Panos Sophoulis - Böcker

The Balkans in the Late Middle Ages, 1300-1500, is the first publication of its kind to provide a point of reference for the history of Southeastern Europe during the late medieval period. Scholars have long recognized the 14th and 15th centuries as an extremely important period in the history of the medieval Balkans. This was an era of intense political and military tumult, financial crisis and social disruption, but also a time of cultural and intellectual innovation and achievement.While a growing body of literature has focused on developments in the Byzantine Empire and Latin Greece (that is, the states created by Western/Latin rulers in the Greek peninsula and some of the Aegean islands), most of the other states in the region, including Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania, have been largely neglected. What is more, no study has examined the whole peninsula as a geographic unit. The ultimate ambition of this twelve-chapter volume is to fill this gap, and produce a closely argued, fresh interpretation of events for the entire region, from Dalmatia, Wallachia and Moldavia in the north to Byzantium and the Latin states in the south. This book will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students and scholars with academic interests in the medieval Balkans, as well as to readers wanting to learn more about the history of the region.

The seventh century was a period of radical transformation in the Balkans in terms of political, social, and economic history. The decline in Byzantine power led to the collapse of ancient urban civilization, the arrival of new populations from eastern Europe and the steppes, and, subsequently, the establishment of new political structures and modes of economic relations. Given that the written sources provide relatively little information about these events, archaeology is required to fill in the gaps and improve our knowledge and understanding of the socio-cultural and ethnic transitions that took place. New developments in archaeology in the Balkans have brought an enormous amount of information to light. The book’s eight contributors present research from different parts of the region, offering valuable new insights into the history, culture, and economy of the early medieval Balkans.

This book explores the history of banditry in the medieval Balkans between the ninth and fifteenth centuries.

This book explores the history of banditry in the medieval Balkans between the ninth and fifteenth centuries.