Christian communities flourished during late antiquity in a Zoroastrian political system, as the ... more Christian communities flourished during late antiquity in a Zoroastrian political system, as the Iranian Empire integrated culturally and geographically disparate territories from Arabia to Afghanistan into its institutions and networks. Whereas previous studies have regarded Christians as marginal, insular, and often persecuted participants in this empire, Richard Payne demonstrates their integration into elite networks, adoption of Iranian political practices and imaginaries, and participation in imperial institutions.
This volume looks at "visions of community" in a comparative perspective, from Late Antiquity to ... more This volume looks at "visions of community" in a comparative perspective, from Late Antiquity to the dawning of the age of crusades. It addresses the question of why and how distinctive new political cultures developed after the disintegration of the Roman World, and to what degree their differences had already emerged in the first post-Roman centuries. The Latin West, Orthodox Byzantium and its Slavic periphery, and the Islamic world each retained different parts of the Graeco-Roman heritage, while introducing new elements. For instance, ethnicity became a legitimizing element of rulership in the West, remained a structural element of the imperial periphery in Byzantium, and contributed to the inner dynamic of Islamic states without becoming a resource of political integration. Similarly, the political role of religion also differed between the emerging post-Roman worlds. It is surprising that little systematic research has been done in these fields so far. The 32 contributions to the volume explore this new line of research and look at different aspects of the process, with leading western Medievalists, Byzantinists and Islamicists covering a wide range of pertinent topics. At a closer look, some of the apparent differences between the West and the Islamic world seem less distinctive, and the inner variety of all post-Roman societies becomes more marked. At the same time, new variations in the discourse of community and the practice of power emerge. Anybody interested in the development of the post-Roman
The Iranian Empire emerged in the third century in the interstices of the Silk Road that increasi... more The Iranian Empire emerged in the third century in the interstices of the Silk Road that increasingly linked the markets of the Mediterranean and the Near East with South, Central, and East Asia. The ensuing four centuries of Iranian rule corresponded with the heyday of trans-Eurasian trade, as the demand of moneyed imperial elites across the continent for one another's high-value commodities stimulated the development of long-distance networks. Despite its position at the nexus of trans-continental and trans-oceanic commerce, accounts of Iran in late antiquity relegate trade to a marginal role in its political economy. The present article seeks to foreground the contribution of trans-continental mercantile networks to the formation of Iran and to argue that its development depended as much on the political economies of its western and eastern neighbours as on internal Near Eastern factors.
While ancient states are often characterized in terms of the powers that they claimed to possess,... more While ancient states are often characterized in terms of the powers that they claimed to possess, this book argues that they were in fact fundamentally weak, both in the exercise of force outside of war and in the infrastructural and regulatory powers that such force would, in theory, defend. In Ancient States and Infrastructural Power a distinguished group of contributors examines the ways in which early states built their territorial, legal, and political powers before they had the capabilities to enforce them. The volume brings Greek and Roman historians together with scholars of early Mesopotamia, late antique Persia, ancient China, Visigothic Iberia, and the Inca empire to compare various models of state power across regional and disciplinary divisions. How did the polis become the body that regulates property rights? Why did Chinese and Persian states maintain aristocracies that sometimes challenged their autocracies? How did Babylon and Rome promote the state as the custodian of moral goods? In worlds without clear borders, how did societies from Rome to Byzantium come to share legal and social identities rooted in concepts of territory? From the Inca Empire to Visigothic Iberia, why did tributary practices reinforce territorial ideas about membership?
Contributors address how states first claimed and developed the ability to delineate territory, promote laws, and establish political identity; and they investigate how the powers that states appropriated came to be seen as their natural and normal domain.
in Myles Lavan, Richard Payne, and John Weisweiler (ed.), Cosmopolitanism and Empire: Universal R... more in Myles Lavan, Richard Payne, and John Weisweiler (ed.), Cosmopolitanism and Empire: Universal Rulers, Local Elites, and Cultural Integration in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016): 209-230.
The first chapter introduces the central themes of the volume. We offer a comparative perspective... more The first chapter introduces the central themes of the volume. We offer a comparative perspective on the depth and modalities of elite integration from the Neo- Assyrian empire in the early first millennium BCE to the Roman and Iranian empires in the first millennium CE. Our interest is in the ways in which the ruling groups of empires— universal rulers— bridged the distance and difference that divided them from the pre-existing concentrations of power— local elites— on whom they relied. We argue that cosmopolitanism— a complex of practices and ideals that enabled certain individuals not only to cross cultural boundaries, but to establish an enduring normative framework across them— was an indispensable instrument of imperial rule. We distinguish between two forms of cosmopolitan politics, which we term assimilation and subordination. Assimilation works by eliding the cultural difference between universal rulers and local elites, whereas subordination operates by recognising, preserving and organising difference. We conclude with a short history of cosmopolitanism and its associated practices from the rise of the Neo- Assyrians to late antiquity, which illustrates the centrality of these practices in the consolidation and maintenance of imperial networks. Regardless of their differences, each of these empires created transcultural normative frameworks that gave local elites the capacity to act authoritatively and legitimately from the perspective of both the imperial elite and the local population they were encharged to manage, at least in empires that endured.
Christian communities flourished during late antiquity in a Zoroastrian political system, as the ... more Christian communities flourished during late antiquity in a Zoroastrian political system, as the Iranian Empire integrated culturally and geographically disparate territories from Arabia to Afghanistan into its institutions and networks. Whereas previous studies have regarded Christians as marginal, insular, and often persecuted participants in this empire, Richard Payne demonstrates their integration into elite networks, adoption of Iranian political practices and imaginaries, and participation in imperial institutions.
This volume looks at "visions of community" in a comparative perspective, from Late Antiquity to ... more This volume looks at "visions of community" in a comparative perspective, from Late Antiquity to the dawning of the age of crusades. It addresses the question of why and how distinctive new political cultures developed after the disintegration of the Roman World, and to what degree their differences had already emerged in the first post-Roman centuries. The Latin West, Orthodox Byzantium and its Slavic periphery, and the Islamic world each retained different parts of the Graeco-Roman heritage, while introducing new elements. For instance, ethnicity became a legitimizing element of rulership in the West, remained a structural element of the imperial periphery in Byzantium, and contributed to the inner dynamic of Islamic states without becoming a resource of political integration. Similarly, the political role of religion also differed between the emerging post-Roman worlds. It is surprising that little systematic research has been done in these fields so far. The 32 contributions to the volume explore this new line of research and look at different aspects of the process, with leading western Medievalists, Byzantinists and Islamicists covering a wide range of pertinent topics. At a closer look, some of the apparent differences between the West and the Islamic world seem less distinctive, and the inner variety of all post-Roman societies becomes more marked. At the same time, new variations in the discourse of community and the practice of power emerge. Anybody interested in the development of the post-Roman
The Iranian Empire emerged in the third century in the interstices of the Silk Road that increasi... more The Iranian Empire emerged in the third century in the interstices of the Silk Road that increasingly linked the markets of the Mediterranean and the Near East with South, Central, and East Asia. The ensuing four centuries of Iranian rule corresponded with the heyday of trans-Eurasian trade, as the demand of moneyed imperial elites across the continent for one another's high-value commodities stimulated the development of long-distance networks. Despite its position at the nexus of trans-continental and trans-oceanic commerce, accounts of Iran in late antiquity relegate trade to a marginal role in its political economy. The present article seeks to foreground the contribution of trans-continental mercantile networks to the formation of Iran and to argue that its development depended as much on the political economies of its western and eastern neighbours as on internal Near Eastern factors.
While ancient states are often characterized in terms of the powers that they claimed to possess,... more While ancient states are often characterized in terms of the powers that they claimed to possess, this book argues that they were in fact fundamentally weak, both in the exercise of force outside of war and in the infrastructural and regulatory powers that such force would, in theory, defend. In Ancient States and Infrastructural Power a distinguished group of contributors examines the ways in which early states built their territorial, legal, and political powers before they had the capabilities to enforce them. The volume brings Greek and Roman historians together with scholars of early Mesopotamia, late antique Persia, ancient China, Visigothic Iberia, and the Inca empire to compare various models of state power across regional and disciplinary divisions. How did the polis become the body that regulates property rights? Why did Chinese and Persian states maintain aristocracies that sometimes challenged their autocracies? How did Babylon and Rome promote the state as the custodian of moral goods? In worlds without clear borders, how did societies from Rome to Byzantium come to share legal and social identities rooted in concepts of territory? From the Inca Empire to Visigothic Iberia, why did tributary practices reinforce territorial ideas about membership?
Contributors address how states first claimed and developed the ability to delineate territory, promote laws, and establish political identity; and they investigate how the powers that states appropriated came to be seen as their natural and normal domain.
in Myles Lavan, Richard Payne, and John Weisweiler (ed.), Cosmopolitanism and Empire: Universal R... more in Myles Lavan, Richard Payne, and John Weisweiler (ed.), Cosmopolitanism and Empire: Universal Rulers, Local Elites, and Cultural Integration in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016): 209-230.
The first chapter introduces the central themes of the volume. We offer a comparative perspective... more The first chapter introduces the central themes of the volume. We offer a comparative perspective on the depth and modalities of elite integration from the Neo- Assyrian empire in the early first millennium BCE to the Roman and Iranian empires in the first millennium CE. Our interest is in the ways in which the ruling groups of empires— universal rulers— bridged the distance and difference that divided them from the pre-existing concentrations of power— local elites— on whom they relied. We argue that cosmopolitanism— a complex of practices and ideals that enabled certain individuals not only to cross cultural boundaries, but to establish an enduring normative framework across them— was an indispensable instrument of imperial rule. We distinguish between two forms of cosmopolitan politics, which we term assimilation and subordination. Assimilation works by eliding the cultural difference between universal rulers and local elites, whereas subordination operates by recognising, preserving and organising difference. We conclude with a short history of cosmopolitanism and its associated practices from the rise of the Neo- Assyrians to late antiquity, which illustrates the centrality of these practices in the consolidation and maintenance of imperial networks. Regardless of their differences, each of these empires created transcultural normative frameworks that gave local elites the capacity to act authoritatively and legitimately from the perspective of both the imperial elite and the local population they were encharged to manage, at least in empires that endured.
Der Weg in die Wüste war der radikalste dichterische Akt… Peter Sloterdijk, Weltfremdheit Recent ... more Der Weg in die Wüste war der radikalste dichterische Akt… Peter Sloterdijk, Weltfremdheit Recent archaeological studies have documented an expansion of monastic institutions in the Persian Gulf after the Islamic conquest, between the middle of the seventh and the end of the eighth centuries. Although the literary sources have often been invoked to support an earlier dating for the diffusion of coenobitic monasticism in the region, our principal source for the phenomenonthe History of Mar Yonan, hitherto misdated to the fourth centuryconfirms recent archaeologically informed interpretations. The narrative, moreover, provides an insight into the social and economic structures of monasticism in the seventh-and eighth-century Persian Gulf as well as the ideological conflicts that attended the emergence of those structures.
In the first millennia BCE and CE, successive empires sought to incorporate the archipelago of te... more In the first millennia BCE and CE, successive empires sought to incorporate the archipelago of territories in and around the Hindu Kush and to install their structures of rule. The Achaemenians, Seleucids, and Sasanians endeavored -- and sometimes pretended -- to rule regions of Afghanistan from their courts located in the Near Eastern core, upward of 2500 km distant. The Kushans, for their part, made Bactra and Begram the bases of an empire that extended far beyond into India and Central Asia. Apart from distance, these empires confronted a political geography in the Hindu Kush that was -- like the Caucasus -- uniquely unfavorable to imperial governance, as well as populations with disparate cultures, social structures, and political traditions. Afghanistan thus provides a test of the capacities of ancient imperial regimes to overcome distance, verticality, and difference to integrate territories into their trans-regional and trans-cultural orders. As even a passing familiarity with the history of the region suggests, efforts at empire failed at least as often as they succeeded in a geographical and cultural landscape highly conducive what James Scott calls the “art[s] of not being governed.” The conference aims to focus on the limits of empire in Afghanistan, as a means of better comprehending the workings of the regimes that laid claim to its territories and the responses of its populations. The conference convenes archaeologists, art historians, historians, philologists, and numismatists to debate current research in the context of ongoing theoretical debates concerning the formation, endurance, and limits of imperial systems within a highland political ecology.
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The volume brings Greek and Roman historians together with scholars of early Mesopotamia, late antique Persia, ancient China, Visigothic Iberia, and the Inca empire to compare various models of state power across regional and disciplinary divisions. How did the polis become the body that regulates property rights? Why did Chinese and Persian states maintain aristocracies that sometimes challenged their autocracies? How did Babylon and Rome promote the state as the custodian of moral goods? In worlds without clear borders, how did societies from Rome to Byzantium come to share legal and social identities rooted in concepts of territory? From the Inca Empire to Visigothic Iberia, why did tributary practices reinforce territorial ideas about membership?
Contributors address how states first claimed and developed the ability to delineate territory, promote laws, and establish political identity; and they investigate how the powers that states appropriated came to be seen as their natural and normal domain.
The volume brings Greek and Roman historians together with scholars of early Mesopotamia, late antique Persia, ancient China, Visigothic Iberia, and the Inca empire to compare various models of state power across regional and disciplinary divisions. How did the polis become the body that regulates property rights? Why did Chinese and Persian states maintain aristocracies that sometimes challenged their autocracies? How did Babylon and Rome promote the state as the custodian of moral goods? In worlds without clear borders, how did societies from Rome to Byzantium come to share legal and social identities rooted in concepts of territory? From the Inca Empire to Visigothic Iberia, why did tributary practices reinforce territorial ideas about membership?
Contributors address how states first claimed and developed the ability to delineate territory, promote laws, and establish political identity; and they investigate how the powers that states appropriated came to be seen as their natural and normal domain.
The conference convenes archaeologists, art historians, historians, philologists, and numismatists to debate current research in the context of ongoing theoretical debates concerning the formation, endurance, and limits of imperial systems within a highland political ecology.