In recent decades, scholarly debate has increasingly focused on the interactions, mutual influences, and technological transfers facilitated by various forms of mobility between Byzantium and the Islamic world. This Round Table aims to explore practices and techniques in different fields that indicate – or imply – cultural and material exchanges. The two-way transmission of technical expertise has not yet been fully explored from either a theoretical or a practical perspective. Evidence of these exchanges appears in Byzantine sources as well as in Latin, Arabic, Syriac, and other textual traditions. The flow of technical knowledge extended beyond Byzantium, circulating in diverse social and geographical contexts, often independently of conflicts in Persian, Arab, or Turkish regions. Various factors acted as agents of cultural and technological transfer. Troops, prisoners of war, population groups, and individual figures – such as scholars, ambassadors, artisans, merchants, and even military officers – contributed to these exchanges. The papers in this Round Τable will attempt to examine the promoters of skills and knowledge, the driving forces behind these exchanges, and other factors that facilitated them.
This paper offers a comprehensive exploration of the intellectual and material interactions between Byzantium and various Asian cultures, including Persian, Arabic, and Turkic (Eastern and Northern) regions. Despite growing academic interest in these interactions over recent decades, the nuances of cultural transfers from Asia to Byzantium have yet to be fully conceptualized. This paper aims…
The nautical skills of naval officers and sailors in Byzantium and the Islamic world required, among other skills, a combination of practical experience and theoretical knowledge of environmental conditions, including winds, currents, and coastal geography. Byzantine nautical manuals emphasize the importance of understanding natural conditions and adapting navigation or organizing naval expeditions accordingly. This study…
This paper examines the ‘dual-use items’ (a term which encompasses goods and technologies that have both civilian and military applications) and their production in a historical perspective, focusing on Byzantium and neighbouring areas. Using as a starting point the ‘dual use’ concept of fire and water producing energy goods as well as their technological applications,…
If we are to believe the official statements contained in Byzantine sources (including military manuals, legal texts, and the works of emperors such as Constantine Porphyrogenitus), most aspects of military technology were (or should have been) well-guarded state secrets. Emperor Constantine VII’s advice to his son to protect the “secret” of Greek Fire is a…
The aim of this paper is to shed light on sound as a cross-cultural factor on the basis of exchanges, both in peace and war, between the Byzantines and Muslim Arabs. It examines technical knowledge and expertise in sound management in secular Byzantine and Muslim settings, both civilian and military, from the 10th to the…