The Medieval History Journal current issue

The Genesis of Islam in the Light of History: The First MHJ Annual Lecture Delivered in New Delhi on 27 November 2008

Al-Azmeh, A. — 2009-07-01

Faced with the choice between two themes that I suggested I might address this evening, the organisers of this event preferred me to speak as an historians' historian, rather than to opt for a topic of more general or current interest, and I have agreed to do so. Yet I should nevertheless be dissatisfied if those among you who do not particularly wish to be lectured to by historians were to be irked by an academic disquisition on some arcane matter. I shall therefore do my very best to ensure that those of you who are not historians, or who are not engaged professionally in the academic trade, shall leave this hall with somewhat more than the fleeting impression of an event. And I shall do so not least by suggesting that genesis, even the genesis of Islam, has more to do with Charles Darwin than with the Bible or the glorious associations of the Greek language, and that the reference to light in the title of my talk has more to do with reflective de-liberation than with exquisite colouration.

The Invention of Dancing Mania: Frankish Christianity, Platonic Cosmology and Bodily Expressions in Sacred Space

Rohmann, G. — 2009-07-01

Medieval ‘dancing mania’ has until recently remained an enigma in medical and religious history. This is because scholars tend to view it as an invariable medical syndrome instead of examining it as an example of the historicity of illness as semantic network. Taking the latter approach allows for grasping the phenomenon as a form of insanity specific to the Rhine basin of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though one whose roots can be traced to the early medieval reception of platonic cosmology and ‘theurgy’. This paper examines the legend of the Kölbigk dancers in the above perspective and establishes that its chief motif goes back to Sulpicius Severus’ reception of ‘Iamblichus’ ‘de mysteriis’. Thus, dancing mania appears to have been a form of insanity, indeed, but one constructed through religious narratives.

Revisioning the Conquest of Mexico: Image and Text in the Florentine Codex (1578-80)

Brochler, A. — 2009-07-01

When the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) compiled the famous encyclopaedic history of Nahua culture generally known as the Florentine Codex (1578/79–80), he relied heavily on Nahua aides. Educated in the western humanist tradition and knowledgeable about their own world, these native collaborators were crucial to Sahagún's project. This article focuses in particular on the drawings of the Florentine Codex, analysing the close relationship between text and image in Book Twelve, which tells the story of the conquest of Mexico (1519–21). The drawings have received little scholarly attention as they lack the artistic features of what was regarded as ‘classic’ indigenous pictographic writing. This article argues that the tlacuiloque, the writers/painters of Book Twelve, did not merely sprinkle some elements of indigenous pictographic writing in more European style pictures, but created a new idiom to transmit their own way of visualising intertwined histories of conquest.

The Royal Chapel in Iberia: Models, Contacts, and Influences

Costa-Gomes, R. — 2009-07-01

This article analyses the main aspects of the activities of the late medieval royal chapel, comparing several Iberian Christian monarchies. Three definitions of the chapel were proposed since medieval times: the chapel as a collection of liturgical objects, as the human group devoted to the king's service by performing the Christian cult, and as a specific space inside royal residences. All three were put to use for the reproduction of the specific position of kings in Christian societies, as it was expressed in liturgical activities and in devotional practices. Common patterns and mutual influences are analysed, and the example of two ceremonial practices shows that these were more current than it has been argued by historians of the early modern period.

Visualising the Incarnation in Medieval Christianity: Universal Botanical Metaphors and Local Cult Practices

Khan, S. — 2009-07-01

Within Christian iconography and in medieval Christian cult practices, floral depictions play a major role. The genesis of such floral pictorial signs has not been addressed in art historical writing. This article attempts to trace the origins of the Christian floral iconography, investigates the perceptions and usages of such motifs in cult practices and proceeds to demonstrate the extent to which Christian sources shared a common under-standing with world religions such as Buddhism. Buddhist and Christian sources appear to have taken recourse to similar iconographic formulae in order to make abstract, invisible deities perceptible to the believer. Floral iconography in Christian cult practices was an effective medium to communicate Christ's birth through the Virgin Mary and the story of his unique Passion. By transcending common allusions to Incarnations, it is even able to transport meanings which help the believer to find consolation in his quest of the Christian afterlife.

Book Reviews

2009-07-01