This publication is presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

Edinburgh University Press

Home Edinburgh University Press Greek Captives and Mediterranean Slavery, 1260–1460
book: Greek Captives and Mediterranean Slavery, 1260–1460
Book Open Access

Greek Captives and Mediterranean Slavery, 1260–1460

  • Alasdair C. Grant
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2024

About this book

Captivity and enslavement were characteristic experiences of Greek Christians in the late medieval Mediterranean. During this time, Muslim Turks and Christian western Europeans conquered and traded at the expense of the shrinking Byzantine Empire. By bringing together literary and documentary sources spanning a geographical canvas from the Aegean to Egypt and from Cyprus to Catalonia, this book tells that story in full for the first time. It traces this crisis of captivity from its origins in thirteenth-century Asia Minor to its explosion into a Mediterranean-wide phenomenon, interrogating different types of unfreedom and forced movement and evaluating their significance for Greeks’ religious and diplomatic relationships with their neighbours, both Christian and Muslim. This book tells the story of thousands of ordinary people caught up in conflict and dispersed across the Mediterranean against their will. It is the first study to examine the social, cultural and political ramifications of this late medieval trade in Greeks. The book’s wide geographical horizons and its accessible style ensure that it will appeal to anyone interested in the medieval Mediterranean or the history of slavery. Its use of previously unpublished or little-known textual sources and its extensive synthesis of Byzantine, Latin European and Islamic sources and scholarship ensure that it will offer new perspectives and revelations for the specialist.

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
May 31, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781399523851
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
256
Other:
2 black and white line art
This book is in the series
Edinburgh Byzantine Studies
This book is in the series
Downloaded on 16.3.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781399523851/html
Scroll to top button