this work combined both Greek and Italian military techniques. Kyriakidis then reflects on what can be learned from the histories of John Kantakouzenos about fourteenth-century Byzantine military history, despite the author’s clear political agenda. Birtachas opens the final section “Military Roles within Society”, with a lively and informative discussion on the light cavalry and infantry companies recruited by the Venetian State during the early modern period, considering these contingents’ ethnic composition, their tactical role and declining efficacy during the sixteenth century. Papadamou then draws attention to some fascinating examples – drawn from archival sources – of espionage during the construction of fortifications on Corfu during the late sixteenth century. Illuminating in their own right, the case studies in this article also contain many other fascinating details for contemporary culture. Pessina maintains the focus on Italian matters by looking at the organisation of Lucca’s militia in the sixteenth century, considering its social composition and showing how prominent families dominated its upper echelons. This strong article demonstrates some excellent contextual research, whilst offering some highly illuminating and statistical data derived from local archives. A Military history of the Mediterranean Sea concludes with Yıldız’s substantial prosopographical discussion on Ottoman Janissary ağas (senior commanders). In this thorough study, she explores the careers and promotion patterns of these commanders during the period 1515–1826, advancing the argument that the background, careers and later prospects of incumbents reflect broader changes affecting the Janissary corps during these turbulent centuries. This is a truly excellent article, rooted in both qualitative and quantitative analyses, and effectively demonstrating how the Janissaries both moulded, and were moulded by, their broader social and political contexts as well as their rather variable relations with the imperial administration. In sum, this collection advances many important conclusions on a range of subjects. It has particular strengths in Byzantine, crusader and Italian/Adriatic military history. The quality of work varies from chapter to chapter and in a few cases more attention to detail was needed in the copy-editing. Having said this, many of the articles contained in A Military History of the Mediterranean Sea contribute to an impressive showcase, demonstrating what can be achieved by combining detailed research, deep contextual knowledge, and an intelligent use of the sources to establish meaningful statistical data. This work will be of the greatest interest to scholars interested in military history (and associated fields), offering many thought-provoking conclusions and highlighting the value of devising innovative statistical methodologies.

中文翻译：

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在中世纪伊斯兰世界书写历史：编年史作为档案的价值

这项工作结合了希腊和意大利的军事技术。尽管作者有明确的政治议程，但基里亚基迪斯随后反思了从约翰·坎塔库泽诺斯 (John Kantakouzenos) 的关于 14 世纪拜占庭军事历史的历史中可以学到的东西。Birtachas 开启了最后一部分“社会中的军事角色”，对威尼斯国家在近代早期招募的轻骑兵和步兵连进行了生动而翔实的讨论，考虑到这些特遣队的种族构成、他们的战术作用和在十六世纪。帕帕达穆随后将注意力引向了一些引人入胜的例子——这些例子来自档案资料——16 世纪后期在科孚岛上建造防御工事期间的间谍活动。照亮自己的权利，本文中的案例研究还包含许多其他有关当代文化的迷人细节。佩西纳通过考察 16 世纪卢卡民兵的组织、考虑其社会构成并展示显赫家族如何支配其上层，从而保持对意大利事务的关注。这篇强有力的文章展示了一些出色的背景研究，同时提供了一些来自当地档案的高度启发性和统计数据。地中海的军事史以耶尔德兹对奥斯曼贾尼萨里·阿加斯（高级指挥官）的大量前瞻讨论结束。在这项深入研究中，她探索了这些指挥官在 1515 年至 1826 年期间的职业生涯和晋升模式，提出了这样的论点：现任者的职业生涯和后来的前景反映了在这些动荡的世纪中影响禁卫军的更广泛的变化。这是一篇真正出色的文章，植根于定性和定量分析，并有效地展示了禁卫军如何塑造并被其更广泛的社会和政治背景以及他们与帝国政府相当多变的关系所塑造。总而言之，本集就一系列主题提出了许多重要结论。它在拜占庭、十字军和意大利/亚得里亚海军事历史方面具有特殊优势。工作质量因章节而异，在一些情况下，在编辑时需要更加注意细节。话虽如此，地中海军事史中包含的许多文章都有助于展示令人印象深刻的展示，展示通过结合详细研究、深入的背景知识和智能使用来源来建立有意义的统计数据可以实现的目标。这项工作对军事历史（和相关领域）感兴趣的学者最感兴趣，提供了许多发人深省的结论，并强调了设计创新统计方法的价值。