IMC 2023: Sessions
Session 1510: Multidimensional Diplomacy: The Mamluk / Cairo Sultanate as a System of Networked Empire, I
Thursday 6 July 2023, 09.00-10.30
| Sponsor: | 'Diplomaticon, Power in History', Universiteit Antwerpen / Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Studies / Centre for the History of Diplomacy, University of Manchester |
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| Organisers: | Georg Christ, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester Malika Dekkiche, Vakgroep Talen en Culturen: Het Nabije Oosten en de Islamwereld, Universiteit Gent |
| Moderator/Chair: | Georg Christ, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester |
| Paper 1510-a | Building a Network: Timurid and Turkmen Parallel Diplomacy with the Mamluks in the 15th Century (Language: English) Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Paper 1510-b | Connecting Sultanates: A 15th-Century Family Network between Egypt and India (Language: English) Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Paper 1510-c | Visiting Mecca, or Meeting the Caliphs?: The ḥaǧǧ Diplomacy of Sahelian Sultans in Mamluk Cairo, 13th-16th Centuries (Language: English) Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Abstract | This panel addresses three issues in the historiography of Mamluk diplomacy. Firstly, there prevails often an anachronistic notion of pre-modern diplomacy as a multilateral affair among a priori equals, while in fact everything points towards hierarchically structured relations or, in other words, three-dimensional rather than flat networks. Secondly and consequently, an anachronistic distinction is drawn between diplomacy as so-to-say external and governance as internal relations although they seem to follow very similar, hierarchical protocols. Thirdly, there remains to be clarified how perceptions and concepts of space shaped imageries and thus realities of power on the ground (cf. Lefebvre) and, hence, diplomacy. Mindful of the model of hub-and-spoke empire (Liebermann, Barkey, van Steenbergen), we need to reconsider or at least complicate the model by considering nodes and connections between them not running through the centre. We need to acknowledge that the wheel is not rimless. While the Muslim-Christian (dār al ḥarb vs dār al-islam) divide did not prevent relations or interrupt networks, it still was a realty in minds and on the ground- even architecturally. Hence, we need to understand better, how relations across this rim were conceptualised using creative ambiguity. |