Alterum Byzantium

Turkish-Islamic Customs and Rites in the Byzantine Apologetical-Polemical Literature (Fourteenth Century)

A Preliminary Survey

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Abstract

Adel Theodor Khoury critiqued the anti-Islamic literature of the Palaiologan era as lacking in originality, arguing that it deviated from earlier Byzantine models by incorporating Western influences. Concurrently, studies on the processes of Islamisation and Turkification in Anatolia have variously emphasised episodes of coexistence and the mutual exchange of religious practices. In this paper, the Author aims to reassess Khoury’s assumptions by analysing several case studies in which the direct encounter by the Byzantines with Turkish and Islamic practices enabled Palaiologan writers to introduce novel polemical arguments – arguments that were neither rooted in earlier traditions nor derived from Western sources.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Presentato: 14 Giugno 2024 | Accettato: 27 Agosto 2024 | Pubblicato 30 Dicembre 2024 | Lingua: en

Keywords Byzantine anti-islamic literatureTurkish customsOttoman studiesPalaeologan literatureLate ByzantiumPolemical literature


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