Court Ceremonies and Rituals of Power in Byzantium and the Medieval Meditarranean: Comparative Perspectives

Publicly performed rituals and ceremonies form an essential part of medieval political practice and court culture. This applies not only to western feudal societies, but also to the linguistically and culturally highly diversified environment of Byzantium and the Mediterranean basin. The continuity of Roman traditions and cross-fertilization between various influences originating from Constantinople, Armenia, the Arab-Muslim World, and western kingdoms and naval powers provide the framework for a distinct sphere of ritual expression and ceremonial performance. This collective volume, placing Byzantium into a comparative perspective between East and West, examines transformative processes from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, succession procedures in different political contexts, phenomena of cross-cultural appropriation and exchange, and the representation of rituals in art and literature.
Contributors are Maria Kantirea, Martin Hinterberger, Walter Pohl, Andrew Marsham, Björn Weiler, Eric J. Hanne, Antonia Giannouli, Jo Van Steenbergen, Stefan Burkhardt, Ioanna Rapti, Jonathan Shepard, Panagiotis Agapitos, Henry Maguire, Christine Angelidi and Margaret Mullett.

Alexander D. Beihammer, Ph.D. (1999), Vienna, is Associate Professor of Byzantine history at the University of Cyprus. He has published on Byzantine diplomatics and on political and cross-cultural relations between Byzantium and the Muslim World and recently on the Seljuk Turks of Anatolia.
Stavroula Constantinou, Ph.D. (2003), Free University Berlin, is Assistant Professor of Byzantine Philology at the University of Cyprus. She has published a monograph, and many articles on Byzantine hagiographical literature, including Female Corporeal Performances: Reading the Body in Byzantine Passions and Lives of Holy Women (Uppsala, 2005).
Maria G. Parani, D.Phil. (2000), Oxford University, is Assistant Professor in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art and Archaeology at the University of Cyprus. She has published on Byzantine material culture, especially on dress as a mirror of cultural and social identity.