Byzantines and Crusaders in Non-Greek Sources, 1025-1204

What are the geographical and cultural boundaries of the Byzantine world? This seemingly simple question gave birth to this volume. While it never completely answers that question, the volume is extremely useful nonetheless. The British Academy project,"Prosopography of the Byzantine World" (PBW), has for many years combed through Greek sources to identify and store in a database information on thousands of individual Byzantines. At its inception the PBW defined its geographical scope, logically enough, as the empire at the death of Emperor Basil II in 1025. Of course, the years after 1025 saw a dramatic contraction of Byzantine borders, leaving many of its citizens in foreign lands. Furthermore, the movement of Muslim powers and the onset of the crusades meant that the line between the Byzantine and the non-Byzantine became muddied. In response, the PBW expanded its definition of the Byzantine world, extending it not only to western crusaders who crossed, conquered, or settled in it but also to the crusader states, including Jerusalem itself. Travelers, visitors, merchants, mercenaries—all of these could be seen as part of Byzantium. By this definition, members of the Byzantine world were no longer just Greeks but also Normans, Turks, Armenians, or even Scandinavians.

Just as the PBW was finishing up with its Greek sources, it began to suspect that they were only the beginning. This expanded Byzantium would naturally require the expertise of more than just Byzantinists. Responding to that need, the British Academy hosted a colloquium in 2002 at which scholars from a variety of fields were asked to consider the limits of Byzantium as well as to identify non-Greek sources that could be used with the PBW database. This book is the result.

One thing is clear: the organizers of the colloquium (Judith Herrin and Michael Jeffreys) certainly knew how to pick their experts. It is difficult to imagine someone better to survey the western Latin sources for pilgrims and crusaders than Jonathan Riley-Smith. The same can be said for Peter Edbury with Near Eastern crusader sources, Michel Balard with Genoese sources, or Carole Hillenbrand with Arabic sources. Michael Angold's chapter on Venice is especially good, evaluating not only primary sources but also surveying major historiographical questions in Veneto-Byzantine relations such as the vexing chrysobull of 1182 (or was it 1184 or 1192?).

While different contributors approach their task differently, all of the chapters have certain elements in common. Each provides a brief historical background to the interface between Byzantium and its subject culture. Aside from those already mentioned, there are chapters on sources from south Italy and northwestern Europe, as well as Slavonic, Georgian, Armenian, and Syriac sources. There is also an excellent section on Jewish sources by Nicholas de Lange. After a description of the relevant primary sources and major secondary literature, each contributor then provides a handy and sometimes extensive bibliography of editions, manuscripts, and scholarship on the sources.

Whatever the original purpose of the colloquium, the resulting collection is an extremely handy resource for anyone interested in the medieval Mediterranean world. New students and seasoned researchers will find it equally useful.