Identities and Ideologies in the Medieval East Roman World (Edinburgh Byzantine Studies)

Examining ideas, beliefs and practices of identification in the medieval East Roman world Approaches ideology and identity in the Byzantine world from different perspectives, top-down, bottom-up, and outside-in, and from various disciplinary perspectives including historical, literary, art-historical and archaeological. Explores what makes discourses ideological by giving them a central function in the promotion of power relations and interests on the macro-level of society as well as on the micro-level of certain social groups. Explores the interrelation between dominant imperial ideology and collective identification. Scrutinizes various kinds of identification, local-regional, religious, gender, class, ethno-cultural and regnal-political. Contributors include Leslie Brubaker, Kostis Smyrlis, Alicia Simpson and Dionysios Sthathakopoulos. This collection offers new insights into ideology and identity in the Byzantine world. The range of international contributors explore the content and role of various ideological discourses in shaping the relationship between the imperial centre and the provinces. Crucially, they examine various kinds of collective identifications and visions of community in the broader Byzantine world within and beyond the political boundaries of the empire. This interdisciplinary collection includes historical, literary, art-historical and archaeological as well as cross-cultural perspectives along with the exploration of ideas and identifications in cultures on the empire’s periphery. List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Notes on Contributors Introduction The Ideology of Identities and the Identity of Ideologies Part I Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches 1. Is Byzantinism an Orientalism? Reflections on Byzantium’s Constructed Identities and Debated Ideologies 2. Ruling Elites and the Common People: Some Considerations on Their Diverging Identities and Ideologies 3. The Dēmosia, the Emperor and the Common Good: Byzantine Ideas on Taxation and Public Wealth, Eleventh–Twelfth Century 4. Beyond Religion: Homilies as Conveyors of Political Ideology in Middle Byzantium 5. Performing Byzantine Identity: Gender, Status and the Cult of the Virgin 6. ‘Middle-Class’ Ideology of Education and Language, and the ‘Bookish’ Identity of John Tzetzes 7. Byzantium from Below: Rural Identity in Byzantine Arabia and Palaestina, 500–630 8. Community-Building and Collective Identity in Middle Byzantine Athens Part II Centre and Periphery 9. Provincial Rebellions as an Indicator of Byzantine ‘Identity’ (Tenth–Twelfth Centuries) 10. Provincial Separatism in the Late Twelfth Century: A Case of Power Relations or Disparate Identities? 11. Irrevocable Blood: Violence and Collective Identity Formation in the Late Twelfth Century 12. Adjustable Imperial Image-Projection and the Greco-Roman Repertoire: Their Reception among Outsiders and Longer-Stay Visitors 13. Two Paradoxes of Border Identity: Michael VIII Palaiologos and Constantine Doukas Nestongos in the Sultanate of Rūm 14. The Coriander Field: Ideologies and Identities in Post-Roman Ravenna 15. Cultural Policy and Political Ideology: How Imperial Was the Norman Realm of Sicily? 16. Changes in Identity and Ideology in the Byzantine World in the Second Half of the Twelfth Century: The Case of Serbia Index