Rutger Kramer is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at Radboud University, The Netherlands. Walter Pohl is Professor of History at the University of Vienna, Austria.

• 1. Introduction: Empires and Communities in the Post-Roman and Islamic World (Walter Pohl and Rutger Kramer) 2. The Emergence of New Polities in the Break-Up of the Abbasid Caliphate (Hugh Kennedy) 3. The Emergence of New Polities in the Break-Up of the Western Roman Empire (Walter Pohl) 4. Comparative Perspectives: Differences between the Dissolution of the Western Roman Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate (Walter Pohl and Hugh Kennedy) 5. Fragmentation and Integration: A Response to the Contributions by Hugh Kennedy and Walter Pohl (Peter Webb) 6. Historicizing Resilience: The Paradox of the Medieval East Roman State; Collapse, Adaptation, and Survival (John Haldon) 7. Processions, Power, and Community Identity: East and West (Leslie Brubaker and Chris Wickham) 8. Death of a Patriarch: The Murder of Yuhanna ibn Jami (966) and the Question of 'Melkite' Identity in Early Islamic Palestine (Daniel Reynolds) 9. Diversity and Convergence: The Accommodation of Ethnic and Legal Pluralism in the Carolingian Empire (Stefan Esders and Helmut Reimitz) 10. Franks, Romans, and Countrymen: Carolingian Interests, Local Identities, and the Conquest of Aquitaine (Rutger Kramer) 11. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: Yemeni Arab Identity in Abbasid Iraq (including Appendix: translations of selected poems) (Peter Webb) 12. Loyal and Knowledgeable Supporters: Integrating Egyptian Elites in Early Islamic Egypt (Petra Sijpesteijn) 13. Concluding Thoughts: Empires and Communities (Chris Wickham)

Walter Pohl and Rutger Kramer have assembled ten rich contributions with the ambition of participating in a global history spanning Antiquity and the Middle Ages, extending from the Atlantic to the Zagros....The abundance of ideas, innovative approaches, and historical data will undoubtedly offer ample material for reflection for historians of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages....In substance, both editors and contributors primarily interrogate the articulation of ethnic, confessional, and regional communities with the Empire to which they belong, and often outlast, as well as the ideological mechanisms of identification underpinning them.

Rutger Kramer is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at Radboud University, The Netherlands. Walter Pohl is Professor of History at the University of Vienna, Austria.

• 1. Introduction: Empires and Communities in the Post-Roman and Islamic World (Walter Pohl and Rutger Kramer) 2. The Emergence of New Polities in the Break-Up of the Abbasid Caliphate (Hugh Kennedy) 3. The Emergence of New Polities in the Break-Up of the Western Roman Empire (Walter Pohl) 4. Comparative Perspectives: Differences between the Dissolution of the Western Roman Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate (Walter Pohl and Hugh Kennedy) 5. Fragmentation and Integration: A Response to the Contributions by Hugh Kennedy and Walter Pohl (Peter Webb) 6. Historicizing Resilience: The Paradox of the Medieval East Roman State; Collapse, Adaptation, and Survival (John Haldon) 7. Processions, Power, and Community Identity: East and West (Leslie Brubaker and Chris Wickham) 8. Death of a Patriarch: The Murder of Yuhanna ibn Jami (966) and the Question of 'Melkite' Identity in Early Islamic Palestine (Daniel Reynolds) 9. Diversity and Convergence: The Accommodation of Ethnic and Legal Pluralism in the Carolingian Empire (Stefan Esders and Helmut Reimitz) 10. Franks, Romans, and Countrymen: Carolingian Interests, Local Identities, and the Conquest of Aquitaine (Rutger Kramer) 11. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: Yemeni Arab Identity in Abbasid Iraq (including Appendix: translations of selected poems) (Peter Webb) 12. Loyal and Knowledgeable Supporters: Integrating Egyptian Elites in Early Islamic Egypt (Petra Sijpesteijn) 13. Concluding Thoughts: Empires and Communities (Chris Wickham)

Walter Pohl and Rutger Kramer have assembled ten rich contributions with the ambition of participating in a global history spanning Antiquity and the Middle Ages, extending from the Atlantic to the Zagros....The abundance of ideas, innovative approaches, and historical data will undoubtedly offer ample material for reflection for historians of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages....In substance, both editors and contributors primarily interrogate the articulation of ethnic, confessional, and regional communities with the Empire to which they belong, and often outlast, as well as the ideological mechanisms of identification underpinning them.

Rutger Kramer is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at Radboud University, The Netherlands. Walter Pohl is Professor of History at the University of Vienna, Austria.

• 1. Introduction: Empires and Communities in the Post-Roman and Islamic World (Walter Pohl and Rutger Kramer) 2. The Emergence of New Polities in the Break-Up of the Abbasid Caliphate (Hugh Kennedy) 3. The Emergence of New Polities in the Break-Up of the Western Roman Empire (Walter Pohl) 4. Comparative Perspectives: Differences between the Dissolution of the Western Roman Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate (Walter Pohl and Hugh Kennedy) 5. Fragmentation and Integration: A Response to the Contributions by Hugh Kennedy and Walter Pohl (Peter Webb) 6. Historicizing Resilience: The Paradox of the Medieval East Roman State; Collapse, Adaptation, and Survival (John Haldon) 7. Processions, Power, and Community Identity: East and West (Leslie Brubaker and Chris Wickham) 8. Death of a Patriarch: The Murder of Yuhanna ibn Jami (966) and the Question of 'Melkite' Identity in Early Islamic Palestine (Daniel Reynolds) 9. Diversity and Convergence: The Accommodation of Ethnic and Legal Pluralism in the Carolingian Empire (Stefan Esders and Helmut Reimitz) 10. Franks, Romans, and Countrymen: Carolingian Interests, Local Identities, and the Conquest of Aquitaine (Rutger Kramer) 11. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: Yemeni Arab Identity in Abbasid Iraq (including Appendix: translations of selected poems) (Peter Webb) 12. Loyal and Knowledgeable Supporters: Integrating Egyptian Elites in Early Islamic Egypt (Petra Sijpesteijn) 13. Concluding Thoughts: Empires and Communities (Chris Wickham)

Walter Pohl and Rutger Kramer have assembled ten rich contributions with the ambition of participating in a global history spanning Antiquity and the Middle Ages, extending from the Atlantic to the Zagros....The abundance of ideas, innovative approaches, and historical data will undoubtedly offer ample material for reflection for historians of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages....In substance, both editors and contributors primarily interrogate the articulation of ethnic, confessional, and regional communities with the Empire to which they belong, and often outlast, as well as the ideological mechanisms of identification underpinning them.