|
Showing 1 - 10 of
10 matches in All Departments
This book investigates how minorities contributed to medieval
society, comparing these contributions to majority society’s
perceptions of the minority. In this volume the contributors define
‘minority’ status as based on a group’s relative position in
power relations, that is, a group with less power than the dominant
group(s). The chapters cover both what modern historians call
‘religious’ and ‘ethnic’ minorities (including, for
example, Muslims in Latin Europe, German-speakers in Central
Europe, Dutch in England, Jews and Christians in Egypt), but also
address contemporary medieval definitions; medieval writers
distinguished between ‘believers’ and ‘infidels’, between
groups speaking different languages and between those with
different legal statuses. The contributors reflect on patterns of
influence in terms of what majority societies borrowed from
minorities, the ways in which minorities contributed to society,
the mechanisms in majority society that triggered positive or
negative perceptions, and the function of such perceptions in the
dynamics of power. The book highlights structural and situational
similarities as well as historical contingency in the shaping of
minority influence and majority perceptions. The chapters in this
book were originally published as special issue of the Journal of
Medieval History.
This book investigates how minorities contributed to medieval
society, comparing these contributions to majority society's
perceptions of the minority. In this volume the contributors define
'minority' status as based on a group's relative position in power
relations, that is, a group with less power than the dominant
group(s). The chapters cover both what modern historians call
'religious' and 'ethnic' minorities (including, for example,
Muslims in Latin Europe, German-speakers in Central Europe, Dutch
in England, Jews and Christians in Egypt), but also address
contemporary medieval definitions; medieval writers distinguished
between 'believers' and 'infidels', between groups speaking
different languages and between those with different legal
statuses. The contributors reflect on patterns of influence in
terms of what majority societies borrowed from minorities, the ways
in which minorities contributed to society, the mechanisms in
majority society that triggered positive or negative perceptions,
and the function of such perceptions in the dynamics of power. The
book highlights structural and situational similarities as well as
historical contingency in the shaping of minority influence and
majority perceptions. The chapters in this book were originally
published as special issue of the Journal of Medieval History.
In recent years, the 'medieval frontier' has been the subject of
extensive research. But the term has been understood in many
different ways: political boundaries; fuzzy lines across which
trade, religions and ideas cross; attitudes to other peoples and
their customs. This book draws attention to the differences between
the medieval and modern understanding of frontiers, questioning the
traditional use of the concepts of 'frontier' and 'frontier
society'. It contributes to the understanding of physical
boundaries as well as metaphorical and ideological frontiers, thus
providing a background to present-day issues of political and
cultural delimitation. In a major introduction, David Abulafia
analyses these various ambiguous meanings of the term 'frontier',
in political, cultural and religious settings. The articles that
follow span Europe from the Baltic to Iberia, from the Canary
Islands to central Europe, Byzantium and the Crusader states. The
authors ask what was perceived as a frontier during the Middle
Ages? What was not seen as a frontier, despite the usage in modern
scholarship? The articles focus on a number of themes to elucidate
these two main questions. One is medieval ideology. This includes
the analysis of medieval formulations of what frontiers should be
and how rulers had a duty to defend and/or extend the frontiers;
how frontiers were defined (often in a different way in
rhetorical-ideological formulations than in practice); and how in
certain areas frontier ideologies were created. The other main
topic is the emergence of frontiers, how medieval people created
frontiers to delimit areas, how they understood and described
frontiers. The third theme is that of encounters, and a questioning
of medieval attitudes to such encounters. To what extent did
medieval observers see a frontier between themselves and other
groups, and how does real interaction compare with ideological or
narrative formulations of such interaction?
This groundbreaking comparative history of the early centuries of
Bohemia, Hungary and Poland sets the development of each polity in
the context of the central European region as a whole. Focusing on
the origins of the realms and their development in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, the book concludes with the thirteenth century
when significant changes in social and economic structures
occurred. The book presents a series of thematic chapters on every
aspect of the early history of the region covering political,
religious, economic, social and cultural developments, including an
investigation of origin myths that questions traditional national
narratives. It also explores the ways in which west European
patterns were appropriated and adapted through the local
initiatives of rulers, nobles and ecclesiastics in central Europe.
An ideal introduction to the essential themes in medieval central
European history, the book sheds important new light on regional
similarities and differences.
This groundbreaking comparative history of the early centuries of
Bohemia, Hungary and Poland sets the development of each polity in
the context of the central European region as a whole. Focusing on
the origins of the realms and their development in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, the book concludes with the thirteenth century
when significant changes in social and economic structures
occurred. The book presents a series of thematic chapters on every
aspect of the early history of the region covering political,
religious, economic, social and cultural developments, including an
investigation of origin myths that questions traditional national
narratives. It also explores the ways in which west European
patterns were appropriated and adapted through the local
initiatives of rulers, nobles and ecclesiastics in central Europe.
An ideal introduction to the essential themes in medieval central
European history, the book sheds important new light on regional
similarities and differences.
This 2007 text is a comparative, analysis of one of the most
fundamental stages in the formation of Europe. Leading scholars
explore the role of the spread of Christianity and the formation of
new principalities in the birth of Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Bohemia, Hungary, Poland and Rus' around the year 1000. Drawing on
history, archaeology and art history, and emphasizing problems
related to the sources and historiographical debates, they
demonstrate the complex interdependence between the processes of
religious and political change, covering conditions prior to the
introduction of Christianity, the adoption of Christianity, and the
development of the rulers' power. Regional patterns emerge,
highlighting both the similarities in ruler-sponsored cases of
Christianization, and differences in the consolidation of power and
in institutions introduced by Christianity. The essays reveal how
local societies adopted Christianity; medieval ideas of what
constituted the dividing line between Christians and
non-Christians; and the connections between Christianity and power.
This 2007 text is a comparative, analysis of one of the most
fundamental stages in the formation of Europe. Leading scholars
explore the role of the spread of Christianity and the formation of
new principalities in the birth of Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Bohemia, Hungary, Poland and Rus' around the year 1000. Drawing on
history, archaeology and art history, and emphasizing problems
related to the sources and historiographical debates, they
demonstrate the complex interdependence between the processes of
religious and political change, covering conditions prior to the
introduction of Christianity, the adoption of Christianity, and the
development of the rulers' power. Regional patterns emerge,
highlighting both the similarities in ruler-sponsored cases of
Christianization, and differences in the consolidation of power and
in institutions introduced by Christianity. The essays reveal how
local societies adopted Christianity; medieval ideas of what
constituted the dividing line between Christians and
non-Christians; and the connections between Christianity and power.
Modern life in increasingly heterogeneous societies has directed
attention to patterns of interaction, often using a framework of
persecution and tolerance. This study of the economic, social,
legal and religious position of three minorities (Jews, Muslims and
pagan Turkic nomads) argues that different degrees of exclusion and
integration characterized medieval non-Christian status in the
medieval Christian kingdom of Hungary between 1000 and 1300. A
complex explanation of non-Christian status emerges from the
analysis of their economic, social, legal and religious positions
and roles. Existence on the frontier with the nomadic world led to
the formulation of a frontier ideology, and to anxiety about
Hungary's detachment from Christendom, which affected policies
towards non-Christians. The study also succeeds in integrating
central European history with the study of the medieval world,
while challenging such current concepts in medieval studies as
frontier societies, persecution and tolerance, ethnicity and 'the
other'.
This is a study of the economic, social, legal and religious position of three minorities within the medieval Christian kingdom of Hungary. The book demonstrates that the status of such minorities depended not simply on Christian religious tenets, but on a larger framework--including the legal and social system, economic possibilities, and conflicts between kings and the clergy. It also investigates the situation "at the gate of Christendom"--the frontier with the nomad world--and the way this affected both Christian and non-Christian interaction and Christian ideology.
This volume brings together a set of key studies on the history of
medieval Central Europe (Bohemia, Hungary, Poland), along with
others specially commissioned for the book or translated, and a new
introduction. This region was both an area of immigration, and one
of polities in expansion. Such expansion included the settlement
and exploitation of previously empty lands as well as rulers'
attempts to incorporate new territories under their rule, although
these attempts did not always succeed. Often, German immigration
has been prioritized in scholarship, and the medieval expansion of
Central Europe has been equated with the expansion of Germans.
Debates then focused on the positive or negative contribution of
Germans to local life, and the consequences of their settlement.
This perspective, however, distorts our understanding of medieval
processes. On the one hand, Central Europe was not a passive
recipient of immigrants. Local rulers and eventually nobles
benefited from and encouraged immigration; they played an active
role. On the other hand, German immigration was not a unified
movement, and cannot be equated with a drang nach osten. Finally,
not just Germans, but also various Romance-speaking and other
immigrant groups settled in Central Europe. This volume, therefore,
seeks to present a more complex picture of medieval expansion in
Central Europe.
|
|