medieval worlds. Transcultural Contacts and Literary Exchanges. Volume 8 (2018).

CONTENTS INCLUDE

World Literature is Trans-Imperial: A Medieval and a Modern Approach
Christian Høgel

Various concepts guide discussions on global literature, not least ›transnational‹. The present text advocates, however, for the term trans-imperial, as offering a more correct definition of world literature, or global literature, both in pre-modern and modern times. Imperial spheres build up worlds of strong interconnections, and the languages they employ become privileged languages that may last beyond the time span of a given empire. These imperial spheres with their one central language therefore form the hardest borders for the dissemination of texts, now and then. By being trans-imperial, texts therefore constitute the true global literature. In medieval times trans-imperial texts would comprise especially fable stories, holy texts, philosophy and science, and mirrors of princes. These were the texts most often carried from one imperial sphere, or rather imperial language, to another, through translations. This article, consequently, offers definitions of what constitutes an imperial language. Central to identifying and safeguarding a language and making it perform as an imperial language was the establishment of a grammar and/or a set of canonized texts defining the language, the actual use of it by an empire in running its administration, and the performance of the empire’s self-images through it. In many cases, secondary imperial languages – like Greek in the Roman world or Persian in the Caliphate – would hold a lower but still privileged place in the empire’s life and communication. Many such secondary imperial languages could then subsequently rise to the status of imperial languages, as several vernacular languages later did from Latin. The text argues that these features, which are probably most clear-cut in a pre-modern context, also hold true in a modern context, and that what we normally refer to as successful national languages (English, French, Spanish, Russian, etc.) were, from early on, imperial rather than national languages, and that their literature, in being global, was trans-imperial.

The Global Eminent Life: Sixth-Century Collected Biographies from Gregory of Tours to Huijiao of Jiaxiang Temple
James T. Palmer

Sanctity and the holy have been useful concepts for scholars seeking to compare religious cultures. This paper seeks to extend the project of comparisons by investigating the organisational contexts that produced collected biographies about holy women and men. It focuses on case studies from Latin and Byzantine Christianity and Buddhist China in the sixth century CE to highlight useful similarities in the authors’ conceptions of their work in the face of fluid traditions and contested religious environments. It also sketches some of the ways in which manuscript production and library organisation helped to generate the texts we have. Without consideration of these organisational factors, it is argued, the traditional project of comparing holy figures is on uncertain ground.

The Aristotle of Pippin III. Greek Books Sent to the Frankish Court (ca. 758 AD)
Christian Gastgeber

The article deals with a unique document from the early Carolingian period, a letter from Pope Paul I sent to King Pippin III. An appendix contains a list of books with some Greek works. In this paper the text is critically re-examined from the perspective of the Greek manuscript culture and the intention of this »cultural supplement« to the Frankish court. The text attracted great interest from researchers because the book list also includes works by Aristotle and Ps.Dionysius Areopagite. In recent academic discussions the list was interpreted on the basis of the edition in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, which claims to be the first real critical edition of the original text in the codex unicus, housed at the Austrian National Library. Some scholars became the victims of earlier editions, which present the text as it was amended in the manuscript itself by the late humanist scholar Sebastian Tengnagel (1563-1636). However, the MGH edition also edits the list as interpreted by the editor (thus presenting an unknown geometry by Dionysius Areopagite), not as the manuscript transmits the text. The grouping of the items in the list is fundamental for interpreting the purpose for which these books were delivered. Hence, this paper goes back to the roots and starts from the manuscript and its punctuation. From a linguistic approach, the Areopagite question appears in a new light, and an Areopagite manuscript, sent to the Franks in around 758 AD – about 70 years before the famous Greek manuscript was handed over by envoys from the Byzantine Emperor – , seems to be responsible for the mistake in the textual transmission. The paper also takes up the question of the quantity of books: in research to date the list was regarded as a small library, but the Greek books listed are rather a comprehensive codex. Finally, the character of the books as analysed here clearly links to a basic introduction to Greek and provokes the question of whether further witnesses of Greek knowledge in the early Carolingian period exist.

The messenger is the place of a man’s judgment«: Diplomacy between Emperors and Caliphs in the Tenth Century
Courtney Luckhardt

Travel and communication in the early medieval period were fundamental parts of people’s conceptions about temporal and spiritual power, which in turn demonstrated a ruler’s legitimacy. Examining the role of messengers and diplomatic envoys between the first Umayyad caliph of al-Andalus, ‘Abd al-Rahman III, and his fellow tenth-century rulers in Christian kingdoms, including the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos and the first Holy Roman emperor, Otto I, illuminates internal and external negotiations that defined the pluralistic Iberian society in the early Middle Ages. Formal religious and ethnic differences among Muslim rulers and non-Muslim messengers enhanced the articulation of political legitimacy by the caliph. Diplomatic correspondence with foreign rulers using the multiplicity of talents and ethno-religious identities of their subjects was part of the social order provided by the Andalusi rulers and produced by those they ruled, demonstrating the political authority of the Umayyad caliphate.

The Geopolitics on the Silk Road: Resurveying the Relationship of the Western Türks with Byzantium through Their Diplomatic Communications
Li Qiang and Stefanos Kordosis

The geopolitics pertaining to the Silk Road network in the period from the 6th to the 7th century (the final, albeit important, period of Late Antiquity) was intertwined with highly strategic dimensions. The frequent arrival of hoards of nomadic peoples from inner Eurasia at the borders of the existing sedentary empires and their encounters and interactions formed the complicated political ecology of the period. These empires attempted to take advantage of the newly shaped situation arising after such great movements strategically, each in their own interest. How did they achieve their goals and what problems were they confronted with? In this paper, I will focus on the relations the Western Türks had with Byzantium and use it as an example in order to resurvey these complicated geopolitics. In the first part, attention will be given to the collection of Byzantine literature concerning the Western Türks. Then, on the basis of the sources, the four main exchanges of delegations between the Western Türks and Byzantium will be discussed, in which the important status of the 563 embassy – as it was the first Türk delegation sent to Byzantium – will be emphasized. The possible motives behind the dispatch of the delegations and the repercussions they had will be presented. Finally, through reviewing the diplomatic communication between the Western Türks and Byzantium, attention will be turned to the general picture of geopolitics along the Silk Road, claiming that the great empire of the West – similar to today’s superpowers – by means of their resources (mainly diplomacy) manipulated the geopolitics on the Silk Road, especially the nomadic people pursuing their own survival and interests, who were only treated as pieces on a chessboard for keeping the balance with the rest of the superpowers.

Greek into Arabic. Philosophical Concepts and Linguistic Bridges
Cristina D’Ancona, Gerhard Endress, and Andrea Bozzi

This essay considers Greek  into  Arabic, a five-year project funded by the European Research Council (Greek into Arabic. Philosophical Concepts and Linguistic Bridges ERC AG 249431) hosted by the Università di Pisa as the Host Institution, with the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale of the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche as Associate Participants.

Writing the History of Aristotelian Logic During the Long Ninth Century
Christophe Erismann

This essay considers the project Reassessing Ninth Century Philosophy. A Synchronic Approach to  the  Logical Traditions (9 SALT), funded for five years (2016-2020) by the European Research Council (ERC consolidator grant 648298) and hosted by the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of the University of Vienna.