Byzantine Slavery and the Mediterranean World

Description

Slavery may no longer exist as a legal institution, but we still find many forms of non-freedom in contemporary societies. It is a troubling paradox, and one this book addresses by considering a period in which the definition of slavery and freedom proved considerably flexible. Between more familiar forms of slavery—those of antiquity and of the Americas—the institution as it was practiced and theorized in the Byzantine Mediterranean was of a different nature. Looking at the Byzantine concept of slavery within the context of law, the labor market, medieval politics, and religion, Youval Rotman illustrates how these contexts both reshaped and sustained the slave market. By focusing on a period of great change, his historical analysis brings a new perspective to concepts of slavery and freedom. In this period, when Byzantium had to come to terms with the rising power of the Islamic state, and to fight numerous wars over territory and economic interests, Rotman traces a shift in the cultural perception of slaves as individuals: they began to be seen as human beings instead of private property. His book analyzes slavery as a historical process against the background of the political, social, and religious transformation of the Mediterranean world, and demonstrates the flexible and adaptable character of this institution. Arguing against the use of the term “slavery” for any extreme form of social dependency, Rotman shows instead that slavery and freedom are unrelated concepts. His work offers a radical new understanding of the geopolitical and religious dynamics that have defined and redefined slavery and freedom, in the past and in our own time. Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Theoretical Approaches Civil Status and Economic Status 5 Civil Status and Social Status: Free versus Slave, Free Labor versus Forced Labor 12 The Social Stratification Model 16 The Definition of Freedom and Its Problematic 18 The Different Dimensions of Unfreedom 20 2. Medieval Slavery in a New Geopolitical S pace 25 The Provenance of Slaves 25 Civilian Captives, Prisoners of War, and Christian Marriage 27 Slave Trade: The New Commercial Map of the Medieval World 57 3. Slavery, a Component of a Medieval Society 82 The Language of Slavery 82 Slavery and the Other Categories of a Medieval Society 93 Slaves in the City: Participation in Artisanal and Economic Urban Life 95 Slaves in the Countryside 107 Freedmen in Society 120 4. Evolution of the Concept of Unfreedom 131 The Byzantine Church and the Idea of Slavery 131 The Christian Identity of the Byzantine Slave 139 The Slave as Human Being: A Change in Mentality 153 The Slave, the Free Person, and the Public Authorities 166 Conclusion: Slavery, Freedom, and Unfreedom 177 Appendixes 183 Abbreviations 201 Notes 205 Bibliography 265 Index 301