Sabancı University, Istanbul, Summer 2008

HIST 431 – INTRODUCTION TO BYZANTINE HISTORY (A.D. 300-1453)

Instructor:

Koray Ş. Durak, Contact – [email protected]; [email protected]

Class Hours:

Tuesday/Thursday, 2pm-5pm (1.40-4.30)

Course Description and goals:

This course is an introduction to the society, politics, and culture of Byzantium. It covers the transformation of the Late Roman Empire into the , the changing fortunes of the empire over the centuries, and its subsequent collapse in the face of the Ottomans. While the class is structured chronologically along the lines of a political narrative, it will be a civilization course. This means that the course emphasizes social, religious, cultural, and economic aspects of Byzantium, as well as politics and warfare. The everyday life of various social groups (such as merchants and women) and changes in the lives of these social groups from late antiquity to the middle ages will be explored throughout the classes. Byzantium will be treated not in isolation, but in a broader world-context comprising its neighbors and political rivals, and focusing especially on its relations with the contemporary Muslim world, the Papacy and the Western European powers, and the Balkan Slavs. By the end of the semester, students will have a solid perspective on how Anatolia and the Balkans became an officially Greek-speaking, Orthodox Christian Roman Empire and remained so for a period of roughly one thousand years.

The readings will include a variety of primary sources (written documents left by the Byzantines) in English translation together with selections from the standard secondary literature. Primary sources are arranged to reflect continuities and changes in Byzantine society (especially in the fields of law and religion). A key issue in reading primary sources will be introducing students to the analytical skills that historians use to uncover and interpret the complex past of a sophisticated medieval society. For instance, it is important to recognize that primary sources are not simply ‘factual accounts’ about the past. We will always keep in mind that they tell half truths, or offer only one particular perspective on events.

Course Format:

The course will be conducted through a combination of lectures, discussions and use of audio-visual material (slideshows, maps, handouts, and documentaries). The assigned readings cover a substantial part of the course material. However, attendance and discussion participation is essential because lectures will provide a range of information not covered in the assigned readings. Students should make sure not only to keep up with the readings, but also to take notes in class in order to be successful.

Class attendance:

Students are required to attend every lecture.

Assessment of Learning Outcomes and Grading Procedures:

Each student’s work will be graded on a strictly individual basis according to the following arrangements: (1) A midterm and a final exam: will cover materials introduced in class and in readings. Both exams will be composed of short identification questions and two longer essay questions. On examinations students will be asked to demonstrate their knowledge of sources (lectures, discussions, and readings), to compare and combine data, and to provide their own opinions and interpretations. (2) Paper: A four-page term paper will address an issue or a problem in Byzantine history on the basis of primary sources and readings. The paper should reflect relevant information. Please be exact and specific, avoid general statements, and try to be clear. Please give at least one relevant example for each point in your discussion. All possible cases of academic dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism, use of someone else’s papers, or cheating, etc.) are strictly forbidden. (3) Class participation and discussion activity.

Grading: Midterm exam: 30 % Paper: 20 % Final exam: 40 % Class/discussion participation: 10 %

Required Reading:

IMPORTANT NOTE: All the sources are in the course-pack except for Cyril Mango's Oxford History of Byzantium. You are responsible only for the primary sources that are underlined; the rest of the primary sources are optional. Therefore, reading assignment for the course is not overwhelming as it seems.

1. (To be bought) C. Mango, The Oxford History of Byzantium (Oxford, 2002) 2. (In the course-pack) G. Cavallo (ed.), The Byzantines (Chicago, 1997) 3. (In the course-pack) J. F. Haldon, The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History (New York, 2005)

We will also watch chapters from the documentary “Byzantium, the Lost Empire” by John Romer (DVD) The Course Schedule:

Unit 1: the Early Byzantine Empire (300-641) Week 1: Day 1: “Kőhne Bizans”: Introduction to Byzantine studies; the sources for the study of Byzantium; the Roman Empire; an overview of twelve hundred years

Background reading: ‘The Byzantine Empire,’ Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. A. Kazhdan, pages 344-346.

Day 2: From Byzantion to : The Byzantine Empire from Constantine the Great to Heraclius (a political history from 306 to 641)

Background reading: P. Sarris, “The Eastern Roman Empire from Constantine to Heraclius” in Mango's Byzantium, pages 19-59. Primary sources: 1. Tetrarchy (Lactantius, De Mortibus persecutorum) 2. The Universal Empire (Eusebius, Preparatio evangelica) 3. Imperial authority over the Church (Justinian, Novella VI) 4. Life of Constantine (Eusebius) 5. Excerpts from On the Wars and Buildings ()

Week 2 Day 3: Renovatio imperii (Restoration of the Empire): Administration, economy, and society in the late antique period

Background reading: Haldon, pages 24-26, 33-37, 41-44. Primary sources 1. The legal status of the Coloni (Theodosian Code) 2. On duties of municipal senators (Theodosian Code) 3. Plan of the Digest (the Digest) 4. Secret History (Procopius)

Day 4: Civilization in Transition: Christianization of the Empire; a new culture; holy men and monks

Background reading: 1. C. Mango, “New Religion, Old Culture” in Mango's Byzantium, pages 96-114. Primary sources: 1. Nicene Creed 2. The Life of St. Matrona of Perge, the transvestite saint 3. St Basil on the study of Classical Greek literature (St Basil, Letters)

Unit 2: the Middle Byzantine Empire (641-1204)

Week 3 Day 5: Struggle for Survival: The Byzantine Empire through the ‘Dark Ages’ (a political history from 641 to 780); the Rise of Islam and the Bulgars

Background reading: 1. Haldon, pages 68-71. 2. W. Treadgold, “The Struggle for Survival” in Mango's Byzantium, pages 129-142. Primary sources: 1. Themata system (from selected Byzantine sources) 2. On the recruitment of soldier-farmers (Emperor Leo VI, Taktika) 3. Alexandria captured by the Arabs (al- Baladhuri, Origins of the Islamic State) 4. Theophanes, excerpts from Historia

Day 6: The New Order: Administration, economy, and society; Iconoclasm

Background reading: 1. W. Treadgold in Mango's Byzantium, pages 142-150. 2. Haldon, pages 73-87 (RECOMMENDED BUT NOT REQUIRED) 3. Mango and P. Karlin-Hayter, “Icons” and “Iconoclasm” in Mango's Byzantium, pages 151-161. Primary sources: 1. Ecloga 2. The Farmer's Law 3. On Divine Images (John of Damascus)

Week 4 Day 7: Midterm examination (covered material)

Day 8: Golden Age of Byzantium: The Macedonian and the Komnenian Dynasties (a political history from 780-1204); neighbors of Byzantium; “Bizans Entrikaları”

Background reading: P. Magdalino, “The Medieval Empire” in Mango's Byzantium, pages 169-196. Primary sources: 1. De Administrando Imperio of Emperor Constantine VII 2. Two lordships rule the world (Patriarch Nicholas, the Letters) 3. Excerpts from Aristakes Lastivertc'i's History of Armenia

Week 5 Day 9: Macedonian and Comnenian Society and Economy: Administration, economy, and society; confidence and classicism in art and culture

Background reading: 1. Haldon, pages 128-130. 2. C. Mango, “The Revival of Learning” in Mango's Byzantium, pages 214-229. Primary sources: 1. The land legislation of the Macedonian Emperors 2. Boldness of Michael Cerularios (Michael Psellus, the Chronographia) 3. Dream interpretation (Book of Achmet) 4. Life of St. Mary the Younger

Day 10: Big Changes: the conversion of the Slavs; the Crusaders; the arrival of the Turks

Background reading: 1. J. Shephard, “Spreading the Word: Byzantine Missions” in Mango's Byzantium, pages 230-247. 2. S. Lloyd, “The Crusading Movement 1096-1274” in the Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, pages 34-43. ((RECOMMENDED BUT NOT REQUIRED) 3. N. Necipoglu, “The Coexistence of Turks and Greeks in Medieval Anatolia (Eleventh- Twelfth Centuries)” in Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review 5 (2000), pages 58-76. Primary sources: 1. Lives of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius 2. On the Crusaders (Anna Comnena, Alexiad) 3. Turkish advance (Nicephorus Gregoras, Historia)

Unit 3: the Late Byzantine Empire (1204-1453)

Week 6: Day 11: From False Dawn to Cataclysm: The Empire of Nicaea and the Palaiologan dynasty (a political history from 1204 to 1453)

Background reading: “Fragmentation” in Mango's Byzantium, pages 248-283. Primary sources: 1. Latin Sack of Constantinople in 1204, (Nichetas Choniates, History) 2. Michael VIII”s plans to divide the empire, (Nicephorus Gregoras, Byzantina Historia) 3. A Greco-Turkish empire? (George of Trebizond) 4. The Peloponnesus: Quintessential Hellenic Land, (Pletho, Letter to Emperor Manuel II)

Day 12: Resilience of the Culture in the Late Byzantine Period: Administration, economy, and society; Palaiologan ‘Renaissance’ in art and learning

Background reading: 1. Haldon, pages 130-138 ((RECOMMENDED BUT NOT REQUIRED). 2. I. Sevcenko, “Palaiologan Learning” in Mango's Byzantium, pages 284-293. Primary sources: 1. From Byzantine Pronoia to Latin Fief (Cornelius, the Creta Sacra) 2. Emperor Andronicus II grants commercial privileges to the Catalans, (Acta et diplomata Graeca medii aevi) 3. A patriarch defends the authority of the emperor (1395) (Patriarch Anthony, Letter) 4. Testament of Constantine Akropolites for the Monastery of Resurrection in Constantinople

Week 7 Day 13: Homo Byzantinus: Women and Gender Relations; merchants and economic relations

Background reading: 1. ‘Women’ in Cavallo’s Byzantines, pages 117-143 2. ‘Entrepreneurs’ in Cavallo’s Byzantines, pages 144-171 Primary sources: Excerpts from the Book of the Eparch, 10th century (to be distributed)

Day 14: “Kahpe Bizans”: 1453 and beyond; the tale of a city (Βυζάντιον-CONSTANTINOPOLIS-

Κωνσταντινούπολη-Kustantiniyya-Istanbul); conclusions

Background reading: 1. T. Gregory, “Byzantium after the Fall of the City” A History of Byzantium, pages 340-358. 2. A. Cameron, “The Byzantine Mirage” in the Byzantines, pages 63-77. (RECOMMENDED BUT NOT REQUIRED) Primary sources: 1. The Fall of the City (, Historia Turca-Byzantina) 2. Muscovite responses to the capture of Constantinople 3. On the importance of learning Greek at Padua (Chalcocondylas, Oration)