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Instructors: Roman Shliakhtin
Event type:
Practice class
Displayed in timetable as:
Ü.Mittelalter.Gesch.
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
German
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 11
Registration group: SoSe 22 Üb MA
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Requirements / organisational issues:
The Great Turkic Migration : Byzantium facing Cumans and Seljuk Turks (11th-12th centuries)
The seminar focuses on the Great Turkic Migration that allowed Turkic-speaking groups from the Caspian Basin to conquer the waste spaces of Eurasia two hundred years before the Mongols. The first group - Cumans- migrated to the steppes of Southern Rus’ becoming a major political power in the region. The second group migrated to Iran. They became Seljuk Turks and constructed the Sultanate of the Great Seljuks. In the second half of the eleventh century both groups reached the borders of Byzantium. The Seljuks defeated Byzantines at Manzikert (1071) and migrated to Asia Minor. The Cumans crossed the Danube and migrated to the Balkans. The Byzantines had to accommodate the Turks. With the use of soft power the Eastern Roman Empire managed to stop the incursions and mobilize the Turks for it’s own needs against Crusaders and Hungarians.
The seminar will introduce participants to the nomadic economy and human geography of the Great Steppes. It will analyze material culture, archeological finds and surviving landscapes with a special focus on the Turks as a. It will also demonstrate patterns that sedentary societies used to describe their nomadic neighbors and construct their images.
The participants will read texts in translation and learn how the educated Byzantine intellectuals constructed the image of the steppe people, combining bits and pieces of information with the images found in the works of Ancient Greek authors (Herodotus). Finally, the seminar will dedicate significant attention to environmental history, will include virtual visits to main locations and will introduce participants to basic research methods of digital humanities.
Compulsory attendance:
The course will be marked as pass/fail. To pass the course, the student has to attend 80% of classes and write a short (5-7 pages) written assignment on one of the topics. The written assignment can be submitted in English or German
Contents:
Weekly plan of the course
Week 1. The origins of the semi-nomadic groups in the Great Steppes. The Western part of the Great steppes and the environmental basis of semi-nomads. The origins of the Turks and their appearance in written sources. The mystery of the Khazars
Week 2. The Turks and the Great Migration of the Eleventh Century. Written and archeological data on the migration of the Turks.
Week 3. The Great Seljuk Empire. The formation of the sultanate and the expansion to the Mediterranean sea. Chain reaction of migrations
Week 4. The Cumans are coming. Turkic polities in the Pontic Steppes. Archeology and relations with many neighbors.
Week 5. Byzantium in crisis. The Eastern Roman Empire in the eleventh century and the migration of the Southern Turks. Zones of migration in Anatolia. Formation of proto-states.
Week 6. Byzantium in crisis (continued). The Eastern Roman Empire in the eleventh century and the migration of the Northern Turks. Cumans and the Balkans, troubletwisters and troubles.
Week 7. Byzantium accepts the Turks. Turkish element in the twelfth-century Byzantium. How did a Turk became a prime minister of Roman Empire and how do we known it. Integration of Seljuk nobility into Byzantium.
Week 8. How did they see the Turks. The image of Turks in Byzantine rhetoric, sympathetic and not. The reasons for (dis)trust and (mis)understanding
Week 9. A northern perspective. Northern Turks were respected Antagonists in the Rus epic (Igorlied). The transformation of the Turks
Week 10. The Mongols. The destruction of Turkic politics in the Pontic steppes and Anatolia and transformation of the Turkic world. New Mongol order and perception of this order in the Turkic world.
Week 11. The Great Heritage of Great Migration. The importance of Great Migration for the modern world. Conclusions.
Recommended reading list:
A. Khazanov. Nomads and the Outside world. Cambridge, 1984
A. Peacock. The Great Seljuk Empire. Edinburgh, 2012
P. Magdalino. The Empire of Manuel Komnenos. Cambridge, 1993
Additional information:
The working language of the class is English. You can ask your questions in German and do the course paper in German, but please prepare for the fact that I will present in English and will be able to translate only some of it into German. I am still learning
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