Act 2. Forging Connectivity
MIGRATION
Migrations Disrupt and Reconfigure Imperial Territory, c.600-900: Huns, Turks, Arabs, Byzantium, and Caliphates, and T’ang China.
Theme: Expanding mobility, nomad empires, and silk road connectivity.
Reading:
Peter Golden, Central Asia in World History. (Ebook), pp.37-69
Michael R. Drompp, “The Kök Türk Empires,” OREAH. (10pp.)
Timothy May, “Nomadic Warfare Before Firearms,” OREAH. (10pp)
Michael R. Drompp, “The Uyghur Empire (744-840),” OREAH. (10pp.)
Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, Empires in world History: Power and the Politics of Difference, Princeton, 2010, Chapter 3. “After Rome: Empire, Christianity, and Islam, pp. 61-92 (PDF online)
Met Heilbrun Timeline: The Art of the Abbasid Period (750-1258).
Reference:
Nomadic Peoples of Central Asia
Etienne de la Vaissiere, Sogdian Traders: A History. Leiden: Brill 2005 (432pp) (PDF online)
G.R.Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661-750, Routledge, New York, 2000. pp.1-46.
John Chaffee, The Muslim Merchants of Premodern China: The History of a Maritime Asian Trade Diaspora, 750-1400, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2018, pp. 1-50.
Svat Soucek, A History of Inner Asia, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp.51-69.
Denis Sinor, “The establishment and dissolution of Turk empire,” The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Cambridge 1990. pp.285-316. (online PDF)
Jonathan Karam Skaff, Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors : Culture, Power, and Connections, 580-800. Oxford University Press, 2012.
Climate Change major event timeline.
MONDAY. Zoom Class Discussion. 9AM Abu Dhabi. In my meeting room.
WEDNESDAY: online asynchronous work for the rest of this week.
Video9: Lecture and slides: “Militant migrant empires connect circuits of mobility.” Just slides.
Video10: Battle of Talas
ASSIGNMENT:
Assignment 4. One-page paper#3. Discuss the spatial dynamics of nomad empires. [FYI: it turns out, to my surprise, this is a useful site for access to good material on the subject.]
Links to weeks in full syllabus: Week 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14