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The work of the Arab geographer Abu Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Idrisi (d. 1165), titled “Entertainment of the Longing to Traverse the Countries” (Nuzhat al-Mushtaq), was created under the patronage of the Norman King Roger II (1130–1154) and completed in 1153 in alermo. The text reflects or mentions a total of 184 Balkan settlements, described with varying levels of detail. The information was gathered from sailors, merchants, travelers, Arabs in Roger II’s army operating in the Balkans, Crusaders returning from the Holy Land via Sicily, and other sources. In describing these settlements, Al-Idrisi follows a structured approach: the settlements are situated along main trade and military routes or their branches, with details on their size and the distances between them. The descriptions provide a vivid depiction of cultivated fields, vineyards, orchards, and bustling markets, presenting a comprehensive view of the economic and social life in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deer hunting was heavily ritualized in medieval Europe, as indicated by historical and archaeological evidence; it also emphasized social differentiation. The butchery of a deer carcass ('unmaking') was integral to the ritual and led to different body parts being destined for individuals of differing status. Archaeologically, the practice is particularly visible in high-status sites in Britain, but documentary and archaeological sources are consistent in pinpointing its earliest occurrence in twelfth-century France. In Italy, late medieval evidence for such 'unmaking' is present but is not supported by any known historical sources. Red and fallow deer were butchered in a formalized manner, whereas the data for roe deer are unclear. Although the Normans contributed to the diffusion of the 'unmaking' practice, in France it is also found outside the core area of Norman influence. The extensive spread of the practice demonstrates the connectedness of the medieval hunting culture in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The work represents an overview of the cultural impact of the Eastern Roman Empire on the development of monastic libraries in medieval Italy from the 6th to 13th century through the creation of manuscripts, their safekeeping in the monastic communities and their distribution among the clergy. Special attention will be given to the southern parts of Italy, the city of Rome and the Exarchate of Ravenna, during the supremacy of the royal court in Constantinople and the reign of the Normans, which was shortly stopped after the 8th-century Arab conquest of the southern parts of the Peninsula. The organisation of monastery libraries will be described referring to the monastic rules based on the ones created in eastern parts of Europe and Asia. The impact on manuscript illustration in different parts of Byzantine Italy is also described, as well as scribal and translation activity that started in the 6th and continued up to the 13th century. This activity, together with the refuge of the Romans with personal libraries to Italy, before and after the fall of Constantinople in the year 1453. helped the preservation of Greek thought of antiquity and the Byzantine era for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bizans İmparatorluğu, asırlar boyu devam eden büyük gücünü, askerî yapısının mükemmelliğine borçlu olmuştur. Oldukça geniş bir alana yayılan Bizans arazisi, bu askerler ile korunmaya çalışılmıştır. Bizans ordusunda görev yapan ücretli askerler ise Avrupa’dan, Rusya steplerinden, İskandinavya’nın soğuk iklimlerinden ve Balkanların kuzey-doğusundaki Peçenek ile Kuman Türklerinden elde edilmiştir. Bu topluluk içerisine XI. yüzyılın son çeyreğinden itibaren Norman paralı askerler dâhil olmaya başlamıştır. Viking kökenli olan Normanlar, Kuzey Fransa’dan Endülüs topraklarına ve Güney İtalya’ya kadar yayılarak burada paralı askerlik yapmışlardır. Onların Güney İtalya’yı ve ardından Sicilya’yı ele geçirmeleri ise devletleşme süreçlerini beraberinde getirmiştir. Bizans hizmetinde görev yapan Norman paralı askerler ise başlarındaki liderlere olan itaatleri yanında üstün savaş yetenekleri ile de göz doldurmuşlardır. Üstlendikleri görevleri başarmalarına rağmen güvenilmez ve asî yapıları, onları Bizans makamları ile karşı karşıya getirmiştir. Bizans, isyan eden Norman liderlerden genellikle Artuk, Tutak gibi Selçuklu beyleri vasıtası ile kurtulmuştur. Ayrıca Bizans aynı politikası ile baş edemediği bir başka güç olan Selçuklulara karşı benzer bir siyaset izlemiştir. Kendisine karşı isyan eden Normanlara yönelik mücadelesinde Türkmen beylerinden aldığı desteğin faydalarını gören Bizans, daha sonraki Güney İtalya’daki Normanlara karşı mücadelesinde de Selçukluların askeri birliklerine müracaat etmiştir. Bu süreç de 1107 yılında seçme askerlerini Bizans hizmetine veren I. Kılıçarslan’ın o dönem Meyyâfârikîn olarak bilinen bugünkü Silvan’da hayatını kaybetmesi ile neticelenmiştir. Bu makale, bu sürecin nasıl başladığını Norman paralı askerlerinin Anadolu’daki faaliyetleri üzerinden ele almaya çalışacaktır.

Copyright of Res Historica is the property of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the second half of the 11th century, the Roman Curia understood that the symbolic ratification of Norman power necessarily had to pass through official ceremonies and ritual actions. These are anthropological and symbolic aspects inherent in the process of mutual recognition between religious and secular power. There were three main legal forms used for the political legitimation of the Normans: the feudal census, the "loyal" oath and the religious investiture. It is a conflictual relationship between "Regnum" and "Sacerdotium", based on the unstable balance between the pontifical religious power and the transfer of the papal potestas into the hands of the Altavilla family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tetkik is the property of Oku Okut Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Review of The Normans: Power, Conquest and Culture in 11th-Century Europe. By Judith A. Green. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2022. ISBN978-0-300-18033-6. ix + 351 pp. £25.

The Staufen conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1194 can be understood as the violent destruction of a sophisticated and cosmopolitan Norman kingdom and its replacement by a new dynasty with starkly different cultural and political models. Indeed, many contemporary authors decried the brutality associated with Henry VI's conquest. This article considers the other side of the coin by examining the evidence for attempts to integrate Henry VI into the local models associated with the previous monarchy. Despite the limited survival of evidence, there is reason to think that Staufen administrators deliberately continued and cultivated the ceremonies and traditions associated with the Norman Hauteville crown. Moreover, Sicilian elites had meaningful incentives to help translate between Norman and Staufen cultures. Finally, this article examines how a language of Staufen imperial authority could be blended with traditions of Norman rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a study of the life of Gunhild (d. 1087), sister of King Harold, who, together with her mother Gytha, sought exile in Flanders after the Norman Conquest; it is set in the wider context of the fate of high-status elite or royal women in post-Conquest England. Gunhild's lead burial plaque with inscription (found in her tomb in the church of St Donatian in Bruges) constitutes a unique testimony to the fate of a royal sister in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest. Her Latin obituary, the longest known on a lead plaque for an eleventh-century woman, consists of a biographical sketch of her and her family, including her brother's death, and her itinerary in exile, while the second half is a near-hagiographical account of her as a woman religious; a new edition and English translation are included in an appendix. The article analyses the historical, literary and material aspects of Gunhild's life, including evidence from the archive of St Donatian as to the considerable wealth she bequeathed to the canons in return for her burial in the church's wall. It is suggested that as a woman religious she lived a penitential life on foreign soil not least to pay for the sins of the English defeated by the Normans. Comparison with other English royal or high-status elite women (and men) suggests that, defiantly and uniquely, Gunhild and her mother Gytha rejected accommodation with the Conqueror and instead followed the path of exile abroad, more commonly chosen by men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the Norman conquest of Byzantine Italy and Saracen Sicily, Robert Guiscard took the initiative to conquer the Byzantine Empire in 1081. Robert Guiscard set out from Italy for the island of Corfu, which he soon conquered. After landing, he received military reinforcements from Italy, and attacks began on the city of Durres, the main port on the Adriatic. The city was well protected on a long, narrow peninsula running parallel to the coast but separated by swamps. Guiscard brought his army to the peninsula and set up camp outside the city walls, but the Norman fleet sailing towards Durres was struck by a storm and lost several ships, despite the losses after the Norman siege, he invaded Durres. Durres turned into the main theater of the Norman-Byzantine war, and the conquest of Durres by the Normans brought fear, not only to the Ottoman Empire, but also to Europe's largest trading power, Venice. By controlling the Strait of Otranto, the Normans would control almost the entire Eastern Mediterranean. The geographical position of Durres and its connection with the old road Egnatia, which leads to Constantinople, make Durres the key to the conquest of the Byzantine Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on Benedict Anderson’s idea about the nation being a fictive construct—an imagined community of people who see themselves as sovereign, exclusive, and one with a shared history—this article examines how the race-based opposition between ‘Saxons’ and ‘Normans’ in histories about the Angevin period was popularized in the 19th century, and how this idea was integrated into the stories of three popular films in the following century: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Ivanhoe (1952), and Becket (1964). To better understand this phenomenon, this article uses the term ‘cinematic imaginary’ to convey how the shared institutions, values, and histories that constituted ‘medieval’ nationhood were depicted in film. This article argues that, much like how historians and novelists of the 19th century imagined how people of certain races in medieval England—particularly during the period of the Angevin Empire (c. 1154–1216)—operated according to set of values and embodied certain attributes, so too did filmmakers in midcentury Hollywood bend the categories of ‘Saxon’ and ‘Norman’ to align with their conceptions of race, nation, and class conflict in the 20th century. Through an examination of these imaginaries in popular cinema, this article illuminates how 20th-century interpretations of history were presented to audiences to convey a set of ideas about a medieval past in light of modern class struggle, imperialism, racism, and nationalism.Banner image taken from The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Copyright Warner Bros, all rights reserved. Image source: www.intofilm.org/films/3539/.

Weapons, according to the Northern Germans, could directly influence the world. Many researchers interpret it as evidence that the Normans identified their weapons with living beings. This article shows that the Northern Germans’ beliefs in actor weapons can be better understood through the lens of their deep conviction that any weapon has its “biography”, whereas trying to understand their views based on the idea of “partially animate” weapons is unhelpful. Provided that various material items accumulate their “biography”, one can potentially explain the grounds for the belief in such forms of the activity of weapons that are not related to the features of a living being. For example, an enchanted weapon affects the world by means similar to computer algorithms. The magical properties of a weapon could have been determined by the person who made it. Having been considered as special items, weapons were used to cast spells during the conclusion of international treaties. The historical sources focused on the idea of “weapons coming to life” only reveal that some mythological creatures (gods or magicians) have the power to invisibly control weapons. Therefore, these sources fail to confirm that the Normans and Rus’ believed in “animate” weapons.

Copyright of Mediterranea - Ricerche Storiche is the property of Mediterranea-Ricerche Storiche and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Southeastern European Studies / Güneydoğu Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Journal of Southeastern European Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The uncompleted abbey church of Venosa has attracted the attention of Italian and international research since the mid-nineteenth century. Built of large ancient spolia, the church with ambulatory and radiating chapels had been chosen as dynastic burial place for at least the first Hauteville generation in the South. From the point of view of architectural culture, this suggests reflection on the dynasty's cultural particularity, their Normannitas, in dialogue with the host society. But we are presented with a lesson in repeated failure. It can be assumed that the conception and start of construction of the new ambulatory in Venosa took place on the initiative of Duke Robert Guiscard († 1085) and Abbot Berengar († 1095), also from Normandy. Extensive recent on-site observations and the meticulous historical exposition of Hubert Houben allow three construction phases to be identified, each achieving less. However, self-referentiality, creative imagination, and geographically far-reaching formal connections (even a dialogue with the crusader choir of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem) indicate unwaning ambition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The imitation of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem offers various degrees of interpretation: from sporadic citation (Piazza Armerina) to topographical (Monte Sant'Angelo), icnographic (Brindisi) or numerological (Canosa) reconstruction. The case studies allow us to measure the vastness of the cultural relations of the Norman nobles with the shores of the Mediterranean, facilitated by the maritime transport. They also reveal the intertwining of dynastic reasons with functional liturgical needs, and the prevalence of these over those according to an unscrupulously modern conception of the state. The Norman buildings demonstrate a deep knowledge of the original organisms and a full understanding of their functioning, both material and semantic. This derives from the easy accessibility to direct and indirect documentary sources, given by the frequentation of the places and languages of the Mediterranean: a 'network-movement' where everything passes more easily than elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies of Sicilian architecture falling into the period of the Norman County (1061-1130) have recognized that it was formed in particular cultural circumstances; the result of both the importation of architectural knowledge to serve the needs of patrons and sites, and its adaptation to a local skill base. To clarify the theme, the following paper focuses on crypts in Sicilian cathedrals where construction was ordered by Roger I of Altavilla in the late 11th century and early 12th century. We will first examine all surviving examples, to identify the role played by the choice of the site. Most were chosen for their strategic position in respect of their natural and inhabited surroundings; e will also enquire as to the relationship between the crypt and the cathedral; finally, we will try to identify the dynamics of the interaction between Norman architectural culture and that of the population already present on the Island at the time of the conquest [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Norman military architecture appears to be much studied in different national contexts, it does not receive the same attention in transnational context. This essay on Norman fortifications in the province of Avellino derives from a twofold critical need that is to involve the architectural production of a small territory in the southern Apennines and, at the same time, compare it in a diachronic and synchronic way with examples chosen in other regions of the Norman area. This line of research is the only way to deal, albeit briefly, with the various issues related to the study of castles in the wide range of plurality and complex configurations that arise from them, in a crucial phase of European history in which peoples, who would later belong to different nations, were brought together. Consequently, the architectures, that are the subjects of this research, are not only considered in relation to one another, but also through each other, framed in global contexts in terms of dynamics of cultural interaction and the transfer of models. This is aimed at finding points of intersection of transnational processes with local ones and, therefore, at determining an interpretative model capable of reconstructing the subtle net of relationships and construction knowledge in the contexts of origin and arrival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Military Engineer / Hadmérnök is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Within the Romanesque abbey church at St Albans (Hertfordshire), the vestiges of an earlier structure have been identified for the first time. A hitherto unrecorded feature in the transept, noted by the author in 2017, indicates that, at some stage, the nave lacked its existing arcade piers and instead had solid walls. The implications of this are considerable, calling for a thorough reassessment of the building's history. For now, it is important to record the primary evidence, so as to make it available for further research. This article aims to provide a concise account of the evidence and a summary of what it might mean. According to the thirteenth-century chronicler, Matthew Paris, the existing church was begun in 1077 and completed in 1088. New evidence indicates, however, that the Romanesque building, with its aisled nave and presbytery, was preceded by a cruciform structure without aisles. The inference is that the existing building contains the fabric of this unaisled predecessor. The obvious conclusion – that it therefore represents the lost Anglo-Saxon abbey church – does not follow without question; as yet, excavation has yielded no conclusive evidence of an earlier church on the site. The critical diagnostic feature presented here for the first time adds substance to the view that the remodelling of unaisled buildings was not uncommon in the post-Conquest period, including large as well as minor churches, as identified long ago at York Minster and, more recently, at Worksop Priory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Islamic Research / İslâmi Araştırmalar Dergisi is the property of Turkey Economical & Cultural Solidarity (TEK-DAV) Foundation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The adoption of Christianity as the dominant form of the religious world perception was the basis for fundamental changes in the field of socioeconomic, political, and spiritual life of the peoples of Central and Western Europe. This study is a reflection of the results of the scientific research on the problem of how the indicated transformations are conveyed in the culture and art of the period from the 12th to 14th centuries. The main tendencies of European perception of the hero image during the pagan era were singled out on the basis of the materials obtained during the analysis of texts from such sources as English church chronicles, Irish folklore, Scandinavian sagas, and other works of scaldic poetry. A wide range of general scientific and specialized methods and techniques necessary for the analysis of archaeographic data were used. The scientific relevance and novelty of the study lies in the fact that it represents an attempt to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the selected sources on the history of the German-Scandinavian peoples in the early and high Middle Ages. At the moment, an increased attention to the culture and life of the peoples of Northern Europe in the Middle Ages has taken place, both among humanitarian professionals and among non-specialists. In this regard, this work has a certain theoretical and practical significance for representatives of various humanitarian scientific disciplines – history, sociology, anthropology, religious studies, etc., as well as representatives of those research practices whose activities are directly or indirectly related to the study sociocultural background of the European Middle Ages.

The present study analyzes the role of three apparitions of Archangel Michael during the 5th-10th centuries AD, a large period of time known as the Dark Ages. This line of revelations gradually led to a widespread cult dedicated to the Prince of angels in Western Europe after 500 AD. Thus, St. Michael's cult set in motion a great number of pilgrims from one famous michaelic church to another. This fact gradually led in time to the ethnogenesis of some European nations but also to a flourishing culture created within the Medieval West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Southeastern European Studies / Güneydoğu Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Journal of Southeastern European Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Southeastern European Studies / Güneydoğu Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Journal of Southeastern European Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines how landscape and environmental factors shaped the eleventh-century Norman conquest of southern Italy and Sicily. The conquest was documented in several narrative histories, including those of Amatus of Montecassino, William of Apulia, and Geoffrey Malaterra. These texts have been extensively analyzed for their rhetorical qualities as literary texts, but such an approach has tended to cast the landscape in a passive role, as an object awaiting rhetorical shaping. In light of recent developments in ecocritical studies, these texts ought to be revisited. The dynamic is not one of conquerors triumphing over conquered land. Instead, these texts offer a much more ambivalent picture. Norman mercenaries struggled to adapt to the ecological and environmental challenges of the region, its heat, volcanic activity, hostile fauna, and scarcity of water. A careful reading of these Latin historical accounts can be used to supplement absences in the archival record, and to provide a picture of medieval co-adaptation to the challenges of a particular Mediterranean landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nationalist feeling is agitating again today. As far as the new and ultra-developed global scenario is concerned, a huge facet of exotic invasiveness is up for grab. People of the modern era are in the thought process that their native country might be under serious threat; even though; they would remain silent until their entity rattles. The national tale before Ivanhoe reflects national character as a synecdoche of an unchanging cultural space; here patriotism is a self-evident legacy, the result of unbroken continuity and a populist community that unites aristocracy and folks. Arguably, Sir Scott for the first time, enlightens the vision of national continuity through the forcible, often violent, entry into history that does the feudal folk community become a nation. Patriotism is a positive thing for every nation and its people. It’s undoubtedly a notion of proud and passion. But here in the novel Ivanhoe, the other aspect of patriotism has been also highlighted, which has the notion of negativity and intolerance. However, we should keep in mind the time when Sir Scott was writing the novel. This was the period where just the resentment happened between France and England. In fact, the novel Ivanhoe was published (1819) just after few years of Napoleonic Wars, where eventually, England went on victorious after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo. Therefore, against this historical backdrop, the continuous struggle in Ivanhoe between domineering Normans (French) and honest Englishmen (Saxon and their allies) took on center stage to redefine the concept of patriotism.