Meeting Ibn al-Dawadari, meeting P.M. Holt (12/23/2022)- by Gowaart Van Den Bossche On a 15th of August, likely some time in the mid-1980s, the English historian P.M. Holt took a train from Oxford to London Paddington station. He lived in Oxford and was a lecturer at the… Read more
A germaphobe and his quest for 15th century Arabic manuscripts (12/8/2020)- By Mohamed Maslouh In this blog post, I will try to walk the reader through our work in the manuscripts part of the Mamlukization of the Mamluk Sultanate II (MMSII) project. This part of the project has several aspects as… Read more
Exploring SNA in Islamic Medieval History: old tools for new approaches (9/22/2020)- By Zacharie Mochtari de Pierrepont Last April, I delivered an online audio/video presentation at the University of Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris, entitled Social Network analysis in Islamic Medieval History. The goal of the presentation was to introduce to specialists of… Read more
Me and Ibn Taghrībirdī (1410-1470): The Intersecting Trajectories of a Court-Historian and a Young Researcher (5/12/2020)- By Rihab Ben Othmen Beyond the many stories recounted about him who really was Ibn Taghrībirdī? This is, actually, one of the central questions that set off my three-year research journey exploring the fifteenth century Egyptian historian: Abū al-Maḥāsin Ibn… Read more
Burhān al-Dīn al-Biqāʿī: A Controversial Man (5/11/2020)- by Kenneth Goudie I have spent the better part of two and a half years working on how the life and career of Burhān al-Dīn Ibrāhīm b. ʿUmar al-Biqāʿī (809/1406–885/1480), a historian and Qurʾān exegete active in fifteenth-century Cairo, influenced… Read more
Ibn ʿArabshāh: The Itinerant Son Returns (3/18/2020)- by Mustafa Banister “Then, leaving Samarqand, Tamerlane hastened to Syria, taking with him the leaders of his army, and taking delight with that great company, journeyed in the beginning of the year 802/1399, and poured with that deluge from the… Read more
Establishing our DAWLA: The long journey to a podcast (12/13/2019)- By Kenneth Goudie In October 2019, we launched DAWLA: New Histories of the Medieval Middle East. Our first two episodes are available here and here, and in lieu of an episode this month–we are all very, very busy preparing for… Read more
Space, Time, and Movement (in Athens) (10/28/2019)- By Mustafa Banister Space, Time, and Movement (in Athens)[1] “Try to create something original, you’re in for a surprise.” –Bob Dylan[2] Did you know that the Ottomans made the Parthenon into a mosque? Twice actually. The first time- not long… Read more
“Dialogues of Faith and Food” (9/2/2019)- By Zacharie Mochtari de Pierrepont Last February, I was invited to an international conference called « Légendes and Pèlerinages » (Legends and Pilgrimage), organized by Saint Joseph University (USJ), in Beirut. The main thematics of this conference were centered on sainthood, rituals… Read more
From a Project-Specific Database to an Open Access Digital Humanities Database (6/26/2019)- By Maya Termonia In a few days we are about to launch the new Islamic Open History Dataplatform (IHODP) which was developed as part of the project: Mamlukisation of the Mamluk Sultanate II: Historiography, Political Order and State Formation in… Read more