Description
Book SynopsisPublicly performed rituals and ceremonies form an essential part of medieval political practice and court culture. This applies not only to western feudal societies, but also to the linguistically and culturally highly diversified environment of Byzantium and the Mediterranean basin. The continuity of Roman traditions and cross-fertilization between various influences originating from Constantinople, Armenia, the Arab-Muslim World, and western kingdoms and naval powers provide the framework for a distinct sphere of ritual expression and ceremonial performance. This collective volume, placing Byzantium into a comparative perspective between East and West, examines transformative processes from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, succession procedures in different political contexts, phenomena of cross-cultural appropriation and exchange, and the representation of rituals in art and literature. Contributors are Maria Kantirea, Martin Hinterberger, Walter Pohl, Andrew Marsham, Björn Weiler, Eric J. Hanne, Antonia Giannouli, Jo Van Steenbergen, Stefan Burkhardt, Ioanna Rapti, Jonathan Shepard, Panagiotis Agapitos, Henry Maguire, Christine Angelidi and Margaret Mullett.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ... ix List of Maps and Illustrations ... xi List of Contributors ... xv Comparative Approaches to the Ritual World of the Medieval Mediterranean ... 1 Alexander Beihammer Part One: Rituals and the Transformation of the Roman World 1. Imperial Birthday Rituals in Late Antiquity ... 37 Maria Kantirea 2. Phthonos: A Pagan Relic in Byzantine Imperial Acclamations? ... 51 Martin Hinterberger 3. Ritualized Encounters: Late Roman Diplomacy and the Barbarians, Fifth–Sixth Century ... 67 Walter Pohl 4. The Architecture of Allegiance in Early Islamic Late Antiquity: The Accession of Muʿāwiya in Jerusalem, ca. 661 CE ... 87 Andrew Marsham Part Two: Succession Procedures and their Ritual Articulations 5. Describing Rituals of Succession and the Legitimation of Kingship in the West, ca. 1000–ca. 1150 ... 115 Björn Weiler 6. Ritual and Reality: The Bayʿa Process in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic Courts ... 141 Eric J. Hanne 7. Comnenian Imperial Succession and the Ritual World of Niketas Choniates’s Chronike Diegesis ... 159 Alexander D. Beihammer 8. Coronation Speeches in the Palaiologan Period ... 203 Antonia Giannouli Part Three: Invention, Appropriation and Transformation between East and West 9. Ritual, Politics, and the City in Mamluk Cairo: The Bayna l-Qaṣrayn as a Mamluk ‘lieu de mémoire’, 1250–1382 ... 227 Jo Van Steenbergen 10. Court Ceremonies and Rituals of Power in the Latin Empire of Constantinople ... 277 Stefan Burkhardt 11. Featuring the King: Rituals of Coronation and Burial in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia ... 291 Ioanna Rapti 12. Adventus, Arrivistes and Rites of Rulership in Byzantium and France in the Tenth and Eleventh Century ... 337 Jonathan Shepard Part Four: Ritual Performances and their Reflections in Art and Literature 13. V iolence in the Palace: Rituals of Imperial Punishment in Prokopios’s Secret History ... 375 Stavroula Constantinou 14. The “Court of Amorous Dominion” and the “Gate of Love”: Rituals of Empire in a Byzantine Romance of the Thirteenth Century ... 389 Panagiotis A. Agapitos 15. Parodies of Imperial Ceremonial and Their Reflections in Byzantine Art ... 417 Henry Maguire 16. Look like an Angel: The Attire of Eunuchs and Its Significance within the Context of Middle Byzantine Court Ceremonial ... 433 Maria Parani 17. Designing Receptions in the Palace (De Cerimoniis 2.15) ... 465 Christine Angelidi 18. Tented Ceremony: Ephemeral Performances under the Komnenoi ... 487 Margaret Mullett Bibliography ... 515 Index ... 565
