2 Maia could claim that the Byzantine emperor-“the emperor of the Ro. mans"-was heing honored by both eastern and western nations as the legitimated successor of Aleawnder the Gre and Constantine 12 As to the sense of identity of the Byzantine elite itis true that certain intellectuals from the ranks of the civilian and the evclesiastical ad ministration did realize that their state had entered a stage of termi nal political dedine and came to question the cultural ard moral ott periority of Byzantium visd-ris its neighbors in Bast and West, 1 also true that, since the twelfth century. if not earlier and in respon to the pretensions of the Papacy and the Latin West which had their owne Roman imperial heritage. more emphasis was being placed on the Orthodox and the Hellenic components of the Byzantine id thowe two elements that distinguished the Byzan: lines from their western antagonists, However. as already pointed out the Roman component of this identity was neither ceded to the West nor renounced but remained alive down to the demise of the Empire What is more, the traditional view of the non-Christian peoples of the Exqst and, expecially, the Turksas barbarians was still very much alive in the Late Byzantine period. despite the fact some intellectuals were willing to concede that they had certain positive traits, It could be claimed. then, that in the Late Byzantine period the basic tenets of the Byzantine identity remained the stme: what had changed under the influence of current historical conditions was the significance ac corded 10 each in the collective conseiousness of the Byzantines. It should be pointed out. however that theevidence for this subtle change lity, that is, 0 in emphasis is mostly derived from the personal writings of Late By antine authors. In offieial contexts it is the traditional Roman univer: salist ideas that continue to be advanced.” Thus, we find Late Byzan: Fab § Viewers), Having sl this it shoe o's elaim isnot entirely’ wit at Ronin cil correspondence withthe Musi courts of the Mamluks ree i idee read the Se. Daplasatie Carvesponnonce het ws iy the Bosrtewnthe Costar: 0 Mana 161 (200) Ie Reames fr poo (80 05. Than of hic artic (the complicated quowion af Rezastine Mentity a the Midd te By lantine pettus we: Sivek, Dechne 167 ING HI Augs esi, The Steth al Epis and Capital tha yzatine Hye Sorel (a) 20 25 BCnaeastn, Hea Cte wae the ly pire! Pockyell Revsow Ni (1 Wr TH bw EM Tete by isch te Acton XH-camg t's. ye: era. etCultural Identity and Dees: Bysantine Ceremonial Costume 113, tine officials. decked out in caftans and oriental-looking head-dre participating in the ceremonial stations of court life a "Romans" and fs the subjects of “the emperor of the Romans”, with no apparent awareness of « contradiction between the signifier-their ceremonial ress-and the significance: the sense of Roman’ identity-it was sp posed to convey Given, then, that the offical selPimage which the Late Byzantine ruling class wished to. project remained more or less the same. the abandonment of the traditional “Roman” chlamya after nine centuries Lof se gives rise (0 a series of questions. How did the change in Late Byzantine official ceremonial dress come about? Were Byrantine of- ficial circles sensible of a possible discordance between the origins and character of the new ceremonial costume and the traditional political and cultural values it was supposed to embody? Did they make any attempt to reconcile innovation with te * the revently-adoptedl garments and head-dresses ‘The adoption of oriental fashions by the Byzantines is not surpris- ing in itwelf "There was long tradition of eultural interaction between Byzantium and the Islamic world, which, apparently, was not hin- ition by “romanizi 2 Belgrade 14, 275 2: AMULILED, Kdéotogte O-, LOS-114) LE GOUSaaDIs ives "Hellewes' et Romans davis ctat de Sioée, 1 KASS bas Ch Ma ‘Thao _N.M. Paxsutorsnes (eda). Aguegoqus dow Now Shove, vol Rethymin 1986, 248 257; RL Browsise, Greeks and Others, From Antiquity to the Reuais sues in his History. Language and Literary in the Byzantine World Northamp: ton 19M, nm HEM. Axcis Antabiography & Mlentiy. The Byzantine Empire. BS! (1000) 338 BMacossisi, Byzantine Snbbery. sm MLAS (ed), The Hyeaitine Ariatactacy, EX NUL Centuries (ria logical Report: Etermatomal Series 221), Osford Ish, 98.78. reprnted in He ML ‘naLine, Tradition and Transformation in Medieval Byzantium. Aklershot 1991 tno T jem, Hellenism aud Nationalism i Byzantun, an bse Tradition wud Tr formation, no, NIV: ilem, Constantinople and the Outside World, i, D.C. Siv (ed), Strangers to Themselves: The Byva second Spring Symposium of Byzantine Sthdiex, University at Aldershot 2040) 149162) RMscripis —P-Mgunaiso The Routh Kingdom snd 80 (ed), The Perception of the P ‘Grande 19032, 1380 156. T would Hike 40 fies for providing. ane with saleable bible fe, Brighton Twelfth Century: Europe, London De Huth Mi -xraphical references on the subject CE ALGRARMR, Poeude ‘express my thanks ngs et Hes ceremonies de lx cour byzantine aun NIV ele, 19: ATE et soeiete a Hyzaner sous les Paleologues, Artes du colle og hi par I Association internationale dex études hyzantinns a Venise en septembre 168 (Bablicahegue de UDnatitut hellenique dYtudes byzantinen ct eat opauatines de Fenise 4), Venice 171, Mh 221a Maria G, Paani dered by religious, political, or other ideological differences. It is a feature of the process of intercultural transmission that the value gystem of a culture serves as a selecti accept certain elements of another culture, while categorically reject ing others, especially those that are judged prejudicial to the recipi ent’s fundamental beliefs." The Byzantines, secure in their Orthodox Christianity and confident in their cultural supremacy compared to their Muslim neighbors, could borrow and assimilate Islamic traits that had been judged useful in a practical sense, advantageous for reasons of prestige, ot, simply, aesthetically appealing. as long as these: did not threaten the ideological foundations of Byzantine identity. No less a person than the patriarch of Constantineple John XI Bekkos (1279-1282) considered it appropriate to offer the emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259-1282) an imported(?) platter adorned with Arabic seript as a gift on the occasion of the feast of the Presentation of Christ to the Temple, His gesture was considered insulting and the gift unacceptable only someone who could read Arabie pointed out that the Arabic characters formed an inscription in honor of the “accursed” Mohamed.” We should, therefore, not be puzzled to see ‘Theadore Metochites, a leading exponent of the antiquarian intellec- tual movement of the early fourteenth century who still classified the ‘Turks as “barbarians” . portrayed kneeling at the feet of Christ dressed in a caftan and wearing a head-dress of possible Mamluk: associa. " Geographic proximity, diplomatic relations, anc commercial > mechanism that enables it to whe exchange must have payed the way for the transmission of Islamic cultural forms to Byzantium, The process, at least as far as the adop- HA Simoes. EZ. Vows Waray, Acculturation: An Rpt vey Formulation Amerioun Anil polcgist 3 (134) 982-985, 994-9811 Adis Commodity 101-108, Military antagoniam an its own sens not sffvient f hinter exchange hetwoen two compet af contact ould he found, ef, M_ Rows, na (eds). Colloque international sue histoire dis Chine. Cxiro 19TH, 385, nani ‘Gcorge Pachymeres, De Mieliaele Palacologe 6, 12 (3 20 Fanasen) On the life and the work of Theodore Metochites we 1, SEYCESKe, Theodore Me toehites, the Chora, and the Intellectual Treads of His Time, in: PB. Usnievonn (ed), Studies in the Art of the Kariye Djami and Its Intellectual Buekgr 17-91. On his attitude towards the Turks, see iden, Decline V ‘of the humanist movement in Byzantine in the late thieteent hand ries a de Palacologan Renaissanen, in: W. Tian {cou (ed), Renaissance before The Ki ond, Calif. 4, 144171 i