In the first appointment of the conference series ‘Middle Ages on the Move‘, Buket Kitapçı Bayrı and Federico De Renzi will speak.
They will tell us about the encounters and clashes, the fluctuation of borders and identities between East and West, Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages, from the walls of Byzantium to the steppes of Mongolia, outlining the cultural framework within which the Franciscan and Dominican friars interacted as they travelled eastwards and whose experiences will be the subject of the following appointments.

Buket Kitapçı Bayrı is an independent researcher focusing on Byzantine social and cultural history. She received her doctorate from the Sorbonne and Boğaziçi Universities. She has taught at Bilgi and Koç Üniversitesi. Her publications include Warriors, Martyrs, and Dervishes – moving frontiers, shifting identities in the land of Rome (13th-15th centuries), Brill 2020.

Federico De Renzi, turcologist and Islamist, has collaborated as a political analyst with several geopolitical and cultural publications. In 2017, he received his PhD from La Sapienza University of Rome. His publications include the translation of, Il libro di Dede Korkut, Sandro Teti, 2021; he is currently working, together with Simone Costanzo, on the book L’India turca: una storia dimenticata, Immagini dell’India tardantica e medievale (V-XVI sec. d.C.).