Introduction: History-writing and Violence in the Medieval Mediterranean

Abstract

History-writing has often been preoccupied with the multiple shapes, forms and expressions of violence as a subject, while in some cases the rhetorical violence of some kinds of historical writing has been used as an instrument for the cultivation of power and authority. The deeds of great men and their conflicts, as well as divine intervention in the form of retribution and punishment and the moral lessons that could be drawn from such episodes were defining features of historical writing from its earliest days. The transformation of episodes of physical violence in the world into written form, not to mention visual and material representations, has had a formative impact on individual and collective memories and identities throughout history. An exploration of the rhetoric and forms of violence, as applied to different modes and processes of history-writing, can thus help us to understand the narrative and social functions of such a ubiquitous phenomenon. In this special issue of Al-MAsaq, co-edited by Dr Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo and Dr Jamie Wood, these idea are explored in depth within the context of the Medieval Mediterranean.