Byzantine Studies

Browning’s acclaimed biography of this extraordinary and enigmatic couple includes every aspect of imperial administration and policy. It is the story of a peasant's son who becomes emperor and enthrones a dissolute actress beside him.

The book provides easy-to-use tables that translate the calendars of over sixty civilizations into the Julian and Gregorian calendars. An indispensable tool for scholars.

This title is a study of the work and career of theologian and diplomat George Scholarios who became the first Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church during the period of Ottoman Rule. Scholarios advocated the union of the Greek and Latin Churches, but he later became the leader of the anti-Unionist faction in the final years of the Byzantine Empire. Scholarios played an important role in East-West dialogues, including the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438-39. This book provides a fresh look at some of the cultural misunderstandings that took place at the Council and related dialogues.

This book investigates the interaction between grammatical norms and poetic technique on the basis of a corpus selected from the oeuvre of the payyetan Eleazar be-rabbi Qillir. As a basis for this investigation, a descriptive/comparative analysis of the Qillirian dialect is offered. The first portion of the work is a grammar devoted mainly to morphology and syntax. The second portion of the work is an investigation of the poetic norms, as well as rhetorical techniques employed by Qillir, together with an assessment of their impact on the grammar. The overall aim of the project is to design an analytical framework within which a self-conscious poetic dialect might be investigated.

Western sources have long referred to Theodora as an infamous and salacious courtesan who became Justinian’s empress. Syriac sources portray her as a woman of sublime character and decorum, the daughter of a Syriac priest. This historical play outlines her character according to the Syriac tradition. In writing the play, Bishop Gregorius Boulos Behnam portrayed Theodora as a virtuous lady who won the heart of Justinian, who made her his Augusta and co-regent of his empire. Behnam reveals her extraordinary devotion to her faith and piety as she strives to protect the Fathers of the Syriac Church who stood against the declarations of the Council of Chalcedon and were persecuted for it. Now available for the first time in English, this edition translated by Matti Moosa stands counter to the view of Theodora as portrayed by Procopius in his version of the story, as it is popularly known in Western Christendom.

Alert to the implications of Egyptian politics to the world of the Middle Ages, Muir offers a detailed look at the rule of the slave-soldier caste known as the Mamelukes who ruled Egypt from 1260 to 1517. Each ruler of the Bahrite and Circassian dynasties is given a full chapter, and the role of the Mamelukes under the Ottoman Empire is reviewed.

This study explores the Emperor Julian's actions in regards to the Jews, especially his advances toward rebuilding the Jewish Temple. It offers the reader an insight into an aspect of Julian’s reign not often examined by Christian historians.

This book examines the previously unexplored sources of the eleventh-century Byzantine service of Christ the Bridegroom by locating its origins in the liturgical environment of third-century Christian Syria and Mesopotamia, and especially in the baptistry of the Christian House at Dura-Europos, as well as in the texts of the Acts of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip and the Symposium by Methodius of Olympus. More specifically, Pagoulatos analyzes the bridal initiation service (the earliest known Iconophile service) of the Dura-Europos baptistery, focusing on the role that the images played in it.

This work provides a summary, short author biography, and reference to editions or translations of all the works of Armenian provenance known to the author. It concludes with works of Greek Church Fathers and secular literature preserved in Armenian.

In this book the Syriac texts along with translations of the tales of the martyrs themselves as well as the miraculous deliverance of Euphemia are introduced by Professor Burkitt with a commentary focusing on the historicity of the different accounts.

In this book the Syriac texts along with translations of the tales of the martyrs are introduced by Professor Burkitt with a commentary focusing on the historicity of the different accounts.

This book provides the Syriac text along with a translation of the tale of Euphemia and the martyrs’ deliverance of her from the Goth.

This work focuses on the literary and textual concerns of the Georgian and Armenian recensions of the Barlaam and Josaphat legend, and provides translations of all that remains of the Georgian text and the relevant Armenian parallels.

Taken from the collection of studies published under the collective title Mémoires de l'histoire et de Ia geographie orientales, Mémoire sur la Conquête de la Syrie stands as a monument to the insight of M. J. de Goeje on the Arabic conquest of Syria. This brief account of an important phase of Syria’s history will be sure to please those interested in the general history of the Middle East as well as scholars studying the rise of Islam.

This critical study of Demetra Vaka Brown, one of the most significant Greek American writers of the turn of the last century, is framed within the fields of “Orientalism” and cultural studies. At once a white female and a Greek immigrant from the Ottoman Empire, she worked as a writer in the United States, publishing in English and contributing her work to mainstream publications. The book presents the identity politics of Vaka Brown, recovering the discursive techniques in her identification processes and assessing the significance of her agency in the context of the themes and preoccupations of Orientalism.

In the 17th century Britons left their country in vast numbers - explorers, diplomats, ecclesiastics, merchants, or simply “tourists.” Only the most intrepid ventured into the faraway lands of the Ottoman Empire. Their travel narratives, best-sellers in their day, provide an entertaining but also valuable testimony on the everyday life of Orthodox Christians and their coexistence with the Turks. Greek Christians, though living under the Ottoman yoke, enjoyed greater religious freedom than many of their brothers in Christian Europe. The travelers’ intellectual curiosity about Greece opened a window on the Orthodox Church, and paved the way for future dialogue.

Twenty-four contributions on matters dealing with Byzantine and Oriental lands, people, and cultures through different perspectives, including history, maritime trade, documents, travelers, and art. These essays trace the history of the relations between the Greeks and the peoples of the Middle East from Late Antiquity up to the seventeenth century.

Kassia the Nun offers a unique glimpse into ninth-century Byzantium in the only woman whose works were included in the corpus of liturgical hymns. This volume explores Kassia’s thought on Christology, on gender, and on monasticism itself. It provides readers with an opportunity to know this woman of remarkable intellect, wit, and piety by drawing primarily on her own words. Kassia’s is one of the only female voices from ninth-century Byzantium and this volume accordingly examines her reflections on gender in the context of her society and concludes that she represents a perspective that might be described as feminist.

In his classic introduction to Byzantine Orthodox liturgies, King examines the liturgies of the Oriental Orthodox churches. In this volume the Byzantine rite is considered. The rite is described and given a context in the setting of its native church.

C. E. Hammond's Antient Liturgies provided a valuable resource at an early stage in comparative liturgical studies. Free of extensive critical apparatus, Antient Liturgies presents a collection of historic forms of worship from the Western, Eastern, and Oriental Churches. This extract from the book focuses on the Liturgy of Constantinople. As Hammond explains, this liturgy contains elements of the St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, and Presanctified liturgies presented in Greek. As an analytical introduction this early study continues to provide a broad overview of early Christian worship made available in an accessible and convenient format for students and scholars.

Paul Bradshaw, Maxwell Johnson, and Ruth Meyers write on baptismal practice in the Alexandrian tradition, reconciling Cyril and Egeria on the catechetical process, and the structure of the Syrian baptismal rite.

This concise study considers the Anaphoras of the Apostles and the Liturgy of John Chrysostom. Also included is the relationship between these pieces and the Anaphora of the Apostolic Constitutions book viii.

A. J. Frothingham discusses Byzantine influences in the art and architecture of medieval Rome, bringing to light the influence of Byzantium on Italy beyond the fall of the Western empire.

The volume deals with the liturgical dimension of mystical, ascetical, and hymnographic texts and traditions within the Christian environment. Special attention is paid to liturgical texts of the Coptic and the Byzantine rite, especially in its Slavonic and Georgian versions. The volume also explores the Jewish background of some Christian liturgical settings and the afterlife of the Jewish priestly and liturgical traditions in the Christian milieu. The collection includes the critical edition of the early Slavonic version of the liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts accompanied by the historical study of this service.

Previous attempts to compare the art and architecture of Ravenna have focused only on Rome and Constantinople, but Josef Strzygowski argues here that the Oriental Christian tradition should be considered as a contributing influence as well.