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1-2001

Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire (Review)

Martin Arbagi Wright State University - Main Campus, [email protected]

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Repository Citation Arbagi, M. (2001). Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire (Review). Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, 76 (1), 130-132. https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/history/11

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the History at CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 130 Reviews Secondly,/Elfric was a self-consciousauthor whose interventionsin his own text, his rest- lessnesswith how he presentedthings, and his tendencyto revise and supplementdem- onstratehis authorialimagination. For IElfriccomposition was a process, not an event, and so interpretersof AElfric'stext ought alwaysto look for changes,additions, and other readingsin the manuscripts. Clemoessets forth his editorialprocedure in a succinctfour pages. For the beginning studentparticularly, as classroomuse has alreadymade clear, and for the nonspecialist there is likely to be some difficultyin coming to terms with the system of punctuation. Clemoesfollows manuscriptpunctuation, not modernpunctuation as the one-timereader or user might wish, and he assumes that the readerwill know the scholarshipon Old Englishpunctuation, for he does not mention or describehis own contributionsto the subjector those of ClaudeBarlow or BruceMitchell, among others.There will apparently be no explanatorytreatment of punctuationin the thirdvolume of the IElfricproject. This choiceto follow manuscriptpunctuation is in line with one aspectof the noninterventionist theme prevalentin the discussionsof Old Englishediting. The text then is closer to the author,here a most recognizablepresence, but the present-dayreader is fartheraway. The many interventionsin the text of A manifestlycreate all sorts of presentational problemsfor the apparatus,as Godden'snote implies,and the reader-userhad best read the section in the editorialprocedure on variantswith care. AppendixC with its list of variantreadings in late manuscriptsis helpful.Short of a directreading of the manuscript, those interestedin the many interventionsin A should consult the EEMFfacsimile. Spot checks suggest only a few minor problems.In appendixA, passage 1 (Homily 12), the readingshould be ydelnesse,not -nysse, and the headerfor passage2 (Homily 38) must want to say "see p. 519 1. 351 above";on page 105 an unnecessary"on" has crept into the firstline of the descriptionof the gammaversion. At long last, then, Anglo-Saxonstudies has an authoritativeedition of The FirstSeries, which, joining Godden'sedition of The SecondSeries and the soon-to-appearvolume of commentary,will assist the understandingof a majorwork by arguablythe majorvernac- ular prose writer of the period. Pope's SupplementarySeries will at last welcome all its mates. PAULE. SZARMACH,Western Michigan University

HELENEAHRWEILER and ANGELIKIE. LAIOU,eds., Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the ByzantineEmpire. Washington, D.C.: DumbartonOaks ResearchLibrary and Collec- tion, 1998. Pp. ix, 205; maps and tables. $30. Distributedby HarvardUniversity Press, 79 GardenSt., Cambridge,MA 02138. For millenniaempires have systematicallypracticed forced transfers of populationsfrom one region to anotherwithin their borders.The most familiarexamples are biblical:the Ten Lost Tribesof Israel,uprooted by the Assyrians,and the BabylonianCaptivity of the Judaeans.At other times, membersof a group in searchof betteropportunities have vol- untarilyleft theirhomeland for differentregions under the samegovernment. Whether the resettlementis voluntaryor involuntary,such movementsare called "internaldiasporas." The peoples affectedmay retaintheir cohesiveness(as did the Judaeans),or they may be assimilatedinto the surroundingculture and lose their identities(which is probablywhat happenedto the Lost Tribes). Studieson the InternalDiaspora of the ByzantineEmpire is a collectionof articles,some traditional,others using new methodologies,presented originally at a DumbartonOaks symposiumin 1993, thoughnot publisheduntil 1998. The collectionbegins with an intro- duction by Helene Ahrweiler,"Byzantine Concepts of the Foreigner."Ahrweiler empha- sizes attitudestoward nomads.Presumably this is on the theorythat beforewe can study Reviews 131 the internal"other" we must know what Byzantinesthought of the externalalien, but I was left thinkingthat the connectionof Ahrweiler'sprefatory essay with the book's theme is tenuous. The first main article is by Michael McCormick,"The ImperialEdge: Italo-Byzantine Identity,Movement, and Integration,A.D. 650-950." McCormickmakes use of two new and radicallydifferent methodologies. Noting that "Byzantine"identity can be socially constructed,he points out how Italo-Byzantinescould readilybe distinguishedfrom other Italiansby such things as personalnames and the way they cut their hair. Changesboth of name and of hair style often followed changesin politicalaffiliation. But groupidentity is also frequentlygrounded in thingsbeyond the reachof language,custom, or othersocial constructs.McCormick shows how the frequencyof beta-thalassemia(a formof sickle-cell anemia) in modern Italy correspondswith regions occupied by Byzantiumin the early Middle Ages. As the recent excitementover ThomasJefferson's descendants has shown, blood types, inheriteddiseases, and other geneticdata can yield valuableclues to ancestry. The secondmajor article, by Nina Garsoian,"The Problem of ArmenianIntegration into the ByzantineEmpire," is more traditional.She does not intend to break new ground, insteadpresenting a summaryof what scholarshiphas establishedand the problemsthat remainto be resolved.In the formercategory Garsoian concludes that the Armenianswere the largestnon-Greek minority throughout the historyof the ByzantineEmpire; they were present in most provinces,including Byzantine Italy; their presencein Constantinople, thoughreasonably certain, is not as well documentedas for the provinces;Armenians were integratedinto imperialsociety mostly throughthe military;and the majorsource of fric- tion was religiousdifferences between the Armeniansand the Chalcedonianmajority of the empire. Beyondthose five points,the consensusbreaks down. Garsoianobserves that therecould be at times divergencesbetween the Armenianpolicies of churchand state. In general,the state'sattitude toward the Armenianswas "generallyless uniformthan that of the church, [and] oscillatedbetween the tolerancerequired to accommodatethe multiculturalnature of the empireand attemptsto impose dogmatichomogeneity" (p. 84). Like McCormick, Garsoiantraces how some Armeniansattempted to assimilate,while otherspreserved their identitythrough such thingsas religion,nomenclature, language, and dress.She concludes that the Armeniansbecame increasingly unassimilable after 1100, with a brief exception underManuel I (1158-80). McCormick'sand Garsoian'sarticles, which take up most of the book, are followed by threeshorter essays. StephenReinert's article, "The Muslim Presence in Constantinople,9th-15th Centuries: SomePreliminary Observations," suffers from two problems.The articledeals largely with Muslimmerchants from outsidethe imperialborders-Arabs, Persians,Turks-and pris- oners of war; this strainsthe definitionof internaldiaspora. The second problem is the lack of evidence.We know almost nothingof Muslimsin most of the empire,though the Muslimcommunity in Constantinopleis slightlybetter documented. A largenumber of these Muslims,especially in the ninth and tenth centuries,were pris- onersof war. Suchprisoners were usuallywell treatedand permittedto observetheir faith, includingdietary restrictions. A mosque was providedfor them in Constantinople.In a rareglimpse of Muslimlife outside the capital,Reinert cites evidencefor mosquesin pro- vincialinternment camps as well. The evidencefor the other largegroup of Muslims-merchants-is equallyscanty. The Book of the Eparchtells us that therewere "Syrian"merchants in Constantinoplein the tenth century,many of them long-termresidents. Reinert concedes that some may have been ArabChristians, but "it is just as plausiblethat manywere Muslims"(p. 133). Other than the businessregulations that affectedsuch merchantsand that they had a mosque, 132 Reviews almost nothing is known about them. The mosque was closed by Basil II but reopened underConstantine VIII. Was it the sameone providedfor Muslimprisoners of war?Reinert does not-perhaps becauseof the lack of data cannot-tell us. A treaty with Saladinin the late 1180s providedfor a secondmosque in Constantinople.The mosquemay (or may not) have been in a neighborhoodof Muslim tradersthat was destroyedby Italiansin 1203, just before Constantinopleitself was sacked by the Fourth Crusade.There is no "secureevidence" of Muslim inhabitantsin Constantinopleduring the Latin occupation. Afterhis reconquestof the capital,Michael Palaeologus restored the Muslimquarter and at least one mosque. PatriarchAthanasius wrote a famous letterto EmperorAndronicus II between 1304 and 1309 demandingthat all Muslimsbe expelledfrom Constantinople or at least that the muezzinsin the mosque be silenced. Andronicusignored the letter. Reinertconcludes by reconstructinga vague incident during the reign of Manuel II, in which the Ottomansultan Bayeziddemanded the installationof a Turkishneighborhood, with a kadi (Muslimjudge), and mosque.John VII, rulingin Manuel'sabsence, complied, but Manuelleveled the new Turkishquarter on returningfrom his visit to westernEurope in 1403. Againthe episode concernsTurkish merchants rather than an internaldiaspora. MarkBartusis, "The Settlement of Serbsin Macedoniain the Eraof Dusan'sConquests," notes that the Serbswere probablythe people most easily assimilatedinto the Byzantine Empire."Unlike almost all otherpeoples the Byzantinesencountered, they alreadyhad the 'correct'religion, and the correctform of that religion"(p. 159). Serbslooked up to Byzan- tine cultureand readilyadapted Byzantine clothing, names, and even the Greeklanguage. As with Reinert'sarticle, Bartusis's suffers from scantydocumentation, but it at least deals with a truly internaldiaspora. AngelikiLaiou's concludingarticle, "InstitutionalMechanisms of Integration,"is the best of the three shorterones. Laiou finds that in theory Byzantine(Roman) law applied to all imperialsubjects. In practice,we have manyexamples of officialsbending the law to accommodateethnic groups whose customs differedfrom the imperialcodes. Precisely becauseof this flexibility,law actedas a powerfulintegrating mechanism. Laiou's evidence ranges from the fourth to the fourteenthcenturies, though the emphasisis on the later period. In an unevencollection, the articlesby McCormick,Garsoian, and Laiouare of enduring value.

MARTINARBAGI, Wright State University

JAUMEAURELL I CARDONA, Els mercaderscatalans al quatre-cents:Mutacio de valors i proces d'aristocratitzacioa Barcelona(1370-1470). (Col.lecci6Seminari, Serie Cata- lonia, 5.) Lleida:Pages, 1996. Pp. 428; 15 tables, 14 graphs,and 4 plans. One of the problemsvexing historiansof Catalunyahas been how to account for the region'sdecline during the fifteenthand subsequentcenturies. After the civil war of 1462- 72, which pitted Catalannobles and the city of Barcelonaagainst the king, the region's influencewas notably less than it had been in earliercenturies. There is little agreement, however,on whetherthe civil war causedthe decline,was symptomaticof long-termweak- ness, or merely coincidental.Former generations of political historiansattributed Cata- lunya'stroubles to the establishmentof a branchof the CastilianTrastamara dynasty on the throneof Aragonin 1412. Most historiansnow follow JaumeVicens Vives and Pierre Vilar, who arguedin the 1950s for general,secular changes in the region'seconomy fol- lowing the recurrentoutbreaks of plague after the Black Death of 1348. Less widely ac- cepted is the revisionistthesis presentedin the late 1960s by Claude Carrereand Mario del Treppo:admitting that therewere bankfailures, depopulation, and an economicdown-