Dr Eyal Poleg

Profile

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

• HST4107 – Europe 1000-1500: The Middle Ages and their Legacy
• HST5120 - Medieval London: Pubs, Plague-pits and Cathedrals
• HST6714 – Apocalypse Now: Crisis, Change and Later Medieval Mentalities

Research

Research Interests:

Having worked on the ways in which the Dome of the Rock – an impressive Muslim structure dominating Jerusalem’s skyline – was transformed during the Crusades, I became interested in the medieval and early modern Bible. More specifically: How did people get to know their Bible? Nowadays, nearly no one reads the Bible. Most people, however, know something about it through TV programmes, novels or Sunday School. This situation would have been familiar to most people in the Middle Ages. Then, the majority of the population knew the Bible through sermons, church murals, liturgy, etc. In order to fully appreciate such complex means of access, I developed the concept of biblical mediation as a focal point for my scholarly analysis.

Exploring the medieval and early modern Bible, I have found myself tackling a long-lived Reformation paradigm. It is commonly assumed that the Bible was heavily guarded during the Middle Ages, with direct access restored to the laity only in early modernity, with moveable-type print and the proliferation of vernacular translations. In my work I wish to show the fallacy of this assumption on different levels, from clerical control in the Middle Ages, to the non-existent ‘direct access to Scriptures’.

Beyond the Bible, I am currently investigating a phenomenon tentatively called ‘Inanimate Conversion’. This is the way sacred objects – books, buildings or liturgical paraphernalia – changed hands during the Middle Ages. Specifically, how Jews, Christians and Muslims appropriated and modified one another’s objects. Still in early stages, preliminary investigations have revealed a staggering wealth of objects and documents, which necessitates developing new methodologies and asking new questions. With the rise of current controversies over such building (for example on Hagia Sofia, these are questions worth asking. 

Publications

Supervision