Empires and Communities in the Post-Roman and Islamic World, c. 400-1000 CE

Description

This book deals with the ways empires affect smaller communities like ethnic groups, religious communities and local or peripheral populations. It raises the question how these different types of community were integrated into larger imperial edifices, and in which contexts the dialectic between empires and particular communities caused disruption. How did religious discourses or practices reinforce (or subvert) imperial pretenses? How were constructions of identity affected in the process? How were Egyptians accommodated under Islamic rule, Yemenis included in an Arab identity, Aquitanians integrated in the Carolingian empire, Jews in the Fatimid Caliphate? Why did the dissolution of Western Rome and the Abbasid Caliphate lead to different types of polities in their wake? How was the Byzantine Empire preserved in the 7th century; how did the Franks construct theirs in the 9th? How did single events in early medieval Rome and Constantinople promote social integration in both a local and a broader framework? Focusing on the post-Roman Mediterranean, this book deals with these questions from a comparative perspective. It takes into account political structures in the Latin West, in Byzantium and in the early Islamic world, and does so in a period that is exceptionally well suited to study the various expansive and erosive dynamics of empires, as well as their interaction with smaller communities. By never adhering to a single overall model, and avoiding Western notions of empire, this volume combines individual approaches with collaborative perspectives. Taken together, these chapters constitute a major contribution to the advancement of comparative studies on pre-modern empires. Preface vii List of Contributors ix 1. Introduction: Empires and Communities in the Post-Roman and Islamic World / Walter Pohl and Rutger Kramer 1 2. The Emergence of New Polities in the Breakup of the Abbasid Caliphate / Hugh Kennedy 14 3. The Emergence of New Polities in the Breakup of the Western Roman Empire / Walter Pohl 28 4. Comparative Perspectives: Differences between the Dissolution of the Abbasid Caliphate and the Western Roman Empire / Walter Pohl and Hugh Kennedy 64 5. Fragmentation and Integration: A Response to the Contributions by Hugh Kennedy and Walter Pohl / Peter Webb 76 6. Historicizing Resilience: The Paradox of the Medieval East Roman State-Collapse, Adaptation, and Survival / John Haldon 89 7. Processions, Power, and Community Identity: East and West / Leslie Brubaker and Chris Wickham 121 8. Death of a Patriarch: The Murder of Yūḥannā ibn Jamī (d. 966) and the Question of 'Melkite' Identity in Early Islamic Palestine / Daniel Reynolds 188 9. Diversity and Convergence: The Accommodation of Ethnic and Legal Pluralism in the Carolingian Empire / Stefan Esders and Helmut Reimitz 227 10. Franks, Romans, and Countrymen: Imperial Interests, Local Identities, and the Carolingian Conquest of Aquitaine / Rutger Kramer 253 11. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: Yemeni Arab Identity in Abbasid Iraq / Peter Webb 283 12. Loyal and Knowledgeable Supporters: Integrating Egyptian Elites in Early Islamic Egypt / Petra M. Sijpesteijn 329 13. Concluding Thoughts: Empires and Communities 360 Chris Wickham Bibliography 367 Index 437