Orthodoxy in Cyprus

I have fond memories of my (so far) only trip to Cyprus in October of 1993, and would dearly love to go back some day. I thought of that trip in seeing that next week will give us a paperback edition of a book published a few years ago: Orthodox Cyprus under the Latins, 1191–1571: Society, Spirituality, and Identities by Chrysovalantis Kyriacou (Lexington Books, 15 April 2021), 354pp.

About this book the publisher tells us this: 

Medieval and Renaissance Cyprus was a fascinating place of ethnic, cultural, and religious encounters. Following almost nine centuries of Byzantine rule, Cyprus was conquered by the Crusaders in 1191, becoming (until 1571) the most important stronghold of Latin Christianity in the Eastern Mediterranean—first under the Frankish dynasty of the Lusignans, and later under the Venetians. Modern historiographical readings of Cypriot identity in medieval and early modern times have been colored by British colonialism, Greek nationalism, and Cyprocentric revisionism. Although these perspectives have offered valuable insights into the historical experience of Latin-ruled Cypriots, they have partially failed to capture the dynamics of noncoercive resistance to domination, and of identity preservation and adaptation. Orthodox Cyprus under the Latins, 1191–1571 readdresses the question of Cypriot identity by focusing on the Greek Cypriots, the island’s largest community during the medieval and early modern period. By bringing together theories from the fields of psychology, social anthropology, and sociology, this study explores continuities and discontinuities in the Byzantine culture and religious tradition of Cyprus, proposing a new methodological framework for a more comprehensive understanding of Cypriot Orthodoxy under Crusader and Venetian rule. A discussion of fresh evidence from hitherto unpublished primary sources enriches this examination, stressing the role of medieval and Renaissance Cyprus as cultural and religious province of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine Orthodox world.

The Majestic City of Constantine

Thomas Madden remains, especially after the death of Jonathan Riley-Smith, one of the most important Crusades scholars in the world today. Madden, an award-winning and widely respected scholar who teaches history at Saint Louis University (where he directs their Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies) is the author of such studies as The New Concise History of the Crusades and Crusades: The llustrated History.

This short essay of his, discussing one of Riley-Smith's books, is invaluable for highlighting the problems discussing "the Crusades" today, a discussion marred by what the psychoanalyst Vamik Volkan calls "time collapse" and group identities built on "chosen traumas."

Madden is a wide-ranging scholar, and in addition to his several studies on the Crusades, he has also authored other works dealing with cities that have had a huge influence on the fortunes of Eastern Christianity, including Venice: a New History and Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice

He has, next month, a new book coming out that remains at the centre of the Eastern Christian imaginary (to borrow Charles Taylor's phrase). I look forward to reading:Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World (Viking, 2016), 400pp.

About this book the publisher tells us the following:

For more than two millennia Istanbul has stood at the crossroads of the world, perched at the very tip of Europe, gazing across the shores of Asia. The history of this city--known as Byzantium, then Constantinople, now Istanbul--is at once glorious, outsized, and astounding. Founded by the Greeks, its location blessed it as a center for trade but also made it a target of every empire in history, from Alexander the Great and his Macedonian Empire to the Romans and later the Ottomans. At its most spectacular Emperor Constantine I re-founded the city as New Rome, the capital of the eastern Roman empire, and dramatically expanded the city, filling it with artistic treasures, and adorning the streets with opulent palaces. Around it all Constantine built new walls, truly impregnable, that preserved power, wealth, and withstood any aggressor--walls that still stand for tourists to visit.

      From its ancient past to the present, we meet the city through its ordinary citizens--the Jews, Muslims, Italians, Greeks, and Russians who used the famous baths and walked the bazaars--and the rulers who built it up and then destroyed it, including Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the man who christened the city "Istanbul" in 1930. Thomas F. Madden's entertaining narrative brings to life the city we see today, including the rich splendor of the churches and monasteries that spread throughout the city.

     Istanbul draws on a lifetime of study and the latest scholarship, transporting readers to a city of unparalleled importance and majesty that holds the key to understanding modern civilization. In the words of Napoleon Bonaparte, "If the Earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital."

Cyprus: Crossroads of East and West

Well do I remember traveling to Cyprus for a week in the fall of 1993. Ottawa was just beginning to get very cool that autumn, but Cyprus was bracingly warm. I remember the trip largely because I had an emergency appendectomy six days before leaving, and feared my trip would be in jeopardy. But the surgery was swift and the recovery equally so and soon I was on my way from Montreal to London to Nicosia, where, inter alia, I toured the no man's land separating Cypriots and Turks, which was made all the more jarring and indeed absurd because it was surrounded by high-end boutiques in a rather rarefied shopping district.

A recent book treats Cyprus as a place of encounter between Eastern and Western Christians: Benjamin Arbel et al., eds., Cyprus and the Renaissance (1450-1650) (Brepols, 2013),420pp.

About this book we are told:

The present collection is the first of its kind centered on intellectual exchanges during the Renaissance period, deepening their source-based documentary study, as well as our knowledge of the island’s culture and heritage in relation to political, scholarly and religious life in Western countries.

These twelve essays by leading scholars in the field are products of an international research project on early modern Cyprus and its relation to cultural developments in the West, started in November 2009. Cyprus, an independent ‘Frankish’ kingdom from 1191 to 1473, became a Venetian protectorate, then, in 1489, a　Venetian colony until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1570. Its population was diverse and rich in religious experience　–　preponderantly followers of the Greek rite, but also Latins, Eastern Christians and Jews. Its heritage from Antiquity, as well as from the Byzantine and Frankish periods, its monasteries (which received, reproduced and produced manuscripts) and its geopolitically pivotal site on East-West trade routes attracted numerous Westerners. The cultural magnet drew deeper interests than those of pilgrimage and tourism. The continuous to and fro of Europeans, many of them Venetian, the island’s importance to economic and military strategies, and the allure conferred by　a　mythological past stimulated and fostered　a　generous descriptive and allusive literature. The present collection is the first of its kind, centered on written culture and exchanges during the Renaissance period, deepening their source-based documentary study, as well as our knowledge of the island’s culture and heritage in relation to cultural developments in Western countries.

Essays by: Benjamin Arbel, Daniele Baglioni, Lorenzo Calvelli, Evelien Chayes, Paola Cosentino, Carlo Alberto Girotto, Gilles Grivaud, Angel Konnari-Nicolaou, Enrico Parlato, Paolo Procaccioli, Chris Schabel, Evangelia Skoufari. 

Latin Orders in Greece 1204-1500

The more we study church history the messier we recognize it to be.  A book published late last year discusses some of this messiness and complexity in East-West, Orthodox-Catholic relations: Nickiphoros Tsougarakis, The Latin Religious Orders in Medieval Greece, 1204-1500 (Brill, 2012), 394pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

The monastic and mendicant orders that were so central in the evolution of western religion and spirituality also played a pivotal role in the expansion of Latin Christendom after the eleventh century. In the thirteenth century, following the capture of Constantinople by the armies of the Fourth Crusade, Cistercians, Benedictines, Franciscans, and Dominicans installed themselves in the former territories of the Byzantine Empire. Here, they had to adapt and compromise in order to survive, whilst Latins, Turks, and Greeks struggled to gain supremacy in the Aegean. They were also, however, faced with the challenge of attracting the devotion of the Greek Orthodox population, advancing the cause of church union, and promoting the interests of their Frankish, Venetian, and Genoese patrons. This volume follows the orders’ fortunes in medieval Greece, examines their involvement in the ecclesiastical and secular politics of the age, and looks at how the monks and friars pursued their spiritual, missionary, and Unionist goals in the frontier societies of Latin Romania.