Court ceremonies and rituals of power in Byzantium and the medieval Mediterranean : : comparative perspectives / / edited by Alexander Beihammer ; Stavroula Constantinou ; Maria Parani.

• Superior document: Medieval Mediterranean : Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400-1500, Volume 98
• TeilnehmendeR: Beihammer, Alexander Daniel.; Constantinou, Stavroula.; Parani, Maria G.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, Netherlands : : Brill,, 2013.; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Medieval Mediterranean ; v. 98.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (603 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Publicly performed rituals and ceremonies form an essential part of medieval political practice and court culture. This applies not only to western feudal societies, but also to the linguistically and culturally highly diversified environment of Byzantium and the Mediterranean basin. The continuity of Roman traditions and cross-fertilization between various influences originating from Constantinople, Armenia, the Arab-Muslim World, and western kingdoms and naval powers provide the framework for a distinct sphere of ritual expression and ceremonial performance. This collective volume, placing Byzantium into a comparative perspective between East and West, examines transformative processes from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, succession procedures in different political contexts, phenomena of cross-cultural appropriation and exchange, and the representation of rituals in art and literature. Contributors are Maria Kantirea, Martin Hinterberger, Walter Pohl, Andrew Marsham, Björn Weiler, Eric J. Hanne, Antonia Giannouli, Jo Van Steenbergen, Stefan Burkhardt, Ioanna Rapti, Jonathan Shepard, Panagiotis Agapitos, Henry Maguire, Christine Angelidi and Margaret Mullett.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Comparative Approaches to the Ritual World of the Medieval Mediterranean / Alexander Beihammer -- 1. Imperial Birthday Rituals in Late Antiquity / Maria Kantirea -- 2. Phthonos: A Pagan Relic in Byzantine Imperial Acclamations? / Martin Hinterberger -- 3. Ritualized Encounters: Late Roman Diplomacy and the Barbarians, Fifth–Sixth Century / Walter Pohl -- 4. The Architecture of Allegiance in Early Islamic Late Antiquity: The Accession of Muʿāwiya in Jerusalem, circa 661 CE / Andrew Marsham -- 5. Describing Rituals of Succession and the Legitimation of Kingship in the West, circa 1000–ca. 1150 / Björn Weiler -- 6. Ritual and Reality: The Bayʿa Process in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic Courts / Eric J. Hanne -- 7. Comnenian Imperial Succession and the Ritual World of Niketas Choniates’s Chronike Diegesis / Alexander D. Beihammer -- 8. Coronation Speeches in the Palaiologan Period / Antonia Giannouli -- 9. Ritual, Politics, and the City in Mamluk Cairo: The Bayna l-Qaṣrayn as a Mamluk ‘lieu de mémoire’, 1250–1382 / Jo Van Steenbergen -- 10. Court Ceremonies and Rituals of Power in the Latin Empire of Constantinople / Stefan Burkhardt -- 11. Featuring the King: Rituals of Coronation and Burial in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia / Ioanna Rapti -- 12. Adventus, Arrivistes and Rites of Rulership in Byzantium and France in the Tenth and Eleventh Century / Jonathan Shepard -- 13. Violence in the Palace: Rituals of Imperial Punishment in Prokopios’s Secret History / Stavroula Constantinou -- 14. The “Court of Amorous Dominion” and the “Gate of Love”: Rituals of Empire in a Byzantine Romance of the Thirteenth Century / Panagiotis A. Agapitos -- 15. Parodies of Imperial Ceremonial and Their Reflections in Byzantine Art / Henry Maguire -- 16. Look like an Angel: The Attire of Eunuchs and Its Significance within the Context of Middle Byzantine Court Ceremonial / Maria Parani -- 17. Designing Receptions in the Palace (De Cerimoniis 2.15) / Christine Angelidi -- 18. Tented Ceremony: Ephemeral Performances under the Komnenoi / Margaret Mullett -- Bibliography -- Index.