Introduction

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. Editorial Ingrid Hartl and Walter Pohl Africa 500-1000. New Perspectives for historical and archaeological research Guest editors: Roland Steinacher, Paolo Tedesco and Philipp Margreiter Africa 500-1000. Introduction Roland Steinacher and Philipp Margreiter A New Age of Saint Augustine? Antoine-Adolphe Dupuch, François Bourgade, and the Christians of North Africa (1838-1858) Bonnie Effros A Subaltern’s View of Early Byzantine Africa?: Reading Corippus as History Andy Merrills Islamizing Berber Lifestyles Elizabeth Fentress The Umayyad Dynasty and the Western Maghreb. A Transregional Perspective Isabel Toral Maritime Trade from 3rd/9th-century Ifrīqiya: Insights from Legal Sources Antonia Bosanquet Africa’s Transitions to the Middle Ages Paolo Tedesco Gobal Epigraphy II. Perception and Representation of the Foreign Guest editor: Andreas Rhoby Introduction Andreas Rhoby Identification by Architectural Shape. Sarcophagi of Indigenous People and Foreigners in Roman Imperial Lycia Oliver Hülden Imaginations of Barbarians and Barbarian Lands in the Latin Verse Inscriptions Peter Kruschwitz “Foreign(er)”, “Strange(r)” and “Extraordinary”: xenos and its Meanings in Byzantine (Metrical) Inscriptions Andreas Rhoby From Genova to Yangzhou? Funerary Monuments for Europeans in Yuan China and their Paleographic Analysis Eva Caramello and Romedio Schmitz-Esser Alieness in Inscriptions and Alien Inscriptions.