Introduction

From material culture to textual sources and pedagogical theory, and from East Asia to East Africa, ‘Global Byzantium’ has inspired all of the scholars to explore these emerging possibilities. Application to the study of Byzantium is evident. It was an empire that held colonised territories and instituted policies of integration highly recognisable in the wider history of empire. The act of looking backwards at the many ways in which the global history of Byzantium as an empire has been explored and narrated is important not just in order to detect the biases and omissions within our practice and our source base. The history of the Byzantine Empire is particularly effective as a means to connect the ancient and modern worlds. To realise the full potential of Byzantine studies to confront, nuance, and critique the assumptions of the present, the only way is global.