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IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1533: Visions of Community, I: Socio-Cultural Diversity in Medieval South Arabia

Thursday 9 July 2015, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Sonderforschungsbereich 42 'Visions of Community', Universität Wien / Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Organiser:Daniel Mahoney, Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Universität Wien / Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Moderator/Chair:Walter Pohl, Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Universität Wien
Paper 1533-aSlaves, Soldiers, and Sovereigns: Africans in Medieval South Arabia
(Language: English)
Magdalena Moorthy Kloss, Institut für Sozialanthropologie, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Index terms: Anthropology, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Social History
Paper 1533-bal-Abnā' and al-Furs: Persians in al-Hamdānī's South Arabia
(Language: English)
Odile Kommer, Institut für Sozialanthropologie, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Index terms: Anthropology, Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Social History
Paper 1533-cFrom State Soldiers to Rebel Tribes: Kurds in Late Medieval South Arabia
(Language: English)
Daniel Mahoney, Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Universität Wien / Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Index terms: Anthropology, Archaeology - General, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Political Thought
Abstract

Over the course of the medieval period, South Arabia increasingly became economically and politically intertwined with its regional neighbors. As a result, groups of diverse origins, including Africans, Persians, and Kurds, came to South Arabia through various means and motivations. This session aims to look at more closely the contexts in which they first arrived, as well as the types of economic and social roles they took on as they integrated into Yemeni society. Additionally, it will examine the levels and sorts of political agency they possessed, if any at all, within local hierarchies. Finally, their impacts or legacies that they left behind will be questioned, as the Persians and Kurds seemingly disappear in the historical record, while the Africans remain as a distinct group in Yemen up until today.