Empires and Communities in the Post-Roman and Islamic World, C. 400-1000 CE (OXFORD STUDIES IN EARLY EMPIRES SERIES)

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. 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 Walter Pohl and Rutger Kramer, Introduction: Empires and communities in the post-Roman and Islamic world -- Hugh Kennedy, The emergence of new polities in the break-up of the Abbasid Caliphate -- Walter Pohl, The emergence of new polities in the break-up of the Western Roman Empire -- Walter Pohl and Hugh Kennedy, Comparative perspectives: differences between the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate -- Peter Webb, Fragmentation and integration: a response to the contributions by Hugh Kennedy and Walter Pohl -- John Haldon, Historicizing resilience: the paradox of the Medieval East Roman state; collapse, adaptation, and survival -- Leslie Brubaker and Chris Wickham, Processions, power, and community identity: east and west -- Daniel Reynolds, Death of a patriarch: the murder of Yūḥannā ibn Jamī (d. 966) and the question of 'Melkite' identity in Early Islamic Palestine -- Stefan Esders and Helmut Reimitz, Diversity and convergence: the accommodation of ethnic and legal pluralism in the Carolingian Empire -- Rutger Kramer, Franks, Romans, and countrymen: Carolingian interests, local identities, and the conquest of Aquitaine -- Peter Webb, From the sublime to the ridiculous: Yemeni Arab identity in Abbasid Iraq (including appendix: translations of selected poems) -- Petra Sijpesteijn, Loyal and knowledgeable supporters: integrating Egyptian elites in early Islamic Egypt -- Chris Wickham, Concluding thoughts: empires and communities "Empires are not an under-researched topic. Recently, there has been a veritable surge in comparative and conceptual studies, not least of pre-modern empires. The distant past can tell us much about the fates of empires that may still be relevant today, and contemporary historians as well as the general public are generally aware of that. Tracing the general development of an empire, we can discern a kind imperial dynamic which follows the momentum of expansion, relies on the structures and achievements of the formative period for a while, and tends to be caught in a downward spiral at some point. Yet single cases differ so much that a general model is hardly ever sufficient. There is in fact little consensus about what exactly constitutes an empire, and it has become standard in publications about empires to note the profusion of definitions. Some refer to size-for instance, 'greater than a million square kilometers', as Peter Turchin suggested. Apart from that, many scholars offer more or less extensive lists of qualitative criteria. Some of these criteria reflect the imperial dynamic, for instance, the imposition of some kind of unity through 'an imperial project', which allows moving broad populations 'from coercion through co-optation to cooperation and identification'"-- Provided by publisher This volume deals with the ways empires affect smaller communities and vice versa. It raises the question how these different types of community were integrated into larger imperial structures, and how tensions between local and central interests affected the development of the post-Roman West, Byzantium and the early Islamic world.