The Globalization of Baghdad: An Imperial Capital and Its Global Entanglements

The Hong Kong Jockey Club University of Chicago Academic Complex | The University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong
168 Victoria Road
Mount Davis, Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong SAR

This lecture will explore the connections between Western Asia and China, circa 700-1100 CE, and their impact on perceptions of global entanglement in the primary metropole of the Islamic world, Baghdad. It will focus on shifting routes of trans-Asian trade, continental and oceanic, especially after the emergence of Baghdad as the most important market for goods and services in the Western Eurasia from its foundation in 762. Its foundation at a nexus of Indian Ocean commercial networks precipitated a profound reorientation of long-distance commerce. The globalization of Baghdad was no less a question of the demand of an early Islamic commercial economy for commodities from across Asia.

Professor Richard Payne of the University of Chicago has curated the mini-series “Silk Road Imaginaries” and brought together scholars of the polities and cultures traditionally associated with the Silk Road in order to theorize premodern representations of the circulation of commodities and concepts within cosmopolitan economies.

Our speaker, Professor Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London, will consider how the elites of Baghdad – whether as rulers, merchants, or consumers – perceived their participation in a globalized economy and, especially, the role of governmental and commercial institutions in its development. Professor James Morton, Associate Professor of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, will also be in this conversation.
 

Organized by the Silk Road Imaginaries research project at the Neubauer Collegium in partnership with the University of Chicago Campus in Hong Kong.

Speaker:
Hugh Kennedy
Professor of Arabic
Department of History, School of History, Religions and Philosophies
School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
SOAS, University of London
 

Interlocutors:
Richard Payne
Associate Professor of History, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, ISAC, and the College
The University of Chicago

James Morton
Associate Professor
Department of History
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Yexuan Chen
Assistant Professor, Department of History
Sun Yat-sen University
 

In-person event
Program
5:30 – 6:00 pm      Refreshments
6:00 - 6:40 pm      Talk by Professor Hugh Kennedy
6:40 - 7:10 pm       Q&A session moderated by Professor Richard Payne
7:10 pm                  Event ends

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