Institute for Medieval Studies

Session	316
Title	Borderlands of Empire
Date/Time	Monday 4 July 2022: 16.30-18.00
Sponsor	Centre for Economic Cultures / Digital Humanities, University of Manchester
Organiser	Georg Christ, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester
Moderator/Chair	Thomas Heebøll-Holm, Centre for Medieval Literature, Syddansk Universitet, Odense
Paper 316-a	More Heat than Light: Border Talk and the Old Reich (Language: English) Luca Scholz, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester Index Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies; Economics - Trade; Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 316-b	Rogue Emporia and Imperial Borderlands (Language: English) Georg Christ, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester Index Terms: Economics - Trade; Islamic and Arabic Studies; Maritime and Naval Studies; Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract	This section seeks to explore imperial borderlands in a broad and trans-temporal perspective. It questions the very notion of imperial borders by contrasting universalists notions of empire with notions of a de facto limited reach of imperial power and of an ecumene or imperial civilisation pitched against non-civilised but not necessarily a priori non-imperial, 'barbaric' realms. Borders are not only (as has been emphasised before) thick, 'puncti-linear', constructed and oscillating, but also relative to a point of observation or administrative-governmental practice and thus ad hoc and functional. Nevertheless there were outlying lands different from the empire's 'civilisational'-bureaucratic heartlands (in those heartlands' perception) and between them were some sort of thick, more or less clearly circumscribed imperial borderlands, in which borders were enacted. How did empires perceive and deal with their borders and borderlands and the actors including polities therein? How did these actors relate to the empire or several empires? What were the means of communication between imperial centres/strongholds/communicative nods or hubs and the borderlands? Could the borderlands themselves become a manifestaton and mainstay of imperial power, and how?