Walter Emil Kaegi (8 november 1937, New Albany, Indiana - February 24, 2022) was a

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and scholar of

Byzantine history This history of the Byzantine Empire covers the history of the Eastern Roman Empire from late antiquity until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD. Several events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the transitional period during which the Rom ...

, professor of history at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, and a Voting Member of The Oriental Institute. He received his B.A. from Haverford College in 1959 and his PhD from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1965. He was known for his researches on the period from the 4th through 11th centuries with a special interest in the advance of Islam, interactions with religion and thought, and military subjects. Kaegi is also distinguished for analyzing the Late Roman period in European and Mediterranean context, and has written extensively on Roman,

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and Muslim occupation of

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. He was known also as the co-founder of the

Byzantine Studies Conference The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and the editor of the journal '' Byzantinische Forschungen''.

Bibliography

1970s-1980s

*''Byzantium and the Decline of Rome''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968; reprinted, 1970. *''Byzantine Military Unrest 471–843: An Interpretation''. Amsterdam & Las Palmas: A.M. Hakkert, 1981. *''Army, Society and Religion in Byzantium''. London: Variorum Revised Editions & Reprints, 1982. *''Some Thoughts on Byzantine Military Strategy''. Hellenic Studies Lecture for Ball State University. Brookline, MA.: Hellenic College Press, 1983. *''Byzantium and the Trans-Saharan Gold Trade: A Cautionary Note''. Graeco-Arabica, vol. 3 (1984), 95–100.

1990s

*''Procopius the Military Historian''. Byzantinische Forschungen 15 (1990) 53-85. *''Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests''. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Paperback, 1995. *''Byzantine Logistics: Problems and Perspectives''. In collective volume, ed. by John A. Lynn, entitled ''The Feeding of Mars'' (Boulder:Westview Press, 1993) 39–55. *''The Capability of the Byzantine Army for Military Operations in Italy''. In: ''Teodorico e i Goti'', ed. by Antonio Carile (Ravenna: Longo Editore,1995) 79–99. *''Egypt on the Eve of the Muslim Conquest,'' ''Cambridge History of Egypt,'' ed. C. Petry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) pp 34–61.

2000s

*''Society and Institutions in Byzantine Africa''. In: ''Ai confini dell'impero. Storia, arte e archeologia della Sardegna bizantina''. (Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy: M & T Sardegna, 2002) pp. 15–28. *''Heraclius Emperor of Byzantium''. Cambridge University Press (2003). *''Confronting Islam: Emperors versus Caliphs (641-c. 850)''. In: ''Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire,'' (2008) 365-394. *''Muslim Expansion and Byzantine Collapse in North Africa''. Cambridge University Press (2010).

Research

Kaegi was most recently involved in several projects, notably on Muslim raids into Byzantine Anatolia. He was planning an investigation of the role of Byzantine concepts of strategy in the emergence of concepts of strategy in early Modern Europe. Kaegi's research interests also included Byzantine commercial relationships with the Arabian Peninsula on the eve of the

Islamic conquests The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...

. Additionally, he was preparing an essay on Byzantium in the 7th century for an Oxford University Press handbook to

Maximus the Confessor Maximus the Confessor ( el, Μάξιμος ὁ Ὁμολογητής), also spelt Maximos, otherwise known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople ( – 13 August 662), was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar. In his ear ...

. An avid reader of Arnold J. Toynbee in his formative years, Kaegi was writing a reassessment of Toynbee as a Byzantine historian.

References

External links

Walter Kaegi University of Chicago Website"Maturation of a Historian: A Conversation with Walter Kaegi"
Hansong Li, Michael Goodyear, Kevin Otradovec. ''Chicago Journal of History'', Spring 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaegi, Walter 1937 births 2022 deaths University of Chicago faculty Harvard University alumni American Byzantinists Scholars of Byzantine history