Introduction

The studies in this volume present some of the major “historiographical wars” over the medieval Balkan past fought by the historians of competing nation states in the region.

Ethnic origins and “national” makeup of medieval states and disputed regions; ownership of the historical heritage located in or associated with that territory; provenance or “national” consciousness of important historical personalities; the boundaries of a certain medieval state and its political, religious, and cultural influence on others – these are some of the issues around which major clashes between the modern Balkan historiographies recurred.

The book is valuable to all those interested in how the medieval past becomes instrumentalized by the “national historians” in the service of constructing the national canons of history.