孔子的世界主义与民族文化认同

孔子之仁的思想，一方面体现了道德理性的自觉，另一方面体现了人类意识的自觉。仁之“爱人”即是“爱类”，爱世界上所有的人，孔子的思想是以爱人类为中心的世界主义。在孔子的世界主义思想中又内在地包含着民族化认同的思想，对华夏化传统的认同强化了中华民族的统一意识，也促进了华夏族与少数民族的相互融合与多元互补。近代以来，孔子的世界主义与民族化认同思想得到继承并具有了新的时代内容。在当今经济全球化的浪潮中，我们应保持“国家主义与世界主义的折中”。     

Prisons before Modernity: Incarceration in the Medieval Indo-Mediterranean

Over the course of the sixth/twelfth century, a new literary genre entered the Eastern Islamic world: the Persian prison poem (?absiyyāt). Far from being an isolated event, the prison poem was forged when punishment came to be reconfigured as incarceration. This development was reflected in literary texts extending across South Asia, Azerbaijan, and continental Europe. Locating the institution of the prison outside European modernity, this study traces the material grounds for this new literary form and situates this archive globally. Concomitantly with studying the medieval literature of incarceration, it evaluates the Indo-Mediterranean as a discursive rubric for the study of pre-modern literary cultures.     

Water Supply in Medieval Middle Eastern Cities: The Case of Cairo

In spite of its location on the Nile bank, medieval Cairo suffered from serious problems of water supply because of its topography and the Nile regime that necessitated water storing. Direct canalization was not adopted to channel the Nile to inhabited quarters, either on the riverside or inland because of the dangers entailed in an uncontrolled water race during the Nile inundation. The Nile water was safely conveyed inland in canals, dammed by dikes at their mouths on the Nile before the inundation, and opened when the water level reached sixteen arms. Aqueducts and conduits carried the water from the canals to inland open reservoirs, or artificial lakes, around all of which grew residential quarters. The lake waters were transferred to cisterns and above ground tanks that were used as closed water reservoirs before distribution in the residential quarters of Cairo. Scattered in central sites within the quarters, there were the big wells and basins that received water from outside the quarter for distribution to the wells located near the houses, baths and mosque courtyards. The quarters' wells and tanks usually had a common water source and the houses' wells were interconnected by a labyrinth of underground conduits. Residences of the elite and bourgeoisie were equipped with water facilities as befitted their status. The upper middle class often rented qā‘as, exclusive residential units located on the ground floor, equipped with water systems. The lower socio-economic classes, which constituted the majority of the population, lived in standard units in residential complexes that were not equipped with running water but only with water jars. The general public regularly visited public baths for both personal hygiene and leisure, consumed commercially prepared food in the market and sent their clothes for laundering and pressing in the market.     

Euclidean Geometry in Two Medieval Islamic Encyclopaedias

Two early encyclopaedic treatises, written in Arabic, include extensive discussion of geometry. Although both the Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Safā' and the Kitāb al-Shifā' fall within the Euclidean tradition, their style and content differ radically. The Neo-Pythagorean and Neo-Platonic Ikhwān al-Safā' place mathematics at the head of their encyclopaedia, but develop their discussion of geometry using a "sub-Euclidean" approach. Ibn Sīnā, whose orientation is broadly Aristotelian, includes an epitome of Euclid's Elements in its entirety, yet modifies the text at numerous points.     

A Mediterranean of Relations for the Medieval Maghrib: Historiography in Question

References to relations between states, regions, communities and cultures have been a staple of historical thinking on the Mediterranean from the nineteenth century to the present day. Weathering changing academic trends and fashions, this vision of the Mediterranean has shaped the development of relevant historiographies, defining assumptions and approaches to an unrecognised extent. Focusing on the trajectory of this “Mediterranean of relations” in the historiography of the medieval Maghrib, this paper outlines some of the effects of its prevalence on the evolution of the concept of Mediterranean and argues for the inclusion of these considerations in the ongoing discussions around the medieval Mediterranean.     

Mastic Production in Medieval Chios: Economic Flows and Transitions in an Insular Setting

ABSTRACT

The Aegean island of Chios provides a special case of insularity during the Middle Ages, aspects of which are reflected in the production of a highly-valued product, mastic resin, which was sought after across the Mediterranean world for use in medicine, fragrances and flavourings. Produced only on the island, high-quality mastic became an iconic Chian product that highlighted the island’s uniqueness and significantly contributed to its economy. This article presents a diachronic view of mastic production in and circulation from Chios during the periods of Roman, Byzantine and Genoese rule. The widespread demand for its luxury commodity meant that the island was always active in the wider maritime networks in this period. The lens of mastic production makes these connections visible in textual, archaeological and architectural evidence that highlights the role local products played in the ways islands, like Chios, navigated the economic and political transitions of the medieval Mediterranean world.     

Trade and Textiles from Medieval Antioch

This article examines the significance of textiles called “cloth of Antioch”, which are named in late seventh/thirteenth and early eighth/fourteenth century church inventories from England. The practice of naming a type of cloth for a geographic place-name was common in this period, but did not necessarily mean that a textile with a particular name had been produced there. Antioch was a known centre of textile production, although references are scant. The English church inventories that mention Antioch cloth are from St. Paul's Cathedral, London; Canterbury Cathedral; and Exeter Cathedral. Such church inventories are a source of important information about textiles that would have been consumed in medieval England. One can associate the Antioch textiles with important individuals at court. The English royal family emphasised their associations with the city of Antioch in this period, which may explain why important members of the court donated Antioch textiles. The textiles are also mentioned in Scottish and the Vatican treasury inventories, however, which indicates that the cloth was known elsewhere, even if it did not have the same resonance in other places