Abstract

The present study aims at finding historical patterns in the zones of contact and interpenetration of different civilizational models, which eventually lead to progressive dominance and the prevalence of one of them and displacement or absorption of the other. The author inspired by Russian byzantinist R.M. Shukurov’s book The Turks in the Byzantine World (1204–1461) attempts at comparing historical experiences of Spain and the Byzantine world in the 13th–15th centuries. He comparatively analyzes the processes that took place in the Pyrenees in the late Reconquista era (from the early 13th century) and in the Byzantine world during the last stage of its existence. Despite significant typological differences of state formations in these regions, the study reveals many common features, ranging from the political fates of Muslim Spain and Byzantium to the special nature of the intensive intercultural, interlingual and, more broadly, intercivilizational interaction in these lands at opposite ends of the Mediterranean. The author considers especially important R.M. Shukurov’s idea of the so-called “latent Turkicization” of the late Byzantine society, which actually unfolded from the inside: the Turkic element was gradually incorporated in the Byzantine world, became its integral part and determined the failure of the Empire. This model can be also useful for understanding the fate of Al- Andalus. The fall of the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula, the Emirate of Granada, can be explained not only by political or economic reasons, but also by the “readiness” of Granada’s society to be conquered after more than 250-year interaction with the Christian world. A deeper study and better understanding of the historical role of the states like Granada or Byzantium, as well as other similar zones require to solve interdisciplinary problems not only within one specific academic field (Medieval, Byzantine, Oriental studies etc.), but through the interaction of various disciplines.