WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 9:00 - 19:00
Welcome Address by Secretary General, Austrian Academy, Prof. Dr. Herwig Friesinger
Walter Pohl, Introduction: Ethnicity, religion and empire
Section 1: What difference does ethnicity make?
Section 1A: Tribe and state: social anthropological approaches
Andre Gingrich / Guntram Hazod, Agrarian theocracies: Anthropological models of ethnicity and the state in medieval Western and Central Asia
Johann Heiss, A trace in the dust: South Arabians in the 10th century
Section 1B: Identity and difference in the Roman World
Fritz Mitthof, Ethnic and regional identity in the Roman Empire (1st–6th century AD)
Jan Retsö, The Nabataeans – problems of identifying ethnicity in the ancient world
Bernhard Palme, Political identity versus religious distinction? The case of Egypt in the Later Roman Empire
Section 1C: Early Islamic identities
Michael Cook, What difference does Islam make?
Michael Morony, Religious communities in the Early Islamic World
Walter Kaegi, Seventh-century identities: A reassessment
Petra Sijpestijn, Becoming Egyptian: Culture and ethnicity in Early Islamic Egypt
Hugh Kennedy, Why is Iran not an Arab country? How Iranian ethnic and cultural identity survived through the Arab conquests, even though Zoroastrian religious identity did not
THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 9:00 - 18:30
Section 1D: Christian identities in the Middle East
Bas ter Haar Romeny, The Syriac, Coptic and Byzantine orthodox communities in Late Antiquity: Did the clergy act as ‘Traditionskern’?
Richard Payne, The uses of the label ‘Assyrian’: Religion and ethnicity among the East Syrians
Lynn Jones, The visual expression of medieval Armenian rulership
Hartmut Leppin, Roman identities in crisis. The case of Evagrius Scholasticus
Panel I: What difference does ethnicity make?
Section 2: Political identities and the integration of communities
Section 2A: Allegiance and political integration
Kate Cooper, Religion, dynasty, ethnicity and allegiance: the Theodosians
Andrew Marsham, Religion, dynasty, ethnicity and allegiance: the early Abbasids
Stefan Esders, Treue, Glaube und Eid als Grundlage politischer Vergesellschaftung in nachrömischen politischen Ordnungen
Section 2B: Province and Empire
Mischa Meier, Anastasios und die Geschichte der Isaurier
Robert Hoyland, Tribal groups in the Middle East between Byzantium and Iran in Late Antiquity
FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 9:00 - 19:00
Yves Modéran, Réalités et destin d’une identité provinciale: les Africains dans l’Empire byzantin
Ralph Johannes Lilie, Die Politik der byzantinischen Zentralregierung gegenüber ethnischen und religiösen Minderheiten
Section 2C: The challenge of difference: Early medieval Christian Europe
Helmut Reimitz, Frankendoms: Transformations of ethnic identity in Merovingian and Carolingian kingdoms
Steffen Patzold, „Einheit“ versus „Fraktionierung“: Zur symbolischen und institutionellen Integration des Frankenreichs (8./9. Jh.)
Wolfram Drews, Ethnicity, religion and power: Diaspora Jewish communities in Early Medieval Europe
Angela Gleason, What Gall? Naming foreigners in Early Medieval Ireland
Conrad Leyser, Waiting for the Bulgarians: conversion, identity, and betrayal in the ninth century
Clemens Gantner, The papacy and the Saracens in the ninth century
Section 3: Visions of community, perceptions of the Other
Section 3A: Islamic views
Daniel König, Arab-islamic historiographers on the emergence of Latin-Christian Europe
Ann Christys, The Vikings in the South through Arab eyes
Przemysław Urbańczyk, Northern Slavs in Early Medieval Islamic sources
SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 9:00 - 17:00
Section 3B: Byzantine views
Wolfram Brandes, Die eschatologische Ethnographie der Byzantiner (6.-10. Jh.)
Alexander Beihammer, Strategies of identification and distinction in the Byzantine discourse on the Seljuk Turks
Section 3C: Western views
Richard Corradini, Chronographie in lateinischen patristischen Texten
John Tolan, “A wild man, whose hand will be against all”: Saracens and Ishmaelites in Latin ethnographical traditions, from Jerome to Bede
Ian Wood, Where the wild things are
Herwig Wolfram, How many peoples are in a people?
Panel II: Visions of community: Conclusions
Leslie Brubaker, John Haldon, Chris Wickham, Walter Pohl