Byzantine Studies at Edinburgh cover the history, culture, art and literature of the medieval eastern Roman empire from the age of Justinian to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and beyond. Looking back on a long and distinguished tradition, the University of Edinburgh is a leading centre in the UK for researching and studying Byzantine (medieval Greek and medieval eastern Roman) history and culture. Research and teaching Current research foci are Evliya Çelebi's travels in Greece (Professor Angold); Nonnos’ Dionysiaka and the poetics of late antique Greek epic (Dr Maciver); post-Byzantine Ravenna (Dr Brown); Byzantine tent culture and the Christos Paschon (Professor Mullett); comparative approaches to the Byzantine world, especially with China; Byzantine authorial manuscripts and manuscript culture Byzantine schools and learning; late Byzantine social performances (Professor Gaul); Romanness and identity in the Byzantine empire; rebellions and civil war in Byzantium (Dr Stouraitis); pan-Mediterranean dialogues of power and prestige, contextualising late Byzantine architecture (Dr Varsallona).At both MA (undergraduate) and MSc (taught postgraduate) level, the School of History, Classics and Archaeology offers a wide range of courses that specialise in the study of the Byzantine world. Courses Honours and PG coursesOur current choice of courses at honours and postgraduatel level covers (almost) all aspects of Byzantine history from 600 into the early post-Byzantine/Ottoman period:*Constantinople: The History of a Medieval Megalopolis from Constantine the Great to Süleyman the Magnificent*The Formation of the Medieval Roman Empire, 602–867*Cente, Province and Periphery: The Byzantine World in the Age of Constantine VII PorphyrogennetosThe Long Twelfth Century: Byzantium in the Era of the Crusades (1071–1204)*Renovatio Imperii or ‘Twilight of Empire’? The Eastern Roman Empire under Andronikos II Palaiologos, 1282–1328Religion and War in Byzantium and in Comparative Perspective*Popular Unrest, Revolts, and Rebellions in the Byzantine World*Greek Palaeography and Manuscript StudiesArt and Society in the Byzantine WorldMediterranean Interactions in the Late Middle Ages: The Visual Culture of Byzantium, the Ottomans and the Italian PeninsulaCourses marked with an asterisk as available at both UG and PG level. Additionally at postgraduate level, we run theByzantine Text Seminar or an equivalent reading group.Pre-honours coursesOur second-year pre-honours course, ‘Transformations of the Roman World: Toward Byzantium and the Early Medieval West’ attracts about 130 students every year and provides ample tutoring opportunities for our doctoral students. Current research projects Prosopography of the Byzantine WorldNeophytos Enkleistos’s Testamentary Typikon Completed research projects PAIXUE | From 2017 to 2023, Professor Gaul was PI of a Byzantinist-Sinologist project funded by the European Research Council, ‘PAIXUE: Classicising learning in medieval imperial systems: cross-cultural approaches to Byzantine paideia and Tang/Song xue’ (CoG 726371). Learn more about the project Events Members of our Byzantine Studies community regularly organise workshops or conferences. A biennial highlight is the Edinburgh Byzantine Book Festival – Edinburgh-Athens Byzantine Book Festival since 2025 – that was conceived during the pandemic and is still running strong. Workshops and conferences in Byzantine Studies ‘Byzantine Authorial/Autograph Manuscripts: Typology, Terminology, Methodisation’, The University of Edinburgh, 18–19 June 2025; organisers: Professor Niels Gaul and Professor Panagiotis A. Agapitos.International workshop jointly orgnaised by the Universities of Edinburgh and Cyprus, ‘Neophytos Enkleistos’s Testamentary Typikon: Manuscript, Text(s), Contexts’, A. G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia, 24–26 November 2024; organisers: Professor Niels Gaul and Professor Martin Hinterberger.Inaugural workshop of the PROSOPON International Research Network ‘Entangled Prosopographies: Connecting the “Prosopography of the Later Roman and Byzantine Worlds” across the Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond’, The University of Edinburgh, 8–9 December 2023; organisers: Niels Gaul, Eketerini Mitsiou and Zachary Chitwood.PAIXUE Workshop 2, ‘Classical Antiquity in Byzantium and Middle Period China: Revivals and Reinventions in Visual and Intellectual Culture’, The University of Edinburgh, 9–11 March 2022; organisers: Dr Curie Virág and Professor Niels Gaul.PAIXUE Symposium, ‘Classicising Learning, Performance and Power in Polities across Eurasia’, The University of Edinburgh, 12–14 December 2019; organisers: Professor Niels Gaul, Dr Curie Virág, Dr Foteini Spingou, Dr Michael Höckelmann.PAIXUE Workshop 1, ‘Comparative Approaches to the Byzantine and Chinese Imperial Systems’, The University of Edinburgh, 16–18 May 2019; organisers: Professor Niels Gaul and Dr Curie Virág.12th A. G. Leventis Conference in Greek, ‘The Greek Revolution of 1821: Contexts, Scottish Connections, the Classical Tradition’, The University of Edinburgh, 18–20 November 2021; organisers: Professor Sir Roderick Beaton and Professor Niels Gaul.51st Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies (SPBS), ‘The Post-1204 Byzantine World: New Approaches and Novel Directions’, The University of Edinburgh, 12–14 April 2018; symposiarchs: Professor Niels Gaul, Dr Mike Carr and Dr Yannis Stouraitis. Byzantine Book Festivals The Athens-Edinburgh Byzantine Book Festival is the first of its kind as a way to learn about recently published books on any area of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies (c. 300–c.1500 CE), including literature, history, archaeology and material culture. The Festival is an online event, allowing attendees from all over the world to join in. It is held every two years to promote a wider understanding and awareness of Byzantine scholarship in a spirit of collegiality. It also intends to encourage future collaborations and networking among the presenters and attendees.The event is organised by Professor Petros Bouras-Vallianatos (since 2025 jointly with doctoral students).1st Online Edinburgh Byzantine Book Festival5–7 February 2021Programme [pdf]Publishers [pdf]Recordings [YouTube]2nd Online Edinburgh Byzantine Book Festival9–12 March 2023Progammme [pdf]Publishers [pdf]Recordings [YouTube]3rd Online Athens-Edinburgh Byzantine Book Festival30–31 May 2025 Programme [pdf]Publishers [pdf]Recordings [YouTube] During the semester, we regularly meet for research seminars, work-in-progress workshops, reading groups or social outings. Events calendar Publications In a fruitful collaboration with our colleagues at Edinburgh University Press, Byzantine Studies at Edinburgh supports the publication of cutting-edge monographs and edited volumes (in the Edinburgh Byzantine Studies series) as well as of article-length, groundbreaking interdisciplinary research (in the Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies). Edinburgh Byzantine Studies Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies (JLAIBS) Community Our current team is comprised of a lively community of about 15 senior and student members. Academic staff Dr Mike Carr (History), Senior Lecturer in Late Medieval HistoryProfessor Niels Gaul (Classics), A. G. Leventis Professor of Byzantine StudiesDr Marie Legendre (IMES), Senior Lecturer in Early Islamic HistoryDr Calum Maciver (Classics), Senior Lecturer in ClassicsDr Nik Matheou (History), Lecturer in Global Medieval HistoryDr Yannis Stouraitis (Classics), Senior Lecturer in Byzantine HistoryDr Dimitris Theodossopoulos (History of Architecture), Lecturer in Architectural Technology and ConservationDr Jessica Varsallona (Classics), British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow Emeriti, honorary and visiting members Professor Michael Angold, Professor Emeritus of Byzantine HistoryProfessor Petros Bouras-Vallianatos, Honorary Fellow in History; Professor of History of Medicine at the National and Kapodistrian University of AthensDr Tom Brown, Honorary Fellow in History; former Reader in Medieval HistoryProfessor Jim Crow, Professor Emeritus of Roman and Byzantine ArchaeologyProfessor Margaret Mullett, Honorary Professor in Classics; Professor Emerita of Byzantine Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast and Director Emerita of Byzantine Studies, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. Visiting scholar, 2026/7Dr Niels De Ridder, Visiting Scholar in Classics; DAAD Prime Fellow at the University of Cologne Current research students Bilal Adıgüzel‘Patterns of resistance and subversion in the middle Byzantine empire: Niketas David Paphlagon in context’Daiki Sano‘Lament for Lost Anatolia: narrative structure, political thought and the performance of imperial decision-making in George Pachymeres’Callum Hendleman ‘Constructing and addressing female voices in late Byzantine literary culture: from epistolography to ethopoiia’Lucas Butler‘Geography and Roman identity in the middle Byzantine period’Dido Papikinou‘Being a philosopher in an age of conquest: Greek educational networks and intellectual life in late and post-Byzantine Constantinople’Charlie Gutteridge ‘An emperor among monks: Ioannes VI Kantakouzenos and the politics and perceptions of post-abdication authority in late Byzantium’ Alumni/ae Alasdair C. Grant‘Cross-confessional captivity in the later Byzantine world, c.1280–1460’PhD 2020Mark Huggins‘The reception of John Chrysostom in the middle Byzantine period (9th–13th centuries): A case study of the Catechetical Homily on Pascha’ PhD 2021Defangyu (Charles) Kong‘Empresses Eirene and Wu Zetian: examining female imperial authority in early medieval Byzantium through a comparative lens’PhD 2026Shinichi Kubo‘Reading classicising Greek oratory as written texts: Case studies from Aelius Aristides, Libanius, Gregory Nazianzen and Michael Psellos’ Ivan Marić‘Iconoclast imperial authority and its contested legacy: From the Arab siege (717/18) to the death of Michael III (867)’ PhD 2020Mihail Mitrea‘A late Byzantine hagiographer: Philotheos Kokkinos and his vitae of contemporary saints’PhD 2018David Moore‘Michael VIII Palaiologos: Imperial governance in the face of “Orthodox” rebellion, 1261–1282’MScR 2026Aristotelis Nayfa ‘Monetary exchanges and social capital in the tenth century Byzantine court’PhD 2023Elif Neyzi ‘Monasticism in late Byzantine Constantinople (1261–1453): urban, social and institutional history’PhD 2024Joaquín Serrano del Pozo‘Invincible weapons: Christian relics in late Roman and Byzantine war (AD 310–1204)’PhD 2024Chen Yixiao‘Provincial governance in tenth-century Byzantium: an asymmetrical comparison with Tang China during the Yuanhe Reign (806–820)’MScR 2026Ruisen Zheng‘Living law and living justice: The exercise of judicial discretionary power in eleventh-century Byzantium and Song China’MScR 2022 Byzantine traditions at Edinburgh It would be tempting to seek the beginnings of Byzantine Studies at Edinburgh with John Stuart Blackie (1809–1895), Edinburgh’s eccentric Professor of Greek who advocated the modern pronunciation of ancient Greek, and his older contemporary George Finlay (1799–1875), the equally eccentric Scottish philhellenist and resident of Athens who composed the first history of Byzantium that at least partially contradicted Edward Gibbon’s lastingly powerful paradigm of the ‘decline and fall’ of the Roman empire. The pioneering scholar of Byzantine architecture, student of the imposing Theodosian walls and Professor of History at Roberts College (now Boğaziçi University), Istanbul, Alexander Van Millingen (1840–1915), was an Edinburgh alumnus. However, the first salaried Byzantinist at the University of Edinburgh was probably David Talbot Rice (1903–1972), the University’s Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art from 1934 to 1972, a leading expert in the art and archaeology of the Byzantine world. His excavations of the Great Palace in Constantinople and research on the ‘pocket empire’ of Trebizond are of lasting importance.Since the 1970s, Edinburgh has been home to several distinguishded Byzantinists: briefly Donald McGillivray Nicol (1923–2003), who taught at Edinburgh from 1966 to 1970 before he moved on to the Koraes Chair in Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King’s College London; Michael Angold, who joined the University as Nicol’s successor and was its distinguished Professor of Byzantine History from 1996 to his retirement in 2005, and Jim Crow, Professor of Roman and Byzantine Archaeology from 2008 to his retirement in 2023. Professor Crow presently serves as Chair of the British Institute in Ankara.The A. G. Leventis Chair in Byzantine Studies was estalished in 2015 and the Lectureship in Byzantine History revived in 2018. This article was published on Thursday 17 September 2026
