"medieval worlds" provides a forum for comparative, interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. Its aim is to overcome disciplinary boundaries, regional limits and national research traditions in Medieval Studies, to open up new spaces for discussion, and to help developing global perspectives. We focus on the period from c. 400 to 1500 CE but do not stick to rigid periodization.
medieval worlds is open to submissions of broadly comparative studies and matters of global interest, whether in single articles, companion papers, smaller clusters, or special issues on a subject of global/comparative history. We particularly invite studies of wide-ranging connectivity or comparison between different world regions.

Apart from research articles, medieval worlds publishes ongoing debates and project and conference reports on comparative medieval research.


In this volume guest editors Q. Edward Wang 王晴佳 and Li Longguo 李隆国 present articles pertaining to empires in phases of change. The empires under discussion are the late Quin/Han, Tang and Song Dynasties, Medieval Nomadic Empires, the Roman Empire and the Merovingian and Carolingian Dynasties. The authors focus on the ways that imperial power was exercised, delineated, consolidated, represented and expressed in times of power transitions or ruptures.

Many of the contributions were originally published by our guest editors in a Chinese volume entitled Duanlie yu zhuanxing: diguo zhihou de OuYa lishi yu shixue, 断裂与转型：帝国之后的欧亚历史与史学 [Between Empires: Rupture, Transformation and Transmission], (Shanghai, 2017). Some authors replaced their papers with new ones, while many reworked their original versions. The entire volume will be published in two instalments. The first in December 2024, the second in early 2025.

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