Non Sequitur: Reading across Gaps in Medieval Narrative
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Medievalists of the Johns Hopkins History Dept.
Organizer Name
Neil Weijer
Organizer Affiliation
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Presider Name
Gabrielle M. Spiegel
Presider Affiliation
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Paper Title 1
"His fathers are like sheepdogs!": A Testimony of Jewish Communal Strife in Abbasid Baghdad
Presenter 1 Name
Jennifer Grayson
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Paper Title 2
The Crusaded and the Caliph: A Fragmentary Petition from a Syrian Port under Siege
Presenter 2 Name
Brendan Goldman
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Start Date
15-5-2016 10:30 AM
Session Location
Bernhard 106
Description
The papers in this session focus on dead ends, disjointed passages, or other odd readings in medieval texts. They attempt to address lacunae in their sources with close reading, documentary evidence, and reference to the societal conditions that governed these documents. The papers draw evidence from the medieval Mediterranean before and during the time of the Crusades, the Cairo Geniza, and medieval Slavic chronicles.
Asmin Omerovic investigates the writing of the oldest history of the South Slavs, the Regnum Sclavorum, written in the twelfth century in what is now Montenegro. He argues that the chronicle is concerned with preserving the independence of the medieval state of Duklja from both the Byzantines and the Serbs.
Jennifer Grayson examines a case of community infighting in tenth-century Baghdad, encountering problems of language, authority, and access to the original source.
Brendan Goldman reconstructs a call for help from the Jewish community of twelfth-century Tripoli, using the form of later documents to fill in the missing pieces of this early witness. This petition demonstrates how the relationships between Jewish communities and between Jewish communities and the Fatimid caliphate were put to the test by Crusader incursions.
(signed) Neil Weijer
Non Sequitur: Reading across Gaps in Medieval Narrative
Bernhard 106
The papers in this session focus on dead ends, disjointed passages, or other odd readings in medieval texts. They attempt to address lacunae in their sources with close reading, documentary evidence, and reference to the societal conditions that governed these documents. The papers draw evidence from the medieval Mediterranean before and during the time of the Crusades, the Cairo Geniza, and medieval Slavic chronicles.
Asmin Omerovic investigates the writing of the oldest history of the South Slavs, the Regnum Sclavorum, written in the twelfth century in what is now Montenegro. He argues that the chronicle is concerned with preserving the independence of the medieval state of Duklja from both the Byzantines and the Serbs.
Jennifer Grayson examines a case of community infighting in tenth-century Baghdad, encountering problems of language, authority, and access to the original source.
Brendan Goldman reconstructs a call for help from the Jewish community of twelfth-century Tripoli, using the form of later documents to fill in the missing pieces of this early witness. This petition demonstrates how the relationships between Jewish communities and between Jewish communities and the Fatimid caliphate were put to the test by Crusader incursions.
(signed) Neil Weijer