Travelling in the Eastern Mediterranean, c. 1300-1500

Politics, Agency, and the Production of Space

Tounta, Eleni (ed.)
Chrissis, Nikolaos (ed.)

Travel and mobility for political, military, economic, religious, and intellectual purposes were crucial in shaping the medieval eastern Mediterranean through the interaction of travellers with the diverse cultures of the region (Latin, Muslim, Byzantine, etc.). This volume aims to shed light on the agency of travellers to create politics, space, and cultural memory in the period c. 1300 to c. 1500, an era in which transcultural contact in the Eastern Mediterranean world was reshaped through developments such as the Ottoman expansion, while new conceptual tools of the Renaissance period allowed both individuals and communities to be perceived and described in different ways.
Bringing together case-studies of travel accounts and other relevant texts by authors with differing backgrounds and wide-ranging life experiences, this volume aims to shed light on this aspect of cultural history through the exploration of four key themes: individuality and the shaping of the self as traveller and author; the production of space, in particular via critical engagement with the modern analytical tools of orientalism and colonialism in medieval studies; the intersections of these themes with the activities of pilgrims and merchants; and the way on which travellers and their narratives interacted with both their own and foreign communities. This approach offers fresh insights in our understanding of mobility, identity, and cultural interaction in the late medieval eastern Mediterranean.