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Books > Humanities > History > World history > 500 to 1500

Reign of Henry III (Hardcover): DA Carpenter Reign of Henry III (Hardcover)
DA Carpenter
R6,570 Discovery Miles 65 700 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The long reign of Henry III (1216-1272) was one of the most significan in English history. It was the implantation of the Magna Carta into political life, the development of parliament and the rise of English national feeling. Reforms in 1258 reduced the king to a cipher and led to a civil war which culminated in the rule of Simon de Montfort: revolutionary events which had no parallel until the 1640's. In recent years, D.A. Carpenter has played a leading part in this reinterpretation of this momentus and exciting period. The Reign of Henry III contains important new pieces on the dating and making of Magna Carta; on justice and jurisdiction under John and Henry III; on the beginnings of parliament; on Matthew Paris and Henry III's speech at the exchequer in 1256; and on the burial of Henry III, the regalia and royal ideology.The volume also discusses the whole nature of Henry III's personal rule, the immediate causes of the revolution of 1258, the rise of Simon de Montfort, the explosive development of English national feeling, the social and economic position of the gentry, the role of peasants in politics, and Henry III's relations with both the Tower of London and the Cosmati work at Westminster Abbey. This wide-ranging volume of essays will be indsispensable for students of English medieval history.

Byzantium/Modernism - The Byzantine as Method in Modernity (Hardcover): Roland Betancourt, Maria Taroutina Byzantium/Modernism - The Byzantine as Method in Modernity (Hardcover)
Roland Betancourt, Maria Taroutina
R4,734 Discovery Miles 47 340 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Byzantium/Modernism features contributions by fourteen international scholars and brings together a diverse range of interdisciplinary essays on art, architecture, theatre, film, literature, and philosophy, which examine how and why Byzantine art and image theory can contribute to our understanding of modern and contemporary visual culture. Particular attention is given to intercultural dialogues between the former dominions of the Byzantine Empire, with a special focus on Greece, Turkey, and Russia, and the artistic production of Western Europe and America. Together, these essays invite the reader to think critically and theoretically about the dialogic interchange between Byzantium and modernism and to consider this cross-temporal encounter as an ongoing and historically deep narrative, rather than an ephemeral or localized trend. Contributors are Tulay Atak, Charles Barber, Elena Boeck, Anthony Cutler, Rico Franses, Dimitra Kotoula, Marie-Jose Mondzain, Myroslava M. Mudrak, Robert S. Nelson, Robert Ousterhout, Stratis Papaioannou, Glenn Peers, Jane A. Sharp and Devin Singh.

Fisher of Men: a Life of John Fisher, 1469-1535 (Hardcover, 1999 ed.): M Dowling Fisher of Men: a Life of John Fisher, 1469-1535 (Hardcover, 1999 ed.)
M Dowling
R2,651 Discovery Miles 26 510 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

John Fisher was central to the issues and dilemmas of the renaissance and the transformation in Tudor England. Active as a humanist, preacher, bishop, educationalist and controversial theologian, Fisher demonstrated that the rich life of the pre-reformation church as well as its problems in confronting the "blind and disordered desire" of Henry VIII. For Fisher, as for Thomas More, this resulted in execution on Tower Hill. This study focuses on Fisher's wide-ranging pastoral, scholarly, literary and political activity, which makes him a key figure in European religious and cultural history.

Artifacts from Medieval Europe (Hardcover): James B. Tschen-Emmons Artifacts from Medieval Europe (Hardcover)
James B. Tschen-Emmons
R3,049 Discovery Miles 30 490 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Using artifacts as primary sources, this book enables students to comprehensively assess and analyze historic evidence in the context of the medieval period. This new addition to the Daily Life through Artifacts series provides not only the full benefit of a reference work with its comprehensive explanations and primary sources, but also supplies images of the objects, bringing a particular aspect of the medieval world to life. Each entry in Artifacts from Medieval Europe explains and expands upon the cultural significance of the artifact depicted. Artifacts are divided into such thematic categories as domestic life, religion, and transportation. Considered collectively, the various artifacts provide a composite look at daily life in the Middle Ages. Unlike medieval history encyclopedias that feature brief reference entries, this book uses artifacts to examine major aspects of daily life. Each artifact entry features an introduction, a description, an examination of its contextual significance, and a list of further resources. This approach trains students how to best analyze primary sources. General readers with an interest in history will also benefit from this approach to learning that enables a more complete appreciation of past events and circumstances. Provides a single-volume resource for using medieval artifacts to better understand the long-ago past Supplies images of artifacts with detailed descriptions, explanations of significance, and a list of sources for more information, which help students learn how to effectively analyze primary sources Presents a virtual window into many different aspects of medieval society and life, including particular activities or roles-such as farming, weaving, fashion, or being a mason or a knight Includes sidebars within selected entries that explain key terms and concepts and supply excerpts from contemporary sources

T'ang China - The Rise of the East in World History (Hardcover, New): S. Adshead T'ang China - The Rise of the East in World History (Hardcover, New)
S. Adshead
R2,629 Discovery Miles 26 290 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

China's role in world history is again controversial thanks to Andre Gunder Frank's Re Orient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. By contrast, this book presents an alternative interpretation of that role, less exclusively economic, more broadly based, and focused on the T'ang period, one of China's acknowledged golden ages. It shows how a different China, Buddhist or Taoist rather than Confucian, aristocratic as much as meritocratic, achieved, through openness to the outside world and partnership with its elites, a multiple pre eminence in politics, economics, society and the intellect, not unlike that enjoyed by the United States today. Within a looser web of globalization, the T'ang period and its dynamics offers a distant mirror of our own time. An argument in world history may thus cast light on issues in contemporary politics. MARKET 1: Undergraduates and postgraduates studying courses in Chinese History; World History; Macroeconomic History.

The Visual World of the Hungarian Angevin Legendary (Hardcover): Bela Zsolt Szakacs The Visual World of the Hungarian Angevin Legendary (Hardcover)
Bela Zsolt Szakacs
R3,790 Discovery Miles 37 900 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The manuscript known as the Hungarian Angevin Legendary, made for Hungarian royal patrons, is an extraordinary relic of medieval book illumination; a luxurious codex worthy of a ruler. It was created in Bologna in the early 14th century by number of painters. Dispersed in four countries and six collections, the 142 richly gilded leaves recount the legends of fifty-eight saints at varying length. The miniatures are all clearly distinguishable and colorfully depicted. In the course of his twenty years of research the author examined almost all of the surviving leaves, including the largest sets in the Vatican Library and in the New York Morgan Library. The analysis of the codex has three levels: identifying the original criteria of saints selected, the presentation of the iconographic features of the respective legends, and the exposure of the recurrent image types on the leaves. One section of the book is an attempt to reconstruct the original appearance of the manuscript. Lastly, there is an investigation of the fate of the copies across centuries. Charts, tables, and drawings are included to help illuminate the structure and history of the codex.

Ravenna - Its role in earlier medieval change and exchange (Hardcover): Judith Herrin, Jinty Nelson Ravenna - Its role in earlier medieval change and exchange (Hardcover)
Judith Herrin, Jinty Nelson
R2,552 R2,249 Discovery Miles 22 490 Save R303 (12%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

In the long-debated transition from late antiquity to the early middle ages, the city of Ravenna presents a story rich and strange. From the fourth century onwards it suffered decline in economic terms. Yet its geographical position, its status as an imperial capital, and above all its role as a connecting point between East and West, ensured that it remained an intermittent attraction for early medieval kings and emperors throughout the period from the late fifth to the eleventh century. Ravenna's story is all the more interesting because it was complicated and unpredictable: discontinuous and continuous, sometimes obscure, sometimes including bursts of energetic activity. Throughout the early medieval centuries its flame sometimes flared, sometimes flickered, but never went out.

Rodulfus Glaber - The Five Books of the Histories, edited and translated by John France, and The Life of St William, edited by... Rodulfus Glaber - The Five Books of the Histories, edited and translated by John France, and The Life of St William, edited by Neithard Bulst and translated by John France and Paul Reynolds (Hardcover)
John France, Neithard Bulst, Paul Reynolds
R5,756 Discovery Miles 57 560 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The monk Rodulfus Glaber is best known for his Five Books of Histories, a major source for events in the first half of the eleventh century, and valuable above all for revealing the mental furniture of an eleventh-century monk - for his account of the millennium, of relics genuine and false, of church-building, and visions of saints and demons. This edition, the first since 1866, presents the only critical text of the Histories, accompanied by a complete translation and a full historical commentary. Glaber also wrote a Life of his mentor, St William of Dijon, the renowned monastic reformer. The Life is reprinted after the Histories, again with translation and notes. The evidence for Glaber's life, and the value of his work are discussed in a Historical Introduction.

Turning Points-Actual and Alternate Histories - Native America from Prehistory to First Contact (Hardcover): Rodney P.... Turning Points-Actual and Alternate Histories - Native America from Prehistory to First Contact (Hardcover)
Rodney P. Carlisle, J. Geoffrey Golson
R2,794 Discovery Miles 27 940 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This work is a fascinating history of precontact North America, presenting the facts and engaging the reader by using alternative history-what if key facts were different?-to help develop critical thinking skills. The first title in ABC-CLIO's groundbreaking series Turning Points-Actual and Alternate Histories delves into the history of North America before European contact. There is much classroom literature on Native Americans after first contact; there is little on the history before. This work fills that gap, detailing the thousands of years before Europeans arrived. Climate changes, major battles, technology, and settlement patterns-all played a part in shaping the pre-Columbian history of North America. This book takes eight key points in history, presents the facts as they happened, and examines what might have happened if there were different outcomes. Small changes can produce vastly different results; this book shows how, and engages students' critical thinking skills while teaching them basic history. Extensive chronology shows context for events and gives scope and coverage in single graphic presentation Eight original essays, written by distinguished scholars specializing in Native America, followed by discussion questions

Lancastrians and Yorkists - The Wars of the Roses (Paperback): D.R. Cook Lancastrians and Yorkists - The Wars of the Roses (Paperback)
D.R. Cook
R1,277 Discovery Miles 12 770 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This concise, lucid study charts the complex sequence of events we know today as the War of the Roses. In the thematic chapters of the third section the author assesses the motives and relationships of the principal actors; the real character and impact of the Wars of the Roses; and the nature of Yorkist government.

The Wars of the Roses (Hardcover, 3rd edition): Anthony James Pollard The Wars of the Roses (Hardcover, 3rd edition)
Anthony James Pollard
R3,334 Discovery Miles 33 340 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The civil wars of the first half of the fifteenth century still stand in the popular imagination as the period of greatest anarchy in English history. While historians have long taken a more measured view, controversy still surrounds their interpretation. In this revised edition of his revaluation of the Wars of the Roses, A. J. Pollard has incorporated into the text the product of new research and consideration of the debates which have emerged since the book was first published in 1988. These include the new stress on 'constitutional' history, intensified dispute about the origins of the wars, and recent reinterpretations of the careers of some of the principal personalities. In a topic which has become more contested in the last decade of the twentieth century, this introduction offers a succinct narrative, a review of the historiography and an overview of the problems of interpretation of the character, causes, impact and consequences of the wars which periodically disrupted England between 1459 and 1487.

A Companion to Byzantine Illustrated Manuscripts (Hardcover): Vasiliki Tsamakda A Companion to Byzantine Illustrated Manuscripts (Hardcover)
Vasiliki Tsamakda
R6,338 Discovery Miles 63 380 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This volume offers an overview of Byzantine manuscript illustration, a central branch of Byzantine art and culture. Just like written texts, illustrations bear witness to Byzantine material culture, imperial ideology and religious beliefs, as well as to the development and spread of Byzantine art. In this sense illustrated books reflect the society that produced and used them. Being portable, they could serve as diplomatic gifts or could be acquired by foreigners. In such cases they became "emissaries" of Byzantine art and culture in Western Europe and the Arabic world. The volume provides for the first time a comprehensive overview of the material, divided by text categories, including both secular and religious manuscripts, and analyses which texts were illustrated in Byzantium, and how. Contributors are Justine M. Andrews, Leslie Brubaker, Annemarie W. Carr, Elina Dobrynina, Maria Evangelatou, Maria Laura Tomea Gavazzoli, Markos Giannoulis, Cecily Hennessy, Ioli Kalavrezou, Maja Kominko, Sofia Kotzabassi, Stavros Lazaris, Kallirroe Linardou, Vasileios Marinis, Kathleen Maxwell, Georgi R. Parpulov, Nancy P. Sevcenko, Jean-Michel Spieser, Mika Takiguchi, Courtney Tomaselli, Marina Toumpouri, Nicolette S. Trahoulia, Vasiliki Tsamakda, and Elisabeth Yota.

The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians 751-987 (Paperback): Rosamond McKitterick The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians 751-987 (Paperback)
Rosamond McKitterick
R2,858 Discovery Miles 28 580 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

An exciting examination of the entire history of the Carolingian 'dynasty' in western Europe. The author shows the whole period to be one of immense political, religious. cultural and intellectual dynamism; not only did it lay the foundations of the governmental and administrative institutions of Europe and the organisation of the Church, but it also securely established the intellectual and cultural traditions which were to dominate western Christendom for centuries to come.

Transformation of Medieval England 1370-1529, The (Paperback): J A F Thomson Transformation of Medieval England 1370-1529, The (Paperback)
J A F Thomson
R1,460 R1,299 Discovery Miles 12 990 Save R161 (11%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

A detailed survey which examines the major developments in English society during this period of social crises, population decline, agarian unrest, the introduction to enclosures - and political tensions particularly over succession.

Giving Voice to Love - Song and Self-Expression from the Troubadours to Guillaume de Machaut (Hardcover): Judith A. Peraino Giving Voice to Love - Song and Self-Expression from the Troubadours to Guillaume de Machaut (Hardcover)
Judith A. Peraino
R1,762 Discovery Miles 17 620 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Grafting musicology and literary studies together in an unprecedented manner, Giving Voice to Love: Song and Self-Expression from the Troubadours to Guillaume de Machaut investigates French and Occitan "courtly love" songs from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries and explores the paradoxical relationship of music and self-expression in the Middle Ages. While these love songs conceived and expressed the autonomous subject - the lyric "I" represented by a single line of melody - they also engaged highly conventional musical and poetic language, and required performers and scribes for their transmission. This paradox was understood by the poets and became the basis for irony, parody, and intertextual referencing, which instilled the lyrics with a characteristic self-consciousness that reflected the unstable conditions for self-expression.
Author Judith Peraino reveals similar operations at work in musical settings. Examining moments where voice, melody, rhythm, form, and genre come dramatically to the fore and seem to comment on music itself, Giving Voice to Love strives not only to hear self-expression in these love songs, but to understand how musical elements give voice to the complex issues of self and subjectivity encoded in medieval love.
Through its approach to the exploration of "courtly love" songs, Giving Voice to Love serves as a model for methodological integration and provides musicologists, literary scholars and medieval historians with a common analytical ground.

The Lettered Knight - Knowledge and Behaviour of the Aristocracy in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Paperback): Martin... The Lettered Knight - Knowledge and Behaviour of the Aristocracy in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Paperback)
Martin Aurell
R1,455 Discovery Miles 14 550 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This monograph - which was very well received when originally published in France - contains a great deal of detailed information about the attitudes towards learning and written culture among members of the nobility in different parts of Europe in the Middle Ages. An encounter between a warring knight and the world of learning could seem a paradox. It is nonetheless related with the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, an essential intellectual movement for western history. Knights not only fought in battles, but also moved in sophisticated courts. Knights were interested on Latin classics and reading, and writing poetry. Supportive of "jongleurs" and minstrels, they enjoyed literary conversations with clerics who would attempt to reform their behaviour, which was often brutal. These lettered warriors, while improving their culture, learned to repress their own violence and were initiated to courtesy: selective language, measured gestures, elegance in dress, and manners at the table. Their association with women, who were often learned, became more gallant. A revolution of thought occurred among lay elites who, in contact with clergy, began to use their weapons for common welfare.This new conduct was a tangible sign of Medievalist society's leap forward towards modernity.

How Iceland Changed the World - The Big History of a Small Island (Paperback): Egill Bjarnason How Iceland Changed the World - The Big History of a Small Island (Paperback)
Egill Bjarnason
R313 R284 Discovery Miles 2 840 Save R29 (9%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

'A joyously peculiar book' - The New York Times 'A fascinating insight into Icelandic culture and a fresh perspective on her global influence. Warning: may well make readers wish they were Icelandic, too.' - Helen Russell, author of The Year of Living Danishly The untold story of how one tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic has shaped the world for centuries. The history of Iceland began 1,200 years ago, when a frustrated Viking captain and his useless navigator ran aground in the middle of the North Atlantic. Suddenly, the island was no longer just a layover for the Arctic tern. Instead, it became a nation whose diplomats and musicians, sailors and soldiers, volcanoes and flowers, quietly altered the globe forever. How Iceland Changed the World takes readers on a tour of history, showing them how Iceland played a pivotal role in events as diverse as the French Revolution, the Moon Landing, and the foundation of Israel. Again and again, one humble nation has found itself at the frontline of historic events, shaping the world as we know it - How Iceland Changed the World paints a lively picture of just how it all happened. 'Egill Bjarnason has written a delightful reminder that, when it comes to countries, size doesn't always matter. His writing is a pleasure to read, reminiscent of Bill Bryson or Louis Theroux. He has made sure we will never take Iceland for granted again.' A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of Thanks a Thousand and The Year of Living Biblically 'Bjarnason's intriguing book might be about a cold place, but it's tailor-made to be read on the beach.' - New Statesman 'Egill Bjarnason places Iceland at the center of everything, and his narrative not only entertains but enlightens, uncovering unexpected connections.' Andri Snaer, author of On Time and Water 'Icelander Egill Bjarnason takes us on a high-speed, rough-and-tumble ride through 1,000-plus years of history-from the discovery of America to Tolkien's muse, from the French Revolution to the NASA moonwalk, from Israel's birth to the first woman president-all to display his home island's mind-opening legacy.' Nancy Marie Brown, author of The Real Valkyrie and The Far Traveller 'I always assumed the history of Iceland had, by law or fate, to match the tone of an October morning: dark, gray, and uninviting to most mankind. This book challenges that assumption, and about time. Our past, much like the present, can be a little fun.' Jon Gnarr, former mayor of Reykjavik and author of The Pirate and The Outlaw 'How Iceland Changed the World is not only surprising and informative. It is amusing and evocatively animates a place that I have been fascinated with for most of my life. Well worth the read!' - Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres 'An entertaining, offbeat (and pleasingly concise) history of the remote North Atlantic nation ... perfect for a summer getaway read' - The Critic

To Win and Lose a Medieval Battle - Najera (April 3, 1367), A Pyrrhic Victory for the Black Prince (Hardcover): Andrew... To Win and Lose a Medieval Battle - Najera (April 3, 1367), A Pyrrhic Victory for the Black Prince (Hardcover)
Andrew Villalon, Donald Kagay
R4,885 Discovery Miles 48 850 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

Winner of the 2019 Brigadier General James L. Collins Jr. Prize In To Win and Lose a Medieval Battle, Andrew Villalon and Donald Kagay provide a full treatment of one of the major battles of the Hundred Years War. The authors have investigated the background to Najera, traced its immediate events, and laid out its effects on Iberia and the principal adversaries in the Hundred Years War.

English Life and Manners in the Later Middle Ages (Routledge Revivals) (Paperback): Annie Abram English Life and Manners in the Later Middle Ages (Routledge Revivals) (Paperback)
Annie Abram
R1,438 Discovery Miles 14 380 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Annie Abram was born in London in 1869 and died in Sussex in 1930. As an historian, she contributed significantly to the twentieth-century historiography of late medieval England, researching the social, cultural and religious mores of the English laity and clergy. This title, first published in 1919, comprehensively explores the fabrics of late medieval society using evidence drawn from historical and literary works, official documents and illustrated manuscripts. Largely concentrating on the years between the start of the Black Death in 1348 and the end of the fifteenth century, a period in which we see important developments in the character and organisation of medieval England, chapters discuss the make-up of social order, life in a medieval town, the position of women in society, and the Church's relationship with the laity. A complementary title to Social Life in England in the Fifteenth Century (Routledge Revivals, 2013), this fascinating work will be of great value to history students requiring a detailed overview of the framework of late medieval English society and culture.

Essays in Later Medieval French History (Hardcover): P. L. Lewis Essays in Later Medieval French History (Hardcover)
P. L. Lewis
R3,651 Discovery Miles 36 510 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This textbook presents in a unified manner the fundamentals of both continuous and discrete versions of the Fourier and Laplace transforms. These transforms play an important role in the analysis of all kinds of physical phenomena. As a link between the various applications of these transforms the authors use the theory of signals and systems, as well as the theory of ordinary and partial differential equations. The book is divided into four major parts: periodic functions and Fourier series, non-periodic functions and the Fourier integral, switched-on signals and the Laplace transform, and finally the discrete versions of these transforms, in particular the Discrete Fourier Transform together with its fast implementation, and the z-transform. This textbook is designed for self-study. It includes many worked examples, together with more than 120 exercises, and will be of great value to undergraduates and graduate students in applied mathematics, electrical engineering, physics and computer science.

Writers of the Reign of Henry II - Twelve Essays (Hardcover): R. Kennedy, S. Meecham-Jones Writers of the Reign of Henry II - Twelve Essays (Hardcover)
R. Kennedy, S. Meecham-Jones
R1,420 Discovery Miles 14 200 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

This collection is the work of scholars on Middle English, Insular French and Medieval Latin writings of the late twelfth century in England and its possessions, when an English-speaking populace was ruled by a French-speaking aristocracy and administered by a Latin-speaking and writing clergy. The political discourses of Henry's reign are acknowledged, developed and ironised within the first real flowering of so many vernacular genres, romance and history in particular. The energetic and intrepid writers of this period are examined in relation to the development of social institutions and emergent ideas of 'nationhood', as the literature of Henry's court is shown to act as an echo-chamber within which anxieties about the proper exercise of power in a legal order founded on martial conquest could be reflected and soothed.

The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes - Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature... The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes - Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature (Hardcover, New Ed)
Stephen H Rapp Jr
R4,398 Discovery Miles 43 980 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Georgian literary sources for Late Antiquity are commonly held to be later productions devoid of historical value. As a result, scholarship outside the Republic of Georgia has privileged Graeco-Roman and even Armenian narratives. However, when investigated within the dual contexts of a regional literary canon and the active participation of Caucasia's diverse peoples in the Iranian Commonwealth, early Georgian texts emerge as a rich repository of late antique attitudes and outlooks. Georgian hagiographical and historiographical compositions open a unique window onto a northern part of the Sasanian world that, while sharing striking affinities with the Iranian heartland, was home to vibrant, cosmopolitan cultures that developed along their own trajectories. In these sources, precise and accurate information about the core of the Sasanian Empire-and before it, Parthia and Achaemenid Persia-is sparse; yet the thorough structuring of wider Caucasian society along Iranian and especially hybrid Iranic lines is altogether evident. Scrutiny of these texts reveals, inter alia, that the Old Georgian language is saturated with words drawn from Parthian and Middle Persian, a trait shared with Classical Armenian; that Caucasian society, like its Iranian counterpart, was dominated by powerful aristocratic houses, many of whose origins can be traced to Iran itself; and that the conception of kingship in the eastern Georgian realm of K'art'li (Iberia), even centuries after the royal family's Christianisation in the 320s and 330s, was closely aligned with Arsacid and especially Sasanian models. There is also a literary dimension to the Irano-Caucasian nexus, aspects of which this volume exposes for the first time. The oldest surviving specimens of Georgian historiography exhibit intriguing parallels to the lost Sasanian XwadAE y-nAE mag, The Book of Kings, one of the precursors to FerdowsAE"'s ShAE hnAE ma. As tangible products of the dense cross-cultural web drawing the re

Religious Conversion - History, Experience and Meaning (Hardcover, New Ed): Ira Katznelson, Miri Rubin Religious Conversion - History, Experience and Meaning (Hardcover, New Ed)
Ira Katznelson, Miri Rubin
R4,221 Discovery Miles 42 210 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Religious conversion - a shift in membership from one community of faith to another - can take diverse forms in radically different circumstances. As the essays in this volume demonstrate, conversion can be protracted or sudden, voluntary or coerced, small-scale or large. It may be the result of active missionary efforts, instrumental decisions, or intellectual or spiritual attraction to a different doctrine and practices. In order to investigate these multiple meanings, and how they may differ across time and space, this collection ranges far and wide across medieval and early modern Europe and beyond. From early Christian pilgrims to fifteenth-century Ethiopia; from the Islamisation of the eastern Mediterranean to Reformation Germany, the volume highlights salient features and key concepts that define religious conversion, particular the Jewish, Muslim and Christian experiences. By probing similarities and variations, continuities and fissures, the volume also extends the range of conversion to focus on matters less commonly examined, such as competition for the meaning of sacred space, changes to bodies, patterns of gender, and the ways conversion has been understood and narrated by actors and observers. In so doing, it promotes a layered approach that deepens inquiry by identifying and suggesting constellations of elements that both compose particular instances of conversion and help make systematic comparisons possible by indicating how to ask comparable questions of often vastly different situations.

The Viking Way - Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia (Hardcover, 2 Rev Ed): Neil Price The Viking Way - Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia (Hardcover, 2 Rev Ed)
Neil Price
R1,095 Discovery Miles 10 950 Ships in 9 - 17 working days

Magic, sorcery and witchcraft are among the most common themes of the great medieval Icelandic sagas and poems, the problematic yet vital sources that provide our primary textual evidence for the Viking Age that they claim to describe. Yet despite the consistency of this picture, surprisingly little archaeological or historical research has been done to explore what this may really have meant to the men and women of the time. This book examines the evidence for Old Norse sorcery, looking at its meaning and function, practice and practitioners, and the complicated constructions of gender and sexual identity with which these were underpinned. Combining strong elements of eroticism and aggression, sorcery appears as a fundamental domain of women's power, linking them with the gods, the dead and the future. Their battle spells and combat rituals complement the men's physical acts of fighting, in a supernatural empowerment of the Viking way of life. What emerges is a fundamentally new image of the world in which the Vikings understood themselves to move, in which magic and its implications permeated every aspect of a society permanently geared for war. In this fully-revised and expanded second edition, Neil Price takes us with him on a tour through the sights and sounds of this undiscovered country, meeting its human and otherworldly inhabitants, including the Sami with whom the Norse partly shared this mental landscape. On the way we explore Viking notions of the mind and soul, the fluidity of the boundaries that they drew between humans and animals, and the immense variety of their spiritual beliefs. We find magic in the Vikings' bedrooms and on their battlefields, and we meet the sorcerers themselves through their remarkable burials and the tools of their trade. Combining archaeology, history and literary scholarship with extensive studies of Germanic and circumpolar religion, this multi-award-winning book shows us the Vikings as we have never seen them before.

Tradition and Crisis - Jewish Society At the End of the Middle Ages (Hardcover, New Ed): Jacob Katz Tradition and Crisis - Jewish Society At the End of the Middle Ages (Hardcover, New Ed)
Jacob Katz
R2,900 Discovery Miles 29 000 Ships in 18 - 22 working days

"An acknowledged classic. Katz has transformed our conception of Jewish history from the 16th to the 18th century. Because of his work, we now understand that the ghetto was no longer sealed off at that time from outside opinions and that the movement towards modernity had begun long before the Jews were actually legally emancipated. Making this work available again in the revised edition is a service to scholarship and to public enlightenment."
--Arthur Hertzberg

"Since it first appeared in Hebrew in 1958, "Tradition and Crisis" has had a tremendous impact on generations of students and scholars. Katz's innovative use of sources has introduced scholars to new methodologies and opened new vistas for research. This new, unabridged translation is therefore highly welcome. It will ensure its continued use in the English-speaking world."
--Jehuda Reinharz, Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History, Brandeis University

"Like a lovingly restored painting, Bernard Cooperman's new, annotated translation of Jacob Katz's classic portrait of early Jewish modernity can now be fully appreciated for the first time. An admirable achievement."
--Ivan G. Marcus

When it first appeared in Hebrew in 1958 and in English in 1961, Tradition and Crisis, Jacob Katz's groundbreaking study of Jewish society at the end of the Middle Ages, dramatically changed our perceptions of the Jewish community prior to the era of modernity. This new, unabridged translation by Bernard Dov Cooperman makes this classic available to new generations of students and scholars, together with Katz's original source notes, and an afterword and an updating bibliographic appendix by Professor Cooperman.

Katz revolutionized the field by tapping into a rich and hitherto unexplored source for reconstructing the sociology of a previous era: the responsa literature of the Rabbinic establishment during the Middle Ages. The self-governing communities of Jews in Europe dealt with issues both civil and religious. The questions and answers addressed to the rabbinic authorities and courts provide an incomparable wealth of insights into life as it was lived in this period and into the social, historical, cultural, and economic issues of the day.

How did European Jewry progress from a socially and culturally segregated society to become a component of European society at large? What were Jewish attitudes toward the Gentile world from which Jewry had been secluded for centuries? What were the bridges from the old to the new era?

Tradition and Crisis traces the roots of modernity to internal developments within the communities themselves. Katz traces the modern movements of the Haskalah (Enlightenment) in the West and Hasidism in the East, to an internal breakdown in the structure of these communities and the emergence of an alternative leadership in the wake of the Sabbatian challenge.
A dynamic work that has radically changed our view of this history, Tradition and Crisis remains the pivotal text for understanding the revolution in the entire conception of Jewish identity in the modern era.

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