Abstract
ABSTRACT This work suggests that empires do not have to be state-led by arguing that religious-political organizations can also create their own imperial demesnes. Moreover, it argues that there are additional ways for empires to expand other than conquest (through gift, purchase and lease), and that empires do not have to be large. By drawing attention to a variety of players and methods of expansion it re-thinks our understanding of what empires are. It focuses upon the history of the Medieval Knights of St John who formed autonomous states on Rhodes and Malta; yet to underscore the continuing significance of this religious-imperial nexus it also briefly draws attention to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the Middle East.
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