetts
Index terms: Crusades, Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

Paper -a:
The personal reign of Constantine VII [945-959] was a high point in the cultivation of external contacts. The strict protocols for the reception of foreign emissaries at the imperial court were described in works such as De Cerimoniis and in the vivid eyewitness account of Liutprand of Cremona. These visits were sometimes occasions for the emperor to orchestrate the baptism of pagan notables. On the other hand, the latter part of Constantine's reign also saw a sharp increase in triumphal processions and the public display and ritual humiliation of prisoners of war from the eastern frontier, with the emperor and his civilian administration officiating. This paper will explore how Constantine, a palace bound emperor who was all too aware of the threat of usurpation, ensured that he coordinated the projection of the power and influence of the Byzantine state to imperial visitors and to adversaries through the loci of imperial control; the palace, the forum and the hippodrome. For domestic onlookers, this also served the purpose of associating all the empire's successes with the person of the emperor.

Paper -b:
Cultural contacts between Byzantium and Scandinavia are usually associated with the Varangians who reached Constantinople via Eastern Europe during the Viking age. Nevertheless, by far most of the relevant sources – both Scandinavian and Byzantine – are from the High Middle Ages: historiography, mythological texts, fictional literature, legal texts, Byzantine-inspired Romanesque murals etc. Many Scandinavians came to Constantinople after 1100 as crusaders, pilgrims or/and mercenaries, although these medieval long-distance contacts have never been investigated systematically.
To the Christian Scandinavians, the wealth of Comnenian Constantinople appeared even greater than to their pagan ancestors: Holy places, relics and icons added to the material splendour. Consequently, Byzantium played an important role in the cultural self-consciousness of the ruling Scandinavian elites and their distinction as well from Western European neighbours as from the poorer ones in their own societies. They expressed this especially through historiographical concepts and expensive works of art.
The paper will discuss central aspects of the relevance Byzantium had to the integration of Scandinavia into Latin Europe.

Paper -c:
The material expressions of royal power, often connoting permanence and monumentality, were sometimes light in weight and miniature in proportion. Such portable expressions of power played an important role in the exchange of gifts that accompanied ambassadorial negotiations. This presentation explores the role of books in such intercultural exchanges, with particular reference to a book of Arabic learning composed by the highly trained logician Siraj al-Din Urmavi in the first half of the 13th century. Siraj al-Din was sent by the Ayyubid ruler al-Malik al-Kamil to the court of Frederick II Hohenstaufen. The presentation will address the functions and significance of this particular material object in the royal cultures of the Hohenstaufen recipient and the author's Ayyubid sponsor.