This is one of a very select few to pioneer comparisons between the great historical empires of agrarian societies, such as the Roman, Mughal and Ottoman empires, and others. In 14 chapters, all of them explicitly comparative, a group of leading historians, sociologists and anthropologists illuminate tributary empires from diverse perspectives ranging from the character of the state and fiscal organisation, to imperial households, royal rituals, provincial societies as well as shared historiographical traditions and tropes.