Inter-faith encounters in Late Byzantium: Conflict and dialogue in the Eastern Mediterranean

4 June 2025| 17:00 - 20:45
5 June 2025 | 10:00 - 17:00

The Eastern Mediterranean has always been a world of religious, cultural and ethnic diversity. During the late Byzantine period and the early Ottoman era (13th-15th c.), the challenges posed by war, political fragmentation, empire formation and management, migration, natural disasters and epidemic diseases led to new ways of religious interaction. Landmarks in this process were the Crusades, the Latin conquest of Byzantine territories, the Mongol expansion, and the rise and consolidation of the Ottomans. A mosaic of Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities found themselves in close contact, especially in the spheres of administration and economy as well as through inter-marriage, conversion and enslavement. Common spiritual needs and metaphysical anxieties and expectations, such as the quest for miraculous healing, led to shared pilgrimage shrines (e.g., Christian churches and dervish tekkes) and the inter-faith veneration of holy men and women. Not only were religious beliefs, customs and practices belonging to Christian sub-groups adopted and appropriated by other Christian sub-groups, but they also present similarities or even seem to have influenced and were themselves influenced to various degrees by Jewish and Muslim traditions. Last but not least, the geographical proximity and co-existence of the three monotheistic religions in this long period inspired religious clash in the public sphere (e.g., pogroms and popular revolts), and led their religious spokesmen to conduct theological debates and pen apologetic treatises against the religious Other.

The aim of our Colloquium is to explore case studies of unity in diversity or unity vs diversity in Late Byzantium, a period of dramatic decline of the Byzantine Empire and the parallel rise of the Ottoman Empire, in a vast territory inhabited by various Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities. It seeks to throw new light to the history and culture of the Eastern Mediterranean, the region of the Black Sea, the Balkansand Asia Minor at a time marked by tension and intolerance together with gradual assimilation and adaptation as well as by a high degree of flexibility and fusion of cultures. Such intermingling is evident in the social and intellectual world of the protagonists involved, in literature, art, architecture, and visual and material culture. Our speakers represent a variety of scholarly fields and methodological approaches, focusing on case studies of inter-faith encounters during the late Byzantine and the early Ottoman periods (13th-15th c.), covering aspects of inter-faith tension, conflict, tolerance and co-existence, re-addressing earlier debates and providing fresh perspectives on the mechanics of identity formation, boundary building, inter-religious and inter-cultural exchange, and community inclusion and exclusion, shedding light on the complexities of a colourful, yet harsh and violent world, inhabited by Christians, Jews and Muslims of different denominations.

​Download the Conference Programme