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Describes the Almoravid transformation of western North Africa through trans-Saharan and trans-Mediterranean commerce, urbanization, and the epic encounter with the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish cultures of Iberia.

"The Persian Gulf today is home to multiple cosmopolitan urban hubs of globalization. This did not start with the discovery of oil. This book tells of the Gulf from the rise of Islam until the coming of the Portuguese, when port cities such as Siraf, Sohar, and Hormuz were entrepots for trading pearls, horses, spices, and other products across much of Asia and eastern Africa. Indeed, products traded there became a key part of the material culture of medieval Islamic civilization, and the Gulf region itself was a crucial membrane between the Middle East and the world of the broader Indian Ocean. The book also highlights the long-term presence of communities of South Asian and African ancestry, as well as patterns of religious change among Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and Muslims that belie the image of a region long polarized between Arabs and Persians and Sunnis and Shi'ites." -- Back cover.

"Europe" has become a modern political concept, but it has a long and varied history. This volume analyzes medieval ideas of Europe and their representations by modern historians.

In a clear and accessible form, this book explores everyday relations and interactions between Christians and Muslims in the Levant during the Crusades, demonstrating that it was usually practicality rather than religious scruples that dictated their responses to the religious other.

Using histories, letters, and material culture from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, this book explores how violence was understood and justified during the time of the crusades.

Looks at the early medieval origins and development of canon law using a social history framework, with a view to making sense of a rich and complex legal system and culture which influenced and controlled the medieval Church and society.

Alfred the Great is a rare historical figure from the early Middle Ages, in that he retains a popular image. This image increasingly suffers from the dead white male syndrome, exacerbated by Alfred's association with British imperialism and colonialism, so this book provides an accessible reassessment of the famous ruler of Wessex, informed by current scholarship, both on the king as a man in history, and the king as a subsequent legendary construct.Daniel Anlezark presents Alfred in his historical context, seen through Asser's Life, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, and other texts associated with the king. The book engages with current discussions about the authenticity of attributions to Alfred of works such as the Old English Boethius and Soliloquies, and explores how this ninth-century king of Wessex came to be considered the Great king of legend.

The Kingdom of Rus' challenges the perception of Rus' as an eastern "other" - advancing the idea of the Rus' as a kingdom deeply integrated with medieval Europe.

In a world where princesses found themselves enslaved, kidnapped boys became army generals, and biblical Joseph was a role model, this book narrates the formation of the Middle Ages from the point of view of slavery, and outlines a new approach to enhance our understanding of modern forms of enslavement. Offering an analysis of recent scholarship and an array of sources, never before studied together, from distinct societies and cultures of the first millennium, it challenges the traditional dichotomy between ancient and medieval slaveries. Revealing the dynamic, versatile, and adaptable character of slavery it presents an innovative definition of slavery as a historical process.

Grounds mythologized stories of Desert Ascetics with insights into lived monasticism and monastic archaeology in Egypt.

Medieval Cityscapes Today walks you through medieval urban landscapes, drawing upon diverse historical and archaeological sources and the latest digital technologies.

This book discusses medieval Rome, adorned as it was by "Byzantine" art, monuments, and culture, as a city that defined both East and West.

The election of fringe political parties on the far and extreme right across Europe since spring 2014 has brought the political discourse of "e;old Europe"e; and "e;tradition"e; to the foreground. Writers and politicians on the right have called for the reclamation, rediscovery, and return of the spirit of national identities rooted in the medieval past. Though the "e;medieval"e; is often deployed as a stigmatic symbol of all that is retrograde, against modernity, and barbaric, the medieval is increasingly being sought as a bedrock of tradition, heritage, and identity. Both characterizations - the medieval as violent other and the medieval as vital foundation - are mined and studied in this book. It examines contemporary political uses of the Middle Ages to ask why the medieval continues to play such a prominent role in the political and historical imagination today.

This is a somewhat polemical, and very passionate, consideration of the house that scholasticism built, and those who were excluded from it.

Rather than divide the medieval Mediterranean into "Christian Europe" and "Muslim North Africa," this book presents the region as a single, mutually influenced, interconnected whole.

This concise and effective synthesis investigates the role of the institution of the Church in the transformation of the Roman West from the fourth to seventh centuries.

This short book uses the available evidence to present facts and debates around Jews in late antiquity and to provide a first step toward the understanding of this little-known period in Jewish history.

Geoffrey Koziol argues for the validity of a range of contradictory interpretations of the Medieval Peace of God movement.

Richard Utz's manifesto calls on the academy to reconnect with the general public in order to build a sustainable future for medievalism.

From their medieval beginnings, universities have remained surprisingly resilient. What can be learnt from the medieval as we face today's challenges?