Holy war and just war are unfortunately not only keywords for recondite excursions into the past, but equally for problems of the present. This applies as well for the attempts of rulers to justify war through state or ruling ideology but also on religious grounds, whether from conviction or in order to cloak economic and political interests. The present volume summarizes the results of a conference held in Vienna, which the editors, Johannes Koder and Ioannis Stouraitis, hosted in May of 2011. The symposium was held in the context of a research project with the topic “Holy War? A study on Byzantine perceptions and concepts of war and peace in the period from the late 11th to the early 13th century.” This project was housed at the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Vienna. The arc of the presentation topics spanned chronologically from seventh to the fifteenth century and thematically from the Christian and Islamic legitimation of war (“crusade”, “holy war”) to late antique and medieval imperial ideology to the motivations which were offered or imposed upon soldiers and civilian populations in order to make them amenable to the sorrow, sacrifices and privations which are the accompaniments of war: the promises of worldly rewards were complemented by the expectation of recompense in the afterlife. The results—many are new, some surprising—at one level reference the medieval period and its late antique intellectual foundations and are yet, in their critical evaluation of the ideological basis of war, of astonishing contemporary relevance.
Supported by: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) - Selbstständige Publikationen
Journal of Byzantine Studies, Vol. 73/2023 / Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Band 73/2023
from 116,00 €
New Light on Old Manuscripts
Open access
Journal of Byzantine Studies, Vol. 72/2022 / Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Band 72/2022
from 120,00 €
Greek Palimpsests at Saint Catherine's Monastery (Sinai)
Open access
Nicephori Callisti Xanthopuli Historia Ecclesiastica
from 78,00 €
Makedonien, südlicher Teil
from 312,00 €
Die frommen Byzantiner und ihre bösen Nachbarn
from 40,00 €
Journal of Byzantine Studies, Vol. 71/2021 / Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Band 71/2021
from 108,00 €
Gregorii Antiochi opera. Orationes et epistulae. Introductione instruxit, edidit et germanice vertit Alexander Sideras. Pars prima: Introductionem, Laudationes et Consolationes continens. Pars altera: Orationes funebres, epistolas et indices continens
from 192,00 €
Vitae et Miracula Sancti Christoduli Patmensis
from 62,40 €
Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Band 70/2020
from 99,00 €
1347. Isidoro patriarca di Constantinopoli e il breve sogno dell'inizio di una nuova epoca
from 52,00 €
Nomos Georgikos
Open access
Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Band 69/2019
Open access
Bithynien und Hellespont
Open access
Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Band 68/2018
Open access
Karien in Portulanen und Portulankarten
from 77,00 €
Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres
from 47,20 €
Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Band 67/2017
Open access
Ausgewählte byzantinische Epigramme in illuminierten Handschriften