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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 140: The Caucasus as Borderland, I: Forming North Caucasian Identities in the Shadow of the Empires

Monday 6 July 2020, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Medieval Caucasus Network
Organisers:James Baillie, Independent Scholar, Birmingham
John Latham-Sprinkle, Department of History, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London
Moderator/Chair:James Baillie, Independent Scholar, Birmingham
Paper 140-aThe 'Enclosed People': The Role of the Caucasus in Shaping the Nomadic Khazar Empire, 7th-10th Centuries
(Language: English)
Irina Shingiray, Faculty of History University of Oxford
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Byzantine Studies, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 140-bShadow Economies in the Early Medieval North Caucasus
(Language: English)
Nicholas Evans, Clare College, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Byzantine Studies, Economics - General, Economics - Trade
Paper 140-cThe Alan Capital *Magas: A New Identification of Its Location
(Language: English)
John Latham-Sprinkle, Department of History, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London
Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Byzantine Studies, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

The diverse peoples of the medieval North Caucasus found themselves caught between surrounding empires- Byzantium, the Umayyad and 'Abbasid Caliphates, the Khazar Khaqanate. This session will explore the influences that this frontier position had on the identity of the peoples of the North Caucasus- from their political identity to cosmological systems of belief. Moreover, it will take this analysis further, by examining how the presence of a highly militarised frontier zone in turn contributed to the political development of the empires that competed over it.