Name: Wisdom's House, Heaven's Gate
ISBN: 978-3-031-35262-1

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Authors:

Teresa Shawcross ⁰

Teresa Shawcross
1. Princeton University, Princeton, USA
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Offers the first cultural and intellectual history of the entanglement of the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimid Caliphate
Poses nuanced discussions of the symbolism of ancient Athens and Jerusalem outside western Europe during the Middle Ages
Gives an in-depth analysis of textual, artistic and archaeological evidence from different social and gendered contexts

Part of the book series: New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture (NABHC)

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Keywords

Byzantine
Religion
Philosophy
Greece
Holy Land
Medieval
Islam
Byzantine Empire
Fatimid Caliphate
Central Middle Ages
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
al-Hakim

About this book

Taking as its starting point an investigation into the physical topography and symbolism of the two cities of Athens and Jerusalem, this book offers a cultural history of the rival superpowers—the Byzantine Empire and Fatimid Caliphate—that between them dominated the Mediterranean world during the Central Middle Ages. It shows that the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on the orders of al-Hakim punctuated a century of heightened interaction resulting from changing patterns of warfare, trade and pilgrimage. Resettlement of both Christians and Muslims from Syria-Palestine in Asia Minor and the Balkans introduced these migrants’ host culture to new forms of religious and artistic expression. In Hellas, a flurry of building projects reinvented Athens as a New Jerusalem and the Parthenon as a New Temple. The Acropolis became famous for its miraculous lamp and elaborate liturgy. The clergy who performed the sacred mysteries justified them with reference to concepts of hierarchy, illumination and divinisation. These concepts were derived from a philosophical tradition over whose ownership the two superpowers competed. The resulting political theology was the creation of male intellectuals, but female patrons and worshippers also had an impact.

Reviews

This incisive assessment of the cultural and intellectual relationship between Christian Byzantium and the Fatimid caliphs offers striking new perspectives on the significance of Jerusalem and Athens, opening up the history of the Parthenon as a Christian cult centre alongside that of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It is an important and highly original contribution to Mediterranean history.

—David Abulafia, Professor Emeritus of Mediterranean History in the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, UK

‎

This remarkable book shows how the Parthenon of Athens, the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, and the Califate of Cairo came to be locked in an ideological confrontation which affected every fiber of their respective cultures on the eve of the Crusades. The unexpected interweaving of two adjacent faiths and two societies (Byzantium and Islam) has seldom been explored with such learning, zest and insight.

—Peter Brown, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Princeton University, USA

‎

What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Quite a bit it turns out, as Teresa Shawcross shows in this tour-de-force of early medieval Mediterranean history. Through a study of the two show-case cities, we see that, far from representing incompatible and alien cultures, Fatimid Egypt and Macedonian Byzantium were inextricably bound together in discourses of political and religious competition that reflect their common roots in the Hellenistic Abrahamic ferment of the Mediterranean world. Bridging disciplines and linguistic and religious culture, Wisdom’s House, Heaven’s Gate is a model for how historians should approach the history of this complex and dynamic world.

—Brian A. Catlos, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA

‎

Before the arrival of Seljuk Turks and crusaders, the eastern Mediterranean was dominated by two superpowers, the Byzantine empire and Fatimid caliphate. In this masterful study, Shawcross traces the rivalry between their cultures, as they sought to appropriate each other’s symbols and legitimacy, including monotheistic piety and Neoplatonic philosophy. Athens and Jerusalem became the flashpoints for this nexus of mutual, criss-crossing influences. The story is brilliantly told, much of it here for the first time.

—Anthony Kaldellis, Professor of Classics, University of Chicago, USA

‎

This book is a stimulating and original discussion of the thought world of the Eastern Mediterranean in the eleventh century. Breaking away from the traditional paradigm of mutual incomprehension, it uses the images of the cities of Jerusalem and Athens to show the cross-currents and similar concerns of two great religious traditions. In this lively and important work, Shawcross emphasises the importance of the Parthenon and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as of the image of the Imam, in the discourse of the time and the new religious ideas elaborated in Fatimid and Byzantine intellectual circles.

—Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic, SOAS, University of London, UK

‎

Departing from Tertullian’s lapidary distinctions between faith and reason, between Jerusalem and Athens, Shawcross’ engaging and original book examines the Christianization of Hellas in the context of the political rivalry of Byzantium and the Fatimid Caliphate in the Middle Ages. Describing in meticulous detail the intertwined worlds of Classical knowledge, Islam, and Christianity, the author provides an insightful guide to how religion and knowledge were coproduced in the eastern Mediterranean. This is a capacious and wonderful book.

—Teofilo F Ruiz, Distinguished Research Professor of History (Emeritus), UCLA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

Princeton University, Princeton, USA

Teresa Shawcross

About the author

Teresa Shawcross is Associate Professor of History and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, USA and a Senior Member of Robinson College, University of Cambridge, UK. She has previously published The Chronicle of Morea: Historiography in Crusader Greece and Reading in the Byzantine Empire and Beyond.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Wisdom's House, Heaven's Gate
Book Subtitle: Athens and Jerusalem in the Middle Ages
Authors: Teresa Shawcross
Series Title: New Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-35262-1Due: 21 November 2024
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-35265-2Due: 21 November 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-35263-8Due: 21 November 2024
Series ISSN: 2730-9363
Series E-ISSN: 2730-9371
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 490
Number of Illustrations: 11 b/w illustrations, 62 illustrations in colour

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