The World

NOTE

This is a work of synthesis, the product of a lifetime’s reading, using primary sources wherever possible. Each subject here has a vast historiography, so to save space I list in the Bibliography the main works used in each section.

Names matter: ‘things in actual fact’, suggested Confucius, ‘should be made to accord with the implications attached to them by names’. The traditional academic style is to Hellenize eastern dynasties, e.g. Genghis Khan’s Genghizids. Unless they are actually Greek (Seleucids), I try to use their own names for themselves: I call Persian Achaemenids, Haxamanishiya; the Abbasids, Abbasiya. I try to avoid neologisms – mostly using Romaioi instead of Byzantines, Hattian instead of Hittite. I try to avoid anglicizing everything: French kings are François, Spanish kings Enrique. But if they are well known, I use the familiar: Cyrus, not Kouresh, Pompey, not Pompeius. In Ottoman times, I generally use Turkish rather than Arabic: Mehmed Ali instead of Muhammad Ali, even though this will displease Egyptians. I use Türkiye instead of Turkey: if ever there was an example of Eurocentric misspelling, it is that. For Chinese rulers, I use either their given name (Liu Che) or their posthumous title (Emperor Wu or Wudi); for the Ming and Qing, I use era names (the Kangxi Emperor, thereafter Kangxi).

For geographical context, I cite modern states, but this can be confusing: the Kingdom of Dahomey was in today’s Republic of Benin (not the Republic of Dahomey); the Kingdom of Benin was in Nigeria (not the Republic of Benin).

The chrononyms of world history are world-sized – Stone, Dark and Axial Ages, Great Opening and Renaissance, and a lot of revolutions; many now seem reductionist, old-fashioned and clichéd. But it is the historian’s job to classify and some of these are clichés because they are largely true.

Apologies for all inconsistencies.