Imperial Dynasty Research Articles

Eschatologia Iranica I: From Zoroastrian Cosmos to Abbasid Madīnat al-Salām: A Journey through Utopia and Heterotopia

The history of imperial dynasties in West Asia is replete with examples of remarkable urban foundations. Two notable instances are the Sasanian Ardašīr-xwarrah and the Abbasid Madīnat al-Salām, which can be classified as cosmic cities or heterotopias. This article examines the utopian foundations of these heterotopias. To this end, it analyzes four religious and imperial spaces: the representation of the earth and sky in the Zoroastrian cosmography, Yima’s Vara according to the Avestan texts, Ardašīr-xwarrah, and finally, Madīnat al-Salām. This investigation aims to ascertain the extent to which the spatial characteristics of each of these spaces have been utilized in the production of the subsequent architectural forms. Similarly, it examines the development of the cosmological and eschatological paradise in relation to the Achaemenian and Sasanian royal gardens. The theoretical framework of this study is based on Michael Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, which has been further developed by Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space. The conceptual metaphor theory offers a cognitive linguistic foundation for elucidating the projections of utopias and heterotopias onto one another. To this end, the article focuses on the conceptual metaphor GOD IS A KING.

Minor monarchs: The ‘Bad-Emperor’ problem in Chinese history

How important is the age and experience of political leaders for the quality of governance? I explore this question in the context of imperial China, where autocratic rule centered on the institution of the emperor persisted for nearly 2,000 years. While the issue of child emperors is frequently discussed in the historiography of China, the impact of minor rulers has not been explored empirically. Using rich biographical information on the lives of rulers, I show evidence consistent with the notion that the age of emperors mattered for the effective administration of the Chinese state. In particular, the incidences of minor monarchs appear to accelerate the decline of a dynasty and occur more frequently toward the end of an imperial dynasty. The rule of minor monarchs coincides with the timing of dynastic crises, nomadic attacks, peasant revolts, and declines in fiscal capacity. To assess causality, I conduct two tests. First, I validate my baseline findings using an instrumental variable strategy that exploits the early but natural deaths of preceding emperors. Second, I show that estimated relationships become stronger after the Tang-Song transition, during which the administrative power of the emperor increased dramatically relative to that of the civilian bureaucracy. Overall, the results in this paper suggest that in the absence of institutional constraints, weak executive leadership can lead to poor national outcomes even in a highly bureaucratized state.

Imperial Influence and Innovation: The Good Emperors and The Bronze Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius

Roman portraiture provides insight into the ways in which political and social ideologies of the imperial dynasties manifested in imagery. Such iconography legitimized emperors' authority by simultaneously cultivating a visual connection to past leaders and promoting the agenda of the contemporary dynasty. While drawing upon the symbolism of previous sovereigns and establishing iconographic elements materialized within dynastic imagery, it is also evident in the representations of individual emperors. This paper explores the presence of influence and innovation within the imperial representation of the Good Emperors and focuses on examining the Bronze Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius. It highlights the evolution of imperial portraiture within the adoptive succession of the Good Emperors and how such imagery successfully perpetuated values of social welfare, military dominance, and intellectual growth and served to reinforce the continuity of this dynasty. Moreover, through a comprehensive analysis of the sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, it seeks to understand the symbolic significance of the monument with respect to the gestures, garb, and notable facial features associated with this emperor. This representation of Marcus Aurelius embodies the essence of influence and innovation as he is depicted in a manner congruent with that of his predecessors and revolutionizes the incorporation of insight into the psychological state of a Caesar.

Unpublished Sasanian Coins Preserved in the Bangladesh National Museum: Unveiling with Identification and Exploring the Cause-Period of Their Arrival in Bengal

The Sasanians were the last pre-Islamic Persian dynasty that ruled present-day Iran and its neighbouring extensive territories, succeeding the Parthians from 224 A.D to 651 A.D. It was the second-longest reigning Persian imperial dynasty, enduring over four centuries until the Muslims defeated the last Sasanian Emperor, Yazdegerd III. Six unpublished coins of this dynasty stored among the rich collections of nearly fifty-eight thousand manifold coins of the Bangladesh National Museum are matter of surprise and curiosity because Bengal was neither a part of their Empire nor ever ruled by them. These coins were discovered in Bengal in the early twentieth century. They have been identified recently, although they were unidentified for a long time following collection. Typically, coin from one region found in another conveys a trading identity. The early Arabs used Sasanian coins along with other coins as currency before introducing their purely Arabic coins in 696 A.D. They were traditionally traders and had commercial contacts with South and Southeast Asia since the seventh century. They might have used these unpublished coins in the seventh century as a means of exchange in Bengal because the region was well-heeled in ancient times and drew traders from all over the world. This article has unveiled these hitherto unpublished coins with their identification and conducted a comprehensive numismatic endeavour virtually to give insight into the inferential cause as well as the timeframe of their arrival in Bengal.

Welcoming the Future Safavid Sovereign: The Significance of Rustam Mirza’s Exodus to the Mughal Empire (1593)

The objective of this article is to find out to what extent a Safavid prince could threaten the stability of the Safavid imperial crown. To this end, the article analyses the case of Rustam Mirza (1565–1642) who belonged to a secondary branch of the imperial dynasty and who ruled autonomously over a Central Asian territory. Due to regional and imperial conflicts, the Safavid prince had to go into exile in the Mughal Empire from where he continued to impact the internal stability and the borders of the Safavid Empire. The article analyses various aspects of Rustam Mirza’s journey abroad and we will see what interest the Mughals might have had in welcoming him; what Rustam Mirza represented for the imperial Safavid centre; who was involved in the negotiations; how this welcoming process was interpreted; what benefits the prince received; and what influence his stay abroad had on the domestic and foreign policy of the sending and receiving states.

The Poet Who Challenged the Shogun: Asukai Masayo and Shinshoku Kokin Wakashū

Abstract: During Japan's late medieval era, the Ashikaga shoguns wished to merge the imperial and warrior governments and establish a feudal monarchy. Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori made considerable efforts to acquire cultural capital and start a new imperial dynasty. He understood the symbolic importance of ancient traditions for the realization of his ambitions. One gesture aimed at acquiring cultural authority was his initiation and sponsorship of a literary project known today as the last imperial anthology of waka, Shinshoku kokin wakashū . The collection reveals that its compiler, Asukai Masayo, challenged the shogun with an agenda that undermined Yoshinori's authority.

The Gaius/Lucius denarii of Augustus and the intensity of the occurrence the Julio-Claudian dynasty coinage in Moravia

The first imperial dynasty significantly reformed the Roman coinage, the production of which was partly moved to the provinces closer to the Germanic regions. Due to the newly emerging settlement structure of the newly established provinces of Noricum and Pannonia as well as the irregular trade relations between them and the Kingdom of Vannius, the representation of coins from the first two thirds of the 1st century in Moravia is minimal (only 86 coins are currently available). Unfortunately, isolated surface finds without an archaeological context do not provide sufficient support for dating their deposition in the ground. Some of them could have been brought later, for example during Roman military operations in Barbaricum in the last third of the 2nd century or in Late Antiquity. Newly, the find collection in the central Danube region was extended by additional denarii of the Gaius/Lucius type (denarius and subaerat around Germanic settlement in Bzenec), which are otherwise mainly concentrated near the Varus’s battle in the Teutoburg Forest and in the Rhineland. What is also noteworthy is the dominance of asses from the Roman mint struck under the supervision of the college of three mint officials (tresviri monetales) among the bronze denominations of Augustus. The gold aurei, silver denarii, billon tetradrachms and aes asses of Nero are also a fairly representative set, whereas the coins of the emperors Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius have a meagre numerical representation.

A Hypothesis of Solution of Samson’s Riddle

Samson’s biblical riddle “Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet”, referring to honey and a swarm of bees which came out of the carcass of a lion he had torn apart with his bare hands in Timnah, reinterpreted in the light of recent archaeological discoveries in the Timna Valley, where there was an Egyptian shrine associated with ancient copper mines and metallurgical activities, seems to hide a metaphor linked to the world of metallurgy, with particular reference to the smelting of metals: in fact, the smelting furnace “eats” the mineral with the fire, emitting a sort of roar similar to that of lions, and then the copper gushes out, which has a colour similar to that of wild honey. This is confirmed by the examination of analogous myths and tales spread among various civilizations, starting from that of the Nemean lion killed by Heracles and arriving at the Japanese myth in which Susanoo kills a dragon, in whose tail he finds a sword considered one of the treasures of the Japanese imperial dynasty. Keywords: Samson, Samson’s riddle, honey, Timna Valley, metallurgy, Heracles, Nemean lion, Susanoo

Languages and language contact in China

Abstract China is ethnically and linguistically diverse. There are 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in the country, including the majority Han, with a 1.2 billion-strong population and Tatar, the smallest minority group with only 3,556 people residing in Xinjiang, according to the 2010 Population Census of the People’s Republic of China, the latest census data available on the government’s website (www.stats.gov.cn). The Han accounts for 91.6% of the population, with the minorities taking up the balance of 8.4%. Most ethnic groups have their own languages, which fall into typologically distinct language families, the largest being Altaic and Sino-Tibetan. Ethnologue lists 299 languages in China and rates the country 0.521 in linguistic diversity, compared with 0.035 for Japan and 0.010 for South Korea (Simons & Fennig 2017). A few ethnic groups, such as the Hui (Chinese Muslims) and the Manchus, who founded the last imperial dynasty of Qing (1644–1912), have lost their indigenous languages over the centuries. They speak the language of the Han majority. Linguistic diversity in China is manifested in two ways: across the ethnic groups and within the Han majority. In what follows, we give a schematic description of the languages and briefly summarize the papers in this issue that offer a snapshot of language contact in China.

BABUR THE FOUNDER OF MUGHAL EMPIRE IN INDIA

The fourteenth century of the Christian period was a time of significant transition. The social and political environment was undergoing changes. Strong, centralized empires were erected in the east, while the middle classes in the west started to seek and obtain a part of government. Islamic control thrived during this period, bringing people from all over the globe together via trade and business. There were such powerful and centralized Islamic empires as the Mongols, Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. The Mughal Empire was made up of the conflicted, cooperative, and inventive relationships between the imperial dynasty and individuals from a wide range of cultural backgrounds in the numerous Indian territories that it was in charge of at the time. Three centuries' worth of rule might be attributed to the Empire. The Empire reached its zenith as the most powerful and prosperous state in human history

Bcan pos who were notkhri: Royal titulature and the succession to the throne in the Tibetan Empire

AbstractThe paper surveys the distribution of the titlesbcan poandkhriin historical and non-historical documents of the Tibetan Empire. Their patterns of usage suggest the existence of strict rules that governed the bestowal of the titles within the royal family. In the second part of the paper a new chronology of succession to the throne in the Tibetan imperial dynasty is put forward, based not only on Tibetan imperial documents and post-imperial historiographical works but also on Chinese written sources.

Seeing is Believing: The Ducal House of Lorraine and Visual Displays in the Projection of Royal Status

This article examines the visual strategies employed in the early modern period by a dynasty ruling a smaller state, the Duchy of Lorraine, to survive in the face of expansion by larger neighbours (notably France). The central argument posits that in order to be treated as fully royal (and therefore with inherent rights to exist independently, as full members of the society of princes), princes like the dukes of Lorraine had to appear as royal in their visual representation. The article therefore looks at different examples of selfrepresentation produced by the dynasty over time, including genealogical treatises, coins, portraits, and printed material, in order to see how this was achieved and what symbols were used. What emerges is a sense that this strategy was more closely tied to dynasticism, not necessarily state-building, and while it can be said to have failed for the Duchy of Lorraine as a state, it proved successful, even beyond what had been imagined, for the dynasty itself. This idea repositions our conceptions of “sovereignty” in this period, to see it, at least in some cases, as a quality pertaining to dynasties rather than more rigidly to the states they governed. Their hereditary estates in Lorraine were lost in 1737 but the dynasty survived, as grand dukes of Tuscany, and was deemed worthy of transformation into a fully royal—even imperial—dynasty through marriage to the Habsburg heiress Maria Theresa and the election of Francis Stephen of Lorraine as Holy Roman Emperor in 1745.

Heraclius Constantine III – Emperor of Byzantium (613–641)

Abstract This paper evaluates the significance of emperor Heraclius Constantine III, the eldest son of Heraclius (610 -641), for Byzantium in times of political and military crisis. The first part examines how Heraclius established his family as an imperial dynasty of Byzantium between 613 and 622. The second section analyzes how the young emperor represented his father in Constantinople, while Heraclius waged war against the Persian Sasanids during the 620s. The final segment deals on the one hand with the joint rule of Heraclius and his eldest son after Byzantine victories against the Persians and, on the other hand, with the growing influence of Heraclonas. Finally, the contribution explores Heraclius Constantine’s III role as Augustus senior after his father’s death in 641. The until now often understudied emperor was thereby of essential importance for Byzantium’s stability in the first half of the 7th century.

On the Byzantine-Mongol Marriages

The article focuses on the rapprochement between Byzantium and the Mongols from the 1250s which resulted in marriage alliances between Mongol Khans and Byzantine despoinas (princesses). The key issue is a clash of two different approaches. The Byzantine one was focused on the exclusive status of Byzantium as Christian Roman Empire, whose status was unrivalled and whose sovereigns seldom allowed marriages of Byzantine ladies to the foreign rulers, especially if the latter were heathen or Muslim. The Mongol view considered the Mongol state as the only one destined to dominate over other states. Here, the marriages between Mongol rulers and foreign brides have been suggested as one of vital elements of such domination. The compromise between two views seemed to have been made by the Byzantines: while the Byzantine church law refused to recognize interconfessional marriages, the Byzantines began to see these marriages as a Christian mission of sorts as the Greek brides and wives could have served as agents for spreading Greek Orthodox Christianity. Given the fact that some Khans had already converted to Islam prior to the marriage, these were also the first marriages between the Byzantine Imperial dynasty of the Palaiologoi and the Muslim rulers. It seems that special tolerance of the Mongols towards Christianity (even if they were Muslims) played a key role in the change of the principles of the Byzantine marriage policy: it henceforth became possible for the Emperor’s illegitimate daughter to marry a Muslim ruler. This policy affected the marriages of the later period of the fourteenth and fifteenth century between the imperial dynasties of the Palaiologoi and Grand Komnenoi, on the one hand, and the neighboring Turkish rulers, including the Ottomans, on the other.

Qiang Fang and Xiaobing Li, editors. Corruption and Anticorruption in Modern China. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Groups, Inc., 2018. 398 pp. Hardback $126.00, ISBN 978-1-4985-7431-0.

Qiang Fang and Xiaobing Li, editors. Corruption and Anticorruption in Modern China. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Groups, Inc., .  pp. Hardback $., ISBN ----. While students and observers of China may disagree on many things about China, one thing that they tend to agree on is the serious, and continuous, corruption throughout Chinese history, from imperial ages to the reform era. Accordingly, anticorruption is also an important, if not more important, theme that continues to be an issue in Chinese politics. Thus, corruption and anticorruption, both have constituted a lens through which we can understand modern China, including the ruling regimes in different periods, the political elites, the common people, and the underlying cultural identity of the nation. This book covers a topic that has long been of interest to me. Hence, it was a great pleasure to read this book, Corruption and Anticorruption in Modern China, edited by Qiang Fang and Xiaobing Li. Being a political scientist who studies corruption and anticorruption in contemporary China, I find the historians’ studies in this book fascinating. Under their pen, corruption and anticorruption in modern China become a grand picture dynamically unfolded in front of the readers, linking imperial dynasties (e.g., Han, Tang, Ming, and Qing), Republic China (e.g., Yuan Shikai, Chiang Kai-Shek’s GMD), and contemporary China (e.g., under Mao, Jiang, and Xi) in both a longitudinal and comparative way. Feeling the echo of history, and reconsidering the similarities and differences between the present and the past, one can more deeply reflect the logic of Chinese political institutions. As a famous quote from Kenneth Lieberthal’s book, Governing China, states, “But all long-term observers of this remarkable country (i.e., China) know that there are few places in the world for which the phrase ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’ more aptly applies” (, p. xvii). It also comes as a surprise to see scholars in other disciplines share similar research interests in several specific topics that have been largely understudied, such as corruption fugitives (chapter  by Yue Li and Chen Liu), political satire (chapter  by Helen Xiaoyan Wu), and political rumors (chapter  by Stella Y. Xu). In these chapters, the historians’ documentation and interpretation of the issues, for example, why the problems occurred and their sociopolitical implications, and the authors’ scholarly utilization of the available materials, Review©  by University of Hawai‘i Press provide new analytical and methodological angles to think about in my own related research (e.g., Zhu ; Zhu, Lu, Shi ). Moreover, for the general readership who are interested in the general topic of China, or corruption and anticorruption in China in particular, this book has at least the following merits making it worth reading. First, this book provides an earnest and timely presentation of historical materials. All contributors skillfully dissect historical materials into analytical stories accessible to general readers. For example, chapter  by Qiang Fang sampled sixty-one primary corruption cases involving top Qing officials and classified the politics behind corruption reporting and tackling, which demonstrates the fundamental flaws of the imperial system. In chapter  written by Patrick Fuliang Shan, abundant information and analysis about Yuan Shikai’s management ideas and implementations are presented in detail, and readers can reconsider their constructed opinions on Yuan Shikai and the Beiyang period. In chapter  by Sherman Xiaogang Lai, historical details conveyed by Chiang Kai-Shek’s wartime diaries are excavated, illuminating how Chiang as the national leader perceived his own political party and the critical historical moments at that time. In contrast, other chapters remind readers of the near past. For instance, chapter  by Dongyu Yang, reviewed the corruption and anticorruption in Jiang’s era by studying a case of anticorruption in Shaanxi Province to exemplify the practices at that time. This is also the age when the market economy and the socialist political system were dramatically adapted together, economic opportunities and political resources met, and thus cultivated the hotbed of corruption. The anticorruption practices in Jiang’s era also inspire readers to compare these with the recent anticorruption initiatives under Xi. Chapter  by Xiansheng Tian, documented the recent breaking news about the Bo and Wang event...

Hospital hygiene, purulent wounds and viral escape attempts: an infectious history of the Comnenean Imperial Dynasty

Hospital hygiene, purulent wounds and viral escape attempts: an infectious history of the Comnenean Imperial Dynasty

Hospital hygiene, purulent wounds and viral escape attempts: an infectious history of the Comnenean Imperial Dynasty

Hospital hygiene, purulent wounds and viral escape attempts: an infectious history of the Comnenean Imperial Dynasty

Social Construction of National Reality: Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong by Fu-Lai Tony Yu and Diana S. Kwan

Reviewed by: Social Construction of National Reality: Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong by Fu-Lai Tony Yu and Diana S. Kwan Norbert Francis Fu-Lai Tony Yu and Diana S. Kwan. Social Construction of National Reality: Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020. 164 pp. $95.00 (cloth). The circumstances that Taiwan, Tibet, and Hong Kong face stemming from the conflict between the governing party of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the movement of citizens for, or in defense of, democracy is the theme of Social Construction of National Reality. While the conflict has many moving parts, a guiding argument that the authors present is that it is not only unequal but also one-sided. Following the introduction, an interesting time-frame shapes the discussion: while for Taiwan, Tibet, and Hong Kong the historical lens primarily focuses on the last 70 years, beginning in 1950, for China we begin with the first imperial dynasty over 2,200 years ago. The research report of Fu-Lai Tony Yu and Diana S. Kwan is an important contribution to this history. Future work will be able to encompass similar conditions encountered by populations that have been singled out for special treatment by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Chapters 1 and 2 outline the theoretical approach that the authors adopted so as to delimit the scope of their study, an emphasis on the sense of belonging to a lineage or emerging nationality as separate from that of others and people’s awareness of this inclusion and separation. Within this framework, for which entities might the concept of self-determination apply? Chapter 3 traces the more than 2,000 years of final consolidation, beginning with the Qin dynasty, of the traditional concept of a “grand unified China” guided by a single supreme authority and the “Great Han Mentality” (28) that its educational system strives to imprint within each successive generation. After a period of relative opening, the current supreme (or paramount) leader, in particular following the 2018 abolition of term limits, has again consolidated this tradition. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 outline how the peripheral or “surrounding neighbors” (29) of Taiwan, Tibet, and Hong Kong have resisted over the years the attempt imprint upon them acceptance of the “unified China” condition as defined today by the CCP. A critic of the framework that the authors propose in chapters 1 and 2—and apply to the specific problem of each region in chapters 3–6—may object that the factors of group identity and awareness (e.g., the degree to which Tibetans or Taiwanese also identify, if at all, as Chinese or to which residents of Hong Kong express a feeling of belonging to China) are secondary and that the estrangement from the center of a significant layer of the population follows from a more fundamental, material, source of conflict: the irreconcilable confrontation of one-party totalitarian rule and democratic governance/respect for pluralism (in one case among the three of juridically implemented contrast). Truth be told, the same objection occurred to this reviewer. Yu and Kwan might in fact agree with the observation, to then point out simply that the underlying fundamentals were not the object of investigation, being an aspect of the larger picture easily incorporated into a much longer book. A test of whether or not the authors’ framing leads to an erroneous intermediate analysis resides in the concluding chapter 7. In the conclusion, the three scenarios of conflict are brought together for a closer comparison that takes the objective conditions for achieving the alternative of self-determination as a starting point. The previous chapter on the antecedents of the Hong [End Page E-18] Kong democracy movement allows precisely for the most objective overall assessment because, as the authors make clear, in effect, none of the essential conditions apply to the Special Administrative Region. With a hypothetical pathway to political self-determination extending into the distant future (if ever it becomes a viable alternative), the prospects for the democratic movement in Hong Kong are then permanently and indelibly tied to its counterpart in...

Networking Nuns: Imperial Power and Family Alliances at S. Salvatore di Brescia (c. 837-61)

Female religious foundations in the early medieval period have long been recognized as essential ‘places of power’: physical and symbolic loci through which were created and consolidated the socio-economic prestige of aristocratic family groups, including the royal and imperial dynasties. This was especially true in Italy, where lay founders invested considerable resources in the nunneries, but perhaps even more so through the oblation of women from their family to become nuns there. This article explores a specific case study, that of San Salvatore di Brescia in northern Italy, in the 830s to the 870s. Founded as a ducal, then royal, monastery by Desiderius and Ansa, the last sovereigns of the Lombard kingdom, the abbey witnessed a flourishing period under Emperors Lothar I and Louis II. It then functioned as a government tool for expanding and imposing their authority, through the presence there of their own daughters, and of some women from the highest-ranking aristocracy of both Lombard and Frankish origins. The international dimension of San Salvatore in those years is well attested in its Liber Vitae (a. 856), which commemorates all the nuns, their male relatives and other contemporary personalities bound to them through direct and indirect links of fidelity. This success, argue the authors, was the result of both a bottom- and a top-driven process, through which the Lombard heritage of the abbey and its deep rooting in the local social and political landscape through the native elites, played a fundamental bridging role in connecting the first and the second generation of Frankish imperial officials in Italy with the original Lombard aristocracy.

Mob Ideology or Democracy: Analyzing Taiping Rebellion’s Defeat and Revolution of 1911’s Triumph in Ending the Qing Dynasty

This paper investigates the underlying factors that caused the Qing Dynasty of China to survive the Taiping Rebellion yet crumbled upon the Revolution of 1911. It first examines the ideological differences between the two attempts of regime change, followed by an exploration into the extent of foreign interference in determining the outcomes of the two events. Subsequently, the author analyzes the conflict between the constitutionalists and the absolute monarchists within the Qing court during the time of the Revolution in 1911. Ultimately, this paper concludes that the Qing dynasty survived the Taiping Rebellion yet crumbled upon the Xinhai Revolution because the latter’s San-min Doctrine, also known as the “Three Principles of the People,” drew support from within the Qing regional governments as its ideology gave them hopes of preserving powers, while the Taiping Rebellion’s mob ideology achieved the contrary; on top of this, the Revolution of 1911 faced a Qing government weakened by internal conflicts over constitutional reforms, and it also successfully prevented foreign powers from intervening on behalf of the falling imperial dynasty.