The Saljuq Turks’ Conversion to Islam: The Crusading Sources

This article contributes to the important debate over the conversion of the Turks to Islam. Previously, it was thought that the Turks abandoned their former steppe faith and customs very swiftly to become staunch Sunni Muslims, but this view has recently been challenged by a number of studies. The current consensus seems to be that the Turks’ adoption of Islam was a process of far longer duration, spanning many decades. This article broadens this discussion by demonstrating that the chronicles written by the First Crusaders contain much useful information that is pertinent to this question. It works through these texts, showing that they can shed new light on this point.     

Acerca del hielo en el islam medieval

The history of ice in medieval Arab societies is obscured behind a mosaic of a variety of references and scholarly citations. Beyond al-Qalqashandī's reference to organised ice trafficking in fourteenth-century Mamluk Egypt, we do not have conclusive evidence on the origin and use of ice as a consumer product. In this paper we trace its presence based on three genres of references: historical and literary quotations, medicine and literature pertaining to food. These references allow us to consider the extent of ice consumption in the Arab world before the ninth century, as well as the existence of an organised trade throughout the Middle Ages from that time. However, contrary to the Persian world, with its well-documented Iranian yakhchals, we still know virtually nothing about ice-houses in medieval Arab societies. We also know very little about the profession of the thallāj or ice-seller, or whether the widespread consumption of ice that originated in Spain in the sixteenth century was in fact a legacy of an earlier trade in al-Andalus.     

The Jews of Venetian Candia: The Challenges of External Influences and Internal Diversity as Reflected in Takkanot Kandiyah

Takkanot Kandiyah is a collection of Hebrew-written legislative texts regarding the leadership of the Jewish community of Candia, the capital of the Venetian colony of Crete, which were issued by successive generations of communal leaders between the early thirteenth and late sixteenth centuries. The detailed information it provides on many areas of the communal life makes Takkanot Kandiyah a valuable source for historical research into Jewish life in the medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean. Through a study of the texts contained in Takkanot Kandiyah, this article attempts to identify and analyse the ways in which the leadership of the Candiot community responded to the challenges of coexistence with the Greek inhabitants of Crete and the Venetian rulers of the island, as well as with the Jewish immigrants whom the currents of history brought to Crete from various corners of the Mediterranean, and thus to examine the importance of the “Mediterranean dimension” of the life of Cretan Jewry.     

The Seljuk Sultanate of Rūm and the Turkmen of the Byzantine frontier, 1206–1279*

This article examines the frontier between the Seljuk Sultanate of Rūm and its Byzantine neighbours in the thirteenth century, concentrating on the place of these frontier districts within the Seljuk state. Scholarship on the frontier, influenced by the ideas of Paul Wittek, has seen it as something of a “no man's land”, politically, economically, culturally and religiously distinct from the urban heartland of the Seljuk sultanate in central Anatolia, dominated by the nomadic Turks, the Turkmen, who operated largely beyond sultanic control. It is often thought that the Seljuk and Greek sides of the border shared more in common with each other than they did with the states of which they formed a part. In contrast, this article argues that in fact the western frontier regions were closely integrated into the Seljuk sultanate. Furthermore, with the Mongol domination of the Seljuk sultanate in the second half of the thirteenth century, the Seljuk and Mongol elites became increasingly involved in this frontier region, where some of the leading figures of the sultanate had estates and endowments.     

Surveying the Aspect of the Medieval West Anatolian Town

The aim of this short article is modest: it means to fill a lacuna in scholarly output by offering a concise and accessible survey of the physical structure of the typical west Anatolian town in the High Middle Ages. Attempts to locate such a study meet with disappointment. If one wishes to look through the eyes of medieval travellers in Anatolia, whether they be merchants, pilgrims or soldiers, and discover what type of construction they witnessed when approaching and entering a typical town, one is compelled to trawl through a great number of specialist articles and monographs dealing with specific archaeological sites or particular narrow periods of history. This laborious exercise will be made somewhat redundant by a brief synthesis of the appropriate evidence which historians and archaeologists have addressed and compiled since the late 1950s when attempting to reconstruct the development of the Byzantine city. The article traces the slow development of the typical Anatolian urban form and aspect from the late fourth century, through the mid-seventh to mid-eighth centuries, and then through to a period of urban recovery until the latter part of the twelfth century. The choice of periods separated by some 800 years is not arbitrary: the physical character (and function) of the typical town began to change in the late fourth century, and the form it obtained during the seventh and eighth centuries continued to be the one retained (with inconsequential variations to the general pattern) during the intermediate periods of Byzantine recovery     

Shi‘ism and the Early Dinars of the Fāṭimid Imam-caliph al-Mu‘izz li-dīn Allāh (341–365/952–975): An Analytic Overview

The Imam-caliph al-Mu‘izz al-Dīn Allāh undertook a series of monetary changes which were to have a monumental impact on all future Fā?imid coinage, would lead to many imitations even after the dynasty had fallen, and create an easily identifiable pattern that attracted medieval merchants and modern collectors. The fact that al-Mu‘izz's coinage went through three stages with slight variations in the wording and layout indicates that he was determined to create a new model for Fā?imid coinage which would distinguish it from the Aghlabid and ‘Abbāsid coinage that preceded and competed with it. In contrast, Sijilmasa coinage was so conservative in layout due to its role in the African trade.     

学校武术教学内容建构的路径思考

运用问卷调查、访谈、现场实测、逻辑分析等研究方法,对我国校园迷你棒球课程人文优势和内容架构进行探讨。研究结果表明学生对我国校园棒球人文底蕴和内涵优势较认可;迷你棒球课程极易开展,娱乐性、趣味性和安全性高,锻炼价值和教育功能强,值得学校社会推广。新时期迷你棒球课程对促进学生德智体美全面发展和培养特长爱好、满足学生个体差异需求和促进一带一路沿线文化交流以及开拓师生国际视野、汲取世界优秀体育人文思想有较高社会价值和现实意义。     

Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Similarities in the Norman Influence,Contact and “Conquests” of Sicily,Southern Italy and England

The establishment of the so-called “Norman World” is a debated phenomenon. The influence of the Normans can be found throughout Europe in matters of politics, warfare, and cultural interaction. The empire established by the Normans from the tenth through the thirteenth centuries was based upon the fighting prowess and military might of a people led by notable men such as William the Conqueror and Robert Guiscard. The similarities and differences between the Norman conquests of the eleventh century reveal reciprocity in contact, influence, and exchange among Norman populations. Similarly, the autonomy and distinctness of Norman populations from England to the Mediterranean remained. This article explores the extent of Norman contact, areas of influence and methods of exchange during the most active Norman conquests of the Middle Ages.     

The Byzantines and Saladin: Some Further Arguments

This is the second of two articles by the same author arguing against the thesis that there was a conspiracy between the Byzantine emperors and Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, against the crusader states and the Third Crusade in the 1180s. While the focus of the first article was primarily on the Latin sources, the present study shifts the focus to the Arabic primary material, hitherto largely neglected or inadequately treated by modern historians. Through a critical re-examination and re-interpretation of the Arabic sources, backed by the introduction and discussion of new Latin material when necessary, this article presents expanded arguments on the relations between the Byzantine Empire, the Sultanate of Konya and Saladin in the 1180s. The conclusions lend further support to the view that the Byzantine rulers and Saladin never concluded an alliance against the Latin settlers of Outremer and the Third Crusade.     

“Fear God; Fear the Bogaze”: The Nile Mouths and the Navigational Landscape of the Medieval Nile Delta,Egypt

By the fourth/tenth century, Egypt's Nile Delta had just two major Delta branches debouching directly into the Mediterranean – the Dumyā? (Damietta) and Rashīd (Rosetta). Navigational conditions at these branches’ mouths were treacherous because of a combination of currents, winds, wave-fields and shifting sandbanks. These conditions were a danger to shipping, and so had a formative effect on the navigational landscape of the Delta. Despite its remoteness from the Nile, Alexandria remained Egypt's chief Mediterranean port, but only because river connections were maintained that avoided the Rashīd mouth. In contrast, the port of Rashīd was relatively insignificant. Similar conditions at the Dumyā? mouth prompted navigators to adopt routes via Lake Tinnīs, modern Lake Manzala, which linked to the sea through its calmer sea mouths. This article brings together material from multiple disciplines to offer a new understanding of the navigational context of Egypt's medieval Mediterranean ports.