Papers by Callan Meynell
Bearers of Faith: Local Practice, Communal Ritual, and the Expression of Religious Identity in the Ancient and Late-Antique Mediterranean, 200 BC – AD 600 workshop, 11 September , 2023
A spectre of an ethnic group appears in the fifth story in the second collection of miracles attr... more A spectre of an ethnic group appears in the fifth story in the second collection of miracles attributed to St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki, written by an anonymous author in that city around AD 680. The author of the miracle tale indicates to the reader (or listener) that the ‘Sermesians’, who appear in the city as refugees, are distinct from the Bulgars and Avars that menaced the Thessalonians, as well as the various Slavic tribes that are presented elsewhere in the collection. Instead, we are encouraged to identify them with the Roman population of Thessaloniki: with ‘us’.
Why does a hagiographical work spend any time on such ethnographic discourse? What purpose did it serve in advancing the saint’s cult within the city and elsewhere? And, moreover, what does the impulse to identify the Sermesians as ‘one of us’ tell us about civic identity in Thessaloniki and its relationship with the Demetrios cult?
This paper will seek to address these questions both in relation to the specific information provided about the Sermesians in the Miracles, as well as the wider development of the Demetrios cult in Thessaloniki. It will hypothesise an awareness on the part of the author of the ultimate common point of origin for both the Sermesians and Demetrios - the ancient city of Sirmium. Tracing the development of the cult from the fifth century AD, the paper will argue that the decision to include the Sermesians in the Miracles and the impulse to associate them with the local population of Thessaloniki was as much due to their connection with the city’s patron saint as it was their Christian faith. It will hope to show how local saints’ cults and the texts and rituals associated with them could be used both to integrate and to exclude.
by Matteo G Randazzo, Margherita Riso, Mark Huggins, Niels Gaul, Aristotelis Nayfa, Katherine Taronas, MARIA CHRONOPOULOU, Ioannis Siopis, Danai Thomaidis, Victoria Beatrix Fendel, Ester Cristaldi, Cosimo Paravano, Callan Meynell, Obatnin Georgi, Bilal Adıgüzel, Abby-Eléonore Thouvenin, Alex M Feldman, Nikolaos Vryzidis, Barbara (Varvára) Astafurova, and Klimis Aslanidis It is our great pleasure to publish this booklet of abstracts of the 2nd Annual Edinburgh Interna... more It is our great pleasure to publish this booklet of abstracts of the 2nd Annual Edinburgh International Graduate Byzantine Conference entitled “Reception, Appropriation and Innovation: Byzantium between the Christian and Islamic Worlds”, taking place at the University of Edinburgh from 30 November-1 December 2018. We publish here the 28 abstracts submitted by all of our speakers, including our invited, keynote speakers, all of whom we thank for their commitment to making this conference a success – and their contribution towards this end shines through on each of the following pages.
From the beginning this conference has been the fruit of collaborative efforts amongst individual scholars and institutions, as well, from many different countries. First, within the University of Edinburgh itself, the conference marks an important development in interdisciplinary collaboration amongst schools and colleges, as it is co-organized by students from the School of History, Classics and Archaeology together with the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.
Moreover, we are very happy to have welcomed here scholars from all over the world to present their research from 20 different institutions in several countries: France, Greece, Turkey, Finland, UK, USA, Austria, Egypt, Italy, Denmark and Israel. Finally, this fruitful and multi-faceted collaboration would not have been possible without the generous support of the Late Antique and Byzantine Studies Research Group of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology together with the Alwaleed Centre of the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, both of the University of Edinburgh, as well as generous support from the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies.
This booklet of abstracts has a twofold aim: 1) to situate this conference within the wider research context of the University of Edinburgh, highlighting the interdisciplinary work being conducted here with the hope of establishing these interdepartmental relations on solid ground for years to come, and 2) to make the fruits of these joint efforts readily available to a wider, global audience, both within academia and beyond, by means of various media and open-access publishing.
Books by Callan Meynell
Byzantines considered themselves the legitimate heirs of the ancient world, a title they passiona... more Byzantines considered themselves the legitimate heirs of the ancient world, a title they passionately defended against emerging empires east and west that also claimed hereditary rights to the Graeco-Roman past. From the fostering of cultural, scientific, and literary revivals and the commissioning of projects that used a well-established artistic and architectural vocabulary to the collection, conservation and display of consecrated ancient artefacts, anachronism was a powerful political and cultural tool, frequently used to build analogies with either past prosperity or a divine eternity. In addition, the use of deliberate archaism in literary forms and language served as both a demonstration of classical learning and elite status. Especially in Constantinople, ceremonial practices not only invited the participants to experience past events as if they were present, but also processed through consecrated landmarks from different historical periods – merging perception of space and time in a single, collective experience. Nevertheless, literary sources, such as the Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai, reveal that Byzantines sometimes had only a limited understanding of their own history and urban heritage. They compensate with interpretations, based on oral tradition and observation that often endowed ancient architectural remains and statues with a contemporary relevance. Subsequently this interpretation of the past was actively reshaped to fit contemporary worldviews. Lastly, extensive reuse of ancient material dominates our perception of Byzantium. Innovative aspects of its cultural output therefore often lie unnoticed and are deserving of greater scholarly attention.
Conference Presentations by Callan Meynell
Graduate Exchange in Late Antique, Byzantine and Medieval History, 19-20 May, 2023
Late Antique Cult of Saints in Eastern Christianity Conference, 4-5 May, 2023
Where do people turn to for aid when things begin to go wrong? Do you appeal to secular authoriti... more Where do people turn to for aid when things begin to go wrong? Do you appeal to secular authorities, a local holy man, or the relics of a long-dead saint? And what happens when one or more of these fail? This paper will seek to address these questions in the context of the development of the cult of St. Demetrios in Thessaloniki and its relationship with the wider East Roman world.
Leeds International Medieval Congress 2021, 5-9 July, 2021
Fouth International Congress on Byzantine and Medieval Studies, Nicosia, Cyprus, 17-19 March, 2023
Determining the extent to which Byzantine intellectuals were aware of the theology and doctrines ... more Determining the extent to which Byzantine intellectuals were aware of the theology and doctrines of Islam is a persistent thorn in the side of scholars hoping to make sense of the relationship between these two powers, as well as their own internal developments. Compounding the usual issues presented by our limited source base is the complexity of unpicking not just how and when knowledge about the newest branch of the Abrahamic faiths filtered through to Byzantium, but also to what extent Islamic doctrines themselves were being shaped and redefined within the Caliphate. Neither the Byzantine view of Islam, nor the religion itself remained fixed for any great length of time in the first three centuries after the death of Muhammad.
Thesis Chapters by Callan Meynell
Oxford University Research Archive, 2023
The thesis seeks to engage with ongoing historiographical debates over the nature of Roman identi... more The thesis seeks to engage with ongoing historiographical debates over the nature of Roman identity in the Byzantine Empire. It aims to circumvent debates over the ethnic or national character of Romanness in Byzantium by focusing on the fluid nature of the boundaries of collective identities to isolate the core qualities that defined the group at its most expansive — which generally occurs in relation to an external ‘other’.
To that end, the thesis is divided into two broad sections. The first examines the underpinnings of Romanness in Byzantium in the late sixth and early seventh centuries, immediately prior to the emergence of Islam and the Arab conquests. It concludes that the defining features of Roman group identity, sine qua non, were adherence to Christianity and an acceptance of the legitimacy of Roman imperial power, vested in the person of the reigning emperor in Constantinople. In this regard, whilst there existed a normative discourse of Romanness in the form of the Chalcedonian Hellenophones that made up the majority of the empire’s elite group, this did not preclude non-Chalcedonians or non-Greek-speakers from considering themselves Roman or being considered as such by others.
The second section takes a diachronic view of how Romanness interacted with the rise of Islam from the middle of the seventh century to the middle of the tenth. Knowledge of Islamic theology spread to the empire gradually over the span of two centuries, resulting in the formation of a particular image of Islam and its practitioners within the empire’s discourse that served a particular socio-cultural function. In short, Islam in Byzantium was constructed in such a way to act as a mirror to Romanness to express the collective identity of the people in the empire and define those who were perceived as ‘non-Roman’.
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Papers by Callan Meynell
Why does a hagiographical work spend any time on such ethnographic discourse? What purpose did it serve in advancing the saint’s cult within the city and elsewhere? And, moreover, what does the impulse to identify the Sermesians as ‘one of us’ tell us about civic identity in Thessaloniki and its relationship with the Demetrios cult?
This paper will seek to address these questions both in relation to the specific information provided about the Sermesians in the Miracles, as well as the wider development of the Demetrios cult in Thessaloniki. It will hypothesise an awareness on the part of the author of the ultimate common point of origin for both the Sermesians and Demetrios - the ancient city of Sirmium. Tracing the development of the cult from the fifth century AD, the paper will argue that the decision to include the Sermesians in the Miracles and the impulse to associate them with the local population of Thessaloniki was as much due to their connection with the city’s patron saint as it was their Christian faith. It will hope to show how local saints’ cults and the texts and rituals associated with them could be used both to integrate and to exclude.
From the beginning this conference has been the fruit of collaborative efforts amongst individual scholars and institutions, as well, from many different countries. First, within the University of Edinburgh itself, the conference marks an important development in interdisciplinary collaboration amongst schools and colleges, as it is co-organized by students from the School of History, Classics and Archaeology together with the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.
Moreover, we are very happy to have welcomed here scholars from all over the world to present their research from 20 different institutions in several countries: France, Greece, Turkey, Finland, UK, USA, Austria, Egypt, Italy, Denmark and Israel. Finally, this fruitful and multi-faceted collaboration would not have been possible without the generous support of the Late Antique and Byzantine Studies Research Group of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology together with the Alwaleed Centre of the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, both of the University of Edinburgh, as well as generous support from the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies.
This booklet of abstracts has a twofold aim: 1) to situate this conference within the wider research context of the University of Edinburgh, highlighting the interdisciplinary work being conducted here with the hope of establishing these interdepartmental relations on solid ground for years to come, and 2) to make the fruits of these joint efforts readily available to a wider, global audience, both within academia and beyond, by means of various media and open-access publishing.
Books by Callan Meynell
Conference Presentations by Callan Meynell
Thesis Chapters by Callan Meynell
To that end, the thesis is divided into two broad sections. The first examines the underpinnings of Romanness in Byzantium in the late sixth and early seventh centuries, immediately prior to the emergence of Islam and the Arab conquests. It concludes that the defining features of Roman group identity, sine qua non, were adherence to Christianity and an acceptance of the legitimacy of Roman imperial power, vested in the person of the reigning emperor in Constantinople. In this regard, whilst there existed a normative discourse of Romanness in the form of the Chalcedonian Hellenophones that made up the majority of the empire’s elite group, this did not preclude non-Chalcedonians or non-Greek-speakers from considering themselves Roman or being considered as such by others.
The second section takes a diachronic view of how Romanness interacted with the rise of Islam from the middle of the seventh century to the middle of the tenth. Knowledge of Islamic theology spread to the empire gradually over the span of two centuries, resulting in the formation of a particular image of Islam and its practitioners within the empire’s discourse that served a particular socio-cultural function. In short, Islam in Byzantium was constructed in such a way to act as a mirror to Romanness to express the collective identity of the people in the empire and define those who were perceived as ‘non-Roman’.
Why does a hagiographical work spend any time on such ethnographic discourse? What purpose did it serve in advancing the saint’s cult within the city and elsewhere? And, moreover, what does the impulse to identify the Sermesians as ‘one of us’ tell us about civic identity in Thessaloniki and its relationship with the Demetrios cult?
This paper will seek to address these questions both in relation to the specific information provided about the Sermesians in the Miracles, as well as the wider development of the Demetrios cult in Thessaloniki. It will hypothesise an awareness on the part of the author of the ultimate common point of origin for both the Sermesians and Demetrios - the ancient city of Sirmium. Tracing the development of the cult from the fifth century AD, the paper will argue that the decision to include the Sermesians in the Miracles and the impulse to associate them with the local population of Thessaloniki was as much due to their connection with the city’s patron saint as it was their Christian faith. It will hope to show how local saints’ cults and the texts and rituals associated with them could be used both to integrate and to exclude.
From the beginning this conference has been the fruit of collaborative efforts amongst individual scholars and institutions, as well, from many different countries. First, within the University of Edinburgh itself, the conference marks an important development in interdisciplinary collaboration amongst schools and colleges, as it is co-organized by students from the School of History, Classics and Archaeology together with the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.
Moreover, we are very happy to have welcomed here scholars from all over the world to present their research from 20 different institutions in several countries: France, Greece, Turkey, Finland, UK, USA, Austria, Egypt, Italy, Denmark and Israel. Finally, this fruitful and multi-faceted collaboration would not have been possible without the generous support of the Late Antique and Byzantine Studies Research Group of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology together with the Alwaleed Centre of the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, both of the University of Edinburgh, as well as generous support from the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies.
This booklet of abstracts has a twofold aim: 1) to situate this conference within the wider research context of the University of Edinburgh, highlighting the interdisciplinary work being conducted here with the hope of establishing these interdepartmental relations on solid ground for years to come, and 2) to make the fruits of these joint efforts readily available to a wider, global audience, both within academia and beyond, by means of various media and open-access publishing.
To that end, the thesis is divided into two broad sections. The first examines the underpinnings of Romanness in Byzantium in the late sixth and early seventh centuries, immediately prior to the emergence of Islam and the Arab conquests. It concludes that the defining features of Roman group identity, sine qua non, were adherence to Christianity and an acceptance of the legitimacy of Roman imperial power, vested in the person of the reigning emperor in Constantinople. In this regard, whilst there existed a normative discourse of Romanness in the form of the Chalcedonian Hellenophones that made up the majority of the empire’s elite group, this did not preclude non-Chalcedonians or non-Greek-speakers from considering themselves Roman or being considered as such by others.
The second section takes a diachronic view of how Romanness interacted with the rise of Islam from the middle of the seventh century to the middle of the tenth. Knowledge of Islamic theology spread to the empire gradually over the span of two centuries, resulting in the formation of a particular image of Islam and its practitioners within the empire’s discourse that served a particular socio-cultural function. In short, Islam in Byzantium was constructed in such a way to act as a mirror to Romanness to express the collective identity of the people in the empire and define those who were perceived as ‘non-Roman’.