A History of Diplomacy, Spatiality, and Islamic Ideals

Inspired by the "spatial turn," this volume links for the first time the study of diplomacy and spatiality in the premodern Islamicate world to understand practices and meanings ascribed to territory and realms. Debates on the nature of the sovereign state as a territorially defined political entity are closely linked to discussions of "modernity" and to the development of the field of international relations. While scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds have long questioned the existence of such a concept as a "territorial state," rarely have they ventured outside the European context. A closer look at the premodern Islamicate world, however, shows that "space" and "territoriality" highly mattered in the conception of interstate contacts and in the conduct and evolution of diplomacy. This volume addresses these issues over the longue durée (thirteenth to nineteenth centuries) and from various approaches and sources, including letters, chancery manuals, notarial records, travelogues, chronicles, and fatwas. The contributors also explore the various diplomatic practices and understandings of spatiality that were present throughout the Islamicate world, from Al-Andalus to the Ottoman realms. The book will be of interest to students and researchers in a range of disciplines, including international relations, diplomatic history, and Islamic studies.

Malika Dekkiche is Associate Professor in the History Department at the University of Antwerp. Her research focuses on Muslim diplomatic contacts in the thirteenth-sixteenth centuries, chancery practices, and religious patronage. She is the co-editor of the volume Mamluk Cairo. A Crossroad for Embassies (2019).

Introducing Space to Diplomacy Part 1: Islamic Sovereignty and Territorial Claims 1. Between Emir and Rey Moro: Bahä al-Dawla b. Hud and the Question of Sovereignty in Seventh-/Thirteenth-Century Murcia 2. From the "Sultan of Islam" to the "Realms of the World": Lists of Rulers, Politics of Scale, and Claims to Sovereignty in Ninth-/Fifteenth-Century Egyptian Chronicles Part 2: Experience of Islamic Territory 3. Pepper from the Sultan: Commercial Diplomacy from Below in Mamluk Damascus (1418) 4. The End of the Renaissance: Ambrosio Bembo and the 'Limits' of Ottoman Space Part 3: Islamic Legacy and Ideals 5. A Scribe's Realm: Islamic Ideals of Foreign Relations and Diplomacy in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Empire 6. Itineracy, Homecoming, and Territory in the Maghrib over the Longue Durée