Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Passing on Political Information between Major Powers: The Key Role of Ambassadors between Byzantium and some of its Neighbours1

Passing on Political Information between Major Powers: The Key Role of Ambassadors between... Ambassadors and embassies were numerous between Byzantium and its Muslim and Western Christian neighbours during the Middle Byzantine Period. This article seeks to demonstrate that these official envoys constituted major players involved in the transfer of political information between the courts considered. Ambassadors were those who travelled the most in the Mediterranean area during our period – at least between 700 and 900. Furthermore, as official envoys acting for sovereigns, they were carefully listened to by those sovereigns when they returned. Information coming from ambassadors is found in various sources and concerned military matters and foreign policy. But we also find precise data on domestic affairs and internal political information. Furthermore, news of usurpations and troubles in Byzantium may have constituted an important part of the information transferred beyond the Empire. Foreign ambassadors witnessed usurpations and palace revolutions. Their testimonies could have nourished the idea of a Byzantine government weakened by political instability and this theme became prominent during the twelfth century in some Western Christian courts. 1 I am very grateful to Alun Williams, John Tolan and Diana Maloyan for their critical remarks on this article. A shorter version was presented at the International Medieval Congress session “Political Culture in the Latin West, Byzantine and Islamic Spheres: Travelling Rulers and Exploring Subjects” in Leeds in July 2010, and I would like to thank Jonathan Shepard for his kind invitation. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean Taylor & Francis

Passing on Political Information between Major Powers: The Key Role of Ambassadors between Byzantium and some of its Neighbours1

Download PDF
22 pages

Passing on Political Information between Major Powers: The Key Role of Ambassadors between Byzantium and some of its Neighbours1

Abstract

Ambassadors and embassies were numerous between Byzantium and its Muslim and Western Christian neighbours during the Middle Byzantine Period. This article seeks to demonstrate that these official envoys constituted major players involved in the transfer of political information between the courts considered. Ambassadors were those who travelled the most in the Mediterranean area during our period – at least between 700 and 900. Furthermore, as official envoys acting for sovereigns,...
Loading next page...
 
/lp/taylor-francis/passing-on-political-information-between-major-powers-the-key-role-of-IRr5XUFtfI
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1473-348X
eISSN
0950-3110
DOI
10.1080/09503110.2012.655586
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Ambassadors and embassies were numerous between Byzantium and its Muslim and Western Christian neighbours during the Middle Byzantine Period. This article seeks to demonstrate that these official envoys constituted major players involved in the transfer of political information between the courts considered. Ambassadors were those who travelled the most in the Mediterranean area during our period – at least between 700 and 900. Furthermore, as official envoys acting for sovereigns, they were carefully listened to by those sovereigns when they returned. Information coming from ambassadors is found in various sources and concerned military matters and foreign policy. But we also find precise data on domestic affairs and internal political information. Furthermore, news of usurpations and troubles in Byzantium may have constituted an important part of the information transferred beyond the Empire. Foreign ambassadors witnessed usurpations and palace revolutions. Their testimonies could have nourished the idea of a Byzantine government weakened by political instability and this theme became prominent during the twelfth century in some Western Christian courts. 1 I am very grateful to Alun Williams, John Tolan and Diana Maloyan for their critical remarks on this article. A shorter version was presented at the International Medieval Congress session “Political Culture in the Latin West, Byzantine and Islamic Spheres: Travelling Rulers and Exploring Subjects” in Leeds in July 2010, and I would like to thank Jonathan Shepard for his kind invitation.

Journal

Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean – Taylor & Francis

Published: Apr 1, 2012

Keywords: Embassies and ambassadors; Diplomacy; Byzantium and Islam; Byzantium and its Western Christian neighbours; Political information; Cultural exchanges

There are no references for this article.