Byzantium's relations with the Muslim world constitute a key feature in the politico-military, socio-economic, and cultural evolution of the medieval Mediterranean and thus attracted a lot of scholarly attention ever since Byzantine studies had emerged as a modern academic discipline in the early twentieth century. In this context, scholars primarily focused on the vicissitudes of war and peace in Asia Minor in the time from the Muslim conquests in the 630s through the eastward expansion of the Byzantine empire in the tenth and early eleventh centuries up to the collapse of Byzantine dominion in central and eastern Asia Minor caused by the Seljuk conquests and the First Crusade in the later eleventh century. Over time, the scope of scholarly debates increasingly widened and reaches now far beyond the initial core areas of political history, diplomacy, and administrative–military structures. Research interests gravitate towards matters of demographic and social change, settlement patterns, living conditions, economic activities, trade networks, the cultural idiosyncrasy of borderland populations, as well as forms of acculturation and mutual influence. The following survey attempts to outline some key aspects of the scholarly work on the Byzantine–Muslim borderland from the viewpoint of Byzantine studies and to present a brief chronological overview of major developments in the region under discussion. The focus of the first part rests on concepts and methodological approaches that dominate the historiographical discourse, as well as on questions as to how they shape our understanding and perception of this frontier, what shortcomings and pitfalls we should be aware of, and what the desiderata for future investigation are. The chronological section distinguishes between the three distinct stages, namely the formation period, the Byzantine eastward expansion, and the reconfiguration of the political and cultural landscape of Asia Minor in the wake of the Seljuk conquests.

Historiographical Concepts

The pioneer studies on Byzantine–Muslim relations produced the narrative of a heroic life-and-death struggle, which after centuries of brave and tenacious resistance transformed the Eastern Roman Empire's cultural vigour and military prowess into a powerful expansionist thrust ousting the Arabs from large swathes of land stretching from Cilicia to the Armenian highlands. The notion of a Christian bulwark against the infidel foes goes hand-in-hand with that of a Byzantine epic of survival and re-conquest.