Published in 1989, Janet Abu-Lughod's Before European Hegemony (BEH) crafted its famed eight regional subsystems from the primary and secondary materials then available. In the intervening years, historians have lauded both its accomplishment and inspiration and noted - sometimes critically - its omission of certain geographical regions. Beginning with a selection of assessments of BEH, this article turns to recent scholarship that fills in some of the gaps in Abu-Lughod's map, especially in subsystem III, trans-Asia. In concludes with close readings of Abu-Lughod's mentions of Marco Polo, offering suggestions and corrections of some of her more critical comments.
Research on regional connectivities as formulated in terms of Mediterranean Studies, North Atlantic Studies, or Silk Road Studies necessarily invites us to consider exactly how the global intersects with the local. This article suggests some practical approaches to both research and exhibition planning that situate our study of the Global Middle Ages in a specific location. I draw upon Abu-Lughod's Before European Hegemony and New York, Chicago, Los Angeles - as well as ongoing collaborations with Lunaape (Munsee Delaware) community members - to develop a methodology that acknowledges the local situation of the work not just in terms of each item's origin and complex chain of provenance, but also in terms of the land the institution inhabits. Being attentive to our geographical situatedness also invites us to be attentive to our temporal situatedness; this in turn disrupts the conventions of periodization that underlie our work as medievalists, producing a situated Global Middle Ages that is attentive to, acknowledges, and is connected with the land we live and work on, including its layered history and its potential futurities. These "time-knots" are vividly evoked through the juxtaposition of Byzantine purple and purple wampum, as seen in the work of Shinnecock artist Courtney M. Leonard.
This article discusses The Book of Sindbad and The Seven Sages of Rome as a single story matter, pan-continentally adapted in multiple languages, with the centre of transmission moving from the Middle East to Europe in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In this view inspired by Abu-Lughod's concept of a "world system," the consistency of the motif of gender change across most versions becomes apparent, which may have formed part of the story matter's translingual appeal. This article analyses three trans* characters from different versions the Arabic Mi'at layla wa-layla, the Latin Dolopathos and Historia septem sapientum to argue that the trans* characters embody and problematize the transgressions of gender roles in the story's central plot constellation of a wife or concubine of a male ruler sexually propositioning his son.
This article approaches the fourteenth-century European bestseller Mandeville's Travels through the influential framework of Janet Abu-Lughod's theory of the late medieval world system. Her groundbreaking model, which challenges Eurocentric narratives by mapping a pre-modern, polycentric global economy, offers a compelling lens through which to reassess the Travels. It is argued that the Mandeville author's depictions of geographical interconnection (especially through waterborne routes) and their portrayals of commercial prosperity, intellectual flourishing, and the symbolic richness of imperial material culture - notably the use of gold and pearls at the Mongolian courtly habitus - systematically resonate with Abu-Lughod's account of a culturally and economically interconnected Eurasian world of the later Middle Ages. By drawing connections between the symbolic role of gems in the Mandeville author's descriptions and their meanings in Chinese sources and European lapidaries, the article further affirms Abu-Lughod's insistence on transregional analysis and the value of crossing linguistic and cultural boundaries. Ultimately, reading Mandeville's Travels alongside Abu-Lughod's legacy not only deepens the historical grounding of the text but also foregrounds its participation in a sophisticated narrative vision of global entanglement. In doing so, the article emphasizes the enduring relevance of Abu-Lughod's work for reconsidering medieval literature and history within a genuinely global, polycentric frame.
