For most students in medieval studies, Eastern Europe is marginal and East European topics simply exotica. A peculiar form of Orientalism may thus be responsible for the exclusion of the Avars, Bulgars, Khazars, and Cumans from the medieval history of the European continent. This collection of studies is an attempt to stimulate research in a comparative mode and to open up a broader discussion about such key themes as material culture, ethnicity, historical memory, or conversion in the context of social and political developments in early medieval Europe. Another goal of this volume is to introduce a number of new approaches to the study of what is known as "medieval nomads." Without explicitly rejecting the model of raid vs. trade famously introduced by Anatoly Khazanov, many contributions in this volume shift the emphasis on internal developments that have received until now little or no attention.
Contributors are: Tivadar Vida, Peter Stadler, Peter Somogyi, Uwe Fiedler, Orsolya Heinrich-Tamaska, Bartlomiej Szymon Szmoniewski, Florin Curta, Valeri Iotov, Veselina Vachkova, Tsvetelin Stepanov, Dimitri Korobeinikov, and Victor Spinei.