Diverging paths? : the shapes of power and institutions in medieval Christendom and Islam

456 Pages·2014·2.02 MB·English

by  John Hudson

Diverging Paths?
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The Medieval Mediterranean
Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400–1500
Managing Editor
Frances Andrews (St. Andrews)
Editors
David Abulafia (Cambridge)
Benjamin Arbel (Tel Aviv)
Hugh Kennedy (soas, London)
Paul Magdalino (Koç University, Istanbul)
Olivia Remie Constable † (Notre Dame)
Larry J. Simon (Western Michigan University)
volume 101
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/mmed
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Diverging Paths?
The Shapes of Power and Institutions in
Medieval Christendom and Islam
Edited by
John Hudson
Ana Rodríguez
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Cover illustration: Parish Church of San Martín de Tours, Artaiz (Navarre), Spain. © Photo: Omedes.
Romanicoaragones.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Diverging paths? : the shapes of power and institutions in medieval Christendom and Islam / edited by
John Hudson, Ana Rodriguez.
pages cm. -- (The medieval Mediterranean ; 101)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-27736-6 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-27787-8 (e-book) 1. Civilization,
Western--Islamic influences. 2. Islamic civilization--Western influences. 3. Islamic law--History.
4. Law--History. 5. East and West. I. Hudson, John, 1962- II. Rodríguez López, Ana.
CB251.D58 2014
909’.09821--dc23
2014020412
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities.
For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 0928-5520
isbn 978-90-04-27736-6 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-27787-8 (e-book)
Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
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Contents
Preface  IX
John Hudson and Ana Rodríguez
List of Contributors XIV
Maps XVI
Part 1
Approaches and Explorations
1 Comparing Medieval Institutions
A Few Introductory Remarks 3
Gadi Algazi
2 Institutionalisation between Theory and Practice
Comparative Approaches to Medieval Islamic and Late Roman
Law 16
Caroline Humfress
3 The Ḥisba, the Muḥtasib and the Struggle over Political Power and a
Moral Economy
An Enquiry into Institutions 30
Susana Narotzky and Eduardo Manzano
Part 2
Themes and Investigations
Law and Codification 57
4 Codification in Byzantium
From Justinian to Leo VI 59
Bernard H. Stolte
5 Codification in the Western Middle Ages 75
Emanuele Conte and Magnus Ryan
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vi Contents
6 Codifying the Law
The Case of the Medieval Islamic West 98
Maribel Fierro
7 Law and Codification
Conclusion 119
John Hudson
Resources and Power 123
8 The Cost of States
Politics and Exactions in the Christian West (Sixth to Fifteenth
Centuries) 125
Sandro Carocci and Simone M. Collavini
9 Landholding and Law in the Early Islamic State 159
Hugh Kennedy
10 The Mobilisation of Fiscal Resources in the Byzantine Empire
(Eighth to Eleventh Centuries) 182
Vivien Prigent
11 State, Aggregation of the Elites and Redistribution of Resources in
Sicily in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
Proposals for a New Interpretation 230
Annliese Nef 
12 Resources and Power
Conclusion 248
Eduardo Manzano
Palaces and Places 253
13 The Palace Complex 255
Stuart Airlie
14 P alaces, Itineraries and Political Order in the
Post-Carolingian Kingdoms 291
Simon MacLean
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Contents vii
15 Monasteries
Institutionalisation and Organisation of Space in
the Byzantine World until the End of the Twelfth Century 321
Michel Kaplan
16 The Institutionalisation of ʿAbbāsid Ceremonial 351
Nadia Maria El Cheikh
17 Palaces and Places
Conclusion 371
Ana Rodríguez
Bibliography 377
Index of Names and Places 426
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Preface
The present volume began with discussions of an important and straightfor-
ward question, to which the answers must be very complex: “why did certain
sorts of institutionalisation and institutional continuity characterise govern-
ment and society in Christendom by the later Middle Ages, but not the Islamic
world, whereas the reverse end-point might have been predicted on the basis
of the early medieval situation?” This core question situates the investigation
within classic historiographical debates. For example, is it correct to see Islamic
society as dominated by orality? How can this view be reconciled with the con-
siderable evidence for the use of documents? At the same time, the core ques-
tion relates to matters of strong contemporary interest, for example the
perceived characteristics of power exercised within Islamic Middle Eastern
regimes.
The volume derives from a collaborative project, examining a group of ques-
tions in comparative fashion on the basis of the participants’ own research.1
Such collaboration and such an approach seeks to break down divisions inter-
nal to the historical discipline, divisions that have reinforced the definition of
western and eastern cultural areas according to a number of criteria, among
which religion is especially prominent. Taking-for-granted of these contained
cultural areas has favoured the formation of closed scholarly communities
with little or no contact. The gathering of a group of scholars therefore allows
not merely geographical, chronological, and cultural comparison, but also that
of historiographical traditions.
In addressing the core question, the volume aims to produce a number of
preliminary interpretative answers, to which an integrated approach is central.
The inclusion of the Byzantine Empire is crucial as the project attempts to
avoid the simple comparison of Islam vs. Christendom, a comparison in dan-
ger of invoking assumptions of essentialist differences between civilisations.
The essays reveal that even though the whole Mediterranean basin shared a
common classical legacy, institutions acquired divergent configurations in dif-
ferent areas and periods. However, formal or non-formal institutions cannot be
equated with, respectively, efficient or non-efficient institutions, and the
emphasis is not on problems of institutional failure or efficiency but rather on
questions of institutional diversity. The aim of the participants is to ascertain
1 The ‘Diverging Paths’ project gathered regularly in the hccsh-csic in Madrid from 2009 to
2011 thanks to funding from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia.
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