OxByzList: Trinity Week 7 Oxford Listings, 7 - 13 June
Oxford University Byzantine Society
Monday
08/06/2026, 16:30 - Robert Beddard Room, Oriel College, Oriel Square, OX1 4EW
Patristics Research Seminar - Dawn La Valle Norman (Baylor): Title TBD
08/06/2026, 17:00 - Wharton Room, All Souls College, High St, OX1 4AL; for Teams access join group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs)
Medieval History Research Seminar - Charles West (University of Edinburgh): Rethinking Eleventh-century Europe
Tuesday
09/06/2026, 13:00 - First Floor Seminar Room, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
Byzantine Epistles and Prosopography: Mapping the Lost Byzantine Generations of the Thirteenth Century
The fragmentation of Byzantium into a multitude of states from 1204 and until the Palaiologan reconquest of 1261 represents a terra incognita for current prosopographies of Byzantium. Outside of the chronological coverage of both the Prosopography of the Byzantine World (PBW) and the Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit (PLP) research initiatives, these two/three generations of Byzantine society are not detailed in any currently published database.
The information to connect the two established research tools lies in the vast and often overlooked corpora of some 500 letters produced in the thirteenth-century Balkans. These texts detail how peoples navigated a liminal life between the Byzantine successor-states, Latin Crusaders, and Slavonic-speaking powers. Often demonstrating the survival or reconstitution of imperial institutions and offices beyond the collapse of central authority, this seminar series is designed as a means to read these letters. The focus will be on identifying the individuals either written to or described, and placing them within a chronological and geographical window.
With the aid of digital mapping and database management, these individuals can be brought to light and contextualised and a black hole of digital humanities in Byzantium slowly filled. We will be working initially on the dossier of Demetrios Chomatenos, Archbishop of Ohrid (1216–1236), foremost legal mind of his day.
All welcome. Interested participants should contact Nathan Websdale at nathan....@history.ox.ac.uk.
09/06/2026, 14:00 - Catherine Lewis Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Institute, Walton Street Oxford, OX1 2HG
Seminar on Jewish History and Literature - Rebekah van Sant-Clark (Oxford/Worcester): “Ambiguity and the Poetics of Prophecy in the book of Isaiah”
In order to participate in this lecture via Zoom, please register at this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/TS8nkF-1RWqSG2wWpS-ayg
09/06/2026, 17:00 - Conduit Room, New College, New College Ln, OX1 3BN
New College and Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies - Deborah Tor (University of Notre Dame): An Examination of the Development of Islamic Chivalry (Futuwwa)
The scholarly examination of Islamic futuwwa/ javānmardī has been rife with ahistoricity: The scholars who have written about it have virtually all conflated sources from different centuries, rather than tracing development over time. This presentation therefore undertakes a chronological and contextual survey of the development of courtly (non-Ṣūfī) futuwwa, ascertaining when it first appears in the sources and what the phenomenon entailed, and then tracing the changes it underwent over the course of time, until the Caliph al-Nāṣir’s attempt to harness futuwwa for his own purposes in the 1180s.
09/06/2026, 18:00 - Online
Oxford Interfaith Forum - Mary C. Boys (Union Theological Seminary): Book presentation, Blessing of a New Dawn: Reorienting Christianity’s Relation to Judaism, in conversation with Chancellor Shuly Rubin Schwartz at Jewish Theological Seminary
More information and registration: https://oxfordinterfaithforum.org/book-launch/book-talk-blessing-of-a-new-dawn-reorienting-christianitys-relations-to-judaism/
Wednesday
10/06/2026, 15:15 - Rector’s Drawing Room, Exeter College, Turl Street, OX1 3DP
Byzantine Text Seminar - Stratis Papaioannou (Oxford): Readings from a variety of genres and texts (4th-15th c.)
For info, contact: stratis.p...@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
27/06/2026, 17:00 - TBA
Oxford University Numismatic Society - Matthew Ball (The British Museum): The supply and circulation of denarii in the second century AD: an overview of D.Phil. research
10/06/2026, 17:00 - Lecture Theatre, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar - Maria Lidova (Saint Petersburg): The Murano Ivory Diptych: Defragmenting the History and Image of a Late Antique Book Cover
Online Teams link here.
10/06/2026, 17:00 - Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Marston Road OX3 0EE
Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies - HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal: Anniversary Lecture, Title to be Confirmed
Thursday
11/06/2026, 16:00 - KRC Lecture Room, Khalili Research Centre, 3 St John St, OX1 2LJ
Khalili Research Seminar - Nilay Özlü & Ceren Abi (Istanbul Technical University): Archives and Archaeology: Unearthing the Ottoman Perspective;
Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal (Scuola Superiore Meridionale, Naples) & Gizem Tongo (KRC & Lusail Museum, Doha): Occupation on Display: Curating the Aftermath of World War I in Istanbul
11/06/2026 - Pembroke College, St Aldate’s, OX1 1DW
Workshop - Organised by Michael Cook (Princeton), Christian Sahner (Oxford), Nicolai Sinai (Oxford): Paganism in Late Antique Arabia: Dead or Alive at the Rise of Islam?
Traditionally, late antique Arabia was seen as a world dominated by polytheism, reflecting the picture provided by the Quran and many early Islamic sources. In recent decades, however, scholars have come to see late antique Arabia as a world prominently shaped, or even dominated, by monotheism. This has come about as a result of major advances in epigraphy and archaeology, new approaches to reading the Quran and early Islamic sources, and a growing tendency to see Arabia as integrated into the wider late antique world, with its close connections to Judaism and Christianity.
The workshop seeks to navigate these views by exploring the extent to which paganism was actually thriving or moribund in Arabia on the eve of Islam. It features a multi- disciplinary group of scholars, including specialists in epigraphy, archaeology, Arabic literature, Quranic studies, and late antique history to help answer this question. The workshop aims to clarify the religious situation in late antique Arabia and the impact this had on the early development of Islam, two of the most pressing issues in the field at the moment.
With generous support from The Farouk Toukan Fund for Arabic at New College, The Ludwig Fund at New College, The Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research, Pembroke College, and The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Registration is required to attend and space is limited.
Please contact christia...@ames.ox.ac.uk by May 29, 2026 to indicate your interest.
Friday
12/06/2026 - Pembroke College, St Aldate’s, OX1 1DW
Workshop - Organised by Michael Cook (Princeton), Christian Sahner (Oxford), Nicolai Sinai (Oxford): Paganism in Late Antique Arabia: Dead or Alive at the Rise of Islam?
Traditionally, late antique Arabia was seen as a world dominated by polytheism, reflecting the picture provided by the Quran and many early Islamic sources. In recent decades, however, scholars have come to see late antique Arabia as a world prominently shaped, or even dominated, by monotheism. This has come about as a result of major advances in epigraphy and archaeology, new approaches to reading the Quran and early Islamic sources, and a growing tendency to see Arabia as integrated into the wider late antique world, with its close connections to Judaism and Christianity.
The workshop seeks to navigate these views by exploring the extent to which paganism was actually thriving or moribund in Arabia on the eve of Islam. It features a multi- disciplinary group of scholars, including specialists in epigraphy, archaeology, Arabic literature, Quranic studies, and late antique history to help answer this question. The workshop aims to clarify the religious situation in late antique Arabia and the impact this had on the early development of Islam, two of the most pressing issues in the field at the moment.
With generous support from The Farouk Toukan Fund for Arabic at New College, The Ludwig Fund at New College, The Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research, Pembroke College, and The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Registration is required to attend and space is limited.
Please contact christia...@ames.ox.ac.uk by May 29, 2026 to indicate your interest.
Kind regards,
-----------------
Nidanu O'Shea
DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Secretary, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com