Christian-Jewish Relations in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Religious Othering
Christian-Jewish Relations in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Religious Othering

Summary/Abstract: This article examines Jewish-Christian interaction in ninth-century Byzantium, with particular attention to key moments and the dynamics of interreligious relations. The analysis is based on a critical reading of a broad range of sources relating to the ninth century, through which the study identifies recurring polemical motifs and situates them within their wider social and political contexts. An interdisciplinary approach is employed, combining historical analysis with concepts drawn from the sociology of deviance – especially labelling theory – in order to explore the ways in which social categories relating to the Jewish minority were articulated within a predominantly Christian society. The article investigates patterns of coexistence between Jews and Christians in the ninth-century Byzantine Empire, analyses the role of the clergy in shaping these interactions, and examines the strategies through which religious discourse and social differentiation contributed to post-Iconoclast societal consolidation and to the legitimation of the reign of Emperor Basil I (867-886). The primary sources considered include chronicles (notably those of Genesios, George the Monk, and Theophanes the Confessor), patristic writings (including works attributed to Patriarch Photius and Gregory of Nicaea), and illustrated psalters (the Chludov and Pantokrator Psalters). The article seeks to address a significant gap in current scholarship on Jewish-Christian relations in ninth-century Byzantium

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