About us
In the crucial half-millennium between the death of the Prophet Muhammad and the First Crusade, an absolutely essential part in the origins of Christian-Muslim relations has been overlooked, namely how the normative regimes of Eastern Christians – including those of Byzantium, the Islamicate world and the space in between – grappled with the rise of Islam. Exploring this history has important implications for our understanding of the development of Christian-Muslim relations in the premodern period, the genesis of Eastern Christian legal regimes and the earlier precedents which Eastern Mediterranean states after the year 1100 might have drawn on in dealing with Islam.
By assembling a corpus of “Saracen law” provisions and utilizing cutting-edge, AI-supported technologies to create new editions of legal texts, NOMOS will examine how, within the realm of normative knowledge, the new religion was interpreted, circumscribed and defined and, moreover, how the encounter with Islam itself shaped long-term developments within Eastern Christian legal regimes. Despite differences in literary language (Greek, Syriac, Coptic and Armenian), levels of statehood (ranging from the Byzantine Empire, the smaller Armenian principalities to the stateless Coptic and Syriac communities) and confessional affiliation (Orthodox, Monophysite or “Nestorian”/Church of the East), the encounter with Islam constituted the most significant factor in the late antique development of each of these legal normative orders in this period. This innovative, legal-historical approach to the history of the early medieval Middle East will not only offer a new way of looking at Late Antiquity in the first centuries of Islam, but will also provide a crucial new narrative of Christian-Muslim relations in the Eastern Mediterranean world before the First Crusade – and thereby problematize the traditional “Western”-dominated paradigm for this history.
By assembling a corpus of “Saracen law” provisions and utilizing cutting-edge, AI-supported technologies to create new editions of legal texts, NOMOS will examine how, within the realm of normative knowledge, the new religion was interpreted, circumscribed and defined and, moreover, how the encounter with Islam itself shaped long-term developments within Eastern Christian legal regimes. Despite differences in literary language (Greek, Syriac, Coptic and Armenian), levels of statehood (ranging from the Byzantine Empire, the smaller Armenian principalities to the stateless Coptic and Syriac communities) and confessional affiliation (Orthodox, Monophysite or “Nestorian”/Church of the East), the encounter with Islam constituted the most significant factor in the late antique development of each of these legal normative orders in this period. This innovative, legal-historical approach to the history of the early medieval Middle East will not only offer a new way of looking at Late Antiquity in the first centuries of Islam, but will also provide a crucial new narrative of Christian-Muslim relations in the Eastern Mediterranean world before the First Crusade – and thereby problematize the traditional “Western”-dominated paradigm for this history.
Team
Prof. Chitwood is Professor of Byzantine Studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Principal Investigator (PI).
His responsibilities on the NOMOS project include editing the planned two-volume Handbook of Eastern Christian Legal Traditions, ca. 630-1100, composing a mini-monograph on the history of Byzantine law, developing an effective language module for the HTR of Byzantine Greek, and searching for texts touching upon the legal status of Muslims in the Byzantine tradition. Beyond the project,
Prof. Chitwood is editor of the journals Byzantinische Zeitschrift
and Endowment Studies.
His responsibilities on the NOMOS project include editing the planned two-volume Handbook of Eastern Christian Legal Traditions, ca. 630-1100, composing a mini-monograph on the history of Byzantine law, developing an effective language module for the HTR of Byzantine Greek, and searching for texts touching upon the legal status of Muslims in the Byzantine tradition. Beyond the project,
Prof. Chitwood is editor of the journals Byzantinische Zeitschrift
and Endowment Studies.
Prof. Dr. Zachary Chitwood
Prof. Chitwood is Professor of Byzantine Studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Principal Investigator (PI).
His responsibilities on the NOMOS project include editing the planned two-volume Handbook of Eastern Christian Legal Traditions, ca. 630-1100, composing a mini-monograph on the history of Byzantine law, developing an effective language module for the HTR of Byzantine Greek, and searching for texts touching upon the legal status of Muslims in the Byzantine tradition.
His responsibilities on the NOMOS project include editing the planned two-volume Handbook of Eastern Christian Legal Traditions, ca. 630-1100, composing a mini-monograph on the history of Byzantine law, developing an effective language module for the HTR of Byzantine Greek, and searching for texts touching upon the legal status of Muslims in the Byzantine tradition.
Beyond the project, Prof. Chitwood is editor of the journals Byzantinische Zeitschrift and Endowment Studies.
Dr. Federico Alpi
Federico Alpi is a historian and scholar of Armenian studies and religious history. He earned his master’s degree at the University of Bologna (2011) and Ph.D. at the University of Pisa (2015), focusing on 11th-century Armenian polymath Grigor Magistros, with postdoctoral work at Oxford. His research expanded to Armenian Church–Papacy relations and religious pluralism, including roles at FSCIRE, the RESILIENCE digital humanities project, and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Since 2023, he is assistant professor at the University of Florence, working on the Armenian Nicene Creed and, within the NOMOS project, on Armenian sources related to medieval legal and religious history.
Federico Alpi obtained his master degree at the University of Bologna in 2011 with a thesis (supervised by Prof. Anna Sirinian) on the letters of the 11th-century Armenian nobleman and polymath Grigor Pahlawuni Magistros. He then pursued this line research during his doctoral studies, at the University of Pisa where he completed his Ph.D. in 2015, under the supervision of Prof. Alessandro Orengo. The research on Grigor Magistros and 11th-century Armenian history, pursued also during doctoral and postdoctoral periods of study at the University of Oxford, on invitation of Prof. Theo Maarten, between 2014 and 2015.
In his postdoctoral research, Federico Alpi touched several topics connected to Religious Studies, first with a research on the relationships between the Armenian Church and the Papacy in the 14th century (2016-2018), under the directorship of Prof. Irene Bueno, at the University of Bologna, and then by joining the Foundation for Religious Studies (FSCIRE: https://www.fscire.it/) in 2018.
For FSCIRE, Federico Alpi is coordinating the edition of the Armenian section of the Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Generaliumque Decreta (Corpus Christianorum). He is also involved in the RESILIENCE research infrastructure (https://www.resilience-ri.eu/), where he participated in activities related to digital humanities and the development of digital tools for religious studies. Between 2020 and 2024 he has also been research fellow at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, conducting researches on religious pluralism in the Southern Caucasus under the direction of Prof. Alberto Melloni.
In 2023-2026, Federico Alpi further investigated aspects of religious history as fixed-term assistant professor (non tenure track) at the University of Florence, within an Italian national research project dedicated to the Armenian translation of the Nicean Creed, coordinated by Prof. Alberto Melloni and directed, for the university of Florence, by Prof. Zarui Pogossian.
Within the NOMOS project Federico Alpi is responsible for Armenian sources, and for collecting material in Armenian language related to the legal status of Muslims in Byzantium and the medieval Islamicate world. He also contributes by connecting such material with the Armenian historical background, and with the developments in Armenian legal tradition in the long Late Antiquity.
In his postdoctoral research, Federico Alpi touched several topics connected to Religious Studies, first with a research on the relationships between the Armenian Church and the Papacy in the 14th century (2016-2018), under the directorship of Prof. Irene Bueno, at the University of Bologna, and then by joining the Foundation for Religious Studies (FSCIRE: https://www.fscire.it/) in 2018.
For FSCIRE, Federico Alpi is coordinating the edition of the Armenian section of the Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Generaliumque Decreta (Corpus Christianorum). He is also involved in the RESILIENCE research infrastructure (https://www.resilience-ri.eu/), where he participated in activities related to digital humanities and the development of digital tools for religious studies. Between 2020 and 2024 he has also been research fellow at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, conducting researches on religious pluralism in the Southern Caucasus under the direction of Prof. Alberto Melloni.
In 2023-2026, Federico Alpi further investigated aspects of religious history as fixed-term assistant professor (non tenure track) at the University of Florence, within an Italian national research project dedicated to the Armenian translation of the Nicean Creed, coordinated by Prof. Alberto Melloni and directed, for the university of Florence, by Prof. Zarui Pogossian.
Within the NOMOS project Federico Alpi is responsible for Armenian sources, and for collecting material in Armenian language related to the legal status of Muslims in Byzantium and the medieval Islamicate world. He also contributes by connecting such material with the Armenian historical background, and with the developments in Armenian legal tradition in the long Late Antiquity.
Grigor Magistros and 11th-century Armenian History:
Alpi, F. 2018. ‘Reuse of Byzantine Models in the Letters of Grigor Magistros Pahlawuni (990-1058)’, Nea Rhome, 15, pp. 5–22.
Alpi, F. 2022. ‘The Cauldron of the Titans. Quotations from Clement of Alexandria in the Letters of Grigor Magistros Pahlawuni (990–1058)’, in Armenia through the Lens of Time: Multidisciplinary Studies in Honour of Theo Maarten van Lint, ed. by Federico Alpi and others, Armenian Texts and Studies, 6 (Brill), pp. 185–212.
Armenian Church in the 13th-14th century:
Alpi, F. 2020. ‘Il Dibattito Sul Primato Di Pietro in Armenia Fra XIV e XV Secolo: La Testimonianza Del Girkՙ Ułłapՙaṙacՙ Di Mxitՙaričՙ Aparanecՙi’, Cristianesimo Nella Storia, 41.1, pp. 43–137.
Alpi, F. and P. D’Agostino. 2020. ‘Negotiating the Union: Epistolary Exchange between the Greek and Armenian Churches in the 13th Century: The Documents’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 86.2, pp. 465–518.
Alpi, F. and P. D’Agostino. 2021. ‘Negotiating the Union: Epistolary Exchange between the Greek and Armenian Churches in the 13th Century: The Documents, Part II’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 87.1, pp. 225–68.
Religious Studies, Armenian Studies, and Digital Tools:
Alpi, F. 2022. ‘Early Protestant Missionary Activity, Heresy and Church in Ottoman Armenia (1782–1909)’, in Missions and Preaching: Connected and Decompartmentalised Perspectives from the Middle East and North Africa (19th-21st Century), ed. by Norig Neveu, Karène Sanchez Summerer, and Annalaura Turiano, Leiden Studies in Islam and Society, 15 (Brill), pp. 294–322, doi:10.1163/9789004449633_014
Alpi, F. 2025. ‘Armenian Levites? An Outline of the Evolution in Episcopal Elections in Armenia, Eighth-Thirteenth Century’, in Episcopal Elections in the Churches. Laws, Practices, Doctrines, ed. by Alberto Melloni and Federico Ruozzi, Bologna Studies in Religious History, 2 (Brill), pp. 112–53.
Alpi, F. (forthcoming). ‘CRITERION: Towards the Design of a New Text Editor for Critical Editions’, in The Digital Turn in Religious Studies. Research, Services, Infrastructures, ed. by Francesca Cadeddu and Alberto Melloni, pp. 347-368.
Armenia and the Nicean Creed:
Alpi, F. 2025. ‘Il Simbolo di Nicea e il Simbolo degli Armeni’, in Il Concilio e il Credo – 325-2025, ed. by Costanza Bianchi, Alberto Melloni, and Massimiliano Proietti (EDB), pp. 163–83.
Alpi, F. 2018. ‘Reuse of Byzantine Models in the Letters of Grigor Magistros Pahlawuni (990-1058)’, Nea Rhome, 15, pp. 5–22.
Alpi, F. 2022. ‘The Cauldron of the Titans. Quotations from Clement of Alexandria in the Letters of Grigor Magistros Pahlawuni (990–1058)’, in Armenia through the Lens of Time: Multidisciplinary Studies in Honour of Theo Maarten van Lint, ed. by Federico Alpi and others, Armenian Texts and Studies, 6 (Brill), pp. 185–212.
Armenian Church in the 13th-14th century:
Alpi, F. 2020. ‘Il Dibattito Sul Primato Di Pietro in Armenia Fra XIV e XV Secolo: La Testimonianza Del Girkՙ Ułłapՙaṙacՙ Di Mxitՙaričՙ Aparanecՙi’, Cristianesimo Nella Storia, 41.1, pp. 43–137.
Alpi, F. and P. D’Agostino. 2020. ‘Negotiating the Union: Epistolary Exchange between the Greek and Armenian Churches in the 13th Century: The Documents’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 86.2, pp. 465–518.
Alpi, F. and P. D’Agostino. 2021. ‘Negotiating the Union: Epistolary Exchange between the Greek and Armenian Churches in the 13th Century: The Documents, Part II’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 87.1, pp. 225–68.
Religious Studies, Armenian Studies, and Digital Tools:
Alpi, F. 2022. ‘Early Protestant Missionary Activity, Heresy and Church in Ottoman Armenia (1782–1909)’, in Missions and Preaching: Connected and Decompartmentalised Perspectives from the Middle East and North Africa (19th-21st Century), ed. by Norig Neveu, Karène Sanchez Summerer, and Annalaura Turiano, Leiden Studies in Islam and Society, 15 (Brill), pp. 294–322, doi:10.1163/9789004449633_014
Alpi, F. 2025. ‘Armenian Levites? An Outline of the Evolution in Episcopal Elections in Armenia, Eighth-Thirteenth Century’, in Episcopal Elections in the Churches. Laws, Practices, Doctrines, ed. by Alberto Melloni and Federico Ruozzi, Bologna Studies in Religious History, 2 (Brill), pp. 112–53.
Alpi, F. (forthcoming). ‘CRITERION: Towards the Design of a New Text Editor for Critical Editions’, in The Digital Turn in Religious Studies. Research, Services, Infrastructures, ed. by Francesca Cadeddu and Alberto Melloni, pp. 347-368.
Armenia and the Nicean Creed:
Alpi, F. 2025. ‘Il Simbolo di Nicea e il Simbolo degli Armeni’, in Il Concilio e il Credo – 325-2025, ed. by Costanza Bianchi, Alberto Melloni, and Massimiliano Proietti (EDB), pp. 163–83.
Dr. Nima Jamali
Dr. Nima Jamali is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NOMOS, where he is responsible for the Syriac component of the project. He earned his PhD in 2021 from University of Toronto, with a dissertation devoted to the critical edition, translation, and analysis of the Syriac legal text Išōʿ-bokht’s Corpus Juris. Before that, he specialized in Middle Persian (Pahlavi), focusing on its legal lexicon.
Previously, Dr. Jamali has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Toronto, and as an FRQSC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago and University of Ottawa.
His research centers on Syriac legal traditions—especially those of the Church of the East—and their interaction with neighbouring legal cultures: Zoroastrian, Jewish, Byzantine, and Islamic.
Among his publications are articles in Hugoye and the Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies. His forthcoming monograph, Statute of Limitations: A History of Legal Thought and Tradition in the Church of the East (450–900 CE), offers a comprehensive study of legal reasoning within the Church of the East set against its broader cultural and historical milieu.
Among his publications are articles in Hugoye and the Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies. His forthcoming monograph, Statute of Limitations: A History of Legal Thought and Tradition in the Church of the East (450–900 CE), offers a comprehensive study of legal reasoning within the Church of the East set against its broader cultural and historical milieu.
Costanza Bianchi
In March 2023, she obtained her diploma in religious studies (equivalent to PhD) from the Giuseppe Alberigo European School of Religious Sciences (FSCIRE), with a thesis on “Il Corpus Canonum in area egiziana: tradizione ed elementi di originalità”/“The Corpus Canonum in Egypt: tradition and elements of originality” (supervisor Prof. Alberto Camplani, Sapienza University of Rome). From July 2023 to July 2025, she was a post-doctoral researcher at University of Modena and Reggio Emilia working on the Coptic reception of the council of Nicaea.
In March 2023, she obtained her diploma in religious studies (equivalent to PhD) from the Giuseppe Alberigo European School of Religious Sciences (FSCIRE), with a thesis on “Il Corpus Canonum in area egiziana: tradizione ed elementi di originalità”/“The Corpus Canonum in Egypt: tradition and elements of originality” (supervisor Prof. Alberto Camplani, Sapienza University of Rome).
From July 2023 to July 2025, she was a post-doctoral researcher at University of Modena and Reggio Emilia working on the Coptic reception of the council of Nicaea.
From July 2023 to July 2025, she was a post-doctoral researcher at University of Modena and Reggio Emilia working on the Coptic reception of the council of Nicaea.
- C. Bianchi, “Il concilio e il Credo, 325-2025: una premessa”, in C. Bianchi – A. Melloni – M. Proietti (eds), Il concilio e il Credo, 325-2025. Storia e trasmissione dei simboli di Nicea e di Costantinopoli, EDB, 2025, pp. 17-24.
- C. Bianchi, “I simboli di Nicea e di Costantinopoli nella tradizione copta. La trasmissione dei testi in area egiziana”, in C. Bianchi – A. Melloni – M. Proietti (eds), Il concilio e il Credo, 325-2025. Storia e trasmissione dei simboli di Nicea e di Costantinopoli, EDB, 2025, pp. 115-133.
- C. Bianchi, “‘Primo degli apostoli, ultimo dei martiri’. Pietro d’Alessandria nella costruzione identitaria della Chiesa d’Egitto”, in N. Buonasorte - A. Melloni (eds) “Quam pulchri super montes pedes annuntiantis et prædicantis pacem”, EDB, 2025, pp. 207-217.
- C. Bianchi, “The Didascalia Patrum Nicaenorum. A Canonical Literature Work in the Collection of the Coptic Codices of the Museo Egizio, Turin”, in S. Töpfer – L. Berkes – A. Boudhors – E. Garel – F. Krueger – T.S. Richter – G. Schenke, Proceedings of the 7th International Summer School in Coptic Papyrology, Museo Egizio held in Turin from 4 to 9 September 2023, 2025.
Events
23 October 2025 / Lecture, Giulia Rossetto
“Saint Catherine's Monastery (Sinai) through the Lens of Its Manuscripts (6th-12th c.): History, Books, People”
Zoom. Registration link TBA
Zoom. Registration link TBA
Coming soon
Contacts
For any queries related to NOMOS, please write to Zachary.Chitwood@lmu.de
