Theotokis, Georgiosİnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Fakültesi, Tarih Bölümü2024-03-212024-03-212024Theotokis, G. (2024). Timeless principles of war and the vertical transmission of military knowledge through the Taktika. C. Whately (Ed.), AMilitary Literature in the Medieval Roman World and Beyond içinde (401-436. ss.). Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004696433978900469643397890046937392589-2509https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004696433https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12154/2738It is my intention in this chapter to bring to the forefront the common ele¬ments and ideas that shaped the structure and content of what we have come to identify as military manuals, and to compare samples of this particular liter¬ary genre from different cultures (Rome, Byzantium, Islamic polities) in order to showcase the vertical (chronological) transmission of military knowledge between “military cultures”. My focus will be on the following common char¬acteristics: the advisory nature of these manuals; the writing during a period of intense socio-political instability for the State; the author trying to make sense of the socio-political turmoil and decline of his time; the trend to blame their contemporaries, not just for not consulting previous treatises on military matters, but for completely ignoring the study of the ‘science’ of war; the time¬less interest in the fighting abilities, ideology and institutional framework for war of their nation’s neighbours and enemies; the struggle to make sense of defeat; avoiding battle and to confirm the historians’ view that sieges, raids, skirmishes and ambushes dominated medieval and early modern warfare.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessThe TurksThe Byzantine EmpireTacticsEnemiesStrategyTraits of LeadershipBook Chapter40143610.1163/9789004696433