«Тахиййат»: Сборник статей в честь Н. Н. Дьякова

m 51 n Vassilios Christides Piracy, Privateering and Maritime Violent Actions: Maritime Violent Activities of the Taifa of Denia in Spain (11 th C.) vs. the Arab Maritime Jihād in the Eastern Mediterranean from the middle of the 7 th –11 th C.* P iracy, a multifaceted practice which has been studied by a multitude of scholars, emerged in ancient times and has continued until the present day. Various descriptions and interpretations have sprung out of this practice mainly based on the distinction between actual unlawful practices of a form of maritime violence in contradistinction to such a practice sanctified by the state 1 . True, clear lines of separation between these two occasionally blurred conceptions, i. e. piracy or privateering, cannot be discerned. Nevertheless, the present author believes that they should not be ignored and that more emphasis should be given to the time and the place where any such action considered as piracy or privateering is practiced and the real causes which motivated it. *The paper was initially read at the International Congress “Endangered Connectivity: Pi- racy in the Mediterranean in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Modern Period”, held in the Center of the Mediterranean Studies at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in May 2011; a simi- lar version is being published in: Proceedings of the International Congress “Endangered Connectivity: Piracy in the Mediterranean in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Modern Period”, May 5–7 2011, Center of the Mediterranean Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum . 1 From the multitude of works concerning piracy suffice it to mention here a small number dealing with piracy in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Middle Ages; see Kranioteli, Alexandra, Greek Piracy, Athens 2003 (in Greek); Calligas, Haris, Pirates and Corsars, Athens 2003 (in Greek). Of particular importance is the article by Patramani, Maria G. Piracy and Privateering at Kythira and the Thesis of the Venetian Authorities (17 th –18 th C.), Acts of the Eighth International Panionian Congress (Cythera 21–25 May 2006), in: History vol. III, Cythera, 2009. P. 444–455 (in Greek).