Koray Durak
I have been teaching courses on the history of the medieval Mediterranean region, the Byzantine history, and the history of Byzantine Constantinople at the Department of History at Boğaziçi University since 2008. My main areas of research interest include Byzantine and medieval Islamic trade and networks of exchange, Byzantine Constantinople, Byzantine medicine, and geographical imagination in the Middle Ages.
Address: Bogazici University, Department of History, Bebek 34342, Istanbul, Turkey
Address: Bogazici University, Department of History, Bebek 34342, Istanbul, Turkey
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Papers by Koray Durak
outlook on the nature of Byzantium’s foreign exchanges in the example of the ByzantineNear Eastern relations from the 7th to the 11th centuries. Examining the types of objects/ people/information exchanged (i.e. diplomats, merchants, booty, gifts, military technology etc.) and the ways they moved through different modes of exchange (commerce, plunder etc.) critically and comparatively would help every Byzantinist elucidate areas that are less well understood, such as commercial exchanges; it also makes us aware of the fact that the categories presented above are ideal types, and that objects and people had multiple and changing identities while different modes occasionally coalesced.
expressed his astonishment at the bustle of ships in
Constantinople’s harbors,1 until its fall to the Ottoman Turks in
1453, Constantinople was the commercial capital of the Byzantine Empire.
In this long period, two major turning points are identifiable: the seventh
century, which saw the end of the capital’s late antique development; and
the Crusader invasion of 1204, which interrupted an economic expansion
that had started in the ninth century and left the city subservient to
European commercial dominance. This chapter examines the commercial
development of Constantinople, concentrating on the city’s commercial
topography, its provisioning, trade networks, merchant class, and manufacturing industries as well as government control over them
outlook on the nature of Byzantium’s foreign exchanges in the example of the ByzantineNear Eastern relations from the 7th to the 11th centuries. Examining the types of objects/ people/information exchanged (i.e. diplomats, merchants, booty, gifts, military technology etc.) and the ways they moved through different modes of exchange (commerce, plunder etc.) critically and comparatively would help every Byzantinist elucidate areas that are less well understood, such as commercial exchanges; it also makes us aware of the fact that the categories presented above are ideal types, and that objects and people had multiple and changing identities while different modes occasionally coalesced.
expressed his astonishment at the bustle of ships in
Constantinople’s harbors,1 until its fall to the Ottoman Turks in
1453, Constantinople was the commercial capital of the Byzantine Empire.
In this long period, two major turning points are identifiable: the seventh
century, which saw the end of the capital’s late antique development; and
the Crusader invasion of 1204, which interrupted an economic expansion
that had started in the ninth century and left the city subservient to
European commercial dominance. This chapter examines the commercial
development of Constantinople, concentrating on the city’s commercial
topography, its provisioning, trade networks, merchant class, and manufacturing industries as well as government control over them