Book contents
- Worlds of Byzantium
- Worlds of Byzantium
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- One Worlds of Byzantium
- I Patterns, Paradigms, Scholarship
- Two East of Byzantium Revisited
- Three Byzantium and the Turn to the East
- Four The Classical Near East
- Five Alternatives to Commonwealth
- II Images, Objects, Archaeology
- III Languages, Confessions, Empire
- Index
- References
Three - Byzantium and the Turn to the East
from I - Patterns, Paradigms, Scholarship
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 October 2024
- Worlds of Byzantium
- Worlds of Byzantium
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- One Worlds of Byzantium
- I Patterns, Paradigms, Scholarship
- Two East of Byzantium Revisited
- Three Byzantium and the Turn to the East
- Four The Classical Near East
- Five Alternatives to Commonwealth
- II Images, Objects, Archaeology
- III Languages, Confessions, Empire
- Index
- References
Summary
Great changes have taken place in the approach of historians to the topic since the publication of East of Byzantium (1980). Instead of centre-periphery or top-down models they now see the relations between Byzantium and the east in terms of connectivity, networks and horizontal ties. This is connected with the spread of late antiquity as a concept and includes a great expansion in Syriac studies. Late antiquity now embraces the emergence of Islam and looks towards Eurasia; another challenge is posed by the rise of global history. But these developments, with the new focus on the fall of the western empire, raise major problems of identity for Byzantium itself, and indeed for western Europe.
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- Worlds of ByzantiumReligion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East, pp. 62 - 77Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024