Diverging Paths?

Diverging Paths? investigates an important question, to which the answers must be very complex: “why did certain sorts of institutionalisation and institutional continuity characterise government and society in Christendom by the later Middle Ages, but not the Islamic world, whereas the reverse end-point might have been predicted from the early medieval situation?” This core question lies within classic historiographical debates, to which the essays in the volume, written by leading medievalists, make significant contributions. The papers, drawing on a wide range of evidence and methodologies, span the middle ages, chronologically and geographically. At the same time, the core question relates to matters of strong contemporary interest, notably the perceived characteristics of power exercised within Islamic Middle Eastern regimes.Contributors are Stuart Airlie, Gadi Algazi, Sandro Carocci, Simone Collavini, Emanuele Conte, Nadia El Cheikh, Maribel Fierro, John Hudson, Caroline Humfress, Michel Kaplan, Hugh Kennedy, Simon MacLean, Eduardo Manzano, Susana Naroztky, Annliese Nef, Vivien Prigent, Ana Rodríguez, Magnus Ryan and Bernard Stolte.

John Hudson, DPhil (Oxford, 1988), is Professor of Legal History at the University of St Andrews and William W. Cook Global Law Professor at University of Michigan Law. His books include The Formation of the English Common Law (1996), an edition of The History of the Church of Abingdon (2002, 2007), and volume II of The Oxford History of the Laws of England.Ana Rodríguez, Ph.D. (Madrid, 1992), is Scientific Researcher in the CCHS-CSIC. Her books include La consolidación territorial de la monarquía feudal castellana (1994); Beyond the Market. Transactions, property and social networks in monastic Galicia (co-author, 2002) and Objets sous contrainte. Circulation des richesses et valeur des choses au Moyen Âge (co-editor, 2013).