Turkish-Islamic Customs and Rites in the Byzantine Apologetical-Polemical Literature (Fourteenth Century)
A Preliminary Survey
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.
Submitted: June 14, 2024 | Accepted: Aug. 27, 2024 | Published Dec. 30, 2024 | Language: en
Keywords Byzantine anti-islamic literature • Turkish customs • Ottoman studies • Palaeologan literature • Late Byzantium • Polemical literature
Copyright © 2024 Marco Fanelli. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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