Historiography and Identity IV: Writing History Across Medieval Eurasia (Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 30)

The first volume in the Historiography and Identity sub-series examines the many ways historiographical works shaped identities in ancient and medieval societies, providing a basis for understanding the successive developments in Western historiography. The six-volume sub-series 'Historiography and Identity' unites a wide variety of case studies from Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages, from the Latin West to the emerging polities in Northern and Eastern Europe, and also incorporates a Eurasian perspective which includes the Islamic World and China. The series aims to develop a critical methodology that harnesses the potential of identity studies to enhance our understanding of the construction and impact of historiography.00This first volume in the 'Historiography and Identity' sub-series examines the many ways in which historiographical works shaped identities in ancient and medieval societies by focusing on the historians of ancient Greece and the late Roman Empire. It presents in-depth studies about how history writing could create a sense of community, thereby shedding light on the links between authorial strategies, processes of identification, and cultural memory. The contributions explore the importance of regional, ethnic, cultural, and imperial identities to the process of history writing, embedding the works in the changing political landscape. -- Provided by publisher, page 4 of cover Historical writing has shaped identities in various ways and to different extents. This volume explores this multiplicity by looking at case studies from Europe, Byzantium, the Islamic World, and China around the turn of the first millennium. The chapters in this volume address official histories and polemical critique, traditional genres and experimental forms, ancient traditions and emerging territories, empires and barbarians. The authors do not take the identities highlighted in the texts for granted, but examine the complex strategies of identification that they employ. This volume thus explores how historiographical works in diverse contexts construct and shape identities, as well as legitimate political claims and communicate 'visions of community'. Der Band erweitert den Schwerpunkt der Reihe 'Historiography and ldentity' auf eine globale Perspektive. Im Fokus stehen historiographische Kulturen in verschiedenen Makroregionen Eurasiens: China, Japan', Iran, Südarabien, Syrien, Byzanz, Lotharingien und Spanien. Diese breitere, eurasische Perspektive kann zu einem tieferen Verständnis der sehr unterschiedlichen Wege beitragen, auf denen in historiographischen Werken"Visionen von Gemeinschaft" und Konzepte von Zugehörigkeit kommuniziert, verbreitet und verhandelt wurden The volume extends the mainly European focus of the series 'Historiography and ldentity' to probe into a more global perspective, exploring the historiographical cultures of a number of Eurasian macro-regions: China, Japan, Iran, South Arabia, Syria, Byzantium, Lotharingia, and Spain. The broader, Eurasian perspective can contribute to a deeper understanding of the very different ways in which works of historiography could communicate, promote, and negotiate 'visions of community' and concepts of belonging