A #MedievalTwitter thread on some early medieval interactions between the British Isles & Africa.
The British Isles were in constant contact with Africa throughout recorded history.
(BL, Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1, f. 56v)
There's been a fair amount of work done on Africans in the British Isles during the Roman period, so I won't repeat it here, but I recommend these major summaries of Africans in England.
Archeologists have shown that trade with the Mediterranean and Africa continued after the Romans left England, with olive oil and wine continuing to be imported to the British Isles into the early Middle Ages.
That such trade between the British Isles and Africa might have involved (gasp) human contact between these areas seems obvious, yet rarely discussed.
In 1976, Charles Thomas noted that early medieval trade with Africa implied "literature and other forms of inspiration and emulation, could have been introduced by returning tourists or pilgrims, some of whom putatively travelled on the ships that brought pottery vessels.”
Thomas was talking particularly about the early Irish monastery architecture, which has some striking resemblances to the monasteries of the Desert Fathers of North Africa.
That's hardly surprising, since Irish and English monks tried to imitate north African Desert Fathers like St. Anthony, so much so that many of them called themselves "Egyptians." Northumbrian writer Alcuin called such Irish monks "“pueri Egyptiaci” [Egyptian boys].
An Irish inscription on a stone translates to “Pray for Olan the Egyptian,” while an Irish Litany of Pilgrim Saints references “Seven monks of Egypt in Disert Uilaig."
Were some of these references to actual Egyptians living in Ireland, rather than just Irish monks practicing "Egyptian-style" monasticism? Scholars have tended to dismiss this possibility, but I think we cannot entirely discount it.
But we also KNOW that Africans lived in England, such as Abbot Hadrian of Africa, who the Pope elected to take over the English church. Hadrian demurred and instead suggested Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus, who agreed to go as long as Hadrian came with him.
Hadrian and Theodore's career in England is difficult to summarize briefly, but they reshaped the entire English church, introduced an enormous amount of non-European literature & theology, & educated an entire generation of clergy in the late 600s.
For more on Hadrian, see Dr. MRO's brand-new article here:
One of the things Hadrian introduced, as Dr. MRO has noted, as an African riddle tradition that became profoundly influential in Anglo-Latin and Old English literature.
There's a LOT of Egyptian influence on early medieval English and Irish art. Too much to summarize here, but one place to look is this book, which argues that there was a massive Egyptian influence on the art in one early medieval English manuscript.
Early medieval English people travelled widely, including to Africa. In the 700s, there were at least two Englishmen working in a monastery in Sinai, Egypt.
One Englishman, Willibald, went on an extensive pilgrimage throughout north Africa and the Levant. His account was recorded by the nun Hygeburg, his relative. You can read it here: archive.org/details/cu3192…
Willibald's account of his travels included an account of his pilgrim group's "Ethiopian" (the generic term for a Black person) guide in Palestine, who had to calm down the frightened pilgrims when they saw a lion. (A reminder that Africans travelled too!)
Archaeological evidence has identified several 7th-century burials in Ely with oxygen isotopic results that suggests they may be from North Africa or southern Iberia. At least 7 ppl in a 7th-9th century Northumberland cemetery were also likely North African or southern European.
(It's worth noting that the Ely burials are fairly close to a monastic community, suggesting that they could have been associated with the religious community. They may have even travelled to England for that reason)
Several women of sub-Saharan descent have been identified in burials from around the turn of the millennium in England. These discoveries have been reported in the news but, to my knowledge, not studied by scholars.
There is an excellent article by Dr Paul Edward Montgomery Ramírez that summarizes these discoveries and the disturbing way that white scholars have talked about them (including assumptions that they must have been enslaved, etc). See this thread:
An Irish chronicle claims that Viking raiders brought a group of "blue men" (a term for Black people) from Morocco to Ireland in the 800s, and that "long indeed were" these Black Moroccans in Ireland.
(On the tendency of the medieval English/Irish/Norse to describe/depict Black people as "blue," see this thread:
This context of ongoing African trade, contact, influence, and migration should make us rethink our assumptions about the British Isles in the early Middle Ages.
It should also make us reconsider dismissing discussions of "Egyptian" monks in Ireland as metaphors.
I am sure I have missed a million examples of this but I have actually do work, so this thread will do for now. Please remind me of any examples I've missed!
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🧵: In my continuing quest to document medieval depictions of queer people, I am looking at depictions from Dante's Inferno of the sodomites, depictions that often seem to emphasize buttocks and temptation (and feature a lot of monks!).
Certainly, there are depictions where the sodomites clearly writhe in pain in the fiery rain, like this one, but a lot of the depictions don't show much suffering and present the sodomites as almost tempting Dante.
(BnF, Italien 2017 f.191)
There are a remarkable amount of men with monastic tonsures in this one, suggesting people saw priests as particularly prone to sodomy.
The lack of scale in this battle image makes the elephants looks like they are the size of small dogs, which is possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen.
[TW: sexual harassment & abuse, threats, homophobia, anti-Semitism, drinking culture.]
Please read & share this 2-year investigation of Andy Orchard, UOxford Prof and one of the most notorious sexual predators in medieval studies. #MedievalTwitter
The accompanying podcast episode features stories from incredibly brave women in the profession who've witnessed and been affected by his predatory behavior. I want to acknowledge their work and courage in coming forward.
Orchard remains a respected senior scholar and editor in the field, a member of medievalist organizations, and a presence at conferences.
He remains an editor of the journal Notes & Queries, and of the journal Anglo-Saxon England. I hope that will change.
🧵: Let me show you Jacqueline de Weever's pioneering 1994 study on how modern translators of medieval texts often reinforce ideas that Blackness cannot be beautiful, & how they claim, in their translations, that blackness is a "stain". #MedievalTwitter
De Weever analyzes translations of a major passage in the Old French romance 'Aucassin et Nicolette', when beautiful Nicolette discovers she's Arab and "anoints" her face black/noire.
Modern translators refuse to translate "noire" as "black" when applied to a beautiful woman.
De Weever notes that "noire" appears 2 times before it is applied to Nicolette. It is used to emphasize how white Nicolette is (so white daises appear "noire" by comparison) or to describe the blackness of a wild man. Translators translates these instances properly as "black".
🧵: Here are four Ethiopians from a late-tenth century Old English manuscript, depicted as blue men in accordance with a tradition of black-skinned people being described as blue.
We can see the Old English description of them above the portrait.
They're called "Silhearwana," the Old English word for "Ethiopians." That there was a specific Old English word for this is a little unusual, since they usually just adopted Latin terms. JRR Tolkien thought the word meant "sun-burned," like the word "Ethiopian" did.