Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:49:31.149Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Five - Alternatives to Commonwealth

Modes of Connectivity between Byzantium and Medieval Eastern Europe

from I - Patterns, Paradigms, Scholarship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2024

By
Christian Raffensperger
Edited by
Elizabeth S. Bolman ,
Scott Fitzgerald Johnson  and
Jack Tannous
Elizabeth S. Bolman
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
Scott Fitzgerald Johnson
Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma
Jack Tannous
Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey
Get access

Summary

Abstract:The Byzantine Commonwealth has been used as a descriptive category, a tool ofanalysis, and a framework for understanding (and dividing) the medieval world since its creationin the 1970s by Dmitri Obolensky. This article examines the scholarship on the ideaof ByzantineCommonwealth, both positive and negative that have been put forth over the intervening fiftyyears.Following this examination, the article suggests alternatives to this still pervasive ideawhich might expressin new wayssome of the key realities of interaction in this medieval space.Those alternatives include utilizing kinship structures as well as world system theory to look atthe relationship between Byzantium and the medieval eastern European world.

Keywords

Byzantine CommonwealthRus’SerbiaDmitri ObolenskyGarth FowdenByzantiumMedievaleasternEurope
Type
Chapter
Information
Worlds of Byzantium
Religion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East
 , pp. 98 - 120
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Before European Hegemony: The World System a.d. 1250–1350. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Adamczyk, Dariusz. “The Political Economy of the Arab Silver Redistribution Networks in Viking Age Eastern and Central Europe: Polycentric Connections or Entangled Hierarchies.” Review (Fernand Braudel Center) 36, no. 3/4 (2013): 265–86.Google Scholar
Komnena, Anna. Alexiad, translated by Sewter, E. R. A.. New York: Penguin, 2009.Google Scholar
Berend, Nora, Urbańczyk, Przemysław, and Wiszewski, Przemysław. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary and Poland, c. 900–c. 1300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budak, Nevin. “Croatia and Byzantium in the Tenth Century: A Latin Member of the Byzantine Commonwealth.” In Center, Province and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos: From De ceremoniis to De administrando imperio, edited by Gail, Niels, Menze, Volker, and Bálint, Csanád, pp. 211–22. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018.Google Scholar
Cameron, Averil. Byzantine Matters. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Hall, Thomas D.. “Conceptualizing Core/Periphery Hierarchies for Comparative Study.” In Chase-Dunn and Hall, Core/Periphery Relations, pp. 5–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Hall, Thomas D., eds. Core/Periphery Relations in Precapitalist Worlds. Boulder; San Francisco; Oxford: Westview Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Porphyrogenitus, Constantine. De administrando imperio, translated by Jenkins, R. J. H.. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1985.Google Scholar
de Baumgarten, N. “Généalogies et mariages Occidentaux des Rurikides Russes du Xe au XIIIe siècle.” Orientalia Christiana 9, no. 25 (1927): 5–95.Google Scholar
Earenfight, Theresa. Queenship in Medieval Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, John V. A., Jr. The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Fowden, Garth. Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franklin, Simon. “The Empire of the Rhomaioi as Viewed from Kievan Russia: Aspects of Byzantino-Russian Cultural Relations.” In Byzantium – Rus’ – Russia: Studies in the Translation of Christian Culture, pp. 507–37. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002.Google Scholar
Franklin, Simon Writing, Society and Culture in Early Rus’, c. 950–1300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaul, Niels. “Zooming in on Constantinople: Introductory Notes on the Interplay of Center, Province and Periphery in the Tenth-Century Byzantine Empire.” In Center, Province, and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos: From De ceremoniis to De administrando imperio, edited by Gail, Niels, Menze, Volker, and Bálint, Csanád, pp. 1–21. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018.Google Scholar
Hardt, Mathias. “The Importance of Long-Distance Trade for the Slavic Princes in the Early and High Middle Ages.” In The Medieval Networks in East Central Europe: Commerce, Contacts, Communication, edited by Nagy, Balázs, Schmieder, Felicitas, and Vadas, András, pp. 174–86. London; New York: Routledge, 2019.Google Scholar
Helms, Mary W. Craft and the Kingly Ideal: Art, Trade, and Power. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Howard-Johnston, James. “Byzantium and Its Neighbors.” In The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, edited by Jeffreys, Elizabeth with Haldon, John and Cormack, Robin, pp. 939–56. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald. “A New Byzantine Commonwealth.” Dumbarton Oaks Symposium paper, April 22, 2016.Google Scholar
Kaldellis, Anthony. The Byzantine Republic: People and Power in New Rome. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaldellis, Anthony “Did the Byzantine Empire Have ‘Ecumenical’ or ‘Universal’ Aspirations?” In Ancient States and Infrastructural Power: Europe, Asia, and America, edited by Ando, Clifford and Richardson, Seth, pp. 272–300. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaldellis, Anthony Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Kaldellis, Anthony Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019.Google Scholar
Kazhdan, Alexander. “Rus’–Byzantine Princely Marriages in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.” Harvard Ukrainian Studies 12/13 (1988/9): 414–29.Google Scholar
Krag, Anne Hedeager. “Byzantine and Oriental Silks in Denmark, 800–1200.” Medieval Clothing and Textiles 14 (2018): 36–63.Google Scholar
Langó, Péter, and András, Patay-Horváth. “Byzantinizing Minor Objects in the Carpathian Basin: Tracing Multi-level Connections during the Tenth Century.” In Center, Province and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos: From De ceremoniis to De administrando imperio, edited by Gail, Niels, Menze, Volker, and Bálint, Csanád, pp. 184–91. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018.Google Scholar
Macrides, Ruth. “Dynastic Marriages and Political Kinship.” In Byzantine Diplomacy: Papers from the Twenty-Fourth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Cambridge, March 1990, edited by Shepard, Jonathan and Franklin, Simon, pp. 263–80. Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 1992.Google Scholar
Murphy, Philip. The Empire’s New Clothes: The Myth of the Commonwealth. London: Hurst and Co., 2018.Google Scholar
Obolensky, D. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500–1453. London: Cardinal, 1971.Google Scholar
Obolensky, D. “Byzantine Frontier Zones and Cultural Exchanges.” In Actes du XIVe congrès international des études byzantines, pp. 303–13. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, 1974.Google Scholar
Parsons, John Carmi. Medieval Queenship. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1994.Google Scholar
Raffensperger, Christian. Conflict, Bargaining, and Kinship Networks in Medieval Eastern Europe. New York: Lexington Books, 2018.Google Scholar
Raffensperger, Christian Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus’ in the Medieval World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raffensperger, Christian “Reimagining Europe: An Outsider Looks at the Medieval East–West Divide.” In Medieval Networks in East Central Europe: Commerce, Contacts, Communication, edited by Nagy, Balázs, Schmieder, Felicitas, and Vadas, András, pp. 9–24. New York: Routledge, 2018.Google Scholar
Raffensperger, Christian “Revisiting the Idea of the Byzantine Commonwealth.” Byzantinische Forschungen 28 (2004): 159–74.Google Scholar
Raffensperger, Christian Ties of Kinship: Genealogy and Dynastic Marriage in Kyivan Rus’. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2016.Google Scholar
Shepard, Jonathan. “The Byzantine Commonwealth, 1000–1550.” In The Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 5: Eastern Christianity, edited by Angold, Michael, pp. 3–52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Shepard, Jonathan “Byzantium’s Overlapping Circles.” In Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London, 21–26 August, 2006, vol. 1, pp. 17–18. Farnham, Ashgate, 2006.Google Scholar
Shepard, Jonathan “Constantinople – Gateway to the North: The Russians.” In Constantinople and Its Hinterland, edited by Mango, Cyril and Dagron, Gilbert, pp. 259–60. London: Routledge, 1995.Google Scholar
Shepard, Jonathan “Rome, Constantinople and Newly-Converted Europe: Archeological and Historical Evidence: Some Introductory Remarks.” In Rome, Constantinople and Newly-Converted Europe: Archaeological and Historical Evidence, edited by Salamon, Maciej, Wołoszyn, Marcin, Musin, Alexander, and Špehar, Perica, pp. 23–9. Kraków; Leipzig; Rzeszów; Warsaw: Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii Polskiej Akademii Nauki, 2012.Google Scholar
Stafford, Pauline. Queens, Concubines, and Dowagers: The King’s Wife in the Early Middle Ages. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Stanković, Vlada, ed. The Balkans and Byzantine World before and after the Captures of Constantinople, 1204 and 1453. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016.Google Scholar
Stanković, Vlada “Putting Byzantium Back on the Map.” Modern Greek Studies Yearbook 32/33 (2016/17): 400–1.Google Scholar
Stanković, Vlada “Rethinking the Position of Serbia within Byzantine Oikoumene in the Thirteenth Century.” In The Balkans and Byzantine World before and after the Captures of Constantinople, 1204 and 1453, edited by Stanković, Vlada, pp. 91–102. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016.Google Scholar
Stanković, Vlada “Stronger Than It Appears? Byzantium and Its European Hinterland after the Death of Manuel I Komnenos.” In Byzantium, 1180–1204: “The Sad Quarter of a Century”? edited by Simpson, Alicia, pp. 35–48. Athens: National Hellenic Research Foundation Institute of Historical Research, 2015.Google Scholar
Walker, Alicia. “The Beryozovo Cup: A Byzantine Object at the Crossroads of Twelfth-Century Eurasia.” The Medieval Globe 3, no. 2 (2017): 125–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Modern World-System. New York: Academic Press, 1974.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×