Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

Medieval World: Culture & Conflict picks up where its sister magazines – Ancient Warfare and Ancient History – leave off. The publication features the rich history and material culture of the Middle Ages – broadly conceived geographically and temporally – expanding on the contents of the popular Medieval Warfare magazine. Through well-researched and lavishly illustrated articles, this accessible publication brings to light cultural activities in local and global contexts, historical figures and events, as well as political, religious, economic, and artistic facets of the Middle Ages..

Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

Editorial

Medieval history news and recent discoveries MARGINALIA

ON THE COVER

A legendary city of knowledge BAGHDAD • Founded in the mid-eighth century as the new capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, Baghdad swiftly became one of the great cities of the medieval world. The city’s rulers, locals, and many visitors helped create a reputation for scholarship, architecture, and a refined lifestyle that drew on the many cultural and religious traditions of Afro-Eurasia. By the tenth century, it had already achieved legendary status and, ever since, has been held up as one of the great centres of civilization.

Rivals to Bagdad: CÓRDOBA

Rivals to Bagdad: SAMARRA

Rivals to Bagdad: RAQQA

Medieval China’s imperial enforcers THE JINYIWEI • The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was a period of recovery from Mongol rule. It was marked by cultural rebirth and innovation, the creation of one of the world’s largest and strongest armies, and the establishment of a vast centralized government that answered to one autocratic ruler—the Ming emperor.

Embroidered uniforms

Introducing the Bayeux Tapestry THE THREAD OF HISTORY • The nearly 70-metre-long Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most famous historical arte-facts in the world. It tells the persuasive, albeit one-sided, story of the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy, who would go on to found the House of Normandy, which ruled England until 1135. Yet, there is much unknown about the tapestry, including who made it and why.

Colourful embroidery

An arrow to the eye

Why textiles mattered in the Middle Ages THE FABRIC OF SOCIETY • Once you start to pull at the thread of medieval societies, it’s impossible to avoid the centrality of textiles. From trade to warfare, fashion to survival, prestige to practicality — this world was draped in fabric, literally and metaphorically. Whoever commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry was making a statement in more ways than one.

Norman siege warfare on the Bayeux Tapestry EMBROIDERED PROPAGANDA • Scene 19 of the Bayeux Tapestry occupies a pivotal position within both the narrative structure of the embroidery and the broader ideological programme that underpins it. Far more than a simple illustration of a military episode, the scene offers a carefully constructed representation of Norman power, combining themes of conquest, cavalry warfare, lordship, and political legitimacy.

Sources and references for the Bayeux Tapestry DESIGNING A MASTERPIECE • At 68 metres, the Bayeux Tapestry is not only the largest surviving medieval textile, it is the largest non-architectural medieval artefact in existence. The Tapestry shows events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England, with the penultimate surviving scene showing the death of King Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king.

Rulership on the Bayeux Tapestry CONSPICUOUS CORONATIONS • At the time of writing, the Bayeux Tapestry has returned to England — if indeed it was created there — for the first time in a millennium. If you get a chance during its residence at the British Museum to have a good long look, you will find that one scene is conspicuously absent: the coronation of William I ‘the...