Proceedings of the Conference ‘Shifting Boundaries, East-West Perspectives’
In February 2007, a conference was held at the British Institute in Amman to explore the impact of constructions of the East/West dichotomy on research around the Mediterranean and to document and understand more complex relationships and cultural realities between these two distinct, yet close political geographies. The conference was organized by the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) and the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS) under the patronage of HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal. This introduction and the following papers have not been updated since the start of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’, so do not reflect any of these recent and ongoing events.
The full text of this introduction is available as the first article of this volume.
The Mediterranean as a Backdrop to the Great events of History
In February 2007, a conference was held at the British Institute in Amman to explore the impact of constructions of the East/West dichotomy on research around the Mediterranean and to…
A Phoenician Past and Present
The Phoenicians have long been recognized as one of the major cultures of the Mediterranean’s Iron Age period, noted for their maritime activities and over- seas settlements. This contribution explores…
Of Ostrich Eggs and Kings: The Topos and Mimesis of International Relationships in the Late Bronze Age
The purpose of this paper is to explore aspects of international interaction dur- ing the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean, taking a specifically Egyptian perspective. The main foci…
Identity, Culture and Religion on Medieval Islam's Caucasian Frontier
This article considers the relationship between Christians and Muslims in Caucasia in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, with special reference to the King- dom of Georgia, the most powerful non-Muslim…
Pirenne, Muhammad and Bohemond: Before Orientalism
Henri Pirenne’s Mahomet et Charlemagne (1937) is one of the seminal works of history written in the twentieth century. His argument that it was the Arab conquests of the seventh…
The Ottomans in Greece: Archaeological Perspectives
This paper reviews the archaeological and historical evidence for the nature and dynamics of life in town and country during the Ottoman centuries in Greece, from the fourteenth century to…
The Notion of 'Divide' Between East and West in the Late Ottoman Empire
This article addresses the prevalent notion of divide or split in late Ottoman society purportedly created by the Western influence and identifies some of the pitfalls that such a problematic…
Tourism and Intercultural Dialogue: Beyond the East-West Binary
In the Middle East, a dynamic region of multi-layered histories and geographies, and the crossing point for multiple cultures, identities and traditions, tourism is rapidly becoming a major economic phenomenon…