medieval worlds • no. 14 • 2021
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Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
A-1011 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2
Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3420, Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400 https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at, e-mail: verlag@oeaw.ac.at |
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DATUM, UNTERSCHRIFT / DATE, SIGNATURE
BANK AUSTRIA CREDITANSTALT, WIEN (IBAN AT04 1100 0006 2280 0100, BIC BKAUATWW), DEUTSCHE BANK MÜNCHEN (IBAN DE16 7007 0024 0238 8270 00, BIC DEUTDEDBMUC)
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medieval worlds • no. 14 • 2021 ISSN 2412-3196 Online Edition ISBN 978-3-7001-9172-8 Online Edition 2021 Indexed by: ERIH-PLUS, Crossref, DOAJ, EZB
Nicholas S. M. Matheou
S. 75 - 116 doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no14_2021s75 Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no14_2021s75
Abstract: This article addresses the themes of urban agency and state-centrism by analysing the agency of merchant capital and taxation in processes of urbanisation. The case study is the city of Ani, a now abandoned site in central south Caucasia straddling the Turkish-Armenian border, in the long thirteenth century c.1200-1350. This global-historical conjuncture is defined by the height of the medieval Commercial Revolution and its central Eurasian expression, the Silk Road. By 1200 Ani had developed as a thriving commercial centre for over two hundred years, with merchants coming to dominate the political economy in the city and its environs. By the mid-fourteenth century, however, this wealthy commercial class was no longer in evidence, with Ani’s urbanising process fundamentally transformed, beginning a rapid deurbanisation. Utilising contemporary theories of (de)urbanisation found in Ibn Khaldūn’s Muqaddima, this article first outlines Ani’s development up to 1200, focusing on the role of interregional and intercontinental commerce, and the urban elite’s rising dominance in landholding. Having established the mercantile and rentier regime of accumulation on which Ani’s development depended, we turn to the period of Zakarian-Mkhargrdzeli rule under the Georgian kingdom c.1200-1236, finding a wealthy commercial class hegemonic in the city’s political regime as well as the regime of accumulation. The final section, then, details the urban elite’s fortunes under Mongol Eurasian hegemony, and particularly the effects of drastically increased taxation in this political realisation of the medieval Silk Road. Ultimately the story of Ani in the global long thirteenth century forms a crucial case study for the combined agency of taxation and capital in urbanisation, both beneath and within the level of the state system, speaking to their contradictory symbiosis. At the same time, the city as a site of accumulation forms a crucial bridge in the Armenian merchant bourgeoisie’s trajectory from the medieval Commercial Revolution into the coalescence of capitalist modernity. Keywords: Armenia/Armenians, capitalism, cities, Commercial Revolution, Georgia/Georgians, epigraphy, Ilkhanate, merchants, Mongols, political economy, Silk Road, states, taxation, world systems Published Online: 2021/12/01 10:47:53 Object Identifier: 0xc1aa5572 0x003d080a Rights: .
medieval worlds provides a forum for comparative, interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. Its aim is to overcome disciplinary boundaries, regional limits and national research traditions in Medieval Studies, to open up new spaces for discussion, and to help developing global perspectives. We focus on the period from c. 400 to 1500 CE but do not stick to rigid periodization.
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Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
A-1011 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2
Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3420, Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400 https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at, e-mail: verlag@oeaw.ac.at |