Through the analysis two liturgical artworks–rhipidia or liturgical fans–this chapter considers two worlds beyond the traditional geographical and chronological borders of Byzantium. First, it addresses a set of early thirteenth-century liturgical fans today in Paris and Marienmont that speak to Syrian Orthodox identity and the cultural networks forged among local Christian communities between Mosul and the Wadi al-Natrun. Then it turns to the mid-sixteenth century liturgical fan commissioned by Patriarch Makarije Sokolovic for the church of St. Nicholas in Banja, Serbia, that triangulates Orthodox-Ottoman networks and rivalries after Byzantium ceased to be a political entity. In attending to both these precious liturgical objects and the communities that they triangulated the chapter exposes a temporal dialectic between, on the one hand, a sense of venerable timelessness associated with ars sacra and, on the other, the timely politics and formal strategies in worlds beyond Byzantium’s ever-shifting borders.

German excavations carried out between 1980 and 1995 in Tall Bi’a (Raqqa, Syria) uncovered the remains of a unique Syrian orthodox monastery on the top of the central hill above the Bronze Age city of Tuttul. The building complex is unique in that, although it is of inexpensive mudbrick, three of the rooms are decorated with carefully executed mosaic floors with figural decoration. Two of these mosaics have Syriac inscriptions that date the construction of the building (509 AD) and the renovation of parts of it (595 AD). The complex can be identified as the monastery of Mar Zakkai. This chapter focuses on the economic life of the monastery and describes it as a household unit. The starting point is the well-preserved refectory, the large kitchen, and the storerooms. The refectory is equipped with circular benches, unique in Syria, parallels of which are known only from Egypt.