medieval worlds ‒ comparative and interdisciplinary studies, No. 17/2022

In the stand-alone article of volume 17, J. Preiser-Kapeller and E. Kislinger combine natural scientific data and historical research on atmospheric and climatic phenomena of the 8th and 9th centuries to provide new interpretations for the events between the blinding of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VI (797 AD) and the coronation of the Frankish king Charlemagne in 800 AD. The thematic section delves into the intricacies of medieval knowledge cooperation: Five contributions investigate possible evidence for the exchange of knowledge between figures belonging to different religious traditions in the Near East/Middle East during the reign of the Abbasid caliphate from 7th to the 13th century CE: Muslim-Zoroastrian (K. Dang), Christian-Muslim (J. Jakob, M. Pimpinelli), Muslim-Jewish (I. Sánchez) and Muslim-Christian-Jewish (R. Gareil). An introductory contextualisation by guest editor N. Gibson and two reports about projects on knowledge collaboration in the medieval Middle East (T. Carlson and J. Mutter; C. Palombo) complement this section.