IMC 2026: Sessions
Session 1744: Uncertain Skies: Ritual and Environment in the Eastern Mediterranean
Thursday 9 July 2026, 14:15-15:45
| Sponsor: | Science, Society & Environmental Change in the First Millennium CE (ERC Consolidator Grant 101044437) / Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia |
|---|---|
| Organisers: | Massimiliano Borroni, Dipartimento di Studi sull'Asia e sull'Africa Mediterranea, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia Vicky Manolopoulou, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia |
| Moderator/Chair: | Massimiliano Borroni, Dipartimento di Studi sull'Asia e sull'Africa Mediterranea, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia |
| Paper 1744-a | Collective Supplication and Shared Environment: The Islamic Ritual of Prayer for Rain (Language: English) Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Religious Life, Social History |
| Paper 1744-b | Prayers as Relics: Negotiating Environmental Uncertainty in Byzantium (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Daily Life, Hagiography, Religious Life |
| Paper 1744-c | 'They gave no thanks to God…': Syriac Ritualistic Responses to Meteorological Phenomena (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography |
| Abstract | From the fifth to the eleventh centuries the instability and uncertainty of weather patterns affected societies in both the agrarian and urban spheres, frequently eliciting collective responses articulated in ritual practices. Bringing together Syriac, Greek, and Arabic sources, this panel explores a variety of prayers and rites for rain, water, and responses to meteorological phenomena in the eastern Mediterranean. These three papers examine how different yet interconnected communities addressed the unpredictability of weather through ritual language and practice, tracing convergences and divergences in how ritual mediated between human need and divine will and emotion as a societal response to environmental uncertainty. The papers consider several genres ranging from historiography to linguistics manuals to allow the broadest scope possible in showing how meteorological phenomena have been discussed, managed, and coopted. |