Edinburgh University Press Climate Changes, Plagues and Wars: The Crisis of the Fourteenth Century in the Afro-Eurasian Context (Encounters in the Middle East and Asia)

Expands the study of the Crisis of the Fourteenth Century beyond its conventional Eurocentric focus Approaches the 'crisis of the fourteenth century' by bringing together thus-far neglected topics and case studies Includes new data and analyses from the field of climatology and environmental studies Makes historical connections between non-European political upheavals and trans-continental pandemic typically not considered in historical studies of the fourteenth-century crisis Provides a global dimension to the fourteenth-century crisis Corrects the conventional Eurocentric perspective by focusing on Asia and the Middle East (Afro-Eurasia) The Crisis of the Fourteenth Century has been regarded as a turning-point in world history, but it has typically only been approached from a European perspective. This volume expands that view by focusing on Asia and the Middle East (Afro-Eurasia) and by including environmental approaches that recognise the shifts in the Eurasian socio-ecological regime from the Medieval Climate Anomaly to the Little Ice Age. It therefore positions this period of history within three interrelated contexts – climate change, political upheaval outside Europe and a transcontinental pandemic – making historical connections typically not considered in studies of the Crisis. Bringing together thus-far neglected topics and case studies, and based on new sources and palaeo-scientific data, this book analyses the Crisis through an interdisciplinary lens. This intersection of climatology, environmental studies and history adds a long-awaited global dimension to the existing scholarship.