Powers, cultures and societies of the steppes in a West-Eurasian context (Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran)

This symposium aims to reassess the historical and cultural role of nomadic societies of steppe origin in the West-Eurasian space (Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran, northwestern Indian subcontinent). While these societies and the powers that emanated from them have hitherto mostly been perceived as factors of destabilization and marginalization in the region, recent historiographical and anthropological developments challenging the tribal paradigm are shedding new light on them. As part of this renewal, the colloquium aims to define the contours of a sophisticated steppe culture and to highlight its central and structuring character in Western Eurasia, from a diachronic perspective. It will foster an interdisciplinary dialogue by bringing together researchers from the fields of history, archaeology, anthropology, philology and art history, around themes such as migrations, social structures, cultural interactions and the power dynamics exercised by elites of nomadic origin.

Program

Wednesday, April 15

10:00-10:15 - Introduction

Simon Berger (Inalco - CeRMI)

10:15-11:15 - Panel 1: Mémoire et transmission sur la longue durée - Memory and Transmission in the "Longue Durée".

Moderation: Agnes Korn (CNRS - CeRMI)

Étienne de la Vaissière (EHESS - CETOBaC): "Scripts between Afghanistan and the steppe"

Alessandro Monsutti (IHEID Geneva - Department of Anthropology and Sociology): "Lineage memory and factional struggle in southern Hazarajat, Afghanistan"

11:15am-11:45am Break - Coffee Break

11:45am-12:45pm - Panel 2: Les steppes ouest-eurasiatiques : espaces et environnements - The West Eurasian Steppes: Spaces and Environments

Moderation : Arezou Azad (Inalco / Oxford University - CeRMI / ERC Invisible East)

Camille Rhoné-Quer (AMU - IREMAM) : "The steppe erased by the Ghaznavid court? The example of Bayhaqī's History"

Simon Berger (Inalco - CeRMI): "The Pastures of the Mongol Armies in Khorasan and Afghanistan: A Tentative Reassessment"

12:45-14:30 Lunch - Lunch

14:30-15:30 - Panel 3: Entre itinérances nomades et cités - Between Nomadic Mobility and the City

Moderation: Maria Szuppe (CNRS - CeRMI)

Safa Mahmoudian (Universität Wien - Institut für Orientalistik): "Trellis Tents in Motion: Circulation and Transformation from Central Asia to Khorasan and Lower Mesopotamia"

Katie Campbell (University of Cambridge - King's College / University of Oxford - Department of Lifelong Learning) : "The Mongol Conquest and Rule in Central Asia: An Archaeological Perspective"

Michele Bernardini (Università di Napoli "L'Orientale"): "Timur the nomad and his sedentary aspirations"

4pm-4:30pm Break - Coffee Break

4pm-5pm - Panel 4 : Gens des steppes et construction étatique - Steppe Peoples and State-Building

Moderation: Marc Toutant (CNRS - CETOBaC)

Nabi Saqee (Oxford University - ERC Invisible East): "The presence and role of Turkic elements and figures in the Ghurid Sultanate"

Ali Anooshahr (University of California, Davis - Department of History): "The early career of Muhammad Shibani in Bana'i's Shibani'namah"

5pm-18:30pm Discussions - Open Discussion

19:30pm Dinner - Dinner

Thursday, April 16

9h30-11h - Panel 5: Mouvements et migrations - Movements and Migrations

Moderation: Étienne de la Vaissière (EHESS - CETOBaC)

Christopher Atwood (Pennsylvania University - Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations): "From Mongolia to Afghanistan-and Back Again: The Origin and Fate of the Serbi-Hefthalite Union"

Dilnoza Duturaeva (University of York - Department od History) : "Between Turkistan and Tibet: A Qarakhanid Prince in Tsongkha?"

Jahongir Ostonov Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan - Al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies) : "The impact of Dzungarian expansion on migratory processes in Central Asia"

11am-11:30am Break - Coffee Break

11:30am-12:30pm - Panel 6 : Norms, Hierarchies and the Persistence of the Steppe Heritage - Norms, Hierarchies, Steppe Persistences

Moderation: Simon Berger (Inalco - CeRMI)

Danielle Zwarthoed (EHESS - CETOBaC): "Justice, the sharīʿa and the "customs of foreigners" in the empire of the last Timurids: discourses and practices"

Carole Ferret (CNRS - LAS): "Mon royaume, ce sont mes chevaux! Equine herds as vectors of distinction among the Kazakhs (XIXth-XXIst centuries)"

12:30-14:30 Conclusion and Lunch - Conclusion and Lunch