The thought of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) in the history of political ideas is regarded as the beginning of modern political theory, which abandons the classical Socratic view of politics condensed in the virtue of citizens as the foundation of the polis (the state), as well as the medieval Christian worldview of Thomas Aquinas, where the state and politics are subordinated to religion and Christian morality. Politics becomes distinguished as public as opposed to private, and into political theory Machiavelli introduces the concepts of power, force, strength, and violence as legitimate political notions-a kind of Copernican turn away from the classical political theory of antiquity, where "trust in mute force, which the ancient Greeks considered a non-political instrument…" (Tadić, 1996: 56), now becomes axiomatic. In political reality, new rules apply-the virtuous citizen is replaced by homo politicus. Machiavelli, in the reality of politics, analyzes concrete political phenomena from the perspective of realism and the application of the empirical method. Among other things, Machiavelli says that "many have imagined republics and principalities that never actually existed" (Machiavelli, 2012: 65). Machiavelli's concept of the state and power is founded on the experience of the Florentine friar Savonarola and the famous dictum that unarmed prophets have failed: "It is necessary to know that there are two ways of fighting: by law and by force" (Machiavelli, 2012: 73). In The Prince, Machiavelli emphasizes that "there can be no good laws without a good army, and where there is a good army, there must be good laws" (Machiavelli, 2012: 53). In this paper we analyze the concept of a "good army" in Machiavelli as an unclear and disputable term. By applying methods of content and discourse analysis of Machiavelli's works, we will demonstrate his understanding of a good army within the framework of his theoretical innovation, his new method, through the research question of whether it means a well-armed army, a standing army of monarchical states (France, Spain), the adventurer companies, compagnie di ventura, hired by Italian city-states, or an army that, in the spirit of Augustine, wages war in good faith-or something else? Machiavelli criticizes mercenary warfare and introduces the notion of an armed people, a citizen militia, into his teaching. We will explain the concept of the armed people through his republicanism, his view of the people as the pillar of preserving the state, of the political community in freedom, and the category of friendship between ruler and people. In addition, the paper will address the reach of Machiavelli's idea of the "good army" in the political thought and practice of contemporary society, namely, how far his idea corresponds with the concept of total defense, which in various forms is practiced in a number of states around the world.
Medieval citizenship is often defined as the rights and duties that individuals had in medieval polities, including political participation, individual protection within the city in cases of legal or commercial conflicts, or the privilege of being judged by certain courts, rather than by others, and by one’s peers, rather than by foreigners. Typically, the status of citizen was further bound to the taxes individuals of that polity had to pay or the military duties they had to fulfil. This understanding of citizenship differs significantly from the ways scholars in the field of political sciences have been discussing the term over the past two decades.
This article discusses aspects of the ways Jews belonged and were seen as belonging in the Middle Ages, alongside the ways they were set aside and portrayed as outsiders in medieval Europe. It details different social, cultural and religious means through which the affinity of Jews to their medieval homes were expressed together with expressions of difference and alienation. The introduction sets the stage for the articles in this volume that explore different facets of this topic.
Symbols play a crucial role in various domains, serving as conveyors of meaning through concrete signs with abstract significance. In some periods, it is seen that certain symbols stand out uniquely to that period and some symbols are used repeatedly or transformed throughout history. It is very difficult to reach definite conclusions about the origin of symbols in the history of art. However, the external and internal factors that influence the art, of course, shape the symbols that the work contains, as well as the work. A work of art, which is the product of a collective process is affected by many conditions such as the social environment, economy, material supply, geographical variables, the government, the wishes of the administrator and the artist, the understanding and style of art of the period, religion and sacred elements, the artist’s experience and inner world. The work, which is formed by selection among all these variables is a cornerstone of the general art style. Anatolian Medieval art can be interpreted as the art of societies, not the art of individuals like modern art. In this respect, in Turkish art and symbolism, where the state, religion and social powers come to the fore, these mentioned elements appear as the dominant and guiding power. Should the idea of “abstract symbolic style” be mentioned in Turkish art? Which factors influenced art and style? What is the place of stamps in the transformation of ancient symbols into art? In this study, answers to these questions and problems are sought.
Introduction. The first half of the XIII century was marked in the history of the peoples of Central Asia, the Near and Middle East and the Caucasus by turbulent events associated with the Mongol invasion, which changed the military, political, economic and cultural development of these regions for many centuries. Materials and Methods. This research was conducted on the basis of a broad interdisciplinary approach and generally accepted historical methods. For the first time In Russian Caucasian studies, a comprehensive study was conducted based on the analysis of medieval Arabic, Georgian, Azerbaijani and Derbent sources. Analysis. One of the most powerful states, among the first to fall under the blows of the Mongols, was the power of the Khorezmshahs. Having conquered China and preparing his expansion to the West, Genghis Khan was very wary of this largest state of the Muslim East, which could field about 400-500 thousand welltrained and well–armed warriors capable of inflicting a decisive defeat, significantly inferior in numbers, to the Mongol troops. The grossest militarypolitical and strategic mistakes of the last ruling ruler of the Khorezmshah state, Ala alDin Muhammad, who placed his huge army in isolation in separate large cities, thereby condemning his troops to defeat and the state to destruction. In just 4 months, the Mongols captured and looted the main military, political, economic and cultural centers of the Khorezmshah state. Jalal al-Din Mankburny, becoming the last ruler of the Khorezmshakh state, tried to regain his father’s former power in the Middle East and the Caucasus and in the 20s – early 30s of the XIII century played a significant role in the historical destinies of the peoples of these regions. For more than 10 years, pursuing an expansive policy and continuously participating in wars, Jalal al-Din in the 20s of the XIII century turned out to be the only really military, military-administrative and political figure capable of resisting the Mongol invasion of the Middle East and the Caucasus regions.Results. Jalal al-Din understood that the weakened states of the Caucasus and the Middle East alone were not able to repel the Mongol forces, which forced the last Khorezm Shah to make efforts to unite the Caucasian and Middle Eastern rulers to repel the Mongol invasion, but he failed to achieve this.
Law, History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
El presente artículo tiene el objetivo de proporcionar una primera aproximación al ascenso social, político y económico que experimentaron algunos sujetos mallorquines a través de su participación en la empresa napolitana de Alfonso el Magnánimo. Mediante el cotejo de documentación real – sobre todo, de registros fiscales y de correspondencia – se identifican algunos de los mallorquines que participaron en las campañas navales, sobre todo de los que lo hicieron mediante el aprovisionamiento de efectivos bélicos y, en especial, de galeras. Se analizan sus aportaciones, así como las compensaciones que recibieron por parte de la monarquía, y se dibuja, en conclusión, una vía de promoción social a través de la contribución en las empresas navales.
Raluca Elena Patrascu, Andrei Ionut Cucu, Claudia Florida Costea
et al.
Tuberculosis is a contagious disease that has been a concern for humanity throughout history, being recognized and referred to as the white plague. Since ancient times, starting with Hippocrates and Galen of Pergamon, doctors and scientists have attempted to understand the pathogenesis of tuberculosis and its manifestations in the brain. If, in the medieval period, it was believed that only the touch of a king could cure the disease, it was only in the early 17th and 18th centuries that the first descriptions of tuberculous meningitis and the first clinico-pathological correlations began to emerge. While the understanding of neurotuberculosis progressed slowly, it was only after the discovery of the pathogenic agent in the late 19th century that there was an upward curve in the occurrence of treatment methods. This review aims to embark on an odyssey through the centuries, from ancient Egypt to the modern era, and explore the key moments that have contributed to the emergence of a new era of hope in the history of neurotuberculosis. Understanding the history of treatment methods against this disease, from empirical and primitive ones to the emergence of new drugs used in multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, leads us, once again, to realize the significant contribution of science and medicine in treating a disease that was considered incurable not long ago.
Instabilities of the monsoon climate system, along with alternating periods of severe dryness and wetness, are known to have punctuated and disrupted the lives of peoples and institutions across Asia during medieval times. As far as India is concerned, the topic has attracted little attention from historians and archaeologists. Did climatic variations play a determining role in societal changes in medieval times? The aim of this article is not to answer, but to raise and refine this question by calling for new interdisciplinary initiatives which would enrich our reading and understanding of the past and contribute different threads to the narratives of medieval history and archaeology. While doing so, it highlights two lingering ‘lacks’ underlying the well-established historiography: the lack of attention to nature, and thus to climate; and the lack of archaeology. Attention is then focused on recent advances in palaeoclimatology and in research linking climate and society, in which India is yet to find a substantial place. Finally, the article outlines prospects and openings for the study of the medieval past as it relates to the climate-water-society nexus, by presenting an ongoing project called MANDU exploring histories and archaeologies of the land-waterscapes of Mandu in Central India.
This essay has two objectives. First, it seeks to engage critically with contemporary scholarship on the origins of racism through the lens of an older debate centered around the history of ideas. Specifically, it argues that Quentin Skinner’s influential critique of the history of ideas can help identify the pitfalls of our current fascination with the origins of racism—most particularly when such origins are traced back to antiquity and the European preand early modern periods. In pursuing its second objective, the essay turns from histories cataloguing ancient, medieval, and early modern racisms to objections leveled, in these same literatures, against scholarship defending the modernity of race. The defense of a premodern origin to race is, I argue, not just a historical argument but a contemporary politics embedded in a narrative of continuity that insists on the relevance of the medieval past to the racial configurations of our current moment. Rather than demonstrating continuity and sameness, this essay seeks to draw attention to alternative modes of historicizing that are more attentive to the alterity of the past.
Obesity has been a problem since medieval times, but only in the latter 20 years it has been recognized as a worldwide epidemic. Treating obesity is challenging and difficult, but surgery has led to an increased success and novel insights on the pathophysiology of obesity. Several surgical techniques have been developed during the last 50 years and the advent of laparoscopic surgery has increased its safety, efficacy and demand from the population. Nowadays, the ever increasing and successful use of novel techniques have been responsible for several changes in the established treatment paradigms.
Figuring Racism in Medieval Christianity distinguishes itself from other studies of early forms of racism by placing theological discourses at the center of its analysis. It traces an intellectual history of hereditary inferiority as articulated in the Christian doctrine of servitus Judaeorum, Jewish enslavement. This concept develops in Christian Scripture, patristic theology, and medieval exegesis to produce readings of the biblical figures of Cain, Ham, and Hagar/Ishmael as representing Jews cursed with slavery for their (alleged) role in the crucifixion. The punishment of perpetual servitude constructs a racial status of inherent, hereditary inferiority that shapes the treatment of Jews in canon law, medicine, natural philosophy, and visual art. Focusing on inferiority as a category of analysis contributes to current debates on race and religion in sharpening our understanding of contemporary racism as well as its historical development. The damaging power of racism lies in ascribing inferiority to a set of traits and not in bodily or cultural difference; in the medieval context, theology provides the authorizing discourse to pronounce discriminatory hierarchies as reflecting divine will. The servitus Judaeorum creates a racial rationale that justifies Christian domination not only of Jews, but through the multivalent capacity of figures, Muslims and Africans as well. This history of hereditary inferiority makes legible the ways in which racism circulates in premodernity and continues to do so in contemporary white supremacist discourses that similarly seek to subordinate these groups to white Christians.
With the coronation of Alfonso VII of Léon and Castile as ‘emperor of all Spain’ in Toledo in 1135 the imperial aspirations of the Leonese kings reached a climax. Their origins, however, go back to the tenth century, when individual kings were called ‘imperator’ in charters. This article traces the origins of this tradition within the context of political history and outlines the phenomenon of imperial self-ascriptions on the Iberian Peninsula. While modern research traditionally focused on the question of whether or not the kings of León pursued an ‘imperial programme’ and, if they did, what fundamental ideas lay behind such a programme, this article proposes a different approach: by focusing on the interdependencies between Christian and Muslim powers, it argues that the coronation of Alfonso VII could have been a direct response to the proclamation of ‘Abd al-Mu’min as caliph of the Almohad Empire in 1132. A close analysis of the royal and imperial titles already used by Alfonso’s grandfather Alfonso VI shows that he imitated the traditional caliphal title to be ‘ruler of the faithful’, although religious references were not a traditional part of Christian imperial titles. By examining Leonese and Almohad imperial self-ascriptions, the article offers a model by which we can explore the ways in which neighbouring imperial powers influenced each other and developed competing claims to power. The article establishes that Christian use of imperial titles on the Iberian Peninsula came to an abrupt end once competition with Muslim rivals became obsolete. It underlines the importance of the individual context in which a title was used, a point that stands in stark contrast to the received view that there was an unchanging ‘conceptual core’ to the notion of ‘empire’ as it was used by the peninsula’s kings. The article also highlights the hegemonic connotations of imperial notions in medieval Iberia and the importance of a motif of rulership that included subjects of both Christian and Muslim belief.
Objective: To provide a description of Starokalmashevo hillfort and the Starokalmashevo gravestone with an Arabic epitaph found in the mid-20th century in close proximity to the site of ancient settlement. They are here described not only as monuments of the Middle Ages, but also as objects of historical heritage testifying to the continuous process of ethno-culturogenesis in the Western Cis-Urals up to modern times.
Research materials: The author considers the issues of medieval history, ethno- and cultural genesis of the Western Cis-Urals in light of the example of the Starokalmashevo hillfort, located on the hill of Kala-tau (Chekmagushevsky district of the Republic of Bashkortostan), as well as the Starokalmashevo gravestone. The author provides a complex description of these archaeological and cultural monuments and points out the importance of preserving these objects as an integral part of the local population and the entire Volga-Ural region’s collective historical memory.
Research novelty: The author presents new materials, including the stories of community elders about the origin of the above-mentioned archaeological sites. He analyzes the inscriptions on the tombstone, including its new reading, and draws a conclusion about the continuity of the population of this territory for a sustained period.
Auxiliary sciences of history, History of Civilization
This paper addresses the military and political aspect of the Turkish siege of Constantinople in 1422 AD, when the Ottomans gained valuable experience to use it later, in the final battle of 1453. The research is based on the analysis of fifteenth-century Byzantine historical and rhetorical works. The author of this paper has reconstructed the course of the siege and the main stages of preparation to the decisive assault, has analysed the enemy’s military plans, the alignment of forces and tactical ploys of siege warfare, the specificities of Ottoman weaponry, and the sides’ actions during the assault. Attention has been paid to the Byzantines’ behaviour in the period of military conflict and the emperors’ political actions for the conflict resolution. The history of the siege and assault of the Byzantine capital in 1422 has been placed into the political context of the period in question, and has been uncovered as a stage in the development of the Byzantine-Ottoman relations in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century. The paper concludes that the Ottomans’ rout resulted from a series of circumstances: the perfection of the fortification system of Constantinople, total mobilization of the metropolitan population, the lack of maritime blockade, and the rebel in the rear of the Ottomans starting not without a help from the Byzantines, all of this allowed the city to withstand. The siege was relieved; however, the situation in foreign policy was still difficult for Byzantium, thus making the emperor to search for peace with the sultan.
History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics, International relations