Amalfi 37MANZIKERTnear Lake Van. The Turks won a huge vic-
tory. This battle, decided primarily by superior Turkish
cavalry, was important since it opened ANATOLIA to
Seljuk penetration. Alp Arslan was generous in his
treatment of Romanos, whom he merely sent home
after a peace settlement. In 1072, while campaigning
in Turkestan, Alp Arslan was stabbed by the captive
commander of a recently conquered fortress. He died
soon after, on November 24, and was succeeded by his
son, Malik Shah.
Further reading:Vasilii V. Bartold, Turkestan Down to
the Mongol Invasion,4th ed., trans. T. Minorsky and ed.
C. E. Bosworth (Philadelphia: Porcupine Press, 1977);
Claude Cahen, The Formation of Turkey: The Seljukid Sul-
tanate of Ru ̄ m, Eleventh to Fourteenth Century,trans. P. M.
Holt (New York: Longman, 2001 [1988]); Tamara Talbot
Rice, The Seljuks in Asia Minor (New York: Praeger,
1961).
alphabets and alphabetization SeeLIBRARIES;
PALEOGRAPHY.
altars and altarpieces The altar is one of the central
elements in the Christian liturgy. In the first centuries
of Christianity, it consisted of a simple table, solely for
the commemoration of the eucharistic meal in the MASS.
But soon Christians linked the altar with symbolism
based on Old Testament passages on sacrifice. In addition
these altars usually contained relics, whose symbolism
embraced baptism and the death and resurrection of
the new Christian. In the early Middle Ages, the number
of altars in monastic churches increased as the number of
monk-priests increased. They had to celebrate frequent
masses in the side aisles and transepts of churches. West-
ern Churches had numerous altars, but the Orthodox
kept only one.
EVOLUTION TOWARD COMPLEXITYAltar arrangements eventually influenced new forms of
architecture. By the second half of the ninth century,
architectural forms that built around altars within a
church were created. In the ROMANESQUEperiod, sculp-
tors decorated altars with geometrical motifs and plant
and zoomorphic friezes or even human figures. Gold-
smiths were enlisted to add portable altars and altar
frontals showing an iconography or decorative scheme of
Christ and the saints that had great importance for later
medieval art.
By the 11th century new liturgical practices had
placed the priest and congregation on the same side of
the altar, making it possible to decorate the upper facing
front of the altar. Altarpieces were then designed in
diverse forms and materials. Northern Europe favored
sculpted altar decorations made of precious metals and,
from about 1300, stone, marble, ALABASTER, or painted
wood, some with hinged wings. Many were destroyed
in the 16th-century Reformation. In Italy there were
sculpted altars, but painted panels were far more popular.
During the 14th century, numerous attached panels were
produced and decorated with gilded frames, pinnacles,
and bases that represented a diverse range of sacred sub-
ject matter. In the 15th century, single panels began to
contain sacred figures grouped in a defined space. At the
same time, smaller, portable altarpieces were common for
the growing number of private chapels.
Further reading:Eve Borsook and Fiorella Superbi
Gioffredi, eds., Italian Altarpieces, 1250–1550: Function
and Design(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994); Peter Hum-
frey and Martin Kemp, eds., The Altarpiece in the Renais-
sance(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990);
Lynn F. Jacobs, Early Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces,
1380–1550: Medieval Tastes and Mass Marketing(Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998); H. W. van Os,
Sienese Altarpieces, 1215–1460: Form, Content, Function, 2
vols., trans. Michael Hoyle (Groningen: Bouma’s
Boekhuis, 1984–1990); Mary A. Vance, Altars and Altar-
pieces: Monographs(Monticello, Ill.: Vance Bibliographies,
1983).Althing (general assembly in Iceland) SeeICELAND
ANDICELANDIC LITERATURE.Amalfi Amalfi is a seaport on the southwestern coast of
Italy between NAPLESand Salerno. As did Gaeta, Amalfi
belonged nominally to the BYZANTINEDuchy of NAPLES,
but it constituted an independent merchant republic after- It maintained close political, economic, and artistic
ties to Byzantium, as commemorated by the great Byzan-
tine bronze doors of the Cathedral of Amalfi. This affilia-
tion diminished with the occupation of Amalfi in 1073 by
the NORMANSas well as with the increasing dependence of
Byzantium on Amalfi’s rival, VENICE.
Mentioned as a bishopric in a letter of Pope GREGORY
I in 596, Amalfi was under Byzantine rule until the ninth
century. It elected its own count and enjoyed consider-
able autonomy from Byzantium. It maintained good rela-
tions with the FATIMIDSof Ifriqiya. Motivated by their
location on the sea, the Amalfians built ships. With the
privileges they enjoyed in the Byzantine Empire and the
good reception they received in North African ports and
then EGYPT, from the 10th century onward, the city
enjoyed a role in the developing trade between East and
West. Amalfi was ruled by an aristocracy of counts, then
prefects, who founded a hospital at JERUSALEMnear the
HOLYSEPULCHERthat became the foundation of the new
military order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem
or the HOSPITALLERSin the 12th century.
The conquest of the town by the Normans in 1073
and its pillage by the Pisans in 1135 and 1137 ended
Amalfi’s commercial, mediating role in relations between