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UID:pretalx-wha-annual-meeting-korea-2026-KDQ8M3@pretalx.com
DTSTART;TZID=KST:20260627T133500
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DESCRIPTION:Stretching from the Carpathians to Mongolia\, the Eurasian step
 pe has for millennia served not only as a corridor of exchange—connectin
 g polities\, religions\, and intellectual traditions across Afro-Eurasia
 —but also as a frontier of imagination. It was a space described by outs
 iders who used it as a mirror through which they defined themselves and th
 eir others. This paper examines how three medieval authors—Ibn Fadlān f
 rom the Abbasid Caliphate (10th century CE)\, Anna Komnene in Byzantium (1
 2th century CE)\, and William of Rubruck from western Europe (13th century
  CE)—portrayed the steppe and its peoples both through their own observa
 tions and within inherited paradigms of ethnographic thought.\n\nThe three
  authors offered distinctive visions of this vast region from three differ
 ent vantage points and in three different languages. The Arab envoy Ibn Fa
 dlān traveled from Baghdad to the Volga\, describing—in Arabic—the Bu
 lgars\, Turks\, and the Norse traders he encountered along the river’s b
 anks. The Byzantine princess and historian Anna Komnene\, writing—in Gre
 ek—from the imperial center of Constantinople\, depicted the Pechenegs a
 nd other Turkic nomadic peoples who threatened or negotiated with her fath
 er’s empire. A century later\, the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck c
 rossed Central Asia to the Mongol court at Karakorum\, recording—in Lati
 n—the geography\, customs\, and beliefs of its peoples. Juxtaposing thes
 e three authors reveals a common pattern: the weaving of direct experience
  with perennial ethnographic motifs stretching back to Pliny the Elder and
  Herodotus. \n\nThrough a close reading of works that are normally studied
  in isolation\, this paper explores how medieval global awareness was shap
 ed by an interplay of inherited intellectual traditions and fresh observat
 ion. In doing so\, it offers both a comparative and a longue durée perspe
 ctive on how societies have imagined and constructed the global.
DTSTAMP:20260412T140529Z
LOCATION:Room 201 (Seats 42)
SUMMARY:The Eurasian Steppe through Medieval Eyes and Classical Paradigms: 
 Cross-Cultural Ethnography in Arabic\, Greek\, and Latin - Erik Hermans
URL:https://pretalx.com/wha-annual-meeting-korea-2026/talk/KDQ8M3/
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