Early Twelfth Century Research Articles

Injustice, Corruption, and Partisanship in the Eastern Seljuq Lands of the Early Twelfth Century: al-Ghazālī’s Persian Letters to Viziers as a Historical Source

Abstract This article analyses five historical missives written by the great theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī to three Seljuq viziers, and datable to the years 490/1097 to 504/1110 f. The first four of these letters form a progressive series complaining of governmental corruption in Ṭūs during the Seljuq civil war around the turn of the sixth/twelfth century, and thus provide the sole extant eyewitness testimony from Khurāsān during the last five years of the Seljuq civil war period. They also reveal al-Ghazālī’s vision of just rule far more concretely than do al-Ghazālī’s numerous theoretical writings on the subject. The fifth letter, written after the civil war had ended, explores the problem of intra-Sunni madhhab-based religious partisanship (taʿaṣṣub), and also incidentally reveals important biographical information about al-Ghazālī. All five of these letters constitute unique eyewitness testimony to some of the major political and social problems of the Seljuq period.

Authority over Death: Two Tales Related to the Lord of Mount Tai in Konjaku Monogatarishū

Tales of Times Now Past (Konjaku Monogatarishū 今昔物語集) is a Japanese setsuwa (anecdotes) collection dating from the early twelfth century. Originally contained in 31 volumes, it includes more than one thousand systematically arranged tales from India, China, and Japan. Despite the fact that Daoism was rejected by the Japanese imperial court as an organized religion, Daoist philosophies and practical systems found their ways into Japan, having a significant and profound influence over Japanese esoteric cosmology and folk beliefs. This article takes the Lord of Mount Tai (CN: Taishan Fujun; JP: Taizan Fukun 泰山府君) as the focus and examines two pertinent stories in Tales of Times Now Past. By placing the texts in a broader historical, religious, and comparative Japan–China perspective, I examine the reshaping of Daoist elements and traditional Chinese philosophical principles in these two stories and thus demonstrate how the Daoist fragments transmitted to Japan were transformed into an integral part of the orthodox structure by the time of the late Heian period in the pursuit of a more organized form of government.

Communicating the Crusading Activity of the Kings of Navarre in the 14th and 15th Centuries

The mediaeval historiographical memory of the Crusades in the Kingdom of Navarre is unique precisely because two of its monarchs, the Counts of Champagne—Theobald I and II—actively participated in the Crusader campaigns during 1239–1241 and in 1270, respectively. Despite the importance of the Crusades which, starting from the early twelfth century, also encompassed the connection of this kingdom with Jerusalem’s paradigms of the warrior and religious pilgrimage, it can be asserted that there are scarcely any traces of narrative communication in Navarre about the Crusades, either politically or ideologically. This paper analyses the question of documentation and communication about the Crusades from the study of the chronicles of the Kingdom of Navarre in the Late Middle Ages. The purpose is to identify the characteristics and keys of the texts, dissimilar to the welcoming impact of the Crusades in Hispanic and European political, cultural and religious spheres.

The Historical Significance of Cultural Exchanges of Qara Khitai (1124-1218) Interpreted Through Chinese-style Bronze Mirrors Excavated from Kyrgyzstan

Chinese-style bronze mirrors in the style of the Liao and Jin Dynasties excavated in Novopokrovka, Kyrgyzstan, display similarities to those found in southeastern Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan. As Chinese-style bronze mirrors of Central Asia rarely date later than the period of the Five Dynasties, the Novopokrovka mirrors are remarkable as being from the medieval period. They were mostly excavated in the Chuy Valley, the border area between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In the early twelfth century, the Khitans lost the central China to the Jurchens and migrated to the west to establish the Qara Khitai (Western Liao). The new dynasty was centered around the Chuy Valley, including the capital city of Balasaghun. The Novopokrovka mirrors are mostly in the style of the Liao and Jin Dynasties from the late eleventh to the early thirteenth century, and closely resemble the Jin-style mirrors, mainly found in the three northeastern provinces of China—Jilin, Liaoning, Heilongjian—, and Koryŏ sites in Korea, implying the production and distribution of the Jin-style mirrors as an international style in the large areas of Eurasia. There are fewer examples of Chinese bronze mirrors made after the early thirteenth century, when the Western Liao collapsed . After the Mongolian invasion, the cities in the oasis region met sudden decline by no later than the thirteenth century and did not recover for a considerable amount of time. Furthermore, the preference for various types of Islamic-style mirrors, brought on by the expansion of Islamic influence may have also contributed to the decline of the Chinese-style mirrors.

„Повчання” Володимира Мономаха як маніфест літератури Високого києворуського Середньовіччя

The article’s author examines the peculiarities of “Poucheniie ditiam” [Instruction for [My] Children] by Grand Prince Volodymyr Monomakh written in the early twelfth century as the work that ushers in the era of High Middle literature of Kyivan Rus’. She emphasises “his very own picture” presented by Monomakh as the image of an ideal ruler, which was significantly different from the type of European monarch of that time. Monomakh depicted the idea of the authentic leader who met the challenges and demands of the Kyivan Rus’ state and the period of the High Middle Ages. Th e article’s author indicates the autobiographical protagonist of the work, constructed by Monomakh on the basis of his personal experience and life facts. Attention is paid to the text as the first example of memoir prose. Next, the author describes Monomakh’s interpretation of such categories as law, power, faith, and religion; then, she determines the Grand Prince’s understanding of Christian moral and ethical values. The author also raises the question of the dating of Volodymyr Monomakh’s “Poucheniie ditiam”. She substantiates the thesis that the text was created over many years, as evidenced by the evolution of Monomakh’s worldview. The analysed text consists of several parts, each written at a particular stage of the Grand Prince’s life, and the article presents an analysis of each part and the manifestation of the personality it contains. It also highlights such features of the work as humanism, appreciation of human nature, and human life as the greatest value.

Flemish Immigration and Geoffrey of Monmouth's De gestis Britonum

Flemish Immigration and Geoffrey of Monmouth's <i>De gestis Britonum</i>

Welsh Princes in an Anglo-Norman World: A Historicist Reading of the Third Branch of the Mabinogi

This article examines the internal historical evidence of the Third Branch of the Mabinogi. Through a close examination of the historical detail of Manawydan's sojourn as a craftsman in the cities of England, it becomes evident that the Third Branch reflects aristocratic social and economic anxieties in the decades following the Norman invasion of Wales. In light of an as-yet-unrecognized connection between the Third Branch and the twelfth-century royal biography Vita Griffini Filii Conani, this article suggests an early twelfth-century date for the former text.&lt;br/&gt; The Third Branch of the Mabinogi is generally seen as the 'simplest' – and arguably the most cohesive – of the Four Branches. It revolves around a single principal character in Manawydan fab Llŷr, who is never out of the frame throughout the tale. Its plot develops in a relatively linear fashion, moving steadily towards a 'happy and harmonious end'. The plot of the Third Branch may be summarized in terms of a three-part structure, as recognized by Glyn E. Jones:&lt;br/&gt; i. 'Manawydan fab Llŷr marries Rhiannon, Pryderi's mother' [and becomes the ruler of the kingdom of Dyfed].&lt;br/&gt; ii. 'Enchantment falls on Dyfed [leaving it entirely without people apart from Manawydan, Rhiannon, Pryderi and his wife Cigfa] and Manawydan and Pryderi spend a period in England. On their return to Dyfed, Pryderi and Rhiannon become entrapped in a magic fortress which vanishes'.&lt;br/&gt; iii. 'Manawydan succeeds in lifting the enchantment and freeing Pryderi and Rhiannon'.&lt;br/&gt; So far, so simple. Of course, the joy of the Third Branch is in the details: the stark image of Dyfed completely devoid of human and animal life; the psychological dimension of four characters having to deal with the emotional and practical consequences of this magical apocalypse; and the rather comic denouement, in which Manawydan stubbornly but cunningly negotiates with the villain of the piece (the sorcerer Llwyd fab Cil Coed) while holding the villain's wife hostage in the form of a mouse. Some of the most interesting details in the Third Branch come during Manawydan's period of poverty – during this time he and Pryderi (and later Cigfa), with their workforce suddenly having been taken away, are forced to make a living for themselves, first as hunters and scavengers in what is left of their home, then as craftsmen in the cities of Lloegyr, and finally as subsistence farmers back in Dyfed. 5 With these details we are torn from the mythic, heroic, otherworldly setting of much of the Four Branches and cast into the mundane realities of daily life. The Third Branch lends itself to a historicist reading, which reads these mundanities in the context of the early twelfth century, a time when Anglo-Norman culture and society was steadily encroaching on Welsh life. 6 This is especially evident in the representation of Manawydan and Cigfa's time spent as artisans in the cities of Lloegyr, which provides the clearest evidence for an Anglo-Norman context of composition for the Third Branch. This reading has potentially significant implications for the dating of the text, particularly in light of a possible and hitherto unrecognized connection between the Third Branch and the twelfth-century royal biography Vita Griffini Filii Conani.

Waltheof: The Journey from Warrior to Saint

The elevation to sainthood of the English earl, Waltheof, who was beheaded, ostensibly for rebellion against William the Conqueror, exemplifies the process by which non-elite and elite communities coalesced to construct a saintly cult in late eleventh- and twelfth-century England. This paper traces the development of Waltheof’s cult from the time of his execution and burial through the mid-twelfth century and seeks to place his path to sainthood within the context of the use of hagiographical material as exemplars for the lives of the laity.&#x0D; We have drawn heavily on the Passio Waldevi, a hagiographical account of Waltheof’s life and martyrdom, written at Crowland Abbey in the early twelfth century, along with other materials, most notably early miracles of Waltheof, contained in the same manuscript (Douai BM MS 852). This account, though written to promote the official cult of Waltheof, nevertheless gives hints of earlier, spontaneous veneration of Waltheof. As a point of comparison, we look at earlier hagiographical materials, most notably English and Latin accounts of the life of St. Guthlac and several saints that figure prominently in Bede. To put Waltheof’s death and cult in historical context we consider historical materials in Old English (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Easter Table Chronicle), Latin (Orderic Vitalis and William of Malmsbury, among others), and Norman French (Geoffrei de Gaimar), and we briefly consider the Norse evidence (Snorri Sturluson) for Waltheof’s wider reputation. While most of our evidence is textual, we have also considered archaeological evidence, particularly as it relates to burials, both saintly and deviant. We argue that this evidence, takentogether, indicates that Waltheof’s cult draws on long-standing practices and attitudes towards sanctity and the Christian life in the centuries before the Norman Conquest of England.

Thoughts on the Collapse: The Perspective of a Philistine

Thoughts on the Collapse: The Perspective of a Philistine

A case study on Hoeamsa Temple, Korea: technical examination and identification of pigments and paper unearthed from the temple site

This study applied various scientific analyses to one fragment of paper and three pigments excavated from earthenware found in the Hoeamsa Temple site at Yangju, Korea, which is believed to have been built in the early twelfth century. Radiocarbon dating of the paper fragment suggests a manufacture date between 1460 and 1646 (at a 95% confidence interval). It was estimated to have been used during the early and middle period of the Joseon dynasty (1391–1776), when the Hoeamsa Temple site was rebuilt. In addition, by staining the fiber of the paper fragment with Graff “C” stain, the paper’s raw material was identified as paper mulberry through dislocation, cross-marking, and transparent membrane, which are characteristics of the bast fiber. Efforts were made to identify their material properties and manufacturing techniques of the three types of pigments. Color difference analysis was performed by distributing the pigments in large areas to reveal characteristic differences according to the color difference of the pigment. We found that green-type pigments are malachite and atacamite, red-type pigments are hematite based on the element Fe, and white-type pigments are quartz and muscovite based on the elements Si and Al. In addition, as the size distribution of the three types of pigments is wide and has a multi-peak distribution curve, it was concluded that the pigments were used without purification.

Call for Submissions

The editors invite your submissions to the following issues scheduled to appear in 2023. Send one hard copy of the manuscript double-spaced, including endnotes, along with an electronic copy (by e-mail attachment or in a shared folder online), following the style guidelines of the Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed., chap. 14 on documentation). More specific contributor guidelines may be consulted on the journal website. Manuscripts should not exceed 10,000 words inclusive of notes. Illustrations accompanying a manuscript should be submitted ideally in the form of TIFF digital files, and permissions for their reproduction must be provided before publication. Submissions pass through anonymous specialist review before publication. We do not consider articles that have been published elsewhere or are under simultaneous consideration with another publisher. Send to: Michael Cornett, Managing EditorJournal of Medieval and Early Modern StudiesDuke University340B Trent HallBox 90656Durham, NC 27708JMEMS@duke.eduhttps://jmems.trinity.duke.eduVolume 53 / Number 2 / May 2023For this open-topic issue of the journal, the editors invite articles that are both informed by historical inquiry and alert to issues raised by contemporary theoretical debate. We expect that essays will be grounded in an intimate knowledge of a particular past and that their argumentation reveal a concern for the theoretical and methodological issues involved in interpretation. We are particularly committed to work that seeks to overcome the polarization between history and theory in the study of premodern Western culture.Submissions may be sent starting September 1, 2021Deadline for submission of manuscripts: March 1, 2022Edited by James SimpsonVolume 53 / Number 3 / September 2023The truth wreckage inflicted by Trumpism might deliver a salutary jolt to literary scholars. Trumpistas may celebrate the forever-constructed nature of truth, but that is precisely what literary scholarship had been doing for decades. Long before Roland Barthes pronounced his fatwa on authors and authorship in 1968, in fact, the “intentionalist fallacy” had long excised the author and his or her intentions from serious interpretation. Defenses of intentionalism are routinely dismissed as “conservative.” The self-inflicted disciplinary damage caused by this proscription has been considerable: other practitioners in the human sciences (notably in law and ethics) place intention at the center of their heuristic practice; they remain baffled by the claim that interpretative study of any kind can be conducted without some appeal to intention.A journal devoted to medieval and early modern studies has a special, further role to play in any reevaluation of how intention might function interpretatively. Our notion of intention is historically grounded: intention rose dramatically from the early twelfth century as a heuristic device in legal and penitential discourse especially. We invite submissions from late medievalists and early modernists in a range of disciplines (penitential theology, law, biblical hermeneutics, and literature especially) that draw on their historical vantage point to elucidate and refresh the interpretative role of intention.Deadline for submissions: July 1, 2022

Cocreating a Frontier Region in the Northern Song: The State and Local Strongmen in Hewai

Cocreating a Frontier Region in the Northern Song:The State and Local Strongmen in Hewai Chang Woei Ong In early 1127, the invading Jin armies marched into Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1126), and captured the emperors, members of the royal clans, officials, and countless commoners. About a year later, while what remained of the Song court had fled south, the war was still going on in north China. Jin forces had been attacking the territories covering present-day northeastern Shaanxi until She Keqiu 折可求 (d. 1139) surrendered to them the three prefectures of Linzhou 麟州, Fuzhou 府州, and Fengzhou 豐州, the region informally called Hewai 河外 (Beyond the Yellow River) in Song sources, which all but ended the Song's fighting chance against the invaders.1 [End Page 15] The three prefectures were administratively under the Hedong 河東 Circuit. She Keqiu was then the Prefect of Fuzhou, and he came from a long line of Shes who had served in the post since the beginning of the dynasty. Historical sources identify the Shes as Tanguts, but they were the archenemy of another Tangut clan—given the surname Li 李 by the Tang emperors—who dominated Xiazhou 夏州 (in present-day Jingbian 靖邊 County of Shaanxi) and later founded the Xi Xia dynasty (1038–1227). The Shes mainly helped the Song in its conflicts with Xi Xia, and also with the Khitan Liao (916–1125) and Jurchen Jin (1115–1234).2 This article is an attempt to write a social history of Song territorial administration in the northern border region by focusing on powerful clans such as the Shes—often denoted by the term "local strongmen" (tuhao 土豪) in historical sources. It moves away from the assumption that any meaningful study of powerful clans like the Shes must begin with acknowledging that their historical experiences were predominantly, if not exclusively, shaped by their relationship with the Song state. Song frontier policies indeed profoundly [End Page 16] impacted the choices the local people made, but it is also important to recognize that the Song state was only one of the players in a region where the movement of communities and shifting alliances were common. In essence, this article challenges the prevailing practice of adopting a purely statist, courtcentered perspective and argues for a more nuanced approach for delineating the development of Song management of the frontier regions that takes into account the roles that the local inhabitants played in the process. Apart from its relationship with the Song, another dominant narrative about Hewai in both official historical sources and modern studies has focused on the role it played in the Song's conflicts with its northern neighbors, especially the Xi Xia. While participating in large-scale warfare was indeed an important aspect of the historical experiences of Hewai's residents, it should be noted that during the tenth to early twelfth centuries, the period of peace was longer than that of war. Therefore, the story of interstate warfare would not be complete without considering the activities of local communities beyond the battleground during relatively peaceful times. Why Hewai? A study of a frontier region such as Hewai can potentially do several things. First, it can add another case for challenging the conventional view about the Song being militarily weak because it had opted to pursue a strategy of undermining the power of military men and reducing the military presence at the border. According to this view, the Song army was weakened to the point where it was helpless against foreign aggression. It is therefore not surprising that the Song would eventually collapse, first under the Jurchen invasion in 1126 and later under the Mongol invasion in 1279. Past scholarship on Song military history often referenced the military institution section in the History of the Song (Song shi 宋史) to show how the Song court centralized military command at the expense of the regions outside the capital. According to the Song shi account, after witnessing how previous regimes fell prey to powerful regional military commanders, the Song founders labored to locate the most elite squad under their direct command. Under this vision, the armies were divided into three different types: 1) the imperial army (jinjun 禁軍) commanded by the court...

Middle and Late Byzantine sigillographic evidence from western Anatolia: eighth- to early twelfth-century lead seals from Bergama (ancient Pergamon)

This article presents 19 lead seals from the Museum of Bergama (ancient Pergamon), dating from the early eighth to the early twelfth century. We offer a descriptive catalogue of these Middle and Late Byzantine seals preserved in a western Turkish museum. The owners of these seals were primarily ecclesiastical, legal or military dignitaries who were probably active in Pergamon, in southwestern Mysia, Aeolis or Lydia. The catalogue is followed by an appendix on a Byzantine magical amulet.

The Medieval Armenian Symbol of Eternity in the Art of the Twelfth-Century Italian Sculptor Nicholaus

Abstract The medieval Armenian symbol of eternity – a whirl sign – is engraved in the forehead of five bull sculptures dated to the first half of the twelfth century, attributable to the workshop of the Italian sculptor Nicholaus. The whirl is an ancient sacred symbol associated with eternal life, not specific to any religion or culture, that has persisted for millennia. The following carvings display a closely resembling geometric whirl engravure: in the apse frieze of Koenigslutter Kaiserdom (Lower Saxony), in the pulpit of Sacra di Carpi (Modena), in the “Creation of animals” panel of S. Zeno Basilica (Verona), in the Verona Cathedral porch, and in the Ferrara Cathedral narthex. This symbol, generally ignored by Western Christian art after the Carolingian period, was revisited by the Nicholaus workshop. We argue that the small, hitherto overlooked whirl engraving made by these artists in the bull head of Koenigslutter, Carpi, Ferrara and Verona was a veiled ornamental performance displaying the symbol of eternity to signify the concept of life in the hereafter. Here the immediate inspiration source was likely Armenian, because in the early twelfth century the geometric whirl symbol of eternity was foreign to Italian religious decorations while it was deeply rooted in Armenian Christian art. Nicholaus and his atelier were familiar with the leaved cross and the whirl – traditional Armenian motifs symbolizing life in the hereafter – and were inspired by them in some of their works. In the decorative reliefs of S. Zeno Basilica façade, Verona Cathedral porch and Koenigslutter Kaiserdom frieze, various examples of the geometric whirl metamorphosis into naturalistic foliate whirl are extant, witnessing the Nicholaus atelier’s versatile sculptural performance in conceptualizing everlasting life.

Mordechai Z. Cohen. The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270.

Mordechai Z. Cohen. <i>The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270</i>.

Revisiting the Rise and Fall of Caodong Lineage between the Tang and Song Dynasty: Some Notes on Ge Zhouzi’s Article

&lt;p&gt;曹洞宗在近世東亞的佛教世界裡，是除臨濟宗外傳承最久且影響最大的禪宗宗系。但從發展史角度看，自唐末崛起的曹洞宗雖曾在五代初昌盛一時，然隨即就在五代中後期漸次消沉，至11世紀中葉甚至遭遇法脈短暫中絕的窘境，直到11世紀末才又復興，重新成為主要禪宗宗系。可見曹洞宗在初期發展階段──亦即由唐入宋之際──實歷經過極為劇烈的興衰升降。曹洞宗的這段曲折歷史，早已為禪史學者所留心，《早期中國史研究》第8卷第2期刊布的葛洲子先生文章〈政局．法席．法脈──唐末至宋初曹洞宗的興衰〉，則在充分吸收既有成果後，對唐宋之際曹洞發展和政治變化的互動關係作出了詳整討論，係關於此課題的較新力作。惟在拜讀過程中，筆者發現其中似乎猶有若干可再覆案的部分，是以不揣淺陋地提供一點拙見，盼能進一步完善唐宋之際的曹洞發展圖景。&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;From the early twelfth century on, the Caodong lineage 曹洞宗 has always been a prominent force in the East Asian Buddhism, not only as one of the two longest-transmission and most influential Chan sects along with the Linji lineage 臨濟宗, but also became an important component of Japanese Buddhism after spreading to the East in the late Southern Song Dynasty. Nevertheless, from the perspective of development history, although the Cao Dong lineage, which emerged at the end of the Tang Dynasty, had a period of glory in the early Five Dynasties, it soon declined in the latter Five Dynasties and persisted this awkward situation to the early Song dynasty, even temporarily confronting transmission interruption in the middle of the eleventh century. Compared to its long activity from the twelfth century onward, the Caodong lineage actually underwent a dramatic ups and downs in its early stages, that is, from the Tang to the Song dynasties. Chan scholars have paid long attention to the twisted development of the Caodong lineage. Recently, based on the profound achievements of predecessors, Ge Zhouzi’s article &amp;ldquo;Politics, the Dharma Seat and Dharma Transmission: The Rise and Decline of the Caodong Lineage from the Late Tang Dynasty through the Early Song,&amp;rdquo; in Early and Medieval Chinese History 8:2 (2016), provides a detailed exploration about how the development of the Caodong lineage be influenced and directed by political changes during the Tang and Song dynasties. However, in the process of reading, the author found that there seems to be some arguments deserved further consideration. Therefore, the author hope to offer some personal opinions through this article in order that further completing the understanding about the early development of the Caodong lineage.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Communicating God’s war. Accounts of holy war in Polish medieval narrative sources

The authors of Polish medieval narrative accounts from and about Poland communicated episodes of Christian holy war and proto-crusades in a distinct and consistent way from the early twelfth century. In this article I will argue that the anonymous author of the Gesta principum Polonorum presented the Polish conquest of Pomerania as a holy war, and that a hundred years later, the learned Vincentius Bishop of Cracow in his Chronica Polonorum depicted three military campaigns against the Prussian pagans and apostates as crusading expeditions. I will also argue that the first Polish historian Jan Długosz, deliberately celebrated and highlighted these earlier accounts to his contemporary fifteenth century readership, using these histories to position Poland’s rulers as having a longstanding and consistent commitment to crusading, at a time when participation in crusades was a central concern of Poland’s ruling elites. This article will conclude that each of these written works was a commissioned text and part of a deliberate strategy by the rulers of Poland to communicate their engagement in Christian holy wars at the periphery of Christian Europe.

How long and how strong must a climatic anomaly be in order to evoke a social transformation? Historical and contemporaneous case studies

In recent years, scholarly interest in the nexus between climate change and human societies has risen dramatically, and many researchers from different disciplines have begun studying the possible effects of climate change and climate anomalies on past and present societies. In this article, we join this lively debate, seeking to extend it by raising, and providing possible answers to, two fundamental questions: what type of climatic anomalies can undermine social stability? What duration and intensity are necessary to instigate structural change? When attempting to answer these questions, researchers tend to view short-term climatic events, such as storms or mudslides, as “unusual” events that instigate an “unusual” reality for temporary, and measurable, time periods. We argue, instead, that gradual and more “usual” climatic events, such as prolonged droughts or extended periods of untimely rains, impact societies in a more profound and “extraordinary” manner, and it is here that our paper meets the theme of the extraordinary and the usual, the axes of the current collection of essays. Based on qualitative examination of collapse periods in western Asia and northern China during the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, and a high-resolution re-examination of the crisis in Mali at the beginning of 2010, we argue that extended climate anomalies that cause decreases in the amount of available food are the anomalies that most affect the fate of human civilizations. While people can cope with short-term climate anomalies that cause periodical food crises, lasting a year or two, extended climate anomalies that affect the availability of food, like droughts, cold spells or untimely rains, can have disastrous, long-term effects: they accelerate decisive processes, push people to migrate outside their regions of residence, increase violence and religious extremism, and, ultimately, lead to structural changes in the societies that are affected by the crises.

On the Northern Provenance of Cambridge, Trinity College MS R.7.5

Cambridge, Trinity College MS R.7.5 contains an early eleventh-century copy of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, which was subject to significant correction in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. As such it was produced and intensively used at the peak of the popularity of Bede’s historical text in medieval England, which Antonia Gransden and R.H.C. Davis long ago linked to the renewal of monasticism in the North in the long twelfth century. This essay explores how this manuscript, which has been accepted to be of northern provenance, fits into this wider context. It interrogates the evidence provided by additions to the manuscript and annotations of the text itself to argue that this copy of the Historia Ecclesiastica, which has hitherto not been linked to a specific religious house, was in the possession of the canons at Hexham from shortly after their re-formation as an Augustinian community in 1113 until the Dissolution. In doing so it demonstrates how, against the wider backdrop of the Historia Ecclesiastica as an inspiration for religious renewal in the North, the interests of the canons of Hexham in the text in the twelfth century were motivated by specific issues of jurisdiction.

Emperors, Patriarchs, Metropolitans, Deacons and Monks: Individuals and Groups in the Byzantine Church (6th–11th Centuries)

Abstract This article traces the history of the Byzantine Church from the sixth to the early twelfth century. It seeks to show how the development of the institution was shaped through the interactions of groups and individuals. Particular attention is paid to the permanent synod, the deacons of St Sophia and the monks of the capital.