Aspecte privind prelucrarea metalelor în centrele din nordul Dobrogei în secolele X‐XV

Author(s): Aurel-Daniel Stănică / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 48-49/2015

In the present study, based on data from the archaeological research and documentary sources, we aim to review one of the main occupations of the northern Dobrudja settlements’ inhabitants in the 10th – 15th centuries. Along with farming, animal husbandry and fishery, various crafts and household occupations were wide spread within the local communities, producing tools and household items.The natural environment of North Dobrudja is an unique geological and geographical unit, being a useful mineral substances deposit. Some of these deposits present at the surface were accessible to the artisans who could extract the ore from these veins.This activity required thorough knowledge in procuring iron ore, combined with its reduction and processing. A large number of debris resulting from the ore reduction process, consisting of slag and iron blooms stands evidence to the development of this occupation. The waste and scrap indicate the existence of installations (furnaces) for iron reduction. Based on the arguments provided by the archaeological research, completing an informational vacuum, were certified both the ore reduction activities and the production of iron, copper, bronze, lead, gold and silver objects. This concern for the metal working was one of the constant occupations of the inhabitants of North Dobrudja in the 10th ‐15th centuries.

New Geoarcheaological Researches around the Danubian Island – Păcuiul lui Soare

Author(s): Glicherie Caraivan,Radu Dimitriu,Constantin Chera,Corneliu Cerchia / Language(s): English Issue: 48-49/2015

The eroded ruins of a Byzantine fortress (10th‐13th centuries) still endure on the Danubian island Păcuiul lui Soare, between 355 and 357 km. A seismo‐acoustic survey carried out along the Danube in front of the island outlined the presence of the fortress’ ruins under the river waters. The exposed fortress on the Păcuiul lui Soare island has a surface of about 7500 m2, while the underwater fortress is four times larger (28750 m2).

Découvertes archéologiques et numismatiques sur le territoire du village d’Énisala, com. Sarichioi, dpt. de Tulcea (IXe – XIVe siècles)

Author(s): Gheorghe Mănucu‐Adameșteanu / Language(s): French Issue: 48-49/2015

Sur le territoire de la localité d’Énisala se trouvent plusieurs sites archéologiques d’où pourrait provenir un nombre important de monnaies byzantines dont,à quelques exceptions près, nous ne disposons d’aucune information sur le lieu et lesconditions de la découverte. Dans la plupart des cas il y a seulement la mention qu’ellesont été trouvées à Énisala.

Revizyonist Tarihçi Patricia Crone’un Mevâlî Anlayışı

Author(s): Öznur Özdemir,Saim Yılmaz / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 1/2021

Regarded as a revisionist historian in the West, Patricia Crone (1945-2015), who wrote many books and articles on various subjects of early Islamic history, was a prolific researcher. The place and role of mawālī, in the Umayyad and Abbāsid society, has been one of the special topics she has been interested in since the very beginning of her academic life. Her works with a revisionist perspective have been faced many criticisms by colleagues, especially the western ones, because of her biased view of the sources written by Muslim authors, her methodology, and her results. However, it is obvious that Crone’s studies on mawālī have positively or negatively affected the Eastern and Western academics in Islamic studies. This article’s main purpose is to reveal Crone’s views on mawālī in Islamic society and draw an outline without comment as much as possible. The paper consists of three parts. In the first part, Crone’s revisionist perspective and her works on mawālī have been explained. In the second part, her distinctive views on the mawālī and its origin have been discussed. Finally, in the third part, her findings of the position of mawālī in social, political, military, and economic life during the Rāshidun Caliphs (11-41 / 632-661), the Umayyads (41-132 / 661-750), and the Abbāsids (132-656 / 750-1258) have been introduced. This study, which tackles Crone’s views on mawālī, aims to encourage the further studies on this subject.

Lamps with “temple façade” decoration: witness to urban vitality in the northern and western Black Sea and the ties with Constantinople

Author(s): Laurent Chrzanovski,Denis Zhuravlev,Florin Topoleanu / Language(s): English Issue: XXVIII/2019

The architectural motif in the form of an arch-oncolumns, the titular “temple facade”, decorating the discus of late antique lamps, has been the subject of debate and various interpretations of the meaning without reference to the rendering or the lamp type. An examination of known examples of lamps with this particular motif has identified four different lamp type variants and two main renderings of the decoration. Ovoid lamps bearing a representation of an arch-on-columns, the most numerous among the finds, come mostly from Constantinople and nearby cities, the Black Sea coast and the Danubian sites, the sole exceptions being Egypt (where they appear also in a late variant), Cyprus and Byblos. Reconstructing the distribution of these types and renderings has introduced some “order” into the existing hypotheses and highlighted issues connected with understanding the booming economy of the Pontic area as well as the recently rebuilt Danubian limes fortresses, during their apex, in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. It has also contributed to the discussion aimed at ending the widespread use of the term “Balkan lamps” for products that represent the output of Pontic and Danubian workshops influenced by the Imperial capital in Constantinople.

Some Hellenistic and late Roman terracotta lamps in the Sinop Archaeological Museum in northern Turkey

Author(s): Gülseren Kan Şahin,Eray Aksoy / Language(s): English Issue: XXVIII/2019

The paper considers some terracotta lamps from recent rescue excavations by the Sinop Archaeological Museum in ancient Sinope, classifying them by types and chronological groups, from the 2nd century BC to the 7th century AD. The lamps represent part of the local lamp-making tradition, which is underinvestigated although equally important as the amphora production industry in this eastern Paphlagonian city.

Central Asian köshks from the Islamic period before the Mongol conquest: fortified, semi-fortified or unfortified?

Author(s): Piotr Piekarz / Language(s): English Issue: XXVIII/2019

In their external appearance, the Islamic-period köshks in Central Asia, especially the characteristic buildings with corrugated outer walls, dated broadly speaking from the 7th–8th century AD to the times of the Mongol conquest at the beginning of the 13th century, are apparently fortified. However, they lack a number of features characteristic of defensive buildings. Their interpretation as residential structures in this period is indisputed, hence their apparent defensiveness has been attributed to a line of evolution from pre-Islamic architecture of this type, which played a military role. A review of various defensive elements present in these structures, compared with buildings from an earlier period, highlights this process. An apparent exception is the Great Kyz Kala at Merv, Turkmenistan, which may have not lost its defensive capacity immediately, as recent research by the UCL Institute of Archaeology Ancient Merv Project has demonstrated.

Ian Wood, The Transformation of the Roman West

Author(s): Robert Kasperski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2019

Review of: Robert Kasperski - Ian Wood, The Transformation of the Roman West, Leeds 2018, ARC Humanities Press, ss. 160, Past Imperfect

IDEALS OF EPISCOPAL POWER, LEGAL NORMS AND MILITARY ACTIVITY OF THE POLISH EPISCOPATE BETWEEN THE TWELFTH- AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES

Author(s): Radosław Kotecki,Jacek Maciejewski / Language(s): English Issue: 4 (en)/2020

This article is an attempt to illustrate relations between the theory and practice of the military activity of Polish bishops under the rule of the Piast dynasty. The problem is discussed based on an analysis of the locally formulated ideal of episcopal power and the ideological and legal patterns reaching Poland that regulated the possibilities of using weapons by clergymen, and, in particular, defined the ways in which churchmen participated in wars and in declaring and conducting them.

Edebî Değer Açısından Dil Sapmalarının Üstünlük Problemi: Cahiliye Dönemi Özelinde Şiir Zaruretleri

Author(s): Mehdi Cengiz / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 2/2021

Standard language, which follows rules of dictionary and grammar, undergoes various changes when it is the subject of literature, especially poetry. These changes, called linguistic deviation, are due to the poet’s expression of his feelings and thoughts by forcing the possibilities of language. In this direction, language deviations can be defined as the dispositions where the author goes out of the standard language, as in the examples of changes in the pronunciation (ṣavt), form (ṣarf) or spelling (kitābet) of the words, the derivation of new words that are not used in the language (irticāl) and the deterioration of the syntax (naḥv). According to many literary critics such as Ibn Hishām al-Ansārī (d. 761/1360) and ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Baghdādī (d. 1093/1682), this language used by Arab poets who were not influenced by foreign languages, namely the Cāhilī, Muḥaḍram and Islāmī poets (ḳudemâ), was acceptable and it is considered as ḍarūrātuş-şiʿriyye (poetry necessities). In this context, deviations that do not comply with the standard language are tried to be explained with dialect differences, different variants of the couplet or various interpretations. However, some scholars such as Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004) and Abū al-Ḥasan al-Jurjānī (d. 392/1001-1002) argue that these usages are laḥn (linguistic mistakes). According to these names, it is not correct to explain the poets’ use, which are contrary to the standard language rules, with excessive interpretations (takalluf). Assuming that linguistic deviations are laḥn, they cannot represent a superiority in terms of literary value, but when considered as a necessity, they represent a superiority within the framework of certain criteria. But any specific criteria have been determined before about which linguistic deviations represent the superiority. Therefore, in our study, the theories put forward about the accuracy of linguistic deviations that exceed the standard language rules will be examined and the necessary criteria for them to represent a superiority will be determined.

A skald in royal service – the case Þórarinn loftunga. Part 2: Poetics and ideology of Tøgdrápa

Author(s): Jakub Morawiec / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The present study is focused on Tøgdrápa (Journey drápa), a poem Þórarinn devoted to Knútr’s expedition to Norway in 1028. A distinguished feature of Tøgdrápa is its metre – tøglag (journey metre). It differs from dróttkvætt by having four syllables (instead of six) in each line. Presumably, referring to the title of the poem, the metre was to be used in accounts on war expeditions, optionally other travels of the king. Tøglag seems to be especially bound to Knútr’s court. Close metrical analysis of the poem as well as comparison with Sigvatr Þórðarson’s Knútsdrápa suggests that, contrary to previous assumptions, it is very likely that neither of the poets was an inventor of tøglag. Rather both, as talented and already distinguished skalds, did not hesitate to take another artistic challenge, most likely put up by somebody else. It seems reasonable to assume that such a challenge was born at Knútr’s court, probably as a side effect of the king’s success in Norway in 1028.

Sfinții Metodiu și Chiril și creștinătatea slavă

Author(s): Vasile Raduca / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2/2013

It is the merit of the two Saints, Methodius and Cyril, to have introduced Slavonic peoples into the European cultural space, nourished throughout the centuries by the Greek-Roman thinking and then by the Gospel of Christ. Given the European scope of their mission, Pope John Paul II rightly termed them ,,totius Europae apud Deum caelestes compatronos”. The two brothers created an alphabet and a literary language through which they promptly integrated Slavonic language into the Byzantine culture, via the sacred terminology. The 9th and the 10th century witnessed the Christianization of the greatest migratory people, the Slavs who at the time amounted to one third of the total population of Europe. While Saints Methodius and Cyril were not the first ,,Apostles” to all the Slavs, they were certainly true ,,Apostles” to a part of them. However they were the ones who paved the way for the integration of all Slavs into the great European culture, which Christianity stood for. By receiving the mission of the two saints, the Slavs received not only a religion (which in itself is a major achievement), but they also opted for the Christian culture expressed through the spoken and written word, in their own language.

Ив. Божилов, Ил. Илиев, Хр. Димитров, Ив. Билярски. Византийските василевси. София, Издателство „Абагар“, 1997. 418 c.

Author(s): Krasimira Gagova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1-2/1998

Book Review

Сведения за цар Калоян в Руския хронограф

Author(s): Denitsa Petrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

The article examines the information on the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan in the Russian Chronograph, one of the few Slavic sources which contains evidence about this ruler. There are four mentions of Kaloyan in the Chronograph and so far only one of them has attracted the attention of scholars. In the present text the other three mentions of tsar Kaloyan are considered, their original sources are analyzed and an explanation for the discrepancies is sought. Unpublished editions and transcripts of the Russian witnesses are involved in the study. The chronograph clearly defines the place of Tsar Kaloyan - he is a ruler who successfully competed with the Byzantine Empire.

ИНОВАЦИОНЕН АСТРОНОМИЧЕСКИ И ФОТОГРАМЕТРИЧЕН ПОДХОД ПРИ ИЗСЛЕДВАНЕ НА КРЪГЛАТА ЦЪРКВА ОТ ПРЕСЛАВ

Author(s): Bozhidar Stoyanov,Emanuil Stoyanov,Greta Stoyanova,Pencho Markishki / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 22/2022

The article offers the results of an interdisciplinary study, in which an innovative astronomical and photogrammetrical approach is applied for the study of the Round Church of medieval Preslav. A well-grounded hypothesis is presented for the beginning of the construction, as well as the specification of the saint to whom the temple is dedicated. It is proposed that the day when the orientation of the temple was determined in relation to the directions of the world was September 26, CE 893. Respectively, the saint to whom the Round Church is dedicated is St. John the Apostle. The proposed method of dating the medieval construction of a church by applying photogrammetrical photography and building a digital altitude model and ortho-photo plan, combined with the conducting of archeo-astronomical simulations, could also be used in the research of other temples for which it is initially clear which saint they are dedicated to.

Ethnic Perceptions, Shaping of Identities and the Emerging of Statehood – the Case of Bulgar Tribes in 5th – 7th Century

Author(s): Todor Chobanov / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2022

The present article aims to carry an overview how the Bulgar/Protobulgarian tribes seemingly kept changing in the 5th – 7th c. or at least they did in the eyes of the contemporary writers and chroniclers. The text follows the main sources and comments on their information, comparing evidence and drawing conclusions. The first period reviewed is the one immediately after the collapse of Atilla’s state and then the 6th c., when Bulgar troops became well-known as enemies and mercenaries of the big empires of the time – Byzantium, the Steppe empire and Sassanian Iran. It is considered that the Bulgar own political organization kept developing, culminating in the establishment of Old Great Bulgaria. The text contain many references to well-known sources, but also to not so popular or even ones that have not been commented at all in the Bulgarian historical tradition as the poem by pre-Islamic poet Al-Asha. Cases like the “Bookolobras affair” from the late 6th c. have been reviewed and connected to early Bulgarian history. The general conclusion is that the Bulgar ethnonym had ethnic but also strong political dimension from its very first appearance until the founding of Danube Bulgaria and the changing political situation also brought significant ethnic changes, described by key scholars as “Second Bulgarian ethnogenesis”.

Карл Велики и Каролингската империя през погледа на един български медиевист

Author(s): Alexander Nikolov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

Някои загадъчни сведения за българската история в Руския хронограф

Author(s): Denitsa Petrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2022

Of all the Slavic sources for Bulgarian history, the Russian Chronograph has the largest chronological scope, providing information on events from the settlement of the Bulgarians in the Balkans to the fall of the state under Ottoman rule. The present study focuses on several unclear and unanalyzed reports about the Bulgarians, the information in which differs from the data in other sources. The reasons for these differences should be clarified, as in this way the remaining information can be supplemented. Khan Krum is called “Homer”. It is stated that one of the wives of the Russian Prince Vladimir I Sviatoslavych is Bulgarian. Information related to the reign of Tsar Ivan Asen II is given, which is not borrowed from the sources used in the compilation of the Chronograph. A Bulgarian-Serbian conflict at the end of the reign of Tsar Todor Svetoslav is mentioned, but there is no evidence of such a conflict elsewhere. Some of the reports do not correspond to the facts and are the result of errors of the copyist or compiler. Others deserve special attention because they testify to the spread of Bulgarian writings in Russia, provide additional arguments for some theses, suggest the existence of unpreserved chronicle texts and show how the place of the Bulgarians in world history was understood.

Ново изследване върху историята на Самуилова България

Author(s): Kiril Gospodinov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2022

Book Review

OSMANLI DEVLETİ’NDE ULUFELERİNİ GÜMRÜK MUKATAALARINDAN ALAN CAMİ GÖREVLİLERİ (H. 1099-1182 / M. 1688-1769)

Author(s): Hakan Doğan,Fatma Ünyay Açikgöz / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 77/2023

In the Ottoman Empire, mosques were one of the most important institutions that performed various functions apart from worship. The expenditures such as construction, repair, lighting, heating, maintenance and wages of the mosque officials constituted the basic expenses of the mosques. These expenses were sometimes met from the central treasury, sometimes from real estate revenues, whose revenues were donated for mosques, and sometimes from direct donations in kind and in cash from the people of the region where the mosque was located. In the Ottoman Empire, many officials were serving in mosques. Among the main of these officials; there were imam, hatip, muezzin, preacher, kayyım, ferraş, devir-hân, kâri (kurrâ), na’t-hân, tariffhân, muvakkit, enam-hân, muarrif, sure-hân, cüzhân and dersiam. The salaries and wages of the said officials were mostly paid through the waqifs of the mosques or masjids they were in charge of. Waqifs, which also served in other fields, became so widespread in the Ottomans that almost every mosque had at least one real estate. Sometimes the incomes of the waqifs were too low to meet the needs of the mosque or the waqıfs were disappearing themselves. In this cases where the waqif revenues were insufficient, various sources of income were used to meet the expenditures partially or completely. One of the sources that the state used for the payment of the salaries of mosque officials was customs revenues. So much so that in the Ottoman Empire, it is seen that the salaries of the officials in some mosques were paid from the revenues of customs revenues instead of waqifs incomes. In this study, duties of people working in mosques of the different regions of the Ottoman geography and the amount of their salaries from customs revenues were evaluated through the data on the berat (royal degree) copies in Cumhurbaşkanlığı Osmanlı Arşivi (The Presidential Ottoman Archive) Ali Amirî (AE.SMHD.I, AE.SMST.II, AE.SMST.III, AE.SAMD.III) classification (1688-1769).