This article considers the heritage of river form in the current urban fabric, specifically in relation to an ancient meander of the Seine located on the right bank of Paris. The resilience of the river’s shape appears by crossing texts, maps and archaeological data in historical geospatial mapping (GIS). In the ninth century, the Church of Sainte-Opportune in Paris received from the king the wetland left behind by the ancient channel of the Seine and used it as common pasture until 1150. Then, the canons drained the marsh which was converted for vegetable farming and, since the fourteenth century, for a sewer system. Since the nineteenth century, it has influenced the orientation of urban plots and streets. Finally, during the big flood of 1910, the Seine returned to its ancient bed. This is an example of how forms are passed on over time: because functions change.

ABSTRACT A series of exceptionally large sites along Ponca Creek in northeastern Nebraska appear to have been home to a large population of maize farmers for roughly a century around AD 1300. People settled at these sites too quickly for their population to represent local demographic processes, raising the question of where they came from. Ceramic data suggests a population with diverse backgrounds. We consider how household architecture, particularly the distinction between hip and gable roof houses, helps us to think about this. The changing distributions of the architectural styles across the central and northern Plains between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries suggest that at least some of the Ponca Creek settlers moved into the area from communities in northwestern Iowa and southeastern South Dakota.

Marine paleoclimate records for the last 1,000 years are scarce in the southwest Pacific, limiting our understanding of complex environmental changes that may have affected Māori seascapes and fisheries. We seek to begin filling this knowledge gap by studying stable oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) isotopes in archaeological and modern otoliths from tāmure (Australasian snapper, Chrysophrys auratus), which provide information about water temperature, salinity, and fish diet and metabolism. Our results show that fourteenth and fifteenth century tāmure otoliths recorded environmental conditions that are comparable to twentieth century temperatures, with some evidence for anomalously warmer seas and/or higher precipitation during the fifteenth century. These findings are concordant with previous reconstructions of terrestrial climatic conditions in northern Aotearoa and of central west Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures, providing additional evidence that Māori experienced a warm climatic period during their first centuries of habitation and fishing in the North Island.

The article examines the historical connections between Kalbajar and the Daralayaz region through the analysis of migration processes that occurred between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries. The main objective of the study is to clarify the movement of populations from the Kalbajar area to Daralayaz during the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries and their subsequent return to Kalbajar between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The research suggests that these migrations were closely related to the military and political upheavals that affected the South Caucasus during the second Mongol campaigns. In particular, the devastation of settlements in the Tartarchay basin, including the territory of present-day Kalbajar, created conditions that forced part of the local population to seek refuge in neighboring regions. Evidence from historical sources indicates that many of the surviving inhabitants moved to geographically accessible areas such as Daralayaz and that some of their descendants later returned to Kalbajar several centuries afterward. The study therefore highlights the historical demographic links between the two regions and contributes to the understanding of migration patterns in the medieval South Caucasus.

ABSTRACT In late-medieval Florence, the confraternity of the Compagnia della Madonna di Orsanmichele met every weeknight in the oratory of Orsanmichele to sing devotional songs directly in front of a painting of the Virgin and Child that was believed to be capable of performing miracles. This oratory was once a grain market, which over the course of the fourteenth century was transformed into a grain repository and a lavishly-decorated and important devotional location, filled with sculptures, frescos and stained-glass windows, thus becoming a veritable feast for the senses. Focusing specifically on the windows, this article will examine the relationship between the visual environment and the devotional rituals practiced by the Compagnia. I will argue that the visual imagery of the windows resonated with the themes, emotions and desires expressed in the laude, and in so doing, encouraged devotees to reflect on their individual morality in such a way that might persuade the Virgin to protect the well-being of the city, and specifically their access to nourishment. I will also show how the windows draw attention to the power of repeated vocalizations and prayer, thus making the windows literally about the kinds of acts being performed by confraternity members.

Abstract As a well-established practice, alcohol distillation represented a major technical development in the late Middle Ages. This analysis aims to interpret the alchemical instructions attributed to a certain Johannes Ungariae probably in the early fourteenth century, whose recipe circulated as far as Rome in the early modern period, attracting the interest of both a sixteenth- and an eighteenth-century collector. The manuscript with the incipit ‘Sic extrahendum quintam essentiam vini’ (Fol. 217, Sloan MS 3661.) has survived under the name of ‘John of Hungary’ as an alchemical recipe written in Latin, probably in 1322, as Ernő Simonyi has noted. In a comprehensive and coherent description of the underlying technology, Johannes Ungariae details the process of extracting the ‘quinta essentia’ of wine, a method conceived to operate at the boundary between spirit and matter. John Elyott's copy preserved in the Sloane Collection stands as a rare example of the tradition of alchymia operativa, the applied, hands-on alchemy, first brought to light by Simonyi in political exile in London in 1859. Studying the manuscript is the initial stage of a broader project that aims to contribute to our understanding of the networks of knowledge transmission.

Abstract The betrothal of a daughter of Frederick II, Constance, to John III Vatatzes, emperor of Nicaea, is one of the most significant events of thirteenth-century Mediterranean diplomacy. It has caught the attention of numerous scholars ever since Gustave Schlumberger re-discovered Constance’s tomb in Valencia, in 1902, where she had died at the beginning of the fourteenth century after a long and eventful life. Yet, a number of questions on this union have been left unresolved: first and foremost, its dating, which is of great importance to fully understand the diplomatic process that made it possible; secondly, the precise nature of the ceremony that was performed on the occasion, which might reflect imperial marriage policies and shifting practices with respect to engagement and wedding; thirdly, the general silence of the sources, especially the Byzantine histories of the Nicaean period, on Constance and her time in Byzantine Anatolia. This article will move from the historical context that encompasses Constance’s arrival in Nicaea and propose a possible answer to all three questions.

Abstract This article is devoted to a stylistic analysis of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Famagusta, Cyprus, known as Famagusta Cathedral (now the Lala Mustafa Paşa Mosque), begun around 1300. The special relevance of the cathedral comes from the fact that it owes its shape to masters well acquainted with the buildings of both France and Germany, and thus it demonstrates the complex and at the same time ambiguous stylistic character of the architecture around the year 1300. This study goes beyond purely formal analysis of the church, however: The case of Famagusta Cathedral and its anonymous designer provides a starting point for a discussion of the modes of long-distance transfer of architectural forms in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, which in turn are inextricably linked to the question of the education and career patterns of master masons and to the ways in which they were employed by clients from distant countries.

ABSTRACT The article investigates gifts made for pious purposes by Stockholm Burgomaster Everhard Kansten, Gertrud Kansten, most likely Everhard’s mother, and her sister Kristina Skörbytta during the last three decades of the fourteenth century. Together, they established an elaborate network of pious foundations spanning five chantries and an anniversary mass celebrated in three different churches in Stockholm, Uppsala, and Lübeck. These patterns of pious gift-giving are analysed in comparison with those observed in other Baltic towns and cities before the Reformation. However, the fragmented and incomplete nature of the available source material obscures the broader image of giving to the Church and the needy in late medieval Stockholm. Furthermore, the Swedish Town Law and the administrative practices of the local municipal authorities arguably imposed greater challenges for Stockholm burghers when making donations to ecclesiastical institutions, compared to other major towns of the Baltic region. Nevertheless, the pious gifts made by the three relatives demonstrate the influence of more universal commemorative practices, commonly observed in late medieval towns and cities outside the Swedish realm, as well as the mentalities behind them. These practices, while subject to local laws and customs, nonetheless permeated Stockholm’s religious landscape.

Ostrów Lednicki was a centre of the Piast dynasty (tenth–fourteenth centuries AD), laying the foundations for the development of the Polish state. A collapsed tenth-century wooden fortification associated with Bolesław the Brave (the first king of Poland) and its unique sculptural element provide insights into early-medieval construction techniques.

ABSTRACT This article analyses Ibn Taymiyya’s theological discourse on the precedence of frontier garrisoning (murābaṭa) over pious residence in Mecca (mujāwara), situating his argumentation within the tumultuous milieu of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Amid Mongol incursions, Crusader campaigns and pervasive internal discord, Ibn Taymiyya advocates for active frontier defence, arguing that genuine spiritual merit resides not in contemplative retreat within sacred precincts but in actions that safeguard and fortify the Muslim ummah (nation). Drawing upon Qurʾānic injunctions, Prophetic traditions and juristic consensus, he conceives murābaṭa as an essential dimension of jihad, whilst privileging communal welfare above individualistic devotional observances. His treatise challenges conventional notions of sanctity, demonstrating that spatial holiness emanates from virtuous conduct rather than from any intrinsic qualities. Through integrated historical and theological analysis, this article explores Ibn Taymiyya’s enduring intellectual legacy and examines how his reflections on religious obligation, spiritual excellence and collective responsibility continue to resonate within Islamic jurisprudential and theological discourse.

Between 400 to 1450 CE, the Trincheras tradition spanned north-central Sonora and extreme southern Arizona. Since the 1950s, archaeologists have argued that dramatic transformations around 1300 CE impacted the Trincheras heartland. These transformations included a proposed influx of Papaguerían Hohokam migrants, the adoption of new cultural practices, expansive trade networks, and changes to local lifeways. Scholars have also suggested that local Trinchereños gradually depopulated the region; however, sites in the Altar Valley have never been subject to excavation or critical evaluation. This paper utilizes a multivariate approach on two newly excavated sites within the Altar Valley. We argue for the presence of migrant-brought materials during the late 1200s/early 1300s and suggest that groups from the southeastern Papaguería gradually entered the region and coalesced with Indigenous Trinchereños. This paper contributes to migration studies across the late precolonial Southwest/Northwest and offers a much-needed reevaluation of the late prehistoric period within the Trincheras heartland.

The history of the Mahuris, a trading community from Mathura that migrated in large numbers to Bihar in the fourteenth century, remains largely understudied in scholarship. This might be due to the absence of written records on the history of the Mahuris. However, for the Mahuris, their oral tradition served as a source of collective memory and didactic lessons. Their oral tradition was compiled by Munshi Gaya Ram in Mahuri Bhushan (1888), which records their migration, social organisation and cultural practices. This article examines the processes of migration, cultural adaptation and community self-representation of the Mahuris as apparent from the Mahuri Bhushan as well as other epigraphic and documentary sources. It analyses Mahuri Bhushan as an internally authored repository of memory that records migration, social organisation and cultural practices, thus situating Mahuri history within wider debates on oral traditions in historiography.

Abstract According to a venerable historical narrative, a crucial step in the development of the modern picture of the mind occurred when Descartes argued that sensing occurs in the immaterial human mind, together with thought and volition. The mind, the story goes, had once been the home only of rational thought and volition, with sensations being embodied phenomena, much like digestion, growth, or weaving. However, I show in this article that the view that human sensations are immaterial, non‐extended modifications of the immaterial human intellect rose to prominence in the second quarter of the fourteenth century. In Section 1, I examine the background for this fourteenth‐century immaterial turn in the more familiar views of sensation prominent in the thirteenth century. In Section 2, I show how the view that human sensation is just as immaterial as thought emerged in the work of some of William of Ockham's associates in England. In Section 3, I bring to light two important developments in the way philosophers thought about the nature of sensation that led to the Immaterial Turn. In Section 4, I briefly discuss a puzzle about the way scholastics in the Immaterial Turn conceived of sensation.

This study aims to analyze how the novel Doomsday Book (1992), by Connie Willis, constructs a symbolic grammar of compassion in contexts of collapse, through the juxtaposition of two pandemics set in different time periods: the Black Death in the fourteenth century and a future epidemic in twenty-first-century Oxford. The research adopts an integrative and interdisciplinary methodology, combining contributions from history, medicine, anthropology, literature, and theology, among other fields.. This approach allows for a synthetic reading better suited to the semantic complexity of speculative fiction. As with any transversal reading, the study assumes a limitation: the difficulty of framing the novel within a single analytical category. Nevertheless, this openness enables a richer and deeper perspective on human responses to catastrophe. The article offers an original contribution by interpreting the novel’s diptych structure not merely as a formal parallelism, but as a mode of mediation between possible worlds. Among the main findings, compassion—embodied by characters facing extreme situations—emerges as a universal language and ethical principle of resistance in the face of suffering. Doomsday Book thus reveals itself as a narrative that transcends the science fiction genre to offer an ethical, aesthetic, and communicative reflection on meaning, care, and hope in times of crisis.

Paul W. Werth’s recent book is a tour de force summary of the empire’s growth from the fourteenth century to the present. This brief book (in Bloomsbury’s “Russian Shorts” series) chronicles seemingly all of Russia’s acquisitions and losses, postulating a recurring pattern of expansion, crisis, loss, and often restoration of territory. His brevity will frustrate specialists, but the general reader will find this an accurate and useful summary of the territorial growth of a state that came to cover, as Russians proudly declared, “one-sixth” of the earth’s surface. The index allows the reader to pursue a given territory over time, and twenty-nine excellent maps illuminate related discussions. It must have been frustrating for so insightful and entertaining an author as Werth to stick to the empirical, chronological description that he adopts for more than half the book (six of nine chapters). We wait until chapter 7 for the interpretive explanation of the “how and why” of territorial growth, yet even there brevity risks overgeneralization. Werth presents multiple reasons for expansion, generalized over time, not linking specific episodes to specific motives. That litany includes the geographical ease of expansion across the plain, the state’s need to support the army with land in the Muscovite era, and modern ideologies of civilizing mission, Soviet expansionism, or neo-Eurasianism. He dismisses “myths” about why Russia expanded (the Third Rome theory, messianism) and follows Charles Maier in pointing out that Russia’s European and global peers were building empires throughout these centuries as well. Ultimately, he asserts that Russia expanded for economic reasons—quests for resources (furs, iron ore), ports, and trade routes. All very sensible, but a bit detached from the historical unfolding. Addressing “how” Russia expanded, Werth acknowledges that it was primarily by conquest, often horribly brutal. He might have paused to focus on patterns of conquest, particularly mass deportations, as a counterweight to the book’s primary argument that Russia generally pursued expansion with “flexibility” (pp. 18, 29, 35, 50, 101–6, 127–8, as well as chapter 8). Repeatedly Moscow tolerated “incomplete sovereignty,” “shared sovereignty,” and other forms of “composite” rule, as did other early modern states (p. 35). Suggesting that Russia often preferred weak underlings to annexation of new territory, Werth devotes chapter 8 to institutional forms that he calls “Russia beyond”—vassal states, protectorates, satellites, and outright occupation (p. 125). He follows Alfred Rieber in asserting that partial sovereignty was endemic to empires: “Sovereignty, rather than being an all-or-nothing proposition, involves gradations” (p. 127). Werth devotes his final chapter to “Russia within”—that is, how Russians in the era of nationalism, particularly post-1991, have grappled with defining their national identity and “Russia” as territory. Throughout he has demonstrated the separate path of the Ukrainian lands, in and out of Russian control throughout the centuries, setting him up to observe that Russians’ claim that Ukrainian lands are fundamentally Russian is a “political project,” not historical reality (p. 134). This is a deeply informed, jam-packed book; perhaps the tyranny of word count prevented him from directly addressing the theme of governance. Werth occasionally remarks that it took decades, or centuries, to “integrate” Russia’s disparate lands into a single realm: “not everyone on the territory Russian claimed was actually subject to its authority” (p. 35). Diversity of governance strategies was a structural consequence of the “flexibility” of imperial acquisition and Russia had a systematic approach to it, which Werth does not cite or employ (he does argue against John LeDonne’s “unitary state” framework). That is the “empire of difference” style of rule whereby Eurasian empires like Russia tolerated ethnic, religious, linguistic, institutional, legal, and other diversity across the realm, insisting only on very basic claims of central power (mobilizing resources, monopolizing violence, and providing the criminal law). Scholars of premodern Russia have followed this model in action to about 1800, but few have tracked how it fared in the modern centuries. Briefly stated, the late imperial state tried Russification (too little, too late) and the Bolsheviks struggled to homogenize governance and identity around a Soviet paradigm, but all constantly confronted multiethnic diversity. Werth, however, without evoking the framework, actually shows how that tension in governance played out. Had he shaped his narrative around such a framework, the book would have been less empirical. Werth concludes that Russia today conceals “a smaller (but still immense) empire behind a mask of federalism,” perhaps an “anachronistic” state formation in the twenty-first century, but still very powerful, still pursuing territorial conquest (p. 150). He wisely leaves the reader to ponder what comes next.

Agriculture constituted the backbone of the medieval Indian economy, and the stability of the Delhi Sultanate largely depended upon agrarian prosperity. In the fourteenth century, northern India frequently suffered from irregular rainfall, droughts, and declining agricultural productivity. These challenges adversely affected state revenue and the livelihood of the rural population. Recognizing the centrality of agriculture to political stability and economic growth, Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq (1351–1388 AD) adopted a systematic and welfare-oriented irrigation policy. Canal irrigation emerged as the cornerstone of his agrarian reforms and represented one of the most significant public works of his reign. This paper examines the development of canal irrigation under Firoz Shah Tughlaq and analyzes its role in agricultural expansion, rural prosperity, and economic stabilization. It also evaluates the administrative framework supporting irrigation and assesses the long-term significance of these initiatives in medieval Indian history.

As a new and evolving polity in South Asia during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Sultanate of Delhi experienced rapid regime changes and contested social hierarchies. Discussing social implications of political transition and disruption during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, this paper examines Persian advice literature, chronicles and inshā (letters) to analyse how social categories of ḵẖāṣṣ (elite) and ‘āmma (commoners) were constituted, contested and reconfigured. It explores how Persian literati advised new rulers on recognising the rights of subjects to maintain social order, and how this guidance contrasted with actual disruptions, when established ḵẖāṣṣ were displaced to create a new ruling elite. It is argued that literary representation of ideal social hierarchies provides critiques of the contemporary social milieu, as well as the expectations and anxieties of the authors. The paper also argues that social hierarchies under the Delhi Sultanate were neither stable nor predetermined, but historically contingent and actively negotiated. In light of this, the Persian literature of the Delhi Sultanate period becomes records of both social disruptions and social-political order, situated amid the tension between idealised norms and historical realities.

This article examines the life of fourteenth century mystic Margery Kempe and how she has used her body to defy immobility – concretization of domesticity and chastity. In the process, attempts have been made to look into the connection between food and body – what happens when one stops having food, what significance a body with empty stomach carries socially. Is starvation an escape from the way the body is perceived in Medieval Times? Mystics like Margery Kempe and her contemporaries St. Bridget of Sweden, Julian of Norwich used to starve day in and day out to do penance. Does a starved human body serve another purpose besides doing penance? Particular roles are set for particular bodies in society. When the very image of the body does not excite temptation, the body somehow bypasses the very rules prescribed for it. Critics have argued such a body creates a space for an alternative existence. The body becomes sacred, like the body of Christ. This process of creating a haloed body is achieved through performance. These ritualistic acts, performed by the body, enable the person in creating a space which is transgressive in nature. Margery seems to escape the roles of her gender - she stops being the wife of John Kempe; she stops being the mother of fourteen children; she even stops sleeping with her husband, however John often forced her to pay the marital debt. But it becomes problematic when she, having refused her husband’s body, desires the holy body of Christ. Therefore, a sacred body proves to be tempting. She, having escaped from the very roles which her gender sets for her, ends up following the same, only this time with a more masculine man, Christ himself. Now, does she really escape from her gendered body?

Literature is one of the highest manifestations of human thought, aesthetic sensibility, and spiritual life. In the cultural heritage of every nation, literature occupies a special place, and classical literature, in particular, represents an invaluable treasury. Among the various genres formed within classical literature, the mushoara genre stands out for its distinctive artistic and aesthetic features, its spirit of creative competition, and its high regard for poetry. This genre served not only as a means for poets to demonstrate their artistic mastery, but also as a platform for testing the depth of their thought, richness of vocabulary, level of literary knowledge, and creative potential. Mushoara gatherings were commonly held at literary assemblies, royal courts, and creative circles, and they were regarded as significant cultural events of their time. This article examines the role and artistic-aesthetic characteristics of the mushoara genre in the works of Sayfi Sarayi, one of the prominent representatives of fourteenth-century classical Turkic literature. In the course of the study, the formal and thematic features of the genre are analyzed through examples of mushoaras included by Sayfi Sarayi in his translation of Saʿdi Shirazi’s Gulistan. In particular, the use of poetic devices such as meter, rhyme, radif, simile, metaphor, and tajnis, as well as the harmony of mystical and amorous themes in mushoaras conducted with poets such as Mawlana Qazi Muhsin, Mawlana Ishaq, Mawlana Imad Mawlavi, and Ahmad Khoja al-Sarayi, is examined on a scholarly basis. The article reveals the role of the mushoara genre in fostering creative competition, literary dialogue, and the continuity of artistic traditions. The findings demonstrate that Sayfi Sarayi’s mushoaras constitute an important source reflecting the literary milieu of the fourteenth century and play a significant role in the development of the mushoara genre within classical Turkic literature.