Nomadic imperial urbanization and movement of people in Inner Asia
Lecture by Dr Nikolay Kradin
A lunch lecture by Dr Nikolay Kradin.
Urban structures within the environment of nomadic empires is one of my main research topics of the last years.
In Inner Asia, pastoralists did not passively emulate agrarian imperialism, but rather selectively and adaptively produced original forms of steppe imperialism. The Xiongnu had rural settlements and cities, the population of which were mostly foreign farmers. In the Uighur empire, there existed one imperial trading mega-city, as well as a number of towns. The Khitans built large cities with gorgeous temples and palaces to house the imperial court and the emperor’s officials.
Town excavations show that cities had an international population consisting of deportees from conquered territories. The period during which the scale of the migration and deportation of people was at its peak was related to the period of the creation of Genghis Khan's Empire and the Mongolian conquests of the 13th century. During the first decades of the existence of the empire, the Mongols organized a large scale mobilization of human resources and began town-building. All this formed a basis for an unprecedented fruitful technological and cultural exchanges, and integration of cultures, religions and civilizations.
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About IIAS Lunch Lectures
Every month, an IIAS researcher or visiting scholar will present his or her work-in-progress in an informal setting to colleagues and other interested attendees. IIAS organises these lunch lectures to give the research community the opportunity to freely discuss ongoing research and exchange thoughts and ideas.