410004 SE Interdisciplinary Doctoral Seminar: Cities, States and Empires in Medieval Eurasia (2015W)

This seminar strives to provide new insights into long-standing debates across history, anthropology and neighbouring fields on forms of statehood and community in pre-modern societies. How do we conceptualize states and rulership? What may be gained from identifying medieval polities as 'states', and what would we lose if we abandoned the concept? We will also discuss the relationship between smaller units, especially cities, and overarching powers. Do different types of polities encourage the emergence and diffusion of different types of urban or other centres? For instance, is the urban commune a typically western phenomenon, as Max Weber argued? Furthermore, we will engage with some of the recently flourishing comparative studies of pre-modern empires. How can we usefully distinguish between empires and other states, and is there a particular imperial dynamic which is comparable across Eurasia? Finally, we will raise the problem of the conceptual separation between 'state' and 'religion' - can we meaningfully separate these areas analytically, and how do we grasp their extensive overlap?