Romans, Egyptians, and the second Arab siege of Constantinople (717/18)
In this chapter, I want to explore the question of Arab-conquered populations’ continued commitment to inclusion in the East Roman empire with reference to a unique act of political subversion—the dramatic, perhaps decisive defection to the Romans of Egyptian sailors in the Arab fleet during the fai...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Book section |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press
2024
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| _version_ | 1826313736166572032 |
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| author | Booth, P |
| author2 | Shepard, J |
| author_facet | Shepard, J Booth, P |
| author_sort | Booth, P |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | In this chapter, I want to explore the question of Arab-conquered populations’ continued
commitment to inclusion in the East Roman empire with reference to a unique act of political
subversion—the dramatic, perhaps decisive defection to the Romans of Egyptian sailors in
the Arab fleet during the failed second siege of Constantinople in 717/18. It is unclear how
far their defection might be mapped onto an abiding or resurgent ideological commitment to
inclusion in the empire, as Arietta Papaconstantinou suggests for eighth-century western
Thebes, where elites ‘still lived in Byzantium—in the Byzantium their great-grandfathers had
known.’2
I will locate its more immediate impulse in the Arab conquerors’ fiscal innovations,
which had long encouraged resistance and which intensified in the build-up to the siege. But
events at Constantinople further complicate the oft-repeated notion, which has its origins in
contemporary texts, that the anti-Chalcedonian ‘Copts’ saw the ‘Romans’ as unambiguous
aliens, heretics, and oppressors; the events also contextualize intensified attempts to implant
this division in the aftermath of the failed siege. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:19:36Z |
| format | Book section |
| id | oxford-uuid:e304f7f4-f4c7-4e94-8b70-67c209a5686b |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:19:36Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:e304f7f4-f4c7-4e94-8b70-67c209a5686b2024-07-31T11:33:27ZRomans, Egyptians, and the second Arab siege of Constantinople (717/18)Book sectionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843uuid:e304f7f4-f4c7-4e94-8b70-67c209a5686bEnglishSymplectic ElementsOxford University Press2024Booth, PShepard, JFrankopan, PIn this chapter, I want to explore the question of Arab-conquered populations’ continued commitment to inclusion in the East Roman empire with reference to a unique act of political subversion—the dramatic, perhaps decisive defection to the Romans of Egyptian sailors in the Arab fleet during the failed second siege of Constantinople in 717/18. It is unclear how far their defection might be mapped onto an abiding or resurgent ideological commitment to inclusion in the empire, as Arietta Papaconstantinou suggests for eighth-century western Thebes, where elites ‘still lived in Byzantium—in the Byzantium their great-grandfathers had known.’2 I will locate its more immediate impulse in the Arab conquerors’ fiscal innovations, which had long encouraged resistance and which intensified in the build-up to the siege. But events at Constantinople further complicate the oft-repeated notion, which has its origins in contemporary texts, that the anti-Chalcedonian ‘Copts’ saw the ‘Romans’ as unambiguous aliens, heretics, and oppressors; the events also contextualize intensified attempts to implant this division in the aftermath of the failed siege. |
| spellingShingle | Booth, P Romans, Egyptians, and the second Arab siege of Constantinople (717/18) |
| title | Romans, Egyptians, and the second Arab siege of Constantinople (717/18) |
| title_full | Romans, Egyptians, and the second Arab siege of Constantinople (717/18) |
| title_fullStr | Romans, Egyptians, and the second Arab siege of Constantinople (717/18) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Romans, Egyptians, and the second Arab siege of Constantinople (717/18) |
| title_short | Romans, Egyptians, and the second Arab siege of Constantinople (717/18) |
| title_sort | romans egyptians and the second arab siege of constantinople 717 18 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT boothp romansegyptiansandthesecondarabsiegeofconstantinople71718 |