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vcmwSailing from Byzantium by Colin Wells is the first book I've finished in my "learn more about the civilizations of the Mediterranean" book phase. It follows the interplay between the Byzantine civilization and the other civilizations surrounding it - Islamic, Slavic, and Western European.
I loved it - the characters' motivations felt clearly drawn, the language had just enough informality to make reading easy, there was lots of conflict and action, and occasional footnotes highlighted questions or points of scholarship without trying to be academic history. Books and written languages had a central role as incredibly powerful, desirable objects. The interplay between politics, religion, and personality felt really well drawn.
Now I'm looking forward to reading more and feel like I have something to hang new knowledge on. Reading this book had some strong resonances with the section in Jennifer Michael Hecht's Doubt on "medieval doubt loops-the-loop" which followed philosophy around the Mediterranean. I got to meet up with al-Razi and the Arabic falsafa thinkers again (falsafeh? I've seen both spellings now). I learned about the origins of Cyrillic, saw a cameo by Jagiello (which reminded me of Suzy McKee Charnas's The Bronze King), and every time the story visited the monasteries of Mt. Athos I thought of the Three Musketeers.
Overall, a really good balance between social and political history, and it even managed to help me keep straight all the different tribes and things (which is not my strong point). Sorry I sound muddled about it, but I loved it and my brain is still trying to get all the new info settled.
I loved it - the characters' motivations felt clearly drawn, the language had just enough informality to make reading easy, there was lots of conflict and action, and occasional footnotes highlighted questions or points of scholarship without trying to be academic history. Books and written languages had a central role as incredibly powerful, desirable objects. The interplay between politics, religion, and personality felt really well drawn.
Now I'm looking forward to reading more and feel like I have something to hang new knowledge on. Reading this book had some strong resonances with the section in Jennifer Michael Hecht's Doubt on "medieval doubt loops-the-loop" which followed philosophy around the Mediterranean. I got to meet up with al-Razi and the Arabic falsafa thinkers again (falsafeh? I've seen both spellings now). I learned about the origins of Cyrillic, saw a cameo by Jagiello (which reminded me of Suzy McKee Charnas's The Bronze King), and every time the story visited the monasteries of Mt. Athos I thought of the Three Musketeers.
Overall, a really good balance between social and political history, and it even managed to help me keep straight all the different tribes and things (which is not my strong point). Sorry I sound muddled about it, but I loved it and my brain is still trying to get all the new info settled.
