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medieval worlds comparative & interdisciplinary studies No. 1/2015 medieval worlds comparative & interdisciplinary studies medieval worlds comparative & interdisciplinary studies Volume 2015.1 Approaches to Comparison in Medieval Studies medieval worlds comparative & interdisciplinary studies The journal is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project OAJ-52. All rights reserved ISSN [applied] Media Owner: Institute for Medieval Research Copyright © 2015 by Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Cover design, layout: Anneke Gerloff Austrian Academy of Sciences Press A-1011 Wien, Postfach 471, Postgasse 7/4 Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3402-3406, +43-1-512 9050 Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400 http://hw.oeaw.ac.at, http://verlag.oeaw.ac.at Editors Walter Pohl, Austrian Academy of Sciences/University of Vienna Andre Gingrich, Austrian Academy of Sciences/University of Vienna Editorial Board Maximilian Diesenberger, Austrian Academy of Sciences Bert Fragner, Austrian Academy of Sciences Christian Gastgeber, Austrian Academy of Sciences Johann Heiß, Austrian Academy of Sciences Claudia Rapp, Austrian Academy of Sciences/University of Vienna Irene van Renswoude, Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands/ Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Pavlína Rychterová, Austrian Academy of Sciences Veronika Wieser, Austrian Academy of Sciences International Advisory Board Glenn Bowman , University of Kent Sabrina Corbellini, University of Groningen Mayke de Jong, Utrecht University Nicola di Cosmo, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Stefan Esders, Free University of Berlin Patrick Geary, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton John Haldon, Princeton University William C. Jordan, Princeton University Osamu Kano, Nagoya University Birgit Kellner, Heidelberg University Hugh Kennedy, SOAS, University of London Gábor Klaniczay, Central European University Lars Boje Mortensen, University of Southern Denmark Elisabeth Lambourn, De Montfort University Leicester Eduardo Manzano, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (CSIC) Helmut Reimitz, Princeton University Marina Rustow, John Hopkins University Dittmar Schorkowitz, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Teresa Shawcross, Princeton University Naomi Standen, University of Birmingham John Tolan, University of Nantes Przemysław Urbańczyk, Polish Academy of Sciences Dan Varisco, Qatar University Luo Xin, Peking University Journal Management Celine Wawruschka Rutger Kramer Homepage www.medievalworlds.net Medieval Worlds, first issue: »Approaches to Comparison in Medieval Studies« Walter Pohl and Andre Gingrich Medieval Worlds: Introduction to the First Issue 2 Patrick Geary The Discourse of Herrschaft as the Practice of Herrschaft in the Fifth Century 5 Robert Moore The First Great Divergence? 16 Lars Boje Mortensen Comparing and Connecting: the Rise of Fast Historiography in Latin and Vernacular (Twelfth to Thirteenth Century) 25 Helen Siu Historical Anthropology: A View from »South China« 40 Comparative Papers: Universal Histories Ian Wood Universal Chronicles in the Early Medieval West 47 Ann Christys Universal Chronicles in Arabic before c. 900 61 Comparative History in the Making: Ongoing Major Research Projects Gwen Bennet »I Spy with my Little Eye«: GIS and Archaeological Perspectives on Eleventh Century Song Envoy Routes in the Liao Empire (Kitan-Liao Archaeological Survey and History KLASH) 71 Michael Borgolte Foundations »For the Salvation of the Soul« – an Exception in World History? (Foundations of Medieval Societies FOUNDMED) 86 Catherine Holmes and Naomi Standen Defining the Global Middle Ages (AHRC Research Network) 106 Eduardo Manzano Why Did Islamic Medieval Institutions Become So Different from Western Medieval Institutions? (Power and Institutions in Medieval Islam and Christendom PIMIC) 118 Walter Pohl and Andre Gingrich Visions of Community (VISCOM): Comparative Approaches to Ethnicity, Region and Empire in Christianity, Islam and Buddhism (400-1600 CE) 138 John Tolan The Legal Status of Religious Minorities in the Euro-Mediterranean World (RELMIN) 148 medieval worlds • No. 1 Medieval Worlds: Introduction to the First Issue Books, web-sites or university courses entitled ›The Medieval World‹ usually deal with Me- dieval Europe, sometimes only with its ›Latin‹ or Western parts. The name of the present journal, ›Medieval Worlds‹, underlines the diversity of our global past, while maintaining that common approaches are possible. ›Global History‹ often concentrates on the contem- porary and modern history of a globalized world; but global perspectives on pre-modern pe- riods are also possible before or beyond processes of globalization. Many fascinating projects explore wide horizons of the global past, both temporally and spatially. These new lines of re- search depart from many disciplines and reach out across disciplinary divides; arguably, this is one of the most dynamic fields in the heterogeneous academic landscapes of the study of the past. For those who are interested in engaging with current developments and advances in this type of research, however, it is still hard to get an overview of its progress. The present journal is intended to become one of the intellectual »hubs« in this regard: exploring new approaches, stimulating comparative research, offering methodological debates, exchanging reports across disciplines, and presenting current large-scale projects. The journal’s name, ›Medieval Worlds – Comparative and Interdisciplinary Stu- dies‹, is programmatic in several ways. Within broader debates of the Social Sciences and Humanities, the Middle Ages often are conspicuously absent, or figure as a simplified coun- terfoil against modernity. Therefore, the journal aims to help putting Medieval Studies on the map. We use ›medieval‹ as a rough chronological indication, which can be modified ac- cording to regional and disciplinary research traditions, and which should in any case in- clude late antique and early modern periods of transition. The journal does not advocate any ›strong‹ concept of ›the‹ Middle Ages as a period defined by particular characteristics, which would hardly be tenable in a global context. We do not depart from any teleological idea which would limit the field and impose a choice of one explanatory model over another. Scholars may legitimately debate when axial or post-axial ages led to fundamental transfor- mations across Eurasia, or whether or not the Middle Ages marked the beginning of a ›Great Divergence‹. The journal can host such discussions, but does not regard them as an obliga- tory starting point for research on the wide varieties of medieval forms of life. Medieval so- cieties should not simply be studied as stages in a process that only became meaningful later. There is more to the Middle Ages than merely representing a prehistory of modernity – i.e. of the modern individual, state, nation, democracy, media, economy, or globalization. »Other« socio-cultural histories first have to be studied in their own right. Only thus can they contri- bute to a more general understanding of long-term social and cultural dynamics. In this way, they also may shed additional light on the inherent mechanisms of present-day societies. Studying medieval worlds requires a critical caveat regarding Eurocentrism. Traditio- nal world histories basically recounted how Europe unified an originally multiple world, first militarily and politically and then economically and culturally. Now, finally, a global view of history is gradually replacing Eurocentric perceptions of the past, not without con- troversial debates. The problem is not only that European history was often regarded as central to world history, but that the history of other regions was approached with a con- ceptual apparatus developed with regard to Europe. Post-colonial studies and the decons- eISSN-Nr. [applied] DOI 10.1553/medievalworlds_no1_2015s2 medieval worlds • No. 1 • 2015 • 2-4 3 Walter Pohl and Andre Gingrich truction of generalized ›European‹ concepts have been useful as an antidote, but pushing them too far creates another set of problems. Certainly Europe should not serve as a ›stan- dard‹ of comparison. However, we should not simply abandon the research tools and the critical approaches that the disciplines involved have developed and refined over a long time, but strive for a carefully balanced and transparent approach. In addressing ›medieval worlds‹ (in the plural), we wanted to stress the multiplicity of the medieval universe without essen- tializing its cultural differences. The focus of the journal is on comparative studies and reflections. The challenge here is to find ways of doing comparative history that do not depart from preconceived models or units, and thus avoid essentializing cultural or other objects of comparison. Issues of compa- rison are addressed in a growing body of methodological literature, together with a number of innovative propositions and designs: these have ranged from qualitative comparison in its basic dimensions to various forms of middle-range comparison, from ›thick‹ comparison across comparing networks and comparison by ›big data‹ quantifications up to ›comparing the incomparable‹. Both the theoretical framework and, perhaps even more importantly, pragmatic methodologies of some among the more promising of these endeavours wait to be further differentiated, refined, exemplified, and developed. The first issue of ›Medieval Worlds‹ is intended to contribute to these efforts, both from theoretical and from pragmatic angles. In
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