The Alexiad by Anna Komnene

“The Alexiad” is a book written by Anna Komnene. Anna was the Byzantine historian princess, her father was Emperor Alexios 1 Komnene. Alexios was the Byzantine emperor. In the book “The Alexiad” Anna Komnene talks about the history of the Byzantine empire when her father was incharge. The Alexiad talks about the Byzantine Empire’s interaction with the First Crusade and the importance of the conflicts with the East and West in the early 12th century.

The book “The Alexiad” in book ten Komnene talks about war against the Cumans and also the beginning of the First Crusade.

The First Crusade was the first number of crusades that attempted to recapture the Holy Land. Komnene talks about the groups and individuals that were involved in the First Crusade and she says, “The Cumans, like all barbarians, being fickle and inconsistent by nature, were persuaded by his arguments and reached Adrianopolis.” (p. 276). The Cumans were involved in the First Crusade. Latins were also involved and said, “the Latins who like Bohemond and his cronies, had long coveted the Roman Empire and wished to acquire it for themselves, found in the preaching of Peter the opportunity they had been looking for and caused this great upheaval by deceiving more innocent people.” (p. 279).

Komnene goes on to talk more about the Latins and on page 283 Komnene also says, “The Latin customs with regard to priests differ from ours. We are bidden by canon law and the teaching of the Gospel ‘touch not, grumble not, attack not – for thou art consecrated.’ but the barbarian Latin will at the same time handle sacred objects, fasten a shield to his left arm and grasp a spear in his right.”. So with that being said she clearly states that the latins are totally different from her and what she is. In the book “The Alexiad” Komnene is very good at telling the story of the past and what had happened when her father was the ruler and how the First Crusade played out.

In the article “Aims of the Medieval Crusades and How They Were Viewed by Byzantium” by Peter Charanis he states that, “ The crusade of 1095 was a holy war having as its objective the liberation of the Holy Land. It had, however, a distinct form of its own. The essence of this form lay not in the fact that it was directed against the infidels, nor in the fact that its ultimate military objective was the liberation of the Holy Land.” (p. 123). This statement is a very good one because it helps understand the book a little more and really just puts it into words the reader can understand. Another thing that Charanis says is that, “ A feature of the crusade of 1095 was the fact that those losing their lives while participating in it were absolved of their sins.8 As an enticement for the faithful to enlist in the expedition the grant of indulgence was very important and was to become a permanent feature of the crusade viewed as an institution.” (p.124). Charanis article about the book is very good and goes into good detail and really makes it so that the reader can really understand everything and also gives some very good background on the book and the crusades and the church.

The word “othering” is used quite a bit in the book and othering is a term used to describe when a person or group classifies another person or group as the group of them and comparing it to us and us is superior to them. In the article “Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture Othering” by Joanne Sharp. Sharp says that, “Othering insists that any concept of self or identity requires the establishment of a distinct and external other against which it is defined.”(p. 2) and that is a very good example of what othering means. She goes on to say that, “This implies that rather than thinking of identity as a concept that unites people who have something in common, it is something essentially linked to the identification of difference. It refuses to accept essentialist or natural definitions of identity, instead seeing all identities as being socially constructed.”(p. 2). This article is a very good article to look at before reading the book “The Alexiad” because the reader would have a better understanding of the word othering.

In the book and these articles there’s really a good understanding of what happened in the medieval times and with the First Crusade and everything that happened. The word othering has great meaning and the people and groups involved in the war and the First Crusade had different beilfes and were different compared to the author of the book.

Works Cited

1. file:///C:/Users/sarah%20wilson/Downloads/consumerculture_n397.pdf
2. RMS-1984-02_J._France,_Anna_Comneno,_the_Alexiad_and_the_First_Crusade.pdf
3. file:///C:/Users/sarah%20wilson/Downloads/Alexiad%20Books%20XX-XXI%20plus%20notes.pdf

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