Command versus Consent: Representation and Interpretation of Power in the Late Medieval Eurasian World Thomas Ertl* and Tilmann Trausch** Introduction In the period between 500 and 1500 AD, discussions on the best form of government took place in many regions and empires of the Eurasian world.1 A central element of this discourse was the tension between the authority of the individual and the consent of the many. This tension between command and consent has continued throughout the entire history of politics of all Eurasian regions and is closely related to other issues, such as state sovereignty,2 the emergence of the Estates of the Realm,3 the beginning of parliamentarianism and the general character of pre-modern polities.4 In this collection of essays, based on the papers of ‘The Medieval History Seminar’, held on 5 November 2014 at Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi, we would like to continue this debate from a comparative perspective by examining the tension between command and consent in different parts * University of Vienna, Department of Economic and Social History, Vienna, Austria. E-mail:
[email protected] ** Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, Bonn, Germany. E-mail:
[email protected] 1 Canning, A History of Medieval Political Thought; Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought; Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought. 2 Sturges, Law and Sovereignty in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. 3 Stollberg-Rilinger, ‘Rituals of Decision-making?’ 4 Blythe, Ideal Government; Watts, The Making of Polities: Europe. The Medieval History Journal, 19, 2 (2016): 167–190 SAGE Publications Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC/ Melbourne DOI: 10.1177/0971945816672473 168 Ertl and Trausch of Eurasia.