IMC 2023: Sessions
Session 1610: Multidimensional Diplomacy: The Mamluk / Cairo Sultanate as a System of Networked Empire, II - Reconceptualising the Dār al-ḥarb Levantine Coast and Levant Trade, post 1291
Thursday 6 July 2023, 11.15-12.45
| 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: | Malika Dekkiche, Vakgroep Talen en Culturen: Het Nabije Oosten en de Islamwereld, Universiteit Gent |
| Paper 1610-a | Diplomacy in the Service of Baybars' Ambitions, 1260-1277 (Language: English) Index terms: Administration, Charters and Diplomatics, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Paper 1610-b | The Palestinian Coast as a Focus of Mamluk-Frankish Diplomacy and Trade in the Post-1291 Period (Language: English) Index terms: Economics - Trade, Geography and Settlement Studies, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Paper 1610-c | Porous Jihad Boundaries: Redefining the Dār al-ḥarb after 1291 and Mamluk Satellites - Cyprus, Rhodes, Venice, Crete (Language: English) Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Maritime and Naval Studies, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Paper 1610-d | Retrospective Digital Cartography: Challenging the Visual Language of Political Self-Containment - From the Roman to the Mamluk Empire (Language: English) Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Abstract | We address three issues in the historiography of Mamluk diplomacy. Firstly, we occasionally face anachronistic notions of pre-modern diplomacy as a multilateral affair among a priori equals, while much points towards hierarchically structured relations or, in other words, three-dimensional rather than flat networks. 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 neither prevented relations nor interrupted networks, it still was a realty in the minds and on the ground, not least architecturally. We need to understand better, how relations across this rim were conceptualised using creative ambiguity. |