Description: This comparative study explores three key cultural and political spheres - the Latin west, Byzantium and the Islamic world from Central Asia to the Atlantic - roughly from the emergence of Islam to the fall of Constantinople. These spheres drew on a shared pool of late antique Mediterranean culture, philosophy and science, and they had monotheism and historical antecedents in common. Yet where exactly political and spiritual power lay, and how it was exercised, differed. This book focuses on power dynamics and resource-allocation among ruling elites; the legitimisation of power and property with the aid of religion; and on rulers' interactions with local elites and societies. Offering the reader route-maps towards navigating each sphere and grasping the fundamentals of its political culture, this set of parallel studies offers a timely and much needed framework for comparing the societies surrounding the medieval Mediterranean.
Brief description: Catherine Holmes is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford. She is the author of books including Basil II and the Governance of Empire 976-1025 (2005) and co-editor of Literacy, Education and Manuscript Transmission in Byzantium and Beyond (2002) with J. Waring, Between Byzantines and Turks (2012) with J. Harris and The Global Middle Ages (2018) with N. Standen.
Review Quotes: '... a comprehensive and well-structured insight into the development of power and elite structures between the 8th and 15th centuries in the Latin-Western, Byzantine and Islamic world. ... one can congratulate the editors of the volume on a successful basic work that achieves its goal.' Miriam Salzmann, H/Soz/Kult (hsozkult.de)