The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) is holding its annual conference, one of the largest gatherings of scholars working on the history of the greater Middle East and North Africa region from Late Antiquity to the present, in the amazing city of New Orleans this November. Based on the conference program (available here or here), it looks like a particularly good year to attend, with excellent panels covering a wide range of topics and chronologies.
I’m looking forward to attending and presenting this year. My paper is titled ““The Last of the Himyarites”: Pre-Islamic Genealogy and Royal Legitimacy in the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada.” I’ll be part of a panel titled “The Vocabularies of Islamic Sovereignty: Fashioning Authority in the Medieval Maghrib and Mashriq,” which brings together scholars working on the questions of sovereignty and political legitimation during the Middle Ages. Our panel takes a comparative look at the vocabularies of sovereignty used by medieval Muslim rulers between the Central Islamic Lands and the Islamic West. It aims to disrupt the regional division between the two zones by considering parallel and shared developments in the languages of political rule. As studies on the diverse political and social worlds of premodern Muslim kings proliferate, this panel aims to engage in a horizontal conversation that considers how universal discourses were localized and adapted as specific articulations of personal propaganda. If you’re around, you’re welcome to attend.
I’ve also compiled a (partial) list of some of the medieval and early modern panels that may be of interest to the readers of this blog. It’ll give you an idea of the various type of work and intellectual trends that are redefining the study of the premodern Middle East and North Africa. If you are reading this and want me to add your own panel to the list below, let me know!
Thursday November 14th
5.30 pm
[P5742] Sufism in Medieval and Ottoman Times https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=39882611ea0ccf638f1ca89740fc7441
Chair: Madeline Zilfi, U Maryland (College Park)
Mustafa Kaya, (U Chicago)–Between Comradery and Conflict: Narratives of Encounters between Sufis in the Fifteenth Century
Caitlyn Olson, Harvard–Commanding Right Belief and Forbidding Wrong: Islamic Theology for the 10th/16th-Century Moroccan Masses
Christian Blake Pye, U Texas Austin–Tahqiq and Human Perfection: The Impact of the Philosophy of Ibn ‘Arabi on Early-Modern Sovereigns
Baris Basturk, U Arkansas–E?refo?lu Rumi: A Shaykh Between “High” and “Popular” Sufi Islam
Friday November 15th
10.15 am
[P5454] Studying the Sira in the Digital Age https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=34d5bc4dc5a017a79ca9bd7fbe592121
Chair: Claire Savina, Aga Khan Centre, London
Kevin Jaques, Indiana U–Tubba’ and How the Ka’bah Got the Kiswah: The Differing Versions in the Ibn Ishaq Sirah Tradition
Sarah Bowen Savant, Aga Khan U-ISMC–The Written Legacy of Orality: Ibn Ishaq’s Text and Its Versions
Maxim Romanov, U Vienna–Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed: Computational Analysis of Writing Practices of Islamic Scholars
[C5537] The Semantics of Slavery and Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=b332ce5f277aae78dec015e0ff1a8028
Elizabeth Urban, West Chester U
Karen Moukheiber, U Balamand
Chris PreJean, UCLA
Matthew Gordon, Miami U
Parisa Vaziri, Cornell U
Stephan Conermann, U Bonn, Germany
Hannah Barker, Arizona State U
[P5640] “Ancient” Knowledge and “New” Learning in the Early Modern Ottoman World https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=5ad29cdca5e5dd85df0f750789a1fbd3
Carlos Grenier, Florida International U–Solomon, His Temple, and Ottoman Imperial Anxieties
Tunç Sen, Columbia U–Rivalry of “Occult” Powers and Sufi Disdain for Astrologers in the Ottoman World
Side Emre, Texas A&M U–“Mystical Cosmologies” in Early Modern Ottoman Sufi Literature: An Analysis of Letters, Numbers, and Diagrams
Emin Lelic, Salisbury U–Physiognomical Roots of Early Modern Ottoman “ProtoEthnology”
[P5478] Medieval Armenian Entanglements https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=a4e9b511fdf5f08df69595990ee805eb
Tamar M. Boyadjian, Michigan State U–The “Eastern” Queen: Intersecting Representations of Armenian Princesses in Medieval Mediterranean Literature
Alison Vacca, U Tennessee–The Women and the Foreigners of Abbasid Armenia, a Study of Sasna Crer
Sergio La Porta, CSU Fresno–Hell Hath No Fury: Sexual and Communal Relations in Twelfth-Century Arts‘akh
Michael Pifer, U Michigan–“Straight Like a Minaret”: Armenian Riddles in a Mediterranean Milieu
12.30 pm
[R5653] Middle Eastern Studies Within Jewish Studies and Vice Versa https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=e75198b3f1f9a1161cdfbbaaafefabf1
Chair Mark Wagner, Louisiana State U
Alma Rachel Heckman, UC Santa Cruz
Annie Greene, U Penn
Nancy E. Berg, Washington U in St Louis
Alon Tam, U Penn
Ari Ariel, U Iowa
2.45 pm
[P5435] Approaching Enslavement in the Ottoman Empire and Crimean Khanate (16th and 17th Centuries) https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=46a5652c7dc8f2ddea80a6d50143d6ac
Suraiya Faroqhi, Ibn Haldun U, Istanbul–African Slaves in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman
Anatolia
Firat Yasa, Düzce U–Born and Bred in Seventeenth-Century Crimea: Child Slavery, Social Reality and Cultural Identity
Guel Sen, U Bonn–Galley Slavery in the Mediterranean: The Organization of Unfree Labor for the Ottoman Imperial Shipyards
Maryna Kravets, U Toronto–Sexual Violence in the Slaving Zone of the Crimean Khanate: Fact or Folklore?
[P5438] Transitions in 7th-9th century Iraq and Syria: Muslims and non-Muslims https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=407c4b1d243709fad328c9d0b3b7c430
Chair: Alison Vacca, U Tennessee
Discussant: Luke Yarbrough, UCLA
Simcha Gross, UC Irvine–From Local Community to Transregional Authorities: The Spread of Babylonian Rabbinic Influence between the Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods
Pamela Klasova, Bowdoin Col–The Foundation of Wasit: History and Memory
Michael Payne, Brown U–Zandaqa, Race, and the Reactionary Politics of al-Jahiz
Jessica Mutter, Bowdoin Col–Syriac Christian Responses to Islam: Conversion and Apostasy in the Legal Literature
[P5748] Medieval Islam and Islamic Law https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=8c628d3aaf9292af73354cb0e975fa69
Sami Al Daghistani, Columbia U–Environmental and Economic Ethics: Revisiting the Islamic Tradition
Evan Metzger, UCLA–Not All Zakat Is Equal: Zakat and Legality in Mamluk Egypt
Yasser Sultan, Georgetown U–Space & Gender in Islamic Law: The Early Discourses
Mariam Sheibani, Harvard–Innovation, Borrowing, and the ‘Anxiety of Influence’ in Mamluk Legal Thought: The Case of Ibn ‘Abd al-Salam and al-Qarafi’s Canon Collections
Mohammed Al Dhfar, U Nottingham–Tafsir and the Conflict of the Empires in the 14th Century: Al-Subki on al-Zamakhshari’s Kashshaf
5.00 pm
[P5391] Modes and Methods of Manuscript Publication in the Early Modern Period: The Ottoman, Safavid, and European Realms https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=22b5f0a0c7de0b2086e25cc679268ce3
Chair/Discussant: John Curry, U Nevada Las Vegas
Aslihan Gurbuzel, McGill U–Manuscript as Family Archive: Notes on the Life of an ‘Ulama Family in Early Modern Ottoman Bursa
Evren Sunnetcioglu, Central European U– From Archival Documents to a Reference Book of Jurisprudence: A Culture of Compiling Legal Opinions in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
Melis Taner, Özyeğin U–An “Elegant” Compilation
Paul Babinski, Princeton–Haqvirdi’s Manuscripts: A Persian Amanuensis in Early Modern Europe
[P5573] Slavery, Power, and the State in the Premodern Islamic World
https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=c2294591111b8a0cc9306580011278ed
Chair: Matthew Gordon, Miami U
Craig Perry, Emory U–Nubia, the Buja, and the Slave Trade at the Frontiers of Medieval Egypt
Hannah Barker, Arizona State U–Flight, Apostasy, Murder: Resistance by Elite Slaves in the Mamluk Era
Thomas A. Carlson, Oklahoma State U–Enslaving Dhimmis: Rulers, Fiqh, and Religious Diversity in Late Medieval Türkmen States
Baki Tezcan, UC Davis–Empowering the Emasculated: Arabic and Turkish Literary Sources on African Eunuchs
[P5585] Magical Materialities: Toward A History of (Occult) Technology in the Islamicate World from the 13th to the 21st Century https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=48c77ee980a005cc944e4eba45188f08
Chair: Side Emre, Texas A&M U
Taylor M. Moore, Rutgers U–Occult(ed) Ontologies
Noah Gardiner, U South Carolina–Are Islamic Books of Magic Magical Books? Materiality and Textuality in Medieval Arabic Occult Texts
Nicholas Harris, U Penn–Becoming a Time-Lord: Later Islamicate Alchemy as a Technology of Time
Matthew Melvin-Koushki, U South Carolina–Talismans as Technology: The Construction and Operation of Magical Machines in Early Modern Persian Grimoires and Chronicles
Alireza Doostdar, U Chicago–Sensing Jinn
Saturday November 16th
8.30 am
[P5552] The Vocabularies of Islamic Sovereignty: Fashioning Authority in the Medieval Maghrib and Mashriq https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=262f69b805ca7b00e284fd7fc90bf060
Discussant: Sara Nur Yildiz, Max-Planck Inst for History of Science
Jonathan Brack, Hebrew U–“The King’s Speech”: The Muslim, Persian, Buddhist and Mongolian Contexts of the Ilkhan Öljeitü’s Questions
Mohamad Ballan, Stony Brook U–“The Last of the Himyarites”: Pre-Islamic Genealogy and Royal Legitimacy in the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada (1238–1492)
Ali Karjoo-Ravary, Bucknell U–Muhammad’s Song, Firaydun’s Wine: Language and Kingship in 14th Century Anatolia
Enass Khansa, AUB–From Damascus to Córdoba: Kinship and the Construction of the Umayyad Caliphal Model
[P5767] Pre-Modern Minorities https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=da78643aef7de2480cad0a7254d6b2ba
Chair: Saghar Sadeghian, Willamette U
Sona Tajiryan, UCLA–Indian Diamonds for Mediterranean Coral: A Global Armenian Family Firm of Gem Merchants in Early Modern Safavid Iran
Armen Abkarian, U Michigan–“HumanFaced Beasts”: Racial Depictions of the Mongols in Armenian Manuscript Colophons
Luis Salés, Scripps Col–Systems-Intelligent Microbehaviors and ‘Abbasid-Era Syriac Christian Courtroom Manuals: An Unexpected Angle on Early Christian-Muslim Relations
Susan Abraham, U Virginia–Ink, Agency, and the Writing of Truth in a Seventeenth Century Morisco Text
11 am
[P5432] Geographical Cognizance of the Indian Ocean in West Eurasian Scientific and Political Practices, 700-1700 https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=6fadfc0748a1ea19e139128c2f36a762
Chair/Discussant: Zayde Antrim, Trinity Col
Hyunhee Park, John Jay Col and Graduate Center CUNY –Mapping India in West Asia during the 7th through 14th Centuries
Kaveh Hemmat, Benedictine U–The Geography of Kingship in Persian Epics, 1000–1400
Malika Dekkiche, U Antwerp–“A World of Kings and Realms”: Mamluk Diplomacy and the Spatial Turn
Pinar Emiralioglu, Sam Houston State U–Indian Ocean in Early Modern Ottoman Geographical and Imperial Consciousness
[P5442] The Dialogic Persianate: Historical Models of Literary Production and Cultural Exchange (1700-1950) https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=d5cbd657e61b2aad5bad9cbff96e3622
Chair: Aria Fani, UC Berkeley
Discussant: Domenico Ingenito, UCLA
C. Ryan Perkins, Stanford–The Vernacular Strikes Back: Pashto and Tales from the Other Side
Nathan Tabor, Western Michigan U–The Necklace of the Pleiades: Uncharted Rekhtah and Persian Literary History in a 1780s Tazkirah
Aria Fani, UC Berkeley–Eqterah and the Proliferation of Adabiyat as a New Discourse of Literature in Iran and Afghanistan (1916-1949)
Mana Kia, Columbia U–The Imprint of History: Sociality and Commemoration between Empires
[P5566] Ibn Khaldun in the Ottoman Empire https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=7deea1a28d46434e51418e365617508a
Chair: Vefa Erginbas, Providence Col
Kenan Inan, Avrasya U–Tursun Bey’s Tarih-i Ebü’l-Feth (1488) and Ibn-i Haldun’s Mukaddime
Vefa Erginbas, Providence Col–Ibn Khaldunism in the Seventeenth Century: Khaldunian Concepts in Katip Celebi’s “Fadhlaka”
Uygar Aydemir, Üsküdar U–Mahmud Nedim Pasha’s “Ayine-i Devlet” as a Modern Khaldunian Political Credo
Madeleine Elfenbein, U Göttingen– Namik Kemal and Ibn Khaldunism in an Age of Nationalist Historiography
Yeliz Cavus, Ohio State U–Between Ibn Khaldunism and Ottoman Exceptionalism: Abdurrahman Seref Efendi’s “Tarih-i Devlet-I Osmaniyye” (“History of the Ottoman State”)
[P5652] Race in the Middle East and North Africa: “Blackness” in Literature, Media, and Legal Scholarship https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=f5f4e0ef3b1d6f349b8a2f25bc3f6315
Razan Idris, U Penn–Blackness and Marriage in al-Mudawwana: A History of Maliki Legal Interpretation
Sara Seweid-DeAngelis, U Minnesota–Blackness in Medieval Arabic Literature: Deviance and Animality in “Alf Layla W Layla”
3 pm
[R5419] An Encyclopaedic Collection of Early Modern Knowledge: The Library Inventory of Bayezid II https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=3a6edaa73c5dcb57909a39c6fbf71e9a
Chair: Gulru Necipoglu, Harvard
Cornell Hugh Fleischer, U Chicago
Cemal Kafadar, Harvard
Noah Gardiner, U South Carolina
Tunç Sen, Columbia U
Guy Burak, NYU
Murteza Bedir, Istanbul U
Nukhet Varlik, Boğaziçi U-Newark
Pinar Emiralioglu, Sam Houston State U
Sooyong Kim, Koç U
Nikolay Antov, U Arkansas
Aleksandar Shopov, Max Planck Inst for the History of Science
Himmet Taskomur, Harvard
[P5480] Intersections of Sufism and Law in the Maghreb and Mashreq https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=8ea9eb3b3445b7157fefd1e28dcf9baf
Chair: Nina Safran, Penn State U
Discussant: Jamal J. Elias, U Penn
Nathan Hofer, U Missouri–Bureaucratic Sufism in the Ayyubid and Mamluk Sultanates
Elias Saba, Grinnell Col–Sufis and Sufism in the Jamal al-Din al-Asnawi’s Biographical Dictionary
Carolyn Baugh, Gannon U–Ibn Khaldun’s Fatwa on Sufism: The Shifa’ al-sa’il fi tahdhib al-masa’il
Kameliya Atanasova, Washington & Lee U–Ibn ‘Abbad’s Fatwa on the Prophet’s Birthday: An Example of Sufi-Legal Discourse in Fourteenth-Century Maghreb
Matthew Ingalls, American U in Dubai–Reconstructing Sixteenth-Century Sufism through the Fatwas of Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (d. 974/1567)
[P5489] The Ottoman Capitulations “revisited:” new approaches and new perspectives on a much-discussed Ottoman institution https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=76a7886e1dbf3319d04115a77a95f544
Chair: Joshua White, U Virginia
Tommaso Stefini, Yale–An Ottoman Institution or Part of a Mediterranean-Wide Tradition of Charters for Foreign Merchants? The Ottoman Capitulations in a Comparative Perspective (16th-Century)
Ana Sekulic, Princeton–The Making of an Ottoman Document: Tracing the History of the Franciscan Ahdname, 16th-19th Century
Ian Hathaway, European U Inst–Permits, Passes, and the Capitulations. A Comparative View of Travel Papers and Practices from the Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire
[P5561] The Dimensions of Sacred Sound: Historicizing the Various Lives of the Islamic Call to Prayer in the Medieval World https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=5a5c94c7a3df71fc7b4b9884f23fc82a
Chair: Laura Thompson, Harvard
Discussant: Lisa Nielson, Case Western Reserve U
Sihem Lamine, Harvard–Minarets in Times of Discord in Fatimid Tunisia
Ali Asgar Alibhai, U Texas Dallas (EODIAH)–Melodies of Power: Understanding Sacred Sound and the Demarcation of Space in Almohad Andalus and the Maghrib
[P5572] Revisiting Rome in the Medieval Middle East https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=061e0676aff57c3a5b12e34186931c14
Mohammed Allehbi, Vanderbilt U–Parallels in Criminal Justice: The Abbasids and Imperial Rome
Alexander Brey, Wellesley Col–A Tale of Two Tents: Roman-Byzantine Tents in Umayyad Visual Culture
Emily Selove, U Exeter–Donkeys across Time and Space: Some Shared Features of Roman and Medieval Arabic Literature
Jordan Pickett, U Georgia–Roman and Byzantine Hydraulic Infrastructure Survivals in the Umayyad Levant
Salam Rassi, U Oxford–The Figure of Heraclius in Medieval Arabic Alchemical Literature
[P5770] Ottoman Politics, Governance, and Authority https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=4958915806f6adf6ad48176b08db0391
Chair: Carter V. Findley, Ohio State U
Doga Ozturk, Ohio State U–Ottoman Orders and Medals in Egypt: Symbols of Ottoman Consciousness, 1841-1909
Ashley Sanders Garcia, UCLA–Dependent Power: Ottoman Governors and Algerian Elites in Constantine, 1567-1837
Gunes Murat Tezcur, U Central Florida and Yusuf Magiya, Columbia U–Provincial Power & Representation: An In-depth Analysis of the Ottoman and Turkish Governors between 1876 and 2014
Peter Kitlas, Princeton–Ragusa in the Middle?: Exploring 18th Century Diplomatic Mediations between Morocco and the Ottoman Empire
Charles Wilkins, Wake Forest U–Mustafa b. Taha (d. 1681) and the Rise of the Urban Notables of Aleppo
5.30 pm
[P5504] Between Damascus and Delhi: travelers and pilgrims in the early modern Middle East and Indian Ocean https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=ac99b75ef65a823c82768e02c52c8506
Discussant: A. Azfar Moin, U Texas Austin
Jyoti G. Balachandran, Penn State U–From Nahrawal to Mecca and Istanbul: The Networks of a Muslim Intellectual
Nir Shafir, UC San Diego–When is a Travelogue Not a Travelogue? Early Modern Arabic Travelogues in the Ottoman Empire
Rishad Choudhury, Oberlin Col–Pilgrim Passages: Tradition and Transition in the South Asian Hajj
[P5747] Medieval Islamic History and Thought https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=488022b0658bcabe2997afaf072f433c
Chair: Christian Mauder, Yale
Brian J. Ulrich, Shippensburg U–The Qualities of a Sayyid: A Case of Bedouin Ideals and Cultural Construction in the Ninth Century
Rachel T. Howes, CSU Northridge–The Great Crisis: The Political, Environmental, Intellectual, and Social Dimensions of the Egyptian Famine and Civil War of 1058-1074CE
Elaine van Dalen, Columbia U–Should Physicians Theorize? Ibn Rushd’s Redefinition of the Medical Discipline
Kaveh Niazi, Stanford Online High School–Rhetoric and Power: Political Expediency in Tusi’s Risala-yi Muiniya
Tamer El-Leithy, Johns Hopkins U–The Various Traces of Moral Regulation: New Evidence on the Damascus Fire of 1340
Sunday November 17th
8.30 am
[P5642] Networks of Knowledge and Connectivity in the Early Modern Mediterranean and the Near East https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=1c7913081e1f1ef11adf252154e847ef
Samet Budak, U Michigan–Reframing Intellectual History of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Middle Ages: Intellectual Networks and Epistemological Commonalities
Emire Cihan Yuksel, U Houston–Fifteenth Century Ottoman-Mamluk Networks: Trade and Knowledge
Ertugrul Okten, Istanbul 29 Mayis U–A 14th Century Scholar in Mecca: Imam al-Yafi‘i (d. 768/1367) and His Circle
Abdurrahman Atcil, Istanbul Sehir U–The Kanun Laws and Sharia Courts in Egypt during the Mamluk-Ottoman Transition (1517–1524)
11.00 am
[P5455] The Figuration of Elites during the Mamluk Period: Fresh Approaches https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=df2baae737348b4972d26dde994f3fe2
Chair/Discussant: Stephan Conermann, U Bonn
Florian Saalfeld, U Bonn–The Awlad alNas and Their Agency: Tracing a Neglected Elite
Christian Mauder, Yale–The Participation of Mamluks in Arabo-Islamic Scholarship: How Did it Develop, and Why Did it Take Place at All?
Mohammad Gharaibeh, U Bonn–When Intellectual and Political Collide. The Rise and Fall of the Muqaddima of Ibn al-Salah (d. 643/1245) in Damascus under the Mamluks
Anna Kollatz, U Bonn–A Son of the Mamluks Writes History: Locating Ibn Iyas al-Hanafi
[P5498] Contested Modes of Islamic Leadership https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=6b7e072327fbff3c197494b0c77c3134
Chair: John Walbridge, Indiana U
SeyedAmir Asghari, Indiana U–Qāḍī Ṭabāṭabā’ī as a (Hidden) Sufi Master in the Shi’a Seminary
Neset Ulusal, Indiana U Bloomington–A Shaykh in the Ottoman Palace: Ismail Haqqi Bursawi’s Struggle against Moral Decline, Corruption, and Injustice
Andi Herawati, Indiana U Bloomington– Sufi Women in America: Innovation and Adaptation in Muslim’s Spirituality Today
Alexander Shepard, Indiana U Bloomington–Intra-Shi’ite Polemics in Kulayni’s “Usul Al-Kafi”
[P5635] Women as Patrons and Producers of the Islamic Sciences https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=afdf2ae14c613e1296a37847390fc892
Chair/Discussant: Behnam Sadeghi, Oxford U
Yasmin Amin, Exeter U–Umm Salamah: A Female Authority Legitimating the Authorities
Yusuf Unal, Emory U–Princesses, Patronage, and the Production of Knowledge in Safavid Iran
Edith Szanto, American U Iraq, Sulaimani–The ‘Alimat of Sayyida Zaynab: Female Shi’i Religious Authority in a Syrian Seminary
Mirjam Kuenkler, NIAS–Women Islamic Scholars and Jurists in Shi’i Lands
1 pm
[P5535] Ulamalogy and the Arabic Biographical Tradition https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=128f403bd58aadbc204208385af58451
Chair/Discussant: Nancy Khalek, Brown U
Rich Heffron, U Chicago–Recovering the History of Early Islamic Hims: A Reconstruction and Analysis of Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Baghdadi’s (d. Late 3rd/9th C.) “Ta’rikh al-Himsiyyin” and `Abd al-Samad b. Sa`id al-Himsi’s (d. 324/936) Ta’rikh Hims
Nebil Husayn, U Miami–Al-Ka’bi, Josef van Ess and the Preservation of Early Mu’tazili Tabaqat
Arafat A. Razzaque, U Cambridge–Scandal and the Making of Biographical Narrative: Ibn Aktham between Theology and Personality
Jeremy Farrell, Emory U–When Did Sufis Ally with Shafiˋis? A Network Analysis of Multiple Prosopographical Traditions
[P5558] Syria in Transition from Mamluk to Ottoman in the Late 15th – Early 16th Centuries https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=a9bec504a645c7c5e72d5bcdf330a0ec
Chair: Guel Sen, U Bonn
Discussant: Adam Sabra, UC Santa Barbara
Timothy J. Fitzgerald, James Madison U–Of Renegades and Renaissance Men: Ludovico di Varthema (d. 1517) in Late Mamluk Damascus
Wakako Kumakura, Research Inst for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa–Land Holding and Financial Activities of the Awlād al-Nās: Continuity and Change during the Transition Period
Aleksandar Shopov, Max Planck Inst for the History of Science–Agricultural Manuscripts and the Mobility of Agricultural Science and Practice between Cairo, Damascus, and Istanbul around 1500
Linda T. Darling, U Arizona–A Changing Geopolitical Role for a New Ottoman Province: The Mamluk-Ottoman Transition in Syria
[P5606] Undone Jinns and Dragons: The Limits of the Human and the Borders of the Other in Medieval Islamicate Literatures https://mesana.org/mymesa/meeting_program_session.php?sid=4660a3ce7551299f63e5c46eb843175e
Allison Kanner, U Chicago–Women of Paradise: Houris of the Qur’an and Early Islamicate Romance
Samantha Pellegrino, U Chicago–Gender, Magic, and Ontology in the Sirat Sayf bin Dhi Yazan
Alexandra Hoffmann, U Chicago–The Monster within: Sexuality in Iranshah b. Abi Khayr’s Kushnameh
Samuel W Lasman, U Chicago–Snakemen: The Anthropomorphic Dragons of Persian Epic
Ballandalus 