Summary The construction and application of models that order complex phenomena such as 'the world' is not a 'neutral' activity: theoretical models and ideas help us to perceive and categorize the information conveyed by experience and tradition alike; in turn, they also influence the behaviour and actions of individuals and groups. Collecting a global series of case studies on premodern societies, this volume proposes new approaches to research into premodern models of world-order and their effects. With its focus on the period between c. 1300 and 1600, it seeks to open up fresh perspectives for premodern Global History and the analysis of phenomena of transcultural contact and exchange. Focussing on religious, political, and geographical ideas and models, the contributions explore whether and how large-scale concepts influenced or even determined concrete actions. The examples include socio-religious concepts (Christianity, terra paganorum, d?r al-?arb), political concepts (empire) and geographical notions. A special section is dedicated to comparative insights into societies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, and pre-Columbian America. Taken together, the contributions underline the importance and effects of historically shaped cultural traits in the long term. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations, Acknowledgements Introduction: Creating Order and Causing Action ? Klaus Oschema and Christoph Mauntel D?r al-?arb vs terra paganorum: On the Practical Implications of Circumscribing the Sphere of the 'Infidels' ? Daniel G. K nig The Concept of Christendom: Christianitas as a Call to Action ? Nora Berend A 'Medieval Islamist' Versus an 'Arab Machiavelli'? The Legacy of the Mamluk Scholars Ibn Taym?ya (1263-1328) and Ibn Nub?ta (1287-1366) ? Albrecht Fuess The Mongol World-Order: From Universalism to Glocalization ? Michal Biran Between Universal Empire and the Plurality of Kingdoms: On the Practical Influence of Political Concepts in Late Medieval Latin Europe ? Christoph Mauntel and Klaus Oschema Imperial Geography and Fatherly Benevolence: The Chinese World Order and the Construction of its Margins ? Donatella Guida The Advent of the Black Magus: Moving towards a Continental Hierarchy ? Michael Wintle Beyond Eurasia ? the African Contribution to the Pre-Modern World: Examining the Global and the Local in the Kilwa Sultanate, East Africa ? Mark Horton Seeing Through the Rainbow: Aboriginal Australian Concepts of an Ordered Universe ?Veronica Strang Translating Otherworlds: The Encounter of Pre-Columbian and European Cosmologies in Colonial Missionary and Indigenous Texts from Highland Guatemala ? Frauke Sachse *** Index