Medieval and Early Modern Performance in the Eastern Mediterranean

Book excerpt: On the large eastern edge of the Mediterranean, the period from the start of the Crusades through the Ottoman era knew - and brought into mutual contact - a truly remarkable array of performances and performers, of a multitude of types. But of course examination of performance in the Eastern Mediterranean during the medieval and early modern era requires some careful conceptualization: of 'performance' and 'performer'; of 'the Mediterranean' as well - this region also often being termed the 'Muslim world', the 'Middle East', or the 'Ottoman domain'. This book represents a preliminary attempt to lay out and analyse a broad set of performance genres in this particular geographical setting.