Eduard Mühle. <i>Slavs in the Middle Ages between Idea and Reality</i>

The book has been published as volume 89 in the series East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450, General Editors Florin Curta and Dušan Zupka. It is a translation of the German original Die Slawen zwischen Idee und Wirklichkeit, Böhlau 2020.It has nine parts and an epilogue. All the issues related to Slavs are covered, including how they were and are perceived in historical sources and how they have perceived themselves across time. Five historical maps precede the analysis proper, beginning with the emergence of the Slavs and ending with the Mid-Middle Ages. Given the amplitude of the volume and its complexity, this review attempts to highlight some essential elements.The Prologue tries to explain how the western nations found the Slavs and how they see and understand them. The first chapter refers to our (modern and contemporary) times: the “discovery” of the Slavs was accompanied by variants of Pan-Slavism and the definition of a “Slavic national character” (p. 4). Numerous intellectuals have been attracted to or even fascinated by the Slavs, for example Herder. A series of important figures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are mentioned: Josef Dobrovský, Ján Kollár, Pavol Jozef Šafárik, Jernej Kopitar, etc. (pp. 7–8). The problem of Illyrism is then analyzed. The history of the Croats is connected to the history of the Serbs, who have different views of their history and position in southeast Europe. The following pages look at various historical and intellectual changes and evolutions.The second chapter (Questions and Methodology) aims to clarify the largely spread, but diffuse, if not outright erroneous, discourse about “Slavdom” or “Slavic community.” The author agrees with Florin Curta, who says that the Balkan Slavs were a cultural Byzantine construct.This attitude is developed in Chapter 3 (The Discovery of the Slavs in the Early Middle Ages). The author has taken a considerable distance from those scientists who have tried to have a mythological attitude toward the Slavs. There is a lack of conclusive evidence pertaining to the Slavic homeland (Urheimat), hence the incessant, frequently divisive, discourses pertaining to this subject. Not concentrating on this endlessly debatable detail, the author specifies:The Slavs were seen by different historians in different ways, not always compatible with each other. This is evident from a fragment in Jordanes (pp. 34–6). On pp. 37–38, the analysis concentrates on the very name of the Slavs, Slověne, and its relation with Byzatine Sklavenoi and Post-Classical Latin Sclaveni. The author discusses the fate of two older local ethnic groups, the Illyrians and the Thracians, including their northern branch, the Dacians. Some of them were Romanized, some were probably lost among the newcomers, and some, notably the Albanians and the Valachians, appear in the documents beginning with the eleventh century (p. 45). How the Slavs were perceived by the Arabs is also analyzed (p. 61). The problem of the pre-Roman ethnic groups is again analyzed on p. 149.The origin of the Slavic ethnic names (ethnonyms) has been debated on several occasions. For example, on p. 125 ff., the origin of the Serbs and Croats is in view. A consensus is lacking, beginning with the very ethnonym Slověninъ, pl. Slověne. The Bohemians (the Czechs) did not perceive the Poles as their “Slavic brothers” (p. 192, referring to the chronicle of Cosmas).Many readers will probably be interested in the complicated history of the East Slavs, Kievan Rus’ (a term that refers to the Medieval rise of the Russian state). The role of the Scandinavian merchants and warriors cannot be ignored at this point (210 ff.) The Scandinavian-Slavic blending is also noted (p. 225). It is remarkable that the ethnonym Slav and the social term slave have the same origin.Mühle’s book may be labeled “a great reference work.” The diverse categories of readers may find all the possible topics here: perception and self-perception of the Slavs, historical data, linguistic analyses, disputes between the Slavs and other ethnic groups, etc.