ARTICLES
Expulsion as an Issue of World History, pp. 165-180
Benjamin Z. Kedar
Corporate expulsion–the permanent, government-sponsored banishment of a category of subjects beyond the physical boundaries of a political entity–appears to be a characteristic trait of Western European civilization. Elsewhere it occurred only sporadically. Compatible with the European states system that was taking shape during the central Middle Ages, corporate expulsion became a viable mode for coping with perceived internal threats when, from the twelfth century onward, a preoccupation with the defense of purity converged with the tendency of increasingly more efficient rulers to accentuate their responsibility for the wholesomeness of their realms. With the expansion of European civilization to other continents, this type of expulsion struck roots there as well.
Pseudo-Conversions and Patchwork Pedigrees: The Christianization of Muslim Princes and the Diplomacy of Holy War, pp. 181-197
Adam Knobler
A common theme in medieval and early modern Western literary responses to the Muslim world has been the assumption that Muslim rulers who appeared willing to enter into political alliance with the West, particularly in a crusading context, must somehow be secretly Christian, either through pedigree or through conversion. Stories of these genealogies and conversions often served to explain Christian-Muslim diplomacy to a broader public readership at a time when Islam was portrayed as the enemy of Christendom, but they were rarely if ever based on historical evidence or direct contact with the rulers in question.
From Coffee to Tea: Shifting Patterns of Consumption in Qajar Iran, pp. 199-230
Rudi Matthee
Introduced into Safavid Iran in the late 1500s, coffee and (to a lesser extent) tea soon found their way into the Iranian diet. By the early eighteenth century, however, the prolonged turmoil and impoverishment that followed the end of Safavid rule curtailed the consumption of these drinks in the public sphere. The reemergence of both beverages in the 1800s revealed regional differentiation and social stratification: tea became popular among the elite classes and dominated in the north, while coffee prevailed in the south. During the nineteenth century, tea began to supersede coffee everywhere in a process that involved status perceptions, the influence of tea-consuming England and Russia, and shifting trade routes.
A Cross-Cultural Conflict Reexamined: Annette Akroyd and Keshub Chunder Sen, pp. 231-259
M. A. Scherer
A well-known conflict over girls’ education between a Victorian reformer and the leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a Hindu reformist sect, has often been held up as an example of British imperial condescension, or at least a failure of a westerner to understand Indian culture. A closer reexamination of events shows that there was greater complexity to the encounter. The conflict is clarified by discussion of the circumstances of both parties: Annette Akroyd’s Unitarianism and education, and Keshub Chunder Sen’s shifting theological position and role in the press activities of his zealous young missionaries.
From the World-Systems Perspective to Institutional World History: Culture and Economy in Global Theory, pp. 261-295
Lauren Benton
Sympathetic critics of the world-systems perspective have emphasized the power of local conflict and culture to shape global structures. The critique has nevertheless left the main features of the global structural model intact. Two alternative approaches–institutional analysis and postcolonial cultural theory–offer important insights into how we might push the critique further These alternative approaches, however, encounter some similar theoretical problems: in particular, persistent analytical splits between global and local forces and between culture and economy. Analysis of these problems leads to an outline and discussion of a fourth approach: institutional world history.
BOOK REVIEWS, pp. 297-326
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INDEX TO VOLUME 7, 1996, pp. 327-330
