MARY JAHARIS CENTER FOR BYZANTINE ART AND CULTURE

BYZANTIUM AS AN INDIAN OCEAN SOCIETY

REBECCA DARLEY, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

THURSDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2023, 12:00-1:30 PM EDT ZOOM

Obverse and reverse of an imitation Byzantine coin, c. 7th century, made in India, double-pierced and with a quarter removed, Weepangandla hoard. State Archaeological Museum, Hyderabad (Telangana)

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the first lecture in our 2023–2024 lecture series: Byzantium as an Indian Ocean Society, with Rebecca Darley, University of Leeds, Thursday, September 28, 2023, at 12:00 PM EDT on Zoom.

Much of the current move towards global history is focussed on connections. Viewed from this perspective, there is no very good reason for seeing Byzantium in the first millennium CE as an Indian Ocean society. Its direct contact with the Indian Ocean was attenuated in comparison with earlier Roman contact and increasingly mediated by others, most notably from the seventh century onwards, citizens of the Umayyad then Abbasid Caliphates. There are other ways to think about both Byzantium and global history, though. This paper examines Byzantium not as a player in an Indian Ocean defined by mercantile networks, but as one of many societies around the Indian Ocean littoral, shaped by common forces. Between the fourth and the ninth centuries, understanding Byzantium as an Indian Ocean society, in direct comparison with complex states from the Horn of Africa to peninsular South Asia provides a new insight into the development of governmental structures, state religion and economic practices that all affected the lives of millions of people in profound and sometimes unpredictable ways.

Rebecca Darley is a scholar of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Indian Ocean in the first millennium. She is currently employed as Associate Professor of Global History, 500-1500 CE at the University of Leeds.

Advance registration required at https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/byzantium-as-an-indian-ocean-society