Sixth Century Research Articles

Review: The Rise of Coptic: Egyptian versus Greek in Late Antiquity, by Jean-Luc Fournet

Review: <i>The Rise of Coptic: Egyptian versus Greek in Late Antiquity</i>, by Jean-Luc Fournet

Everyday Life in extremis

Everyday Life <i>in extremis</i>

Refiguring Sex Work in the Life of Theodoros of Sykeon

The Life of Theodoros of Sykeon is a remarkable hagiographic text that is well known to contemporary scholarship as a source for information about rural life in Asia Minor in the sixth and seventh centuries. This text represents the saint’s mother, Maria, and the rest of his female family as a group of independent women who ran an inn on the imperial road through Galatia. These women set up a business that the text alternatively calls the “business of a hetaira” and the “business of pornike.” Hetaira, the feminine form of a word meaning “companion,” was in antiquity a word that meant a high-class woman who either worked as a courtesan or was sexually free. Pornike is a slur word that generally is translated as “fornication.” Through its highly gendered and sexually charged depiction, the author makes Maria into a negative foil for Theodoros’ future saintly career. This article examines this depiction of Maria in both the post-641 CE text and a slightly less hostile depiction of her in a shorter version of The Life of Theodoros of Sykeon. It uses these texts to ask the question, “What happens if the representation of sex worker characters in these two texts is read as a mode of making practical/moral and theological points in service of monastic communities?” Building on ideas from Roland Betancourt’s recent Byzantine Intersectionality, the project is an initial foray into acknowledging the ways that representations of sex work are highly gendered and that the subjects are entirely silenced.

The Battle Rages On

The Battle Rages On

A proposito di Giovanni Filopono cristiano e gli studi di Étienne Évrard

Abstract The studies of É. Évrard, recently published by M.-A. Gavray (2020), are high quality works which allow to immerse oneself in the context of the Platonic-Aristotelian school of Alexandria in Egypt throughout the sixth century AD. They mostly focus on the figure and work of Joannes Philoponus, with specific attention to the compositional technique of his Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics and of On the Eternity of the World against Aristotle. Despite being strongly critical of the Stagirite on some points, also due to his Christian faith (as with regard to the eternity of the world, which he denies), Philoponus deeply assimilated Aristotelian methods, lexicon and concepts. He therefore uses this legacy in his commentary on the first chapter of the biblical text of the book of Genesis on the creation of the universe, of living species and of the human being (better known with the Latin title De opificio mundi). This work by Philoponus provides a first example of Christian Aristotelianism before the well-known one of the medieval Scholasticism.

Review: The Rich and the Pure: Philanthropy and the Making of Christian Society in Early Byzantium, by Daniel Caner

Review: <i>The Rich and the Pure: Philanthropy and the Making of Christian Society in Early Byzantium</i>, by Daniel Caner

Review: Singer of the Word of God: Ephrem the Syrian and His Significance in Late Antiquity, by Sebastian P. Brock

Review: <i>Singer of the Word of God: Ephrem the Syrian and His Significance in Late Antiquity</i>, by Sebastian P. Brock

Odette Boivin. “The ilku and related fiscal obligations in sixth century Larsa”

Odette Boivin. “The ilku and related fiscal obligations in sixth century Larsa”

Two thousand years of Landscape—Human interactions at a coastal peninsula in Norway revealed through pollen analysis, shoreline reconstruction, and radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites

Human impact on long-term vegetation and biodiversity changes is often discussed on a general level, connecting palynological data to archaeological time periods. In the present paper we present environmental change during the last 2,400 years on a coastal peninsula in Norway using pollen data from three sites: one lake and two bogs, in addition to 621 radiocarbon dates and in-context pollen samples from archaeological sites. Locally, a close relationship between palynological richness reflecting high landscape, habitat and floristic diversity, and the summed probability distribution of radiocarbon dates was found. During the settlement period 400 BCE–550 CE, concordant with maximum number of dates from archaeological contexts, a mosaic landscape containing infields and outfields developed. Cereals were cultivated and animals were grazing in heathlands that could provide both summer grazing and winter fodder. Additionally, seashores and wetlands were used for grazing. Settlement recession from 350 CE and abandonment following the 536 CE climate event, resulted in vegetation successions toward reforestation, abandonment of arable fields, and marshes turning into ombrotrophic peat. At the same time the distance to the sea, and to species rich shoreline meadows, continued to increase due to continuous postglacial land uplift in a flat landscape. A new increase in the summed probability distribution 900–1250 CE, is reflected in expansion of outfield pastures, heathlands in particular, a management that continued up into modern time. The local development is supported by the results on a regional scale, indicating overall climatic and social causes for observed vegetation changes. Both palynological richness and pollen-based landcover reconstructions indicate reforestation and less habitat diversity in the sixth century. On a regional scale, reforestation in the fifteenth century following the late medieval crises, is more pronounced than on the local scale, although both reflect exploitation of outfield resources.

Values in ‘Perunkathai’ Family System

In the world of Tamil poetry, Perunkathai is held in equal esteem with the five great epics. The original text of Perunkathai was written by Gunadithiyar in the Paisasam language, a vernacular dialect of Prakrit, in the name of Pragatatha. After that, it was written in Sanskrit under the name Prigathkathai by a Ganga king named Durvineethan in the fifth or sixth century AD. Konguvelir wrote it in Tamil under the name of Udhayanan Kathai. He is considered to belong to the Velalar class of Kongu Country. This book, which was written in the seventh century AD by Konguvelir, is also known as Udhayanan Kathai, Konguvel Maakathai, and Perunkathai. This epic poem is composed by focusing on the lives of the kings. The grammar, literature, and epics of the Tamil language are all written with the aim of making the readers refined and virtuous. The aim of this book is that man should live a long time with perfect human nature. A family is a system in which one has children and lives together. This system undergoes many changes from time to time. Family structure is determined based on occupation, job, preference, need, etc. They classify family systems as joint family systems where grandfather, grandmother, paternal aunt, maternal uncle, elder paternal uncle, elder maternal aunt, younger maternal aunt, younger paternal father, grandson, granddaughter, etc., live together and classify them as single family systems where mother, father, and child live together. No matter what the system is, the family system will gain specialness and value only if it accepts the personal feelings, desires, needs, obligations, and duties of each individual. Many changes occur in human characteristics according to the living conditions of the changing and growing living conditions of people. The purpose of this article is to highlight the family values that are mentioned in the story in order to properly refine these changes and make us live in a good way.

THE TERRACOTTA ANIMAL FIGURINES FROM DESPOTIKO: THE LIFE OF HUMANS AND OBJECTS IN THE EARLY IRON AGE CYCLADES BEYOND POLARITIES

Mandra, on the uninhabited islet of Despotiko in the middle of the Aegean Sea, is well known to the archaeological community, owing to the discovery there in 2001 of an extensive sanctuary of Apollo. Twenty-two edifices have come to light so far, and the systematic excavation continues to elucidate the long history of the site. The Early Iron Age marked the earliest activity there, traces of which offer fertile grounds for reconsidering life in the Cyclades at the time. The richest evidence for this period is offered by a secondary deposition, detected near two Early Iron Age buildings, which revealed thousands of clay sherds, extending from the late ninth/early eighth to the late sixth century BC, quantities of animal bones, and more than 60 metal objects. This article focuses on a small group of Early Iron Age terracotta animal figurines from this deposition. Critically analysing both their association with ritual and the polarity of ritual and profane, an attempt is made to unravel the lifecycle of these figurines, treating them as agents of activity. Their function and meaning are interwoven with the activities operating at the site during the Early Iron Age, at least two centuries before the foundation of the Archaic temenos.

Wyjaśnienie dogmatu chalcedońskiego w VI wieku. Interpretacja osoby i natury przez teologów „neochalcedonizmu” według Aloisa Grillmeiera

At the Council of Chalcedon (451), the Fathers introduced a clear and previously unknown distinction between the Christological concepts of person and nature. This contributed to various problems, the most important of which was the lack of a new definition of person. For this reason, the council became the subject of sharp criticism primarily from “moderate” Monophysites. In this article, with the help of Alois Grillmeier’s analysis in his work Jesus der Christus, the author presents the efforts of the two most influential theologians who defended and deepened the teaching of the Council within the framework of the so called “Neochalcedonism” in the sixth century, Leontius of Byzantium and Leontius of Jerusalem. Theses theologians developed the concept of person as the source of the nature’s existence, thus giving it an existential and primary meaning in relation to phýsis. The author explains how, based on this, they were able to fill in all the questionable deficiencies in the Chalcedonian definition.

Crop Husbandry at Gabii During the Iron Age and Archaic Period: The Archaeobotanical and Stable Isotope Evidence

ABSTRACT Intensification of agricultural production to support demographic growth has been invoked as a necessary correlate to the important socio-economic changes involved in the urbanisation process of Western Central Italy at the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE. Yet, the agricultural economy of the early urban centres in the region remains poorly understood. Ongoing excavations at Gabii provide a new substantial archaeobotanical dataset that allows the investigation of crop production and farming practices during the transitional period between the eighth and the sixth century BCE. This study presents a multi-proxy approach that integrates archaeobotanical data with carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses on charred cereal grains to reconstruct Gabii’s crop husbandry regimes. Our results show an unexpected local combination of staples in which barley is the most common crop. No significant changes are visible throughout the period suggesting a remarkable consistency in crop selection and persistence of traditional practices. The stable nitrogen isotope analysis has revealed low values that we argue could be an indication of intercropping cereals and pulses. A drop in the water availability during the sixth century BCE could be related to a combination of environmental factors, human behaviours, and, possibly, production stress.

Hwangryongsa reconsidered: A Korean mirror to the medieval Chinese Buddhist ritual-architectural transformation

This article investigates the one-century construction history of Silla's state monastery Hwangryongsa, understanding its architectural transformation in relation to the changing ritual-spatial concept within the context of the medieval Sino-Korean cultural exchanges. The initial construction between 553 and 569, supervised by the Koguryŏ émigré monk Hyeryang, followed the sixth-century Northern Chinese model to build Hwangryongsa as a dormitory-enclosed compound, in which the One-Hundred-Seat Assembly was enacted in the image hall as the earlier Chinese Buddhist tradition would do. This plan was soon altered under the increasing popularity of the newly developed Southern Chinese paradigm. An extensive reconstruction started in 574 for the purpose of imitating the Chen imperial performance of the One-Hundred-Seat Assembly at Taijidian compound of Jiankang palace, while the archaic, oddly-empty organization of the central image hall reveals a hidden connection between Hwangryongsa and Tongtaisi, the state monastery of the Liang and also the first Chinese monastery modeled after the Taijidian compound. Hwangryongsa was eventually transformed into a corridor-enclosed ceremonial courtyard fronted by three image halls and one nine-story pagoda by 645, and the transformation profoundly mirrored China's medieval architectural reform of Buddhist ritual space between the sixth and seventh centuries.

The Travel of Bahraini Scholars between the Sixth and Ninth Centuries A H to Al-Hilla and its Cultural Antiquities

The present paper aims at observing the scholarly relations between Bahrain and Al-Hilla in the period between the sixth century and the ninth century A H through the scholarly travel of Bahraini scholars. It also aims at studying the cultural reflections of this travel, its results, the means of scholarly exchange between the two schools, the influencing factors on their scholarly relations, which merged the two countries, and finally the mutual impacts between the two scholarly schools: Al-Hilla and Bahrain.Furthermore, it tackles the aspects of scholarly relations between Al-Hilla and Bahrain, surveying in some detail the phenomenon of the scholarly immigration of Bahraini scholars to Al-Hilla and their scholarly efforts. We also concentrate on the phenomenon of exchanging scholarly authorization between the scholars of Bahrain and Al-Hilla, and the indications of the interaction of Bahraini scholars with the scholarly heritage of Al-Hilla School, especially in the field of jurisprudence.

Five Hundred Bones from Constantinople: Monks, Manuscripts, and Memory at the Eastern Borders of Byzantium

AbstractThis article traces the diachronic uses of the literary motif of “relics coming from Constantinople to monasteries in the East” in Syriac hagiography. Although this motif was seen in Syriac literature as early as the sixth century, there seems to be an increase in the employment of these stories around the twelfth century in saints’ lives local to northern Mesopotamia. In light of two texts—the Life of Abḥay and the Life of Aḥā—the article argues that stories about Constantinopolitan relics (martyrs’ bones or pieces of the True Cross) were oriented toward different modes of remembering Byzantium in the Syriac Church in the Middle Ages. The article further argues that these stories also created space to reflect on the Syriac Church’s relations with the Armenian Church in the medieval Near East. The article thus shows the power of narrative in creating cultural memory, building communal identity, and catalyzing religious rivalry.

The Break-up of Early World Christianity and the Great Ecumenical Failure

Christianity has from its beginning been global in principle, and for many centuries was so in practice. In the first six or seven centuries of Christian history, Christian presence spread across the greater part of the then known world – the vast landmass that constitutes Europe, Asia and Africa – and constituted a world Christianity which was multicentric, multilingual and multicultural. But the doctrinal disputes of the fifth century led to the alienation of large numbers of Coptic- and Syriac-speaking Christians from those who thought and spoke in Greek and Latin, and the ecumenical tragedy of the sixth century saw the great multicultural church divided along lines of language and culture. We are now in a new age of world Christianity – an even larger and more diverse reality than that of the first Christian centuries, but like it, multicentric, multilingual, multicultural. The acid test for Christianity in the twenty-first century will be whether the break-up of that first age of world Christianity can now be repaired.

A Brief History of Liberal Education in Ancient and Medieval Europe－Focusing on the Formation and Evolution of Liberal Arts

This paper examined the history of liberal education in ancient and medieval Europe, focusing on the formation and evolution of liberal arts using materials concerning the history of education, history of university, history of philosophy, and history of science. The elementary form of liberal education emerged at Greece in the fourth century BC. The philosophers’ tradition and the orators’ tradition made two approaches to liberal education. Greek scholarship was accepted in the form of encyclopedic publications in the Roman era, and &lt;i&gt;Disciplinarium libri novem&lt;/i&gt;, the first work which contained the idea of liberal arts, was written in the first century BC. In the early medieval ages, so called dark ages, secular scholarship maintained its existence through the medium of liberal arts. In the fifth century, liberal arts became actualized into the seven liberal arts through &lt;i&gt;De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii&lt;/i&gt;. Since the sixth century, the seven liberal arts were divided into trivium and quadrivium. In the Renaissance of the twelfth century, ancient writings were extensively translated including Aristotelian works, and the attempt to relate Greek philosophies and the seven liberal arts was tried. Circa 1250, some universities were set up in the major cities of Europe, and medieval universities were mostly organized with the faculties of arts, theology, law, and medicine. Since the late thirteenth century, the arts faculty extended the scope of liberal arts by adding three philosophies to the existing seven liberal arts: natural philosophy, metaphysics and ethics. Based on the above examination, this paper showed that the scope of liberal arts was not fixed but continuously changed, and that humanities and science were not separated in ancient and medieval Europe.

İbnü’l-Cezerî’nin (ö. 833/1429) Müncidü’l-Muḳriîn Adlı Eserinin Endülüs Kıraat Ekolü Açısından Kaynak Değeri

Endülüs, Doğu İslâm coğrafyasındaki karışıklıklar sebebiyle bilhassa hicrî beşinci ve altıncı asırlarda kıraat sahasının öne çıkan bölgelerinden biri olmuştur. Söz konusu asırlarda hayat süren Endülüslü kıraat âlimlerinin, özellikle kıraat farklılıklarına dönük olarak kaleme aldıkları eserleri, İslâm dünyasının pek çok bölgesinde büyük iltifat görmüş, kıraat tedrisatının temel çalışmaları kabul edilmiş ve bu alanın referans eserleri addedilmiştir. Bu kitapların başında da Ebû ‘Amr ed-Dânî’nin (ö. 444/1053) et-Teysîr fi’l-ḳırâ’âti’s-sebʻ adını taşıyan çalışmasıyla Kâsım b. Fîrruh eş-Şâtıbî’nin (ö. 590/1194), Dânî’nin et-Teysîr’ini nazmederek vücuda getirdiği ve “eş-Şâṭıbiyye” şeklinde şöhret bulan Ḥirzü’l-emânî ve vechü’t-tehânî isimli manzumesi gelmektedir. Diğer yandan bu çalışmalar, İbn Mücâhid’in Kitâbü’s-sebʻa’sından mülhem olmaları, dolayısıyla ekseriyetle yedi kıraat (ḳırâât-ı seb‘a) ile bunlara ait yalnızca on dört rivayeti içermeleri ve tarîk anlamında da kısıtlı kalmaları gibi nedenlerle kimi ulema tarafından eleştiri konusu yapılmıştır. Zikredilen türdeki eleştirilerin belki de en serti ise kendisi de bir Endülüslü kıraat âlimi olan Ebû Hayyân el-Endelüsî’ye (ö. 745/1344) aittir. Bu makale, İbnü’l-Cezerî’nin Müncidü’l-muḳriîn ve mürşidü’ṭ-ṭâlibîn isimli eserinde, Ebû Hayyân’dan nakille, Endülüs kıraat kültürüne yönelik aktardığı tespitlerin ve eleştirel bir yaklaşım ihtiva eden değerlendirmelerin çeşitli açılardan analizini konu edinmektedir. Alabildiğine uzun olan bu nakil, esasen Ebû Hayyân’a; et-Teysîr ve Ḥirzü’l-emânî’nin Hz. Peygamber’in işaret ettiği yedi harfin (el-aḥrufü’s-seb‘a) tamamını mı yoksa bir kısmını mı kapsadığı; tarihte on kıraatin okutulup-okutulmadığı, bu usulü okuyup-okutmanın hükmü ve bu metodun kabul görüp-görmediği yönünde yöneltilen soruya verdiği cevaptan ibarettir. Ebû Hayyân’ın anılan açıklamaları, her ne kadar muayyen bir soru üzerine dile getirilmişse de Endülüs’te kıraat ilminin tarihî seyri ve bu bölgedeki kıraat kültürünün temel özelliklerine dair pek çok bilgiyi bünyesinde barındırmaktadır. Bununla birlikte bu bilgilerden bazılarının daha geniş bir bakış açısıyla yeniden ele alınmaya, bazılarının çeşitli eklemelere ve bazılarının da muhtelif düzeltmelere ihtiyaç duyduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Diğer yandan eserin bu kısmındaki bilgilerin, muayyen başlıklar halinde aktarılmadığı, dağınık bir şekilde metnin farklı kısımlarına serpiştirildiği müşahede edilmektedir. Bu bağlamda öncelikle bahse konu nakilden çıkarılan rivayetler belirli konu başlıklarına ayrılmış, ardından da sözü geçen malumat bu başlıklar ekseninde değerlendirilmeye gayret gösterilmiştir. Belirtilen hususlar muvacehesinde bu araştırmada, öncelikle İbnü’l-Cezerî’nin Müncid’i hakkındaki kısa bir tanıtıma yer verilmiş, müellifin, bu eserinde Endülüs’teki kıraat faaliyetlerine geniş bir şekilde temas etmesinin altında yatan sebepler irdelenmiştir. Ardından “yedi kıraat metodunun Endülüs’e girişi”, “Endülüs kıraat kültürünün beslendiği temel kaynaklar”, “Endülüslü bazı âlimlerin yegâne otorite kabul edilmeleri”, “Endülüs’te yaygınlık gösteren kıraat tasnifatı” ve “Endülüs’teki kıraat eserlerinin sınırlı olduğu iddiası” meyanındaki beş başlık işlenmiş, bu noktalarda Müncid’in kaynak değeri ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır. Bu tetkikler neticesinde erken dönemlerden itibaren Endülüs’ten Doğuya yapılan rihlelerin doğurduğu etkiye paralel olarak Endülüs’ün yedi kıraat ile tanışıklığının, Ebû Hayyân’ın verdiği tarihten önceleri başladığı kanaatine varılmıştır. Aynı şekilde Hicaz’ın Endülüs’te tercih edilen kıraate, Bağdat’ın da Endülüslü kıraat âlimlerinin eserlerinin münderecatına büyük oranda tesiri görülmüş, böylelikle bu iki bölgenin, Endülüs kıraat ekolünün oluşumunda Mısır kadar rol oynadığı anlaşılmıştır. Endülüslü bazı kurrânın kıraat sahasında yegâne otorite sayıldığı, bu bölgedeki kıraat faaliyetlerinin bahsi geçen isimler etrafında şekillendiği müşahede edilmiş; Ebû Hayyân’ın bu noktadaki isabeti tespit edilmiştir. Endülüs’te kıraat farklılıklarını muhtevî çalışmaların yalnızca yedi kıraati içermediği, sekiz ve on kıraatin de bu bölgede bilindiğine dair pek çok örnekle karşılaşılmıştır. Ayrıca Endülüslülerce telif edilen eserlerin bazılarında olabildiğince geniş bir rivayet ve tarîk birikimine rastlanmıştır.

An Andalusian Maliki Scholar, Ibn al-Fars and His Work, Ahkam al-Qur’an

Bu çalışmanın amacı, Endülüs’te bir ilim kenti olan Gırnata’da yetişmiş Hicrî 6. yüzyıl âlimi İbnü’l-Feres’i ve onun kaleme aldığı Ahkâmü’l-Kur’ân adlı eserini tanıtmak ve tahlil etmektir. Makale müellifin fıkhî tefsir anlayışıyla yazdığı eserin ahkâm âyetlerini ele alış metoduna yoğunlaşmaktadır. Müellifin tefsir tarzı, onun günümüze ulaşmış tek kitabı olan Ahkâmü’l-Kur’ân adlı eseri başta olmak üzere, sınırlı da olsa eserle ilgili yapılan çalışmalar üzerinden tespit edilmiştir. Çalışmada müellifin hayatına, eserinin kaynaklarına, metodolojisi ve muhtevasına dair bilgilere yer verilmiştir. Mâlikî fıkıh ekolüne mensup olan müellifin ahkâm âyetlerini genelde İmâm Mâlik’in görüşleri çerçevesinde yorumladığı ancak mezhep taassubu gütmeden delillerinin güçlü olması durumunda diğer mezheplerin görüşlerini kabul ettiği görülmüştür. Ayrıca bazı meselelerde şahsî görüşlerini rivâyetlere tercih etmiştir. Bazı ‘ulûmü’l-Kur’ân konularının yer aldığı eserde hem rivâyet hem dirâyet tefsir anlayışlarının örneklerini bulmak mümkündür. TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi’nde İbnü’l-Feres’e ayrılmış bir madde bulunmamaktadır. Söz konusu Ansiklopedi’nin hazırlanan mütemmim eklerine İbnü’l-Feres’e yer verilmesinin ilmî araştırma yapanlar için faydalı olacağı kanaatine varılmıştır.