Ahrweiler, Hélène 1926– (Helene Ahrweiler, Hélène Glykatzi-Ahrweiler)

PERSONAL:

Born August 28, 1926, in Athens, Greece; daughter of Nicolas Glykatzi and Calliroe Psaltides; married Jacques Ahrweiler, 1958; children: one daughter. Education: University of Athens, doctorate in history; University of Paris, doctorate in letters. Hobbies and other interests: Tennis, swimming.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Paris, France. Office—Sorbonne, University of Paris I, 47 rue des Ecoles, 75005, Paris France.

CAREER:

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France, research worker, 1955-57, head of research, 1964-67; University of Paris I, Sorbonne, Paris, professor of history and department head, beginning 1967, president 1976-81; Rector Academy, chancellor of universities of Paris, 1982-89; European University, Paris, president. Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, vice president of orientation council, 1975-89, president of administrative council, 1989-91; Rector Academy, honorary president, 1989—; also member of Greek, British, Belgian, German, and Bulgarian academies. International Committee of Historical Sciences, secretary-general, 1980-90; Comite d'Ethique des Sciences, president, 1994; president, European Cultural Center of Delphi and National Theatre of Greece; Lambrakis Research Foundation, member of board of directors.

MEMBER:

International Association of Byzantine Studies (honorary president).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Honorary doctorates from American University of Paris, 1989, Harvard University, and universities of London, Belgrade, Athens, Lima, New Brunswick (Canada), Haifa, New York, Salonica, and Fribourg.

WRITINGS:

Byzance et la mer. La marine de guerre, la politique et les institutions maritimes de Byzance aux VIIe-XVe siècles, Presses Universitaires de France (Paris, France), 1966.

Études sur les structures administratives et sociales de Byzance (reprinted articles), preface by Paul Lemerle, Variorum Reprints (London, England), 1971.

L'idéologie politique de l'Empire byzantin, Presses Universitaires de France (Paris, France), 1975.

Byzance: les pays et les territoires, Variorum Reprints (London, England), 1976.

(With others) Le Concept d'empire, Presses Universitaires de France (Paris, France), 1980.

(Coauthor) Geographica Byzantina, Sorbonne (Paris, France), 1981.

(Coauthor) Philadelphie et autres études, Sorbonne (Paris, France), 1984.

(Editor) Byzance, carrefour du monde (in Greek), Arghos (Athens, Greece), 1985.

(With others) L'Identité française, Tierce (Paris, France), 1985.

(Editor) Géographie historique du monde méditerranéen, Sorbonne (Paris, France), 1988.

(With others) La Passion du futur: Georges Elgozy, 1909-1989, Denoël (Paris, France), 1991.

Monternismos kai Vyzantio, Hidryma Goulandre-Chorn (Athens, Greece), 1992.

(Editor, with Angeliki E. Laiou) Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library (Washington, DC), 1998.

(With Maurice Aymard) Les Européens, Hermann (Paris, France), 2000.

Contributor to books, including European Identity and the Search for Legitimacy, edited by Soledad Garcia, 1993. Contributor to periodicals, including Revue Historique, Diogène, Revue des Sciences Morales et Politiques, Byzantion, Revue des Etudes Byzantines, and Higher Education in Europe. Contributor of poetry to Hermes.

Ahrweiler's books have also been translated into Romanian and Serbian.

SIDELIGHTS:

Hélène Ahrweiler studied Byzantine history with Paul Lemerle in Paris before embarking on a long career as a professor at the Sorbonne. She later became first female president of the University of Paris, a position she held from 1976 to 1981. Her publishing career began in 1966 with the book Byzance et la mer. La marine de guerre, la politique et les institutions maritimes de Byzance aux VIIe-XVe siècles.

Byzance et la mer was a major undertaking that won strong praise from critics. The book covers the political history of Byzantium from the seventh century to the fifteenth century, and focuses on imperial and provincial forces, documenting that their varying development and decline caused economic and social pressures as well as political events. The author based her work on often difficult and obscure sources, resulting in an improved understanding of Byzantine history during this period.

During the centuries studied by Ahrweiler, Byzantine emperors maintained naval and ground troops to defend against the encroachment of Arabs, Italians, and the Turks. Having previously formed such forces only in the event of a specific need, they sought to follow the Roman example of keeping both divisions ready at all times. However, internal tensions made it especially difficult for the empire to maintain a strong navy. For example, Justinian I and Manuel I Comnenus were losing territories in the west, making naval strength a key issue in their recapture. Religious and economic factors, however, favored the dominance of army troops, despite political imperatives. As Kenneth M. Setton explained in a review of Byzance et la mer for the American Historical Review, "the naval interests of the commercial classes inevitably yielded to those of the [land-based] peasantry" on which the empire's forces were based. Religious differences between the armies and naval forces also existed. Setton noted, "the armies recruited in Asia Minor were iconoclast, the provincial fleets recruited from mainland and island Greeks were iconodule."

During the reign of Leo III the Isaurian, the addition of maritime forces under independent command made the Byzantine naval command structure more complex. Ahrweiler dissects the components of this structure and identifies different commands and their locations. She further discusses the Byzantine navy and merchant marine as they were affected by economic and political/wartime events.

Setton concluded that Byzance et la mer is "a very good book, clearly written and well documented. It makes valuable corrections … and will be required reading for graduate students for years to come." Robert Sabatino Lopez, writing in Speculum, also viewed the book as an important contribution to the subject, even a first of its kind. Calling Ahrweiler "a scholar who had the courage of writing the first continuous account of Byzantine naval history from the seventh century to the fifteenth," Lopez added that the author "has placed administrative history at the center and spared no effort in combing through the most forbidding and unfamiliar sources."

Among the publications Ahrweiler has edited is Géographie historique du monde méditerranéen, which details research projects and grants funded by the European Science Foundation. In a review for Speculum, Walter Emil Kaegi found that in addition to showing the "rich diversity of interests of European scholars in medieval historical geography…. this volume will interest medievalists and Islamicists as well as Byzantinists."

Ahrweiler also edited Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire with Angeliki E. Laiou. The six essays include—papers given during a colloquium at Dumbarton Oaks Library in 1993—focus on such topics as Byzantine settlers in Italy and Muslims in Constantinople. According to Gwenda Morgan in the Times Literary Supplement, although the volume's contributors do not fully agree on the Byzantine ability to assimilate newcomers, Ahrweiler contributes "an elegant appraisal … of the Byzantine view of those nomads who infiltrated the Balkans and Anatolia."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, April, 1967, Kenneth M. Setton, review of Byzance et la mer. La marine de guerre, la politique et les institutions maritimes de Byzance aux VIIe-XVe siècles, pp. 944-945; April, 1990, p. 639.

English Historical Review, April, 1969, D.A. Bullough, review of Byzance et la mer, pp. 342-348; February, 2000, Peter Frankopan, review of Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire, p. 179.

Speculum, April, 1967, Robert Sabatino Lopez, review of Byzance et la mer, pp. 343-347; January, 1990, Walter Emil Kaegi, review of Géographie historique du monde méditerranéen, p. 109.

Times Literary Supplement, May 28, 1999, Michael Angold, review of Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire, p. 33.