Purity Lost

Purity Lost investigates the porous nature of social, political, and religious boundaries prevalent in the eastern Mediterranean-from the Black Sea to Egypt-during the Middle Ages. In this intriguing study, Steven A. Epstein finds that people consistently defied, overlooked, or transcended restrictions designed to preserve racial and cultural purity in order to establish relationships with those different from themselves. These mixed relationships-among people who did not share language, creed, or skin color-undermined the pervasive claims of purity. They forced people to reflect on their own identities and the bonds-whether social, political, religious, or racial-that defined their lives. Drawing on examples from daily life and interstate politics, Epstein takes a close look at the renegades and rule-breakers of this era. He explores race, master/slave relationships, diplomatic relations between Christian Italians and Muslim Turks, religious conversions from Christian to Muslim and vice versa, and religious boundaries of the human and the angelic. Epstein reveals the modern view of cultural, ethnic, and religious purity in the early modern Mediterranean as a mirage, and he offers new insights into how present-day conceptions about creed, color, ethnicity, and language originated.

ISBN 0801884845   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780801884849 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 499 Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press   Published in Baltimore, MD Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press   Series title The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science Format Hardback   Height (mm) 229 Publication date 30 Jan 2007   Width (mm) 152 Library of Congress 2006010565   Spine width (mm) 22 DEWEY 909.09822   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22   Interest age From 17 Pages 264

1		The perception of difference		9
2		Mixed relationships in the Archipelago		52
3		Treaties and diplomacy		96
4		Renegades and opportunists		137
5		Human and angelic faces		173

The book is a mine of interesting information and stimulating insights... It leaves the reader thirsting for more. -- Peter Lock Speculum 2009 Epstein has deftly brought together social, political, economic, and cultural history. -- George Dameron Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2008 The subject of this study is timely. -- Olivia Remie Constable English Historical Review 2008 Purity Lost is a stimulating read with much interesting material. -- John V. Tolan Crusades 2008

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