{"title":"Reframing the Fall of the Zirid Dynasty, 1112–35 CE","authors":"Matt King","doi":"10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.26.1.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.26.1.0001","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:Ever since H. R. Idris categorized the last forty years of the Zirid emirate (972–1148) as one of “agony,” the characterization has stuck. According to his narrative, the fall of the Zirid dynasty was as inevitable as the ascent of the Normans in Sicily, who exploited the Zirids for years before seizing their capital of Mahdia in 1148. This article challenges this anachronistic view of the Zirid dynasty by showing the relative strength of the Zirids throughout the 1110s and 1120s, as they made strategic alliances with other Muslim powers in the Mediterranean and won multiple victories against the Normans.","PeriodicalId":85059,"journal":{"name":"Korea & world affairs","volume":"26 1","pages":"1 - 25"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44992912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Circulation of Memory: Bahaettin Rahmi Bediz’s Postcards of Crete 1897–1909","authors":"Rachel F. Ainsworth","doi":"10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.26.1.0026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.26.1.0026","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:This article discusses the postcard repertoire of Bahaettin Rahmi Bediz (1875–1951), a Cretan-Turkish photographer working in Candia, Crete. The article contends that Bahaettin’s work as a local photographer should be examined through what Michèle Hannoosh calls a “Mediterranean context.” This approach evaluates early photographic practices and visual representations alongside the varied networks of political and cultural subjectivities within a rapidly shifting Mediterranean region during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By analyzing Bahaettin’s work through the lens of a Mediterranean context, one can read Bahaettin’s affective voice within his images, as he documents radical political changes on the island.","PeriodicalId":85059,"journal":{"name":"Korea & world affairs","volume":"26 1","pages":"26 - 53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45658192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Renato Carosone and Neapolitan Music: Challenging Paradigms of Hybridity in the Mediterranean","authors":"J. Baldacchino","doi":"10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.26.1.0054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.26.1.0054","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:Hybridity has been a favored metaphor used to discuss cultural mixture in the Mediterranean and beyond. The mobility, interconnectivity, and exchange that characterize Mediterranean historiography lend themselves to the depiction of a cultural landscape of hybridity and mixture. The discourse of hybridity, however, has often been analytically “fuzzy,” with scholars sliding effortlessly from discussing instances of “aesthetic hybridity” to quasi-causal forms of “unconscious hybridity.” In the context of the Mediterranean the concept of hybridity is often used to reconstruct a regional unity built out of crossovers and hybridization. Discussions of “unconscious hybridity” must always, however, be contextualized in relation to the politicized discourses that invoke them—whether to decry or celebrate them. In this article I discuss this notion of Mediterranean hybridity in relation to Neapolitan music, focusing especially on the neglected work of Renato Carosone (1920–2001). While Neapolitan music is often celebrated for its cultural hybridity, such discussions often problematically conflate models of hybridity with models for hybridity.","PeriodicalId":85059,"journal":{"name":"Korea & world affairs","volume":"26 1","pages":"54 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44790577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Theban Autochthony and Athenian Ideology in the phoenissae of Euripides","authors":"Stephen A. Nimis","doi":"10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.2.0147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.2.0147","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:Recent scenes of Syrian refugees arriving in Europe and the nationalist reflections they have engendered recall the discourses of foreign and native in antiquity, a theme addressed frequently in Attic tragedy. Euripides' Phoenician Maidens is a meditation on the theme of autochthony, a key ideological and mythological nexus of ideas about identity and community. The ideal of a homogeneous community symbolized by Athenians' autochthonous heritage fits uncomfortably with another Athenian ideal: hospitality and openness to strangers. The Phoenician Maidens of Euripides reflects on the theme of sameness and otherness, foreign and native, using the resources of theater to articulate a utopian resolution of these conflicting desires.","PeriodicalId":85059,"journal":{"name":"Korea & world affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"147 - 163"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48338193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"People Before Print: Gens de lettres, the Ottoman Printing Press, and the Search for Turkish Literature","authors":"J. Haddad","doi":"10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.2.0189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.2.0189","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:The advent of print at the Ottoman court in 1727 was greeted in France as the triumph of learning over Islamic ignorance. These initial reactions have shaped modern narratives about the Ottoman printing press, which center on the role of its founder, Müteferrika, a Hungarian convert to Islam. This article contextualizes these accounts by turning the focus to one of Müteferrika's French interlocutors, Peyssonnel. This latter's efforts to define Turkish literature demonstrate that the Republic of Letters subsumed the divisive question of print to that of the broader category of literature, which favored cultural continuities stemming from interpersonal relations.","PeriodicalId":85059,"journal":{"name":"Korea & world affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"189 - 228"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46611705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Held to Account: Medieval Scribes at Sea","authors":"E. Tai","doi":"10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.2.0164","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.2.0164","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:This article draws upon legal sources and archival records from Barcelona, Venice, and Genoa to study the experience of scribes in the medieval Mediterranean. Just as Chaucer or Dante may have feared the scribe's power to alter compositions, so, too, did scribes excite apprehension among medieval agents of commerce. The weighty responsibilities assigned to scribes presented significant temptations for illicit enrichment, as well as risks, aboard the medieval ship. The dangers of a maritime venture were compounded, for the scribe, by risks incurred as keepers of the written record.","PeriodicalId":85059,"journal":{"name":"Korea & world affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"164 - 188"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44630878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fourteenth-Century Rent Management in Catalonia: A Case Study of the Pia Almoina of Barcelona","authors":"Adam Franklin-Lyons","doi":"10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.2.0229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.2.0229","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:This article investigates the changing practice of land management by the Cathedral poorhouse of Barcelona, known as the Pia Almoina. During the fourteenth century, the institution moved away from earlier increases in the use of free tenancy and fixed-rate rents and began to acquire new lands that relied more heavily on sharecropping and wage labor. The shift began before the depopulation brought on by the Black Death and continued through the second half of the fourteenth century. This shift in practice is notable because it contrasts with the dominant English model in which tenancies generally improved and direct farming practices shrank after the Black Death. However, the Almoina's practices do reflect urban practices in Tuscany where a strong mark could make sharecropping contracts such as the mezzadria desirable and profitable, even in an era of falling population.","PeriodicalId":85059,"journal":{"name":"Korea & world affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"229 - 267"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46905805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New Wars, Old Wars, and Medieval Wars: European Mercenaries as State Actors in Europe and North Africa, ca. 1100–1500","authors":"M. Lower","doi":"10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.1.0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.1.0033","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:Medieval European mercenaries are often seen as impediments to state formation because European monarchies found them expensive and difficult to control. By taking a broader comparative approach to their deployment that encompasses North Africa, I show that these soldiers could serve as effective agents of state power. Abandoning the mercenaries is sometimes represented as a positive break with the medieval past that accelerated European progress into the modern political order of states and standing armies. From a comparative point of view, however, this transition looks more like a gradual retreat from a system for organizing violence that continued to function well in other parts of the world.","PeriodicalId":85059,"journal":{"name":"Korea & world affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"33 - 52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47693943","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Espionage and Theology in the Anglo-Venetian Renaissance","authors":"D. Pirillo","doi":"10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.1.0053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.25.1.0053","url":null,"abstract":"While the establishment of permanent embassies during the Renaissance has traditionally been regarded as the first step toward the emergence of modern diplomacy, recent scholarship has questioned this grand narrative and suggested framing the history of premodern diplomacy as a much more nuanced and multifaceted process in which many intermediaries and go-betweens coexisted and competed with resident ambassadors. Taking up this thread, this article brings to light the role played in early modern diplomacy by religious refugees, who became influential through their capacity to facilitate cross-confessional exchanges between states that could not officially communicate. Focusing on sixteenth-century Anglo-Venetian diplomacy, the article demonstrates how, after the suspension of diplomatic contact between Venice and England in 1559, religious refugees replaced resident ambassadors and allowed exchanges and the information flow to continue.","PeriodicalId":85059,"journal":{"name":"Korea & world affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"53 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70866752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}