16th-century Bathhouse restored as a museum in Istanbul
After twelve years of meticulous renovation work, the Zeyrek Çinili Hamam in Istanbul is now reopening to the public. While much of the site will now be a museum, visitors to the hamam will be able to enjoy steam baths beginning next year.
The many identities of Hagia Sophia, past and present, with Bob Ousterhout
Hagia Sophia is back in the news. To understand what is happening, we need to know the complex history of this building as a church, mosque, and museum, and the many parties that have sought to claim it.
Hagia Sophia to be a mosque again, court rules
One of the most famous landmarks in the medieval world will be used as a mosque again, after a top Turkish court ruled that the decree making Hagia Sophia into a museum in 1934 was illegal.
The past and future of De Velitatione Bellica and Byzantine Guerrilla Warfare
This manual contains a great deal of seemingly plausible advice on how to engage in low-intensity warfare along the Byzantine-Islamic frontier across the Tauros and Anti-Tauros Mountains.
St. Theodore, Euchaïta and Anatolia, c. 500-1000 CE: Landscape, Climate and the Survival of an Empire
St Theodore ‘the recruit’ was one of the most important military saints of the Byzantine and wider medieval world, and his cult center, at Euchaïta in northern Turkey, was famous from the fifth century on.
A Comparative Analysis of the Concepts of Holy War and the Idealized Topos of Holy Warrior In Medieval Anatolian And European Sources
This thesis focuses on the relations between the idea of holy war and the portrayals of holy warriors in medieval narratives composed by those in the service of power-holders.
Renaissance Contacts Between Dubrovnik (Ragusa) and the Kingdom of Hungary
During the rule of the Angevin dynasty (1308-82) in Hungary, towns and cities increasingly assumed greater political influence. The first treaty between the King of Hungary and Dubrovnik (in those days Ragusa) was signed in 1358, during the reign of Louis (Lajos) the Great.
Medieval Perspectives: Jean de Waurin and His Perception of the Turks in Anatolia in the Late Middle Ages
This paper discusses the reasons Wavrin wrote his account of the crusade of Varna and Walerin de Wavrin’s expedition into the Balkans, which was later published within his history of Britain and how he perceived and accordingly presented the Turks to the renaissance readers.
Slaves, Money Lenders, and Prisoner Guards: The Jews and the Trade in Slaves and Captives in the Crimean Khanate
Trade in slaves and captives was one of the most important (if not the most important) sources of income of the Crimean Khanate in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
The Origins of the Tale of the Blood Drinking Hungarians
The motif of the covenant of blood was quite widespread in West European chronicle literature, and it was not necessarily applied to Oriental peoples, nor particularly to Hungarians.
The medieval social topography of Szeged
As the name historical social topography implies it comprehends the ancient location and distribution of particular groups and layers of inhabitants in a settlement.
‘Part of our commonwealth’: a study of the Normans in eleventh-century Byzantine historiography
‘Part of our commonwealth’: a study of the Normans in eleventh-century Byzantine historiography Alexander Olson (Simon Fraser University) Simon Fraser University: Faculty of…
A Rural Economy in Transition: Asia Minor from Late Antiquity into the Early Middle Ages
A Rural Economy in Transition deals with one of the most important periods in the history of Europe and the Middle East – the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.
Glass Bridges: Cross-Cultural Exchange between Florence and the Ottoman Empire
During the medieval period, the main aim of the crusades was recovery of the Holy Land. However, this changed in the fifteenth century for various reasons.
A Study on the Effects of Ghazan Khan’s Reformative Measures for the Settlement of the Nomadic Mongols (1295-1304)
The Ilkhanid’s sovereignty in Iran was part of the great empire under the command of Genghis Khan and his successors. It extended broadly from Korea to Eastern Europe and China to Iran and Syria. Such conquest originated from Mongolia (Middle Asia), which was the original land of these homeless nomadic people. They lived by shepherding, hunting and sometimes looting nearby tribes or civilized centers.
‘Fromm thennes faste he gan avyse/This litel spot of erthe’: GIS and the General Prologue
This paper was given at the Canada Chaucer Seminar on April 27, 2013.
Hard and Soft Power on the Eastern Frontier
This paper considers historical perspectives on recently discovered archaeological evidence in what was the sixth-century Roman-Persian frontier region.
Conservation at Ani Cathedral and the Church of the Holy Savior
Ani, a dramatic, windswept archaeological site in eastern Turkey, was once a thriving medieval city on the trade route through Central Asia.
“We Have Met Devils!”: The Almogavars of James I and Peter III of Catalonia-Aragon
Who were these Almogavars, who were able to defeat these heavily-armed and highly-trained knights? Why were they consistently effective against all who came before them? How were they utilized by James I the Conqueror (1213-1276) and his son Peter III the Great (1276-1285), count-kings of Catalonia-Aragon, to further the interests of their realm? These are the questions that this paper will attempt to answer.
What was the British Perception of the Turk between the Fall of Constantinople and the Siege of Vienna?
In assessing the British perception of the Turk during the halcyon centuries of the Ottoman Empire, it is hard not to drown in a cacophony of opinions. However, it would be simply too convenient to claim that the sources were too contradictory and fluid; the patterns too faint and far between, to construct a decent argument.
Mandeville’s Intolerance: The Contest for Souls and Sacred Sites in The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
While Chaucer‟s knight has traveled to and fought in Spain, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia Minor, Sir John claims to have visited the entire known world from Constantinople and the Holy Land to the farthest reaches of Asia.
Through the Eyes of a Crusader: An Intensive Study Into the Personal Involvement of Two Men in the Fourth Crusade
What was going through the minds ofthese men who were fighting for the cross when they attacked a Christian city, which was one oftheir allies?
The Life and Miracles of Thekla: A Literary Study
What is this story and why is Egeria reading it at the shrine in Seleukeia?
In the Lion’s Den: Orthodox Christians under Ottoman Rule, 1400-1550
A glance at the Orthodox Christian church under the Ottoman Empire from the early fifteenth to mid sixteenth century gives a revealing glimpse at some of the changing relationships of conquered Christians to the state.
George Gemistos Plethon on God: Heterodoxy in Defense of Orthodoxy
The Emperor, John VIII Palaeologos, knew they were going to face some of the finest minds in the Roman Church on their own soil; he therefore wanted the best minds available in support of the Byzantine cause to accompany him. Consequently, the Emperor appointed George Gemistos as part of the delegation.