Kostis Smyrlis

Ph.D. University of Paris I (Sorbonne) 2002
D.E.A., Byzantine history, Paris I-Sorbonne, 1996.
M.A., Byzantine Studies, Birmingham University, 1995.
Degree in Law Athens University Law School, 1992.

Byzantine empire, 9th to 15th century; economic and social history; political economy; taxation and state finances; settlement and demography; law and land ownership; the archives and history of Mount Athos monasteries; Byzantine diplomatics and medieval Greek paleography

Kostis Smyrlis was educated in Athens, Birmingham and Paris. He taught in Istanbul before coming to NYU in 2006. He is currently working on a book project dealing with the Political Economy of the Byzantine Empire, 1081-1345. The book proposes a new interpretation of the evolution of state finances suggesting that Byzantium’s pervasive fiscal apparatus, a powerful imperial ideology and the high aristocracy’s alliance allowed the emperor to maintain a strong grip over the empire’s territory throughout the middle ages. Having published a book on great monastic landowners in Byzantium, Smyrlis pursues his interest in the evolution of the Byzantine economy, settlement and social relations in the countryside. Another major area of his research concerns the edition in the series Archives de l’Athos of the medieval documents of Mount Athos monasteries. He is co-editor of two volumes (Actes de Vatopédi II-III) and currently heads the work on a third volume (Actes de Zographou). 

Associate Member of UMR 8167 Orient & Méditerranée, Monde byzantin (Paris)

Wooing the Petty Elite: Privilege and Imperial Authority in Byzantium, Thirteenth-mid Fourteenth Century, in Le saint, le moine et le paysan. Mélanges d’histoire byzantine offerts à Michel Kaplan, ed. O. Delouis, S. Métivier, P. Pagès (Paris: Byzantina Sorbonensia 29, 2016), 657‒681.

Estate Fortifications in Late Byzantine Macedonia: the Athonite Evidence, in Hinter den Mauern und auf dem offenen Land. Leben im Byzantinischen Reich, Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Mainz, Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident 3, ed. F. Daim and J. Drauschke (Mainz, 2016), 189‒205.

Trade Regulation and Taxation in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries, in Papers from the Third International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium: Trade in Byzantium, ed. N. Necipoğlu, P. Magdalino, with the assistance of I. Jevtić (Istanbul: Koç University’s RCAC, 2016), 65-87.