The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400-1000

by Chris Wickham

  Chapter 13

  The late ninth and tenth centuries do not have a monographic account. M. Whittow, The Making of Orthodox Byzantium, 600 - 1025 (Basingstoke, 1996), remains a good survey; so do the articles by J. Shepard in NCMH, vol. 3, pp. 553 - 604; some more general Byzantine overviews also give useful attention to the period, including J. F. Haldon, Byzantium: A History (Stroud, 2000); P. Magdalino, ‘The Medieval Empire (780 - 1204)’, in C. A. Mango (ed.), The Oxford History of Byzantium (Oxford, 2002), pp. 169-208; and the old (and sometimes outdated) classic, G. Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State (Oxford, 1956). Some emperors (Leo VI, Nikephoros II, Basil II) have good recent analyses in English: see below. But we do not have anything in any language that confronts the period as a whole on its own terms. For Bulgaria, see the note to p. 305.

  p. 298. Book of Ceremonies: Constantin VII Porphyrogénète, Le Livre des ceremonies, ed. and trans. A. Vogt, 2 vols. (Paris, 1967; only half the book was edited in this modern edition), esp. 1.1. 9, 46; quotes from the preface, pp. 1-2. I accept the restricted list of works that can be plausibly ascribed to Constantine in I. evenko’s arch but convincing article, in J. Shepard and S. Franklin (eds.), Byzantine Diplomacy (Aldershot, 1992), pp. 167 - 95.

  p. 299. Ceremonial: see A. Cameron, in D. Cannadine and S. Price (eds.), Rituals of Royalty (London, 1987), pp. 106 - 36; M. McCormick, in Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik , 35 (1985), pp. 1-20; idem, Eternal Victory (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 150-230; G. Dagron, Emperor and Priest (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 204 - 19; R. Morris, in C. Cubitt (ed.), Court Culture in the Early Middle Ages (Turnhout, 2003), pp. 235-54. Liutprand: The Complete Works of Liudprand of Cremona, trans. P. Squatriti (Washington, 2007), pp. 244-7, Embassy, cc. 9 - 13.

  p. 300. Photios and Arethas: P. Lemerle, Byzantine Humanism (Canberra, 1986), pp. 205-308 (pp. 234-5 for rigorist critiques of Photios); N. G. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium (London, 1983), pp. 89 - 135. For the Bibliotheke, N. G. Wilson, Photius: The Bibliotheca (London, 1994), is a partial translation.

  p. 300. Some imperial books: Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, ed. and trans. G. Moravcsik and R. J. H. Jenkins (Washington, 1967); Le Traité sur la guérilla de l’empereur Nicéphore Phocas (963-969), ed. and trans. G. Dagron and H. Mihescu (Paris, 1986); E. McGeer, Sowing the Dragon’s Teeth (Washington, 1995), pp. 12-59.

  p. 301. Leo Choirosphaktes: P. Magdalino, ‘In Search of the Byzantine Courtier’, in H. Maguire (ed.), Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204 (Washington, 1997), pp. 141-65; idem, L’Orthodoxie des astrologues (Paris, 2006), pp. 70-82; G. Kolias, Léon Choerosphaktès (Athens, 1939), pp. 76 - 90, cf. 35 - 40.

  p. 301. Nicholas I: Letters, ed. and trans. R. J. H. Jenkins and L. G. Westerink (Washington, 1973), letters 5-11, 14-31; Théodore Daphnopatès: Correspondance, ed. and trans. J. Darrouzès and L. G. Westerink (Paris, 1978), letters 5 - 7 (to Symeon), 14 (to Romanos);

  Leo of Synnada: The Correspondence of Leo, Metropolitan of Synada and Syncellus, ed. and trans. M. P. Vinson (Washington, 1985), letter 31 (will).

  p. 302. Constantine VII on Romanos I: De Administrando, c. 13.

  p. 302. Law: see e.g. M. T. Fögen, in L. Brubaker (ed.), Byzantium in the Ninth Century: Dead or Alive? (Aldershot, 1998), pp. 11-22. For the revival of Roman-ness, see P. Magdalino, ‘The Distance of the Past in Early Medieval Byzantium (VII-X centuries)’, Settimane di studio, 46 (1999), pp. 115-46.

  p. 303. Banning from Hagia Sophia: see e.g. Dagron, Emperor and Priest, pp. 106 - 9.

  p. 304. Bali: C. Geertz, Negara (Princeton, 1980).

  p. 304. Liutprand: Liutprand, Antapodosis, 6.5, 10, in Complete Works, pp. 197 - 202.

  p. 304. Orthodoxy procession: Constantin, Livre des ceremonies, 1.37.

  p. 305. Bulgaria: see in general J. Shepard, in NCMH, vol. 3, pp. 567-85; D. Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth (London, 1971), pp. 114-204; J. V. A. Fine, The Early Medieval Balkans (Ann Arbor, 1983), pp. 94-201; P. Stephenson, Byzantium’s Balkan Frontier (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 18-79; F. Curta, Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500 - 1250 (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 119-24, 147 - 79, 213 - 47.

  p. 306. Rome and Constantinople: F. Dvornik, The Photian Schism (Cambridge, 1948), with caution.

  p. 307. Symeon in 924: Theodore Daphnopatès, Correspondance, letter 5.

  p. 307. Bogomils: Le Traité contre les Bogomiles de Cosmas le Prètre, trans. H.-C. Puech and A. Vaillant (Paris, 1945); p. 86 for social attitudes.

  p. 307. Military handbooks: see the list in A. Dain, ‘Les Stratégistes byzantins’, Travaux et mémoires, 2 (1967), pp. 317-92. See, on Leo in general, S. Tougher, The Reign of Leo VI (886 - 912) (Leiden, 1997).

  p. 308. Romanos and Constantine: Théodore Daphnopatès, Correspondance, letter 6; Con stantine, De Administrando, c. 50.

  p. 308. John Kourkouas, Bardas, Nikephoros: see e.g. Whittow, The Making, pp. 317 - 53.

  p. 308. Nikephoros Phokas: see R. Morris, in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 12 (1988), pp. 83-115; and in P. Magdalino (ed.), New Constantines (Aldershot, 1994), pp. 199 - 214, for the repercussions of his death.

  p. 310. Nikephoros’ sense of being constrained by ceremonial: Liutprand, Embassy, c. 55, in Complete Works, p. 273.

  p. 310. Nikephoros Ouranos: ODB, vol. 3, pp. 1544-5; C. Holmes, Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976-1025) (Oxford, 2005), pp. 349-52, 384, 409-11, 523-4. Argyroi: J. F. Vannier, Familles byzantines: les Argyroi (Paris, 1975), pp. 36-42; for Romanos’ culture, Michael Psellos, Chronographia, trans. E. R. A. Sewter as Fourteen Byzantine Rulers (London, 1966), pp. 63 - 4.

  p. 310. Basil Lekapenos: see esp. W. G. Brokkaar, ‘Basil Lacapenos’, in W. F. Bakker et al. (eds.), Studia Byzantina et Neohellenica Neerlandica (Leiden, 1972), pp. 199 - 234.

  p. 311. Basil II: see esp. Holmes, Basil II. See also some of the articles in P. Magdalino (ed.), Byzantium in the Year 1000 (Leiden, 2003). The quote, and also the tunnels rumour, are from Psellos, Chronographia, trans. Sewter, pp. 45 - 6.

  p. 312. Army structure: see esp. J. F. Haldon, Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World 565-1204 (London 1999), pp. 84 - 5, 123 - 32, 217-23.

  p. 313. Family origins: see ODB, vol. 1, pp. 165, 655, vol. 2, pp. 1156, 1203, vol. 3, pp. 1666, 1911, for quick guides and bibliography. For the crystallization of the aristocracy, see E. Patlagean and A. P. Kazhdan, in M. Angold (ed.), The Byzantine Aristocracy, IX to XIII Centuries (Oxford, 1984), pp. 23-57; M. Kaplan, Les Hommes et la terre a‘ Byzance du VIe au XIe siècle (Paris, 1992), pp. 328 ff; J.-C. Cheynet, The Byzantine Aristocracy and its Military Function (Aldershot, 2006), studies I-V.

  p. 313. Leo VI and Basil I: Taktika, 2.22-5, in Patrologia Graeca, vol. 107, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris, 1863), col. 688; E. McGeer, The Land Legislation of the Macedonian Emperors (Toronto, 2000), Novel O, Prologue 3, 4.

  p. 313. Locations of lands: M. F. Hendy, Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy, c. 300-1450 (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 100 - 108; J.-C. Cheynet, Pouvoir et contestations a‘ Byzance (963-1210) (Paris, 1990), pp. 207 - 48; Digenis Akritis, ed. and trans. E. Jeffreys (Cambridge, 1998).

  p. 313. Phokades: J.-C. Cheynet, ‘Les Phocas’, in Dagron and Mihescu, Le Traité sur la guérilla, pp. 289 - 315.

  p. 314. Need for office-holding: Holmes, Basil II, pp. 463 - 8 (p. 466 n. for the lions quote); for 1022, ibid., pp. 515-22, and Cheynet, Pouvoir et contestations, pp. 36 - 7.

  p. 315. Danelis: Kaplan, Les Hommes, pp. 333 - 4.

  p. 315. Laws: McGeer, Land Legislation, translates them all; cited laws are Novels C, 1.2 (2.1 for the famine); E, 3.3; O, Prologue 4, 7.1-2. For definitions of dynatoi, Novels B, 2.2; C, 1.2; D, 3.1. Out of the huge bibliography on these texts, R. Morris, ‘The Powerful and the Poor in Tenth-century Byzantium’, Past and Present, 73 (1976), pp. 3-27 and Kaplan, Les Hommes, pp. 406-44, stand out.

  p. 316. Nikephoros in 966/7: McGeer, Land Legislation, Novel K, 1.1.

  p. 316. Aristocratic and peasant landowning: see in general A. Harvey, Economic Expansion in the Byzant
ine Empire, 900-1200 (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 67-79. For the Thebes Cadaster, see N. Svoronos, in Bulletin de correspondance hellénique, 83 (1959), pp. 1-145 (pp. 11-19 for the text). Athos: Archives de l’Athos, vol. 5, Actes de Lavra, I, ed. P. Lemerle et al. (Paris, 1970), n. 6; vol. 6, Actes du Prôtaton, ed. D. Papachryssanthou (Paris, 1975), nn. 1, 4-6; vol. 14, Actes d’Iviron, I, ed. J. Lefort et al. (Paris, 1985), nn. 1, 4-5, 9 (cf. the laws of Nikephoros and Basil in McGeer, Land Legislation, Novels J and O, 3). Hierissos had a bishop but also a stratum of peasant proprietors (Kaplan, Les Hommes, pp. 226-9); it could be called an ‘agro-town’. For monastic expansion in this period, patronized not least by Nikephoros II despite his own legislation, see R. Morris, Monks and Laymen in Byzantium, 843-1118 (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 166-99. For southern Italy, see J.-M. Martin, La Pouille du VIe au XIIe sie‘cle (Rome, 1993), pp. 293-301. I am grateful here to discussions with Mark Whittow.

  p. 316. Peasant society: Kaplan, Les Hommes, is the best guide. (I ascribe less dominance to ‘the powerful’ than he does.)

  p. 317. Justice: R. Morris, in W. Davies and P. Fouracre (eds.), The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge 1986), pp. 125-47; documentary examples, beside those cited in the note to p. 316, are Actes du Protaton, nn. 2, 7; Archives de l’Athos, vol. 2: Actes de Vatopédi, I, ed. J. Bompaire et al. (Paris, 2001), nn. 1, 2, mostly for trouble between monasteries.

  Chapter 14

  For ‘Abbasid and post-‘Abbasid history, the best overall guide in English is H. Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates (London, 1986), which devotes its strongest sections to this period. For the tenth century, his is indeed the only overview, apart from the more problematic M. A. Shaban, Islamic History: A New Interpretation, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1976). (See notes to pp. 335-8 for more localized studies.) For the period before 908, three other books by Kennedy also need citation, The Early Abbasid Caliphate (London, 1981), The Armies of the Caliphs (London, 2001), and The Court of the Caliphs (London, 2004), an attractive popular history based heavily on ‘Abbasid narratives, which is arguably the best place to start. The most wide-ranging synthesis of the ‘Abbasids as a whole is D. Sourdel, L’État impérial des califes abbassides (Paris, 1999). For the culture of the period, the classic survey is G. E. von Grunebaum, Medieval Islam, 2nd edn. (Chicago, 1953); M. J. L. Young et al. (eds.), Religion, Learning and Science in the ‘Abbasid Period (Cambridge, 1990) and J. Ashtiany et al. (eds.), ‘Abbasid belles-lettres (Cambridge, 1990), together cover every literary genre in detail. P. Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought (Edinburgh, 2004) and C. F. Robinson, Islamic Historiography (Cambridge, 2003) both have a wide remit. The basic primary source, The History of al-Tabari, is translated in 39 vols., ed. E. Yar-Shater (Albany, NY, 1985-2000); vols. 27 onward cover the period 750-915. The tendency to accept almost everything al-Tabari and other authors say, which is present in most writers on the period, including some cited above, is effectively critiqued in T. El-Hibri’s important Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography (Cambridge, 1999).

  p. 318. Palermo in Ibn Hawqal: Ibn Hauqal, Configuration de la terre, vol.1, trans. J. H. Kramers and G. Wiet (Beirut and Paris, 1964), pp. 117-30, quotes from pp. 123, 127.

  p. 319. Ibn Hawqal’s comparisons: Configuration, vol. 1, pp. 144, 111, 178, 97-8.

  p. 320. Baghdad’s size: for a range of estimates, all based on bad data, see F. Micheau, in J.-C. Garcin (ed.), Grandes villes méditerranéennes du monde musulman médiéval (Rome, 2000), pp. 92-3; see also P. Guichard, ibid., p. 269; I go for a higher estimate than many, bearing in mind the half-million inhabitants of late imperial Rome and Constantinople and the 250,000 fairly plausibly argued for eleventh-century Fustat/Cairo (A. Raymond, Cairo (Cambridge, Mass., 2000), p. 62; cf. the cautious remarks of Garcin, Grandes villes, p. 207).

  p. 321. Vizirs: see above all D. Sourdel, Le Vizirat ‘abbside de 749 à 936, vol. 1 (Damascus, 1959); pp. 78-90 for Abu Ayyub.

  p. 322. Barmakid government: Sourdel, Le Vizirat, pp. 127-81; H. Kennedy, in C. Melville (ed.), Persian and Islamic Studies in Honour of P. W. Avery, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 89-98.

  p. 322. Arab historians on 803: El-Hibri, Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography, pp. 31-53.

  p. 322. Khurasani tension: Kennedy, Early Abbasid Caliphate, pp. 125-7.

  p. 323. Al-Rida: al-Tabari, History, vol. 32, pp. 60-62; cf. Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, pp. 89-94.

  p. 323. Egypt: K. Morimoto, The Fiscal Administration of Egypt in the Early Islamic Period (Dohosha, 1981), pp. 156-72.

  p. 324. Al-Ma’mun’s armies: Kennedy, Armies, pp. 108-11.

  p. 324. Books: The Fihrist of al-Nadm, rans. B. Dodge, 2 vols. (New York, 1970); vol. 1, p. 214 for al-Waqidi. See Robinson, Islamic Historiography, pp. 3-8.

  p. 325. ‘Ulam’ and biographical dictionaries: see M. J. L. Young, in idem, Religion, Learning and Science, pp. 169-77; R. S. Humphreys, Islamic History, revised edn. (Princeton, 1991), pp. 187-99; R. P. Mottahadeh, Loyalty and Leadership in an Early Islamic Society (Princeton, 1980), pp. 135-50.

  p. 325. Law schools: J. Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law (Oxford, 1964), pp. 28-75.

  p. 326. Adab: see the introductions in von Grunebaum, Medieval Islam, pp. 250-57; R. Allen, An Introduction to Arabic Literature (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 139-57; Ashtiany, ‘Abbasid belles-lettres, pp. 16-30, 89-95.

  p. 326. ‘Curiosities’: The Latif al-ma‘rif of Tha‘ib, trans. C. E. Bosworth (Edinburgh, 1968), pp. 45, 48, 73, 82, 86, 113.

  p. 327. Al-Tanukhi: The Table-talk of a Mesopotamian Judge, trans. D. S. Margoliouth, vol. 1 (London, 1921); vols. 8 and 2 (Hyderabad, 1929-32).

  p. 327. Al-Fadl: al-Tanukhi, Table-talk, 8.12-15, with al-Tabari, History, vol. 33, pp. 28-35 (cf. Sourdel, Le Vizirat, pp. 246-53); peculation: al-Tanukhi, 8.6,11, etc.; the retired clerk: ibid., 8.12.

  p. 328. Ibn al-Zayyat: al-Tanukhi, Table-talk, 8.4; al-Tabari, History, vol. 34, pp. 65-72 (cf. Sourdel, Le Vizirat, pp. 254-69).

  p. 328. Khayzuran and Zubayda: N. Abbott, Two Queens of Baghdad (Chicago, 1946); Kennedy, The Court, pp. 163-89; for source-critical analyses, El-Hibri, Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography, pp. 42-4, and in general J. Bray, in L. Brubaker and J. M. H. Smith (eds.), Gender in the Early Medieval World (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 121-46.

  p. 329. Shaghab: Bray, in Brubaker and Smith, Gender, pp. 143-6; N. M. El Cheikh, ibid., pp. 147-61.

  p. 329. Image of al-Ma’mun: al-Tabari, History, vol. 32, pp. 232-57; El-Hibri, Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography, pp. 108-11; M. Cooperson, Classical Arabic Biography (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 24-69. Science, caliphal authority and the mina: D. Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture (London, 1998), esp. pp. 75-104 (who makes it clear that al-Mam’un was not the originator of the translation movement); more generally, Sourdel, L’État impérial, pp. 100-12; Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, pp. 130-33; P. Crone and M. Hinds, God’s Caliph (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 80-99; cf. Ibn al-Muqaffa‘, ‘conseilleur’ du caliphe, trans. C. Pellat (Paris, 1976), esp. cc. 8, 10, 13-17, 36, 55.

  p. 330. Samarra: see C. F. Robinson (ed.), A Medieval Islamic City Reconsidered (Oxford, 2001); M. S. Gordon, The Breaking of a Thousand Swords (Albany, NY, 2001) and Kennedy, Armies, pp. 118-47, for the Turkish army.

  p. 331. Al-Afshin’s fall: al-Tabari, History, vol. 33, pp. 180-200.

  p. 331. Ishaq and al-Mu‘tasim: al-Tabari, History, vol. 33, pp. 214-15. For Turkish dangers, Kennedy, Armies, pp. 196-8, less catastrophist than P. Crone, Slaves on Horses (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 74-85.

  p. 332. Crisis of 860s: Gordon, The Breaking, pp. 89-140; D. Waines, ‘The Third Century Internal Crisis of the ‘Abbasids’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 25 (1977), pp. 282-306, seems to me too apocalyptic.

  p. 332. 870-908 and after: Kennedy, The Prophet, pp. 175-99, gives a good account. For the Zanj, see A. Popovic, The Revolt of African Slaves in Iraq in the 3rd/9th Century (Princeton, 1999).

  p. 334. Tenth-century politics: Kennedy, The Prophet, pp. 2
00-308 (250-66 and 285-308 for Kurds and bedouins); Crone, Slaves on Horses, pp. 82-9; Mottahadeh, Loyalty and Leadership, pp. 40-116, 175-90.

  p. 335. Local societies in Iran: Mottahadeh, Loyalty and Leadership, pp. 120-32, 150-57; R. P. Mottahadeh and R. W. Bulliet, in D. S. Richards (ed.), Islamic Civilization 950-1150 (Oxford, 1973), pp. 33-45, 71-91; W. Madelung, in R. N. Frye (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 198-239; cf. for a brief structural overview, C. Wickham, Land and Power (London, 1994), pp. 56-62. For the general issue of governors and local élites, see for an earlier period H. Kennedy, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 44 (1981), pp. 26-38. For ‘Alid chic, Crone, Slaves on Horses, p. 86; and see further now T. Bernheimer, ‘A Social History of the ‘Alid Family from the Eighth to the Eleventh Century’, University of Oxford, D.Phil. thesis, 2006, esp. pp. 136-66.

  p. 336. Mosul in 989: Mottahadeh, Loyalty and Leadership, p. 124; Kennedy, The Prophet, pp. 274-5.

  p. 336. Fatimids: Kennedy, The Prophet, pp. 313-45; C. F. Petry (ed.), The Cambridge History of Egypt, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 111-74; P. E. Walker, Exploring an Islamic Empire (London, 2002), especially for sources; Y. Lev, State and Society in Fatimid Egypt (Leiden, 1991); Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, pp. 197-218, for Isma‘ilism; but the fundamental guide for the early period is now M. Brett, The Rise of the Fatimids (Leiden, 2001).

  p. 338. Fatimid governmental procedures: see the documents in G. Khan (ed.), Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections (Cambridge, 1993), esp. nn. 104-5, 115, 132, 137, 140-59.

  p. 338. Umayyad al-Andalus: the new basic structural analysis is E. Manzano Moreno, Conquistadores, emires y califas (Barcelona, 2006), with full historical and archaeological bibliography. In English, brief up-to-date surveys are H. Kennedy, Muslim Spain and Portugal (London, 1996), focusing on political history, T. F. Glick, Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages (Princeton, 1979), for social history, and idem, From Muslim Fortress to Christian Castle (Manchester, 1995), for archaeology. The eighth century is further covered in P. Chalmeta, Invasión e islamización (Madrid, 1994); the wide frontier regions in E. Manzano Moreno, La frontera de al-Andalus en época de los Omeyas (Madrid, 1991). The old classic is E. Lévi-Provençal, Histoire de l’Espagne musulmane, 3 vols. (Leiden and Paris, 1950-53), which contains by far the most detailed political narrative. A selection of significant recent articles in Spanish is translated in M. Marín (ed.), The Formation of al-Andalus, vol. 1 (Aldershot, 1998); vol. 2, ed. M. I. Fierro and J. Samsó (Aldershot, 1998), focuses on intellectual history.