Alexander Beihammer

Alexander Beihammer is the Heiden Family College Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He specializes in Byzantine diplomatics, Byzantine-Muslim interactions, and Eastern Mediterranean history, with a focus on cross-cultural exchange and frontier dynamics.

• Education: Ph.D., University of Vienna

His research spans Byzantine letters in Arabic sources, Greek documents in Crusader Cyprus, and the Turkification of Anatolia. His latest book Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim-Turkish Anatolia, ca. 1040-1130 (2017) re-evaluates the Seljuk conquest. Current projects examine Western Asia Minor's socio-economic transformation (13th–15th centuries) with an emphasis on the Gulf of Smyrna region.

His recent publications analyze the Byzantine-Turkish frontier (2022), Seljuk legitimacy strategies (2022), and Venetian-Cypriot diplomacy (2022). Themes include spatial identities, legal diplomacy, and ecclesiastical roles in Byzantine society.

• Award: Heiden Family College Professorship