Tributary Empires in Global History

Tributary Empires in Global Historyis one of a very select few to pioneer comparisons between the great historical empires of agrarian societies, such as the Roman, Mughal and Ottoman empires, and others. As such, it is an exercise in global and comparative history over time. It examines and interrogates our basic historiographical, theoretical and comparative models and conceptions about how large pre-colonial empires expanded, operated and declined. In 14 chapters, all of them explicitly comparative, a group of leading historians, sociologists and anthropologists illuminate tributary empires from diverse perspectives ranging from the character of the state and fiscal organisation, to imperial households, royal rituals, provincial societies as well as shared historiographical traditions and tropes. In doing so, the essays draw attention to the importance of these earlier forms form of imperialism to broaden our perspective on modern concerns about empire and the legacy of colonialism.

Peter Fibiger Bang is a Comparative Historian of the Roman Empire. On completing his PhD in Cambridge, UK, he took up a teaching position in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is the author of the Roman Bazaar (2008), editor of six other volumes and a regular contributor to Weekendavisen, a weekly Danish newspaper. C.A. Bayly has specialised on the History of India, writing Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars (1983) and Empire and information (1996). He has co written forgotten Wars and forgotten Armies (2004-2006) two studies of the World War II in Southeast Asia with Tim Harper. In addition he has written imperial Meridian. The British Empire and the World, 1780 1830(1989) and the Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914(2004) a general world history.

Figures and Maps
Preface
Notes on Contributors
Tributary Empires: Towards a Global and Comparative History; P.F.Bang&C.A.Bayly
PART I: HISTORIOGRAPHIES OF EMPIRE
Religion, Liberalism and Empires: British Historians and their Indian Critics in the Nineteenth Century; C.A.Bayly
Orientalism and Classicism: the British-Roman Empire of Lord Bryce and his Italian Critics; F.De Donno
The New Order and the Fate of the Old: The Historiographical Construction of an Ottoman ancien régime in the Nineteenth century; B.Tezcan
PART II: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON EMPIRE
Empire as a Topic in Comparative Sociology; W.G.Runciman
Early Imperial Formations in Africa and the Segmentation of Power; M.Tymowski
Post-Nomadic Empires: From the Mongols to the Mughals; A.Wink
The Process of Empire: Frontiers and Borderlands; D.Ludden
The Emblematic Province: Sicily from the Roman Empire to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; G.Salmeri
PART III: COMPARATIVE HISTORIES
Lord of All the World: the State, Heterogeneous Power and Hegemony in the Roman and Mughal Empires; P.F.Bang
Fiscal Regimes and the 'First Great Divergence' between Eastern and Western Eurasia; W.Scheidel
Late Rome and the Arab Caliphate; C.Wickham
Returning the Household to the Tributary Empire Model: Gender, Succession, and Ritual in the Mughal, Safavid, and Ottoman Empires; S.Blake
Comparisons Across Empires: The Critical Social Structures of the Ottomans, Russians and Habsburgs during the Seventeenth Century; K.Barkey&R.Batzell
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index