The conquest of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 is usually considered the low point of Byzantine history and the decisive step towards its ultimate downfall in 1453. Byzantium, however, was not the only polity in the Eastern Mediterranean experiencing dramatic disruptions in the 13th century; especially the expansion of the Mongols, but also the establishment of the Mamluks in Egypt, affected the entire Western Eurasia. At the same time, these changes opened new networks of diplomatic, commercial and cultural exchange linking the Mediterranean with East Asia. The papers in this session highlight from various angles and from West to East how the competing successor states of Byzantium post 1204 and the early Palaiologan empire after Constantinople´s “reconquest” in 1261 tried to come to terms with this new geopolitical environment, both in the relations to their immediate neighbors as well as to the new (Mongol) “super powers” of the period. For this purpose, speakers will use sources not only in Greek and Latin, but also in Armenian, Persian, Arabic and other relevant languages as well as the material evidence of charters, manuscripts and coins in order to access Byzantium from within and from beyond its borders. The aim is to provide a new perspective on the period after 1204 not a mere prelude to 1453, but in comparison within the transformative 13th century in its global dimension. Contributions in this session come from across academic generations, from PhD-candidates to well-established scholars. The session is sponsored by the project “Entangled Charters of Anatolia (1200-1300, ENCHANT)” funded by the Austrian Science Funds FWF (P 36403-G), which focuses on the charter productions and relations between the empires of Nicaea (respectively Palaiologan Byzantium) and Trebizond, Mediterranean Armenia and the Seljuk Sultanate as well as their connections to the wider world of Eurasia.
Borders are changed by force and maintained by force. At the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries, Mediterranean powers clashed over territorial and maritime claims across the Mediterranean Region (the Crown of Aragon, the House of Anjou, the Italian maritime republics, and the Turkish emirates). By recapturing its historic capital in…
Although certain episodes of Armenian-Byzantine relations in the second half of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries have attracted scholarly attention, these interactions have not yet been examined as a coherent subject of study. This paper offers the first comprehensive overview of relations between the Kingdom of Cilician (Mediterranean) Armenia – ruled by the Het‘umian branch…
This paper examines the extraordinary political trajectory of Shams al-Dīn Iṣfahānī, one of the most powerful and controversial statesmen of thirteenth-century Anatolia. His career, which spanned the reigns of several Rūm Saljuq sultans, encapsulates the shifting balance of power between the Mongols, Byzantium, and the Saljuqs of Rūm. It unfolded at a time when the…
By linking the maritime and overland Silk Roads, the medieval Mongol Empire laid the groundwork for cultural and commercial exchanges of an unprecedented scale. Scholars have increasingly recognized that one of the most enduring legacies of Mongol rule was the dynamic spread, transformation, and blending of ideas and material culture across the entire Eurasian continent….