REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP “NETWORKS, REGIONS AND INSTITUTIONS IN MONGOL EURASIA: A MESO-HISTORICAL ANALYSIS”, JERUSALEM, 17–18 MAY, 2017

On May 17–18, 2017, an international workshop “Networks, Regions and Institutions in Mongol Eurasia: A Meso-Historical Analysis” was held at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem with the participation of researchers from Israel, Japan, Britain, United States, Russia, China, Hungary and Finland. The main goal of the workshop was to reveal the potential of the “meso-historical analysis” in the study of the Mongol Empire, including the simultaneous consideration of global changes in Eurasia caused by the creation of the empire of Chinggis Khan, and the impact of these changes on each of its separate regions as recorded in the available primary sources. The keynote speech by Akinobu Kuroda (The University of Tokyo) was entitled “A Global Monetary History of Mongol Eurasia: A Mesoscopic Perspective”. The first panel “Networks of the Empire and Beyond” included the following talks: Yoichi Isahaya (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), “Hulaguid Appanages as Mesoscale Agency in Cross-Cultural Exchange”; Elizabeth Lambourn (De Montfort University), “Mongol Eurasia at Sea: Peninsular South India in Networks of Maritime Trade and Tribute (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries)”. In the framework of the second panel “Decentralizing the Empire through Mesoscale Regions” the following talks were presented: Francesca Fiaschetti (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), “Empires within the Empire: Governance and Dynastic Space in Eastern Eurasia under Mongol Rule”; Christopher Eirkson (University of Pittsburgh), “Mongol Appanages and Ming Chinese Frontier Princedoms: A Comparison of Autonomous Territorial Units in Northern China, 1200–1500 CE”; Nikolay Kradin (Russian Academy of Sciences), “North-Eastern Margin of Mongolian Empire: Hinterland Urbanization of Chinggis Khan Brother”. The third panel “Sources Narrate Eurasia” saw presentations by: Roman Hautala (Tatarstan Academy of Sciences), “Catholic Missionary Sources on the Everyday Life in the Golden Horde (First Half of the 14th Century)”; Stephen Pow, (CEU University) “What a Source Says, When It Says Nothing at All: Extracting Information from Jochi Khan's Biography in the 117th Chapter of the Yuan Shi”; Jonathan Brack (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), “How the Dead Mattered in Ilkhanid Iran? The Local and the Global in Rashid al-Din's Three Refutations of Reincarnation”. In the framework of the final fourth panel “Law as a Meso-Institution” the following talks were presented: Khohchahar E. Chuluu (The University of Tokyo), “Law, Institutions, and Justice in the Mongol Empire”; Florence Hodous (Renmin University), “Joint Trials as a Key to Local History and Empire-Wide Dynamics”; Edith Chen (Princeton University), “Justice of the Khan: Writing the Lives of the Jarqučis in the Yuan Shi”.