IMC 2007: Sessions

Building on a series of comparative sessions at the Leeds International Medieval Congress in 2005 and 2006, the theme of ‘Rulers and cities’ in the Latin west, the Byzantine commonwealth and the Islamic world is now being tackled. The main purpose of these sessions is to explore how historians with geographically, culturally, and chronologically divergent interests tackle comparable questions and phenomena, and thereby to foster not only an exchange of ideas and methodological approaches, but also to define more clearly the differences as well as the parallels between the various political communities around the Mediterranean, and in northern and eastern Europe. The theme of rulers and cities seems quite appropriate to achieve these aims, raising issues common to the political cultures under consideration, but within highly divergent political, cultural and economic frameworks. These sessions will focus in particular on the symbolic value of capitals, on the ruler as organiser of affairs in cities, on rulers based in cities, and on the political culture of cities.