Meanings of Community Across Medieval Eurasia: Comparative Approaches

This volume explores some of the many different meanings of community across medieval Eurasia. How did the three ’universal’ religions, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, frame the emergence of various types of community under their sway? The studies assembled here in thematic clusters address the terminology of community; genealogies; urban communities; and monasteries or ’enclaves of learning’ in particular in early medieval Europe, medieval South Arabia and Tibet, and late medieval Central Europe and Dalmatia. It includes work by medieval historians, social anthropologists, and Asian Studies scholars. The volume present the results of in-depth comparative research from the Visions of Community project in Vienna, and of a dialogue with guests, offering new and exciting perspectives on the emerging field of comparative medieval history.
Contributors are (in order within the volume) Walter Pohl, Gerda Heydemann, Eirik Hovden, Johann Heiss, Rüdiger Lohlker, Elisabeth Gruber, Oliver Schmitt, Daniel Mahoney, Christian Opitz, Birgit Kellner, Rutger Kramer, Pascale Hugon, Christina Lutter, Diarmuid Ó Riain, Mathias Fermer, Steven Vanderputten, Jonathan Lyon and Andre Gingrich.

Eirik Hovden, Ph.D. (2012), is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Social Anthropology (ISA), Austrian Academy of Sciences. He works on Yemeni history in general and specific topics related to Zaydi history, Islamic law, endowments and local water management.
Christina Lutter, Ph.D. (1998), is Professor of Austrian History at the University of Vienna. Her research and publications concentrate on various aspects of Central European medieval and early modern cultural and gender history.
Walter Pohl, Ph.D. (1984), is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Vienna and director of the Institute for Medieval Research at the Austrian Academy. He works on identity formation and other aspects of early medieval Europe.