There is a vigorous debate on the exact beginnings of the Crusades, as well as a growing conviction that some practices of crusading may have been in existence, at least in part, long before they were identified as such. The Prehistory of the Crusades explores how the Crusades came to be seen as the use of aggressive warfare to Christianise pagan lands and peoples. Reynolds focuses on the Baltic, or Northern, Crusades, an aspect of the Crusades that has been little documented, thus bringing a new perspective to their historical and ideological origins. Baltic Crusades were distinctive because they were not directed at the Holy Land, and they were not against Muslim opponents, but rather against pagan peoples. From the Emperor Charlemagne's wars against the Saxons in the 8th and 9th centuries to the Baltic Crusades of the 12th century, this book explores the sanctification of war in creating the ideal of crusade. In so doing, it shows how crusading ultimately developed in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Prehistory of the Crusades provides a valuable insight into the topic for students of medieval history and the Crusades.

The reign of al-Muqtadir (295-320/908-32) is a crucial and controversial epoch in the history of the Abbasid empire. Al-Muqtadir's regime has traditionally been depicted as one of decline, when the political power of the caliphate and the lustre of its capital began to crumble. This book not only offers a substantial investigation of the idea and reality of decline, but also provides new interpretations of the inner workings of the court and the empire. The authors, four specialists of Abbasid history, explore the formal and informal power relationships that shaped politics at the court, involving bureaucrats, military, harem, courtiers and of course al-Muqtadir himself. A study of the topography of Baghdad completes this vivid picture of the court and its capital.

The bibliography includes material published from 2010 to 2012. Following on from the first bibliography (Brill, 1988) and its updates (Brill 2006, 2008, 2011) this volume covers recent literature on: Archaeology, Liturgy, Monasticism, Iberian-Gallic Patristics, Paleography, Linguistics, Germanic and Muslim Invasions, and more. In addition, peoples such as the Vandals, Sueves, Basques, Alans and Byzantines are included. The book contains author and subject indexes and is extensively cross-indexed for easy consultation. A periodicals index of hundreds of journals accompanies the volume. Further updates are to be expected at intervals of three years.

Much of what we know about the colourful Russian middle ages comes from legal sources: the treaties of Russian-Scandinavian warlords with the Byzantine emperors, the gradual penetration of Christianity and Byzantine institutions, the endless game of war and peace among the numerous regional princes, the activities of Hanseatic merchants in the wealthy city-republic of Novgorod, the curious relationships between the Mongol conquerors and Russian rulers and church dignitaries, etc. And, at the even further fringes of medieval Europe, there were the Christian kingdoms of Armenia and Georgia, squeezed between the Islamic empires of Iran and Turkey, but each possessing their elaborate and original legal systems. A discussion of more general questions of legal history and legal anthropology precedes the treatment of these various topics.

The Baltic Crusades in the thirteenth century led to the creation of the medieval Livonia. But what happened after the conquest? The contributors to this volume analyse the cultural, societal, economic and technological changes in the Baltic Sea region c. 1200-1350. The chapters focus on innovations and long-term developments which were important in integrating the area into medieval European society more broadly, while also questioning the traditional divide of the Livonian post-crusade society into native victims and foreign victors. The process of multilateral negotiations and adaptions created a synthesis which was not necessarily an outcome of the wars but also a manifestation of universal innovation processes in northern Europe. Contributors are Arvi Haak, Tonno Jonuks, Kristjan Kaljusaar, Ivar Leimus, Christian Lubke, Madis Maasing, Mihkel Maesalu, Anti Selart, Vija Stikane, and Andres Tvauri.

Chinese rulers and statesmen were naturally concerned about the issue of war, when to wage it, when it was justified, and when to avoid it. Although much has been asserted about how these issues were understood in Chinese culture, this work is the first study actually to focus on the debates themselves. These debates at court proceeded from specific understandings of what constituted evidence, and involved the practical concerns of policy as well as more general cultural values. The result is a decidedly messy portrait of Chinese decision making over two millenia that is neither distinctly Chinese nor entirely generic. Contributors are Parks Coble, Garret Olberding, David Pong, Kenneth Swope, Paul Van Els, David Wright, and Shu-Hui Wu.

This collection of essays on the Byzantine culture of war in the period between the 4th and the 12th centuries offers a new critical approach to the study of warfare as a fundamental aspect of East Roman society and culture in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The book's main goal is to provide a critical overview of current research as well as new insights into the role of military organization as a distinct form of social power in one of history's more long-lived empires. The various chapters consider the political, ideological, practical, institutional and organizational aspects of Byzantine warfare and place it at the centre of the study of social and cultural history. Contributors are Salvatore Cosentino, Michael Gru nbart, Savvas Kyriakidis, Tilemachos Lounghis, Christos Makrypoulias, Stamatina McGrath, Philip Rance, Paul Stephenson, Yannis Stouraitis, Denis Sullivan, and Georgios Theotokis. See inside the book.

A comprehensive treatment of Ismaili medieval history in its entirety. It will have great appeal to all scholars of medieval Islam. Farhad Daftary is one of the world's leading authorities on Ismaili history and literature. This important book, by an internationally acknowledged expert in Ismaili studies, introduces Ismaili history and thought in medieval times. Discussing the different phases in Ismaili history, it describes both the early Ismailis as well as the contributions of the later Ismailis to Islamic culture. A number of chapters deal with key Ismaili individuals such as Hasan-i Sabbah. Other chapters contextualise the Ismailis within the early Muslim societies, in addition to investigating the Ismaili-Crusader relations and the resulting legends on the Ismaili secret practices. Over the course of the work, it becomes clear that Ismaili historiography, and the perception of the Ismailis by others (in both Muslim and Christian milieus), have had a fascinating evolution. During their long history the Ismailis have often been accused of various heretical teachings and practices and - at the same time - a multitude of myths and misconceptions have ciculated about them. Farhad Daftary here separates myth from fact, propaganda from actuality, in a work characterised by his customary mastery of the sources and literature.

The book re-examines the religious thought and receptions of the Syrian poet Abu l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri (d.1057) and one of his best known works - Luzum ma la yalzam (The Self-Imposed Unnecessity), a collection of poems, which, although widely studied, needs a thorough re-evaluation regarding matters of (un)belief. Given the contradictory nature of al-Ma'arri's oeuvre and Luzum in particular, there have been two major trends in assessing al-Ma'arri's religious thought in modern scholarship. One presented al-Ma'arri as an unbeliever and a freethinker arguing that through contradictions, he practiced taqiya, i.e., dissimulation in order to avoid persecution. The other, often apologetically, presented al-Ma'arri as a sincere Muslim. This study proposes that the notion of ambivalence is a more appropriate analytical tool to apply to the reading of Luzum, specifically in matters of belief. This ambivalence is directly conditioned by the historical and intellectual circumstances al-Ma'arri lived in and he intentionally left it unsolved and intense as a robust stance against claims of certainty. Going beyond reductive interpretations, the notion of ambivalence allows for an integrative paradigm in dealing with contradictions and dissonance.

The Vita Edwardi Secundi is the best and most readable of the chronicles of the reign of Edward II, and throws a fascinating light on the world of high politics. The anonymous author was close to the centre of politics, probably a royal clerk, and possibly John Walwayn (or someone with a similar career). His focus is largely on domestic politics and the relationship of the king and his barons, and he records the clashes and reconciliations of the period 1311-22 in valuable detail. He also has much to say on the Scottish war, the appointment of bishops, and the outbreak of the French war. The work ends in the winter of 1325/6 with Queen Isabella's refusal to return from France while Despenser remained with the king.
The work is much more than a simple chronicle. The author consciously wrote history and so commented extensively on personalities, and also on causation, motivation, and the vices of his age. He was generous to Gaveston despite his pride, more condemning of the Despensers' greed, and lamented Lancaster's wasted gifts. His reports on the arguments of both sides in the clashes between the king and his opponents are particularly enlightening, and show how serious were the threats to the king's authority, especially those voiced in 1321. The author's fear of civil war and attempts to define the fine line dividing resistance and treason probably reflect the concerns of many close to the court at that time.
Recent research has emphasized that the Vita should be seen as a 'journal' rather than a 'memoir', and this enhances its value further, allowing historians to chart the changing views of a well-placed observer during the dramatic events of Edward's reign.
The Vitahas been edited three times before, once in each century since its discovery in 1728, but the last edition of 1957 has long been out of print. This new edition revises the Latin text and translation, provides a completely new introduction and historical notes to take account of recent scholarship, and includes a new and full apparatus and indices.

This book offers a comprehensive examination of how the Fourth Lateran Council s prohibition against trial by ordeal was implemented in Danish secular law and how it required both a fundamental restructuring of legal procedure and an entirely different approach to jurisprudence in practice. It offers a broader understanding of how ideology could penetrate and change jurisprudence firstly by changing the norms, secondly by presupposing new kind of legal institutions. Rather than focusing on pure dogmatics, this investigation will focus on uncovering the ideological character of procedure with regard to how those learned in law and those holding political power thought that jurisprudence needed to be constructed in order to ensure that justice was done in medieval Denmark.

Heresy was the most feared crime in the medieval moral universe. It was seen as a social disease capable of poisoning the body politic and shattering the unity of the church. The study of heresy in late medieval England has, to date, focused largely on the heretics. In consequence, we know very little about how this crime was defined by the churchmen who passed authoritative judgement on it.
By examining the drafting, publicizing, and implementing of new laws against heresy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, using published and unpublished judicial records, this book presents the first general study of inquisition in medieval England. In it Ian Forrest argues that because heresy was a problem simultaneously national and local, detection relied upon collaboration between rulers and the ruled. While involvement in detection brought local society into contact with the apparatus of government, uneducated laymen still had to be kept at arm's length, because judgements about heresy were deemed too subtle and important to be left to them. Detection required bishops and inquisitors to balance reported suspicions against canonical proof, and threats to public safety against the rights of the suspect and the deficiencies of human justice.
At present, the character and significance of heresy in late medieval England is the subject of much debate. Ian Forrest believes that this debate has to be informed by a greater awareness of the legal and social contexts within which heresy took on its many real and imagined attributes.

In Reading the Rabbis Eva De Visscher examines the Hebrew scholarship of Englishman Herbert of Bosham (c.1120-c.1194). Chiefly known as the loyal secretary and hagiographer of Archbishop Thomas Becket and enemy of Henry II, he appears here as an outstanding Hebraist whose linguistic proficiency and engagement with Rabbinic sources, including contemporary teachers, were unique for a northern-European Christian of his time. Two commentaries on the Psalms by Herbert form the focus of scrutiny. In demonstrating influence from Jewish and Christian texts such as Rashi, Hebrew-French glossaries, Hebrew-Latin Psalters, and Victorine scholarship, De Visscher situates Herbert within the context of an increased interest in the revision of Jerome's Latin Bible and literal exegesis, and a heightened Christian awareness of Jewish 'other-ness'.

This book explores the notebooks of S. Belle, an astrologer who lived in late fifteenth-century France, as a case study of late medieval astrological practice. These notebooks combine astrological doctrine, a large collection of horoscopes, an almanac, and three complete judgements of nativities. By studying Belle's methods, processes of learning, and practices, this book contributes to a better understanding of the internal architecture of astrology in the pre-modern world; this includes its techniques, methodologies, goals, transmission, and development throughout history. It offers an internalist view of the practice of astrology, as a counterpart to the existing research into astrology's social and cultural impact.

The Decretum Gratiani is the cornerstone of medieval canon law, and the manuscript St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 673 an essential witness to its evolution. The studies in this volume focus on that manuscript, providing critical insights into its genesis, linguistic features, and use of Roman Law, while evaluating its attraction to medieval readers and modern scholars. Together, these studies offer a fascinating view on the evolution of the Decretum Gratiani, as well as granting new insights on the complex dynamics and processes by which legal knowledge was first created and then transferred in medieval jurisprudence. Contributors are Enrique de Leon, Stephan Dusil, Melodie H. Eichbauer, Atria A. Larson, Titus Lenherr, Philipp Lenz, Kenneth Pennington, Andreas Thier, Jose Miguel Viejo-Ximenez, John C. Wei, and Anders Winroth.

This volume examines how power was framed in Visigothic society and how a diverse population with a complex and often conflicting cultural inheritance was thereby held together as a single kingdom. Indeed, through this dynamic process a new, early medieval society emerged. Understanding this transformation is no simple matter, as it involved the deployment of an array of political and cultural resources: the production of knowledge, the appropriation of Patristic literature, controlling and administering rural populations, reconceptualizing the sacred, capital punishment and exile, controlling the manufacture of currency, and defining Visigothic society in relation to other polities such as the neighbouring Byzantine state. In order to achieve an analysis of these different phenomena, this volume brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines. This interdisciplinary approach therefore expands the available sources and reformulates topics of traditional scholarship in order to engage with a renewal of Visigothic Studies and reformulate the paradigm of study itself. As a result, this volume rethinks frameworks of power in the Peninsula along not only historical and archaeological but also anthropological terms, presenting the reader with a new understanding of Iberian society as a whole.

According to Augustine's doctrine of original sin, Adam's progeny share a collective guilt which, like an infection, spreads through wayward sexual desires, passing from parent to child. But is it fair to blame sinners if they inherit evil like a disease? Stricken by Sin clarifies the logic and illogic of the controversial views about human agency Augustine defended in his later years. The first half of the book examines why Augustine believed we are trapped by evil, and why only Christ can save us. Couenhoven focuses on Augustine's debates with the Pelagians about whether we control our personal identities, what we should be held culpable for, and whether freedom is compatible with necessity. The second half of the book offers a philosophically and scientifically astute retrieval of some of Augustine's most divisive claims. Couenhoven makes a case for the surprising thesis that a carefully formulated doctrine of original sin is profoundly humane. The claim that sin is original takes seriously our dependence on one another for essential aspects of character and personality, our ownership of cognitive and volitional states that are not simply products of voluntary choices, and our status as personal agents of evil. Attending to these aspects of our lives challenges the idea that each individual's moral and spiritual standing is up to her or him, and drives us to ponder not only the shape of the freedom we seek and the nature of our responsibility, but also the need for grace we all share.

Today medievalism is increasingly intelligible as a cultural lingua franca, produced in trans- and international contexts with a view to reaching popular international audiences, some of mass scope. This book offers new perspectives on international relations and how global concerns are made available through contemporary medievalist texts. It questions how research in medievalism may help us rethink the terms of internationalism and globalism within popular cultures, ideologies, and political formations. It investigates how the diverse media of medievalism (print; film and television; arts and crafts; fashion; digital media; clubs and fandom) affect its cultural meaning and circulation, and its social function, and engage questions of desire, gender and identity construction. As a whole, International Medievalism and Popular Culture differs from those studies which have concentrated on imaginative appropriations of the middle ages for domestic cultural contexts. It investigates rather how contemporary cultures engage with medievalism to map and model ideas of the international, the trans-national, the cosmopolitan and the global. This book includes examples from Europe, Britain, North America, Australia and the Arab world. It discusses the formation and the impact of popular medievalism in the globalised worlds of Braveheart, Disney and Harry Potter, but it also explores how the contemporary medieval imaginary generates international cultural perspectives, for example in considering Middle Eastern reception of Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, the Byzantinism of Julia Kristeva, and Hedley Bull's postnationalist 'new medievalism'. International Medievalism in Popular Culture is an important contribution to medieval studies, cultural studies, and historical studies. It will be of value to undergraduate, postgraduate and academic readers, as well as to all interested in popular culture or medievalism.

The Umayyad caliphate, ruling over much of what is now the modern Middle East after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, governe from Damascus from 661 to750CE, when they were expelled by the Abbasids. Here, Mohammad Rihan sheds light on the tribal system of this empir, by looking at one of its Syrian tribes; the 'Amila, based around today's Jabal 'Amil in southern Lebanon. Using this tribe as a lens through which to examine the wider Umayyad world, he looks at the political structures and conflicts that prevailed at the time, seeking to nuance the understanding of the relationship between the tribes and the ruling elite. For Rihan, early Islamic political history can only be understood in the context of the tribal history. This book thus illustrates how the political and social milieu of the 'Amila tribe sheds light on the wider history of the Umayyad world. Utilizing a wide range of sources, from the books of genealogies to poetry, Rihan expertly portrays Umayyad political life. First providing a background on 'Amila's tribal structure and its functions and dynamics, Rihan then presents the pre-Islamic past of the tribe. Building on this, he then investigates the role the 'Amila played in the emergence of the Umayyad state to understand the ways in which political life developed for the tribes and their relations with those holding political power in the region. By exploring the literature, culture, kinship structures and the socio-political conditions of the tribe, this book highlights the ways in which alliances and divisions shifted and were used by caliphs of the period and offers new insights into the Middle East at a pivotal point in its early and medieval history. This historical analysis thus not only illuminates the political condition of the Umayyad world, but also investigates the ever-important relationship between tribal political structures and state-based rule.

This volume is dedicated to the topic of the human evaluation and interpretation of animals in ancient and medieval cultures. From a transcultural perspective contributions from Assyriology, Byzantine Studies, Classical Archaeology, Egyptology, German Medieval Studies and Jewish History look into the processes and mechanisms behind the transfer by people of certain values to animals, and the functions these animal-signs have within written, pictorial and performative forms of expression.

This collection provides a new, authoritative and challenging study of the life and works of AElfric of Eynsham, the most important vernacular religious writer in the history of Anglo-Saxon England. The contributors include almost all of the key AElfric scholars working today and some important newer voices. Each of the chapters is a cutting-edge piece of work which addresses one aspect of AElfric's works or career. The chapters are organised topically, rather than by chronology, genre or biography, and between them cover the entire AElfrician corpus and the major contextual issues; consideration of AElfric's Latin writings is carefully integrated with that of his Old English works. AElfric studies are currently a central element of Anglo-Saxon studies, but while to date there has been a great deal of detailed work on some aspects of AElfric, this collection provides the first overview. Contributors: Hugh Magennis, Joyce Hill, Christopher A. Jones, Mechthild Gretsch, M. R. Godden, Catherine Cubitt, Thomas N. Hall, Robert K. Upchurch, Mary Swan, Clare A. Lees, Gabriella Corona, Kathleen Davis, Jonathan Wilcox, Aaron J Kleist and Elaine Treharne.