ISAW Hosts Conference: The Global Eighth Century A Comparative Assessment of Socio-economic and Political Developments in the Eighth Century CE across Eurasia

The idea for this workshop grew out of my dissertation, in which I compared three different Early Medieval societies: the Carolingian empire in Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Abbasid Caliphate in the Middle East. I noticed that these three societies seemed to move on a similar pattern. Around the year 700 CE, cultural output is very limited, the political situation is unstable and trade networks are either dormant or show little sign of activity. Around the year 800 CE, however, the situation has changed. In all three regions we now see stronger polities, a clear upswing in economic productivity and a significant increase in the production of texts. What interests me is the question whether this pattern of socio-economic upswing during the eighth century can also be discerned in other areas of Eurasia. The two day workshop that took place on April 15-16 2016, aimed at tackling  that question.

Rather than approaching pan-Eurasian developments with a top-down approach and apply a world-historical model to explain similarities and differences across different societies, I decided to take a bottom-up approach.  I invited eight specialists on the history of different areas of Eurasia during the eighth century (Western Europe, Byzantium, the Middle East, Central Asia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Asia) with the intention of reaching a larger synthesis that stands up to the scrutiny of a specialist. The workshop was a great success and many interesting observations were made. In general, the eighth century seems to have been transformational and a period of growth, from Western Europe to Southeast Asia.  Whether this was significantly different, however, from the seventh or ninth century depends on the area. Moreover, Japan does not seem to fit into the pattern at all, since the second half of the eighth century was a period of stagnation rather than growth.

Finally, all of the speakers agreed that the explanation for similar developments has to be sought in the realm of trade and connectivity. Therefore, the proceedings of this conference, which I will edit, will focus on connectivity and is tentatively titled Global Connectivity in the Long Eighth Century CE. It will also include chapters on the dissemination of knowledge, and on other regions that came up during the discussions: East Africa, Tibet and Korea.