Project Phase 4
Connecting the Regional Layers with the Center
The last phase is mainly devoted to finalizing and to writing. The results of the previous three phases, - political structures, network of the elites, and economic foundations - will be connected with the imperial caliphal politics in the centers in Damascus/Wasit, and Baghdad/Samarra, as the broker of regional politics and interests. The study of political sources, elite movements and networks, and economic foundations, produces a wealth of geographical data. At the end, with the final publication, we will have a new model for the functioning of pre-modern empire on Hellenistic-Roman-Iranian foundations. In contrast to the conventional model of an empire founded on a religious revelation, the project attempts a more realistic image of an empire founded on the regions and the brokering and management abilities of the caliphate and its various elites.