SMS Conference

Mamluk Studies Resources

The Middle East Documentation Center at The University of Chicago

Papers presented at the
Fourth Conference of the School of Mamluk Studies
American University of Beirut,
May 11-13, 2017

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Thursday, May 11

Welcome Address

John Meloy, conference organizer and host (https://youtu.be/pSuM4l5snDY)

Time, part 1

Chair: Syrinx von Hees (Münster University)

Fien De Block (Ghent University), “Al-zīj al-jadīd as an Instrument for Timekeeping in Early Fifteenth-Century Cairo” (https://youtu.be/fPKnca4RKGc)
Jan Hagedorn (St. Andrews University), “Time, Age, and Experience in the Working Lives of Slaves” (https://youtu.be/a2EYGxe8GvY)
Milana Iliushina (National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg), “How Long before Obtaining the Throne? The Factor of Time in Mamluks’ Careers under the Circassian Sultanate” (https://youtu.be/p9fS9ONLv2c)

Time, part 2

Chair: Carl Petry (Northwestern University)

Christian Mauder (Bonn University), “Only Once Every One Hundred Years? The Concept of Cyclical Renewal (tajdīd) in Late Mamluk Political Culture” (Not recorded.)
Cihan Yüksel Muslu (University of Houston), “The Impact of Time on Ottoman-Mamluk Relations” (https://youtu.be/aq-5fwcXgxo)
Torsten Wollina (Orient-Institut Beirut), “Time in Muḥammad Ibn Ṭūlūn’s (d. 955/1548) Historical Corpus” (https://youtu.be/qUHA5AT9rxU)
Question and Answer session for Cihan Yüksel Muslu and Torsten Wollina (https://youtu.be/8ZMNVSTfYXo)

New Perspectives on Late Medieval Arabic Historiography: History, Order, and Truth in/of the Cairo Sultanate

Chair: Konrad Hirschler (Freie Universität Berlin)

Jo Van Steenbergen (Ghent University), “From the Court in Cairo to the Kingdoms of the Franks: Political Order and World-Making in 15th-Century Egyptian Chronicles” (https://youtu.be/v4GcogKq-zc)
Josephine Van den Bent (University of Amsterdam), “Wanderers, Miraculous Births, and Blacksmiths: Mongol Origin Stories in Mamlūk Histories” (https://youtu.be/OShnp6L8ZTI)
Mohamad El-Merheb (SOAS, University of London), “‘Les Lieux de Mémoire’ of the 13th-Century Shāfi’ī Political Thought in Late Medieval Arabic Historiography” (Not recorded.)
Nathan Hofer (University of Missouri), “Mamluk Biographical Dictionaries as Expressions of Class Consciousness” (https://youtu.be/Z74mVkSXm60)
Question and answer session for "New Perspectives on Late Medieval Arabic Historiography: History, Order, and Truth in/of the Cairo Sultanate" (Jo Van Steenbergen, Josephine Van den Bent, Mohamad El-Merheb, and Nathan Hofer) (https://youtu.be/FMx-4afmab0)

Declining or Rejuvenate? Some Glimpses of Reassessment on Late Mamluk Metalwork

Chair: Carine Juvin (Louvre Museum)

Shireen El Kassem (Bonn University), “Late Mamluk Helmets: Innovation or Inspiration?” (Not recorded.)
Sami L. De Giosa (Oxford University), “A Sultana Made of Brass: Fatima Khawand and Her Metalworking Style” (Not recorded.)
Carine Juvin (Louvre Museum), “Civilian Elite and Metalwork: A View from the Edge” (Not recorded.)

Friday, May 12

Documents and Archives in the Mamlūk Period

Chair: Jonathan Berkey (Davidson College)

Garrett Davidson (College of Charleston), “Paratextual Reading and Audition Notices in Mamluk Manuscripts” (https://youtu.be/sJnFttQ1kkg)
Daisy Livingston (SOAS, University of London), “The Archival Value of the Waqf-Related Documents of Mamlūk Cairo: The Case of istibdāl” (https://youtu.be/kIT3VeEGeXo)
Konrad Hirschler (Freie Universität Berlin), “Documentary Life-Cycles: Reuse of Mamluk Legal Documents” (https://youtu.be/22GSfKViSTE
Question and answer session for "Documents and Archives in the Mamlūk Period" (Garret Davidson, Daisy Livingston, and Konrad Hirschler) (https://youtu.be/NBwTyGodJ5k

Negotiating and Performing Communal Identities: New Texts on Christian and Muslim Clerical Élites in Relation to the Mamluk State

Chair: Jo Van Steenbergen (Ghent University)

Luke Benson Yarbrough (NYU Abu Dhabi Institute), “New Fatwas on Syrian Monks, Poll Tax, and Churches from the Early Eighth/Fourteenth Century” (https://youtu.be/PtmyvEwB9ls)
Mohamed Saad Maslouh (Ghent University), “What is the Church and Who Are the Copts? The Coptic Patriarch’s Definition of the Church’s Authority, and Organization of Its Relations with the ‘State’ in the Late Fifteenth Century” (https://youtu.be/9ASVBGvKYhA)
Gowaart Van Den Bossche (Ghent University), “Destroying Churches by Performing Knowledge: A Social Discursive Reading of Ibn al-Rifʿa’s Kitāb al-nafā’is fī adillat hadm al-kanā’is” (https://youtu.be/s2kIEREgsWI)
Question and answer session for "Negotiating and Performing Communal Identities: New Texts on Christian and Muslim Clerical Élites in Relation to the Mamluk State" (Luke Benson Yarbrough, Mohamed Saad Maslouh, and Gowaart Van Den Bossche) (https://youtu.be/BbrkquR-4UA)

The Uncovering of Mamluk Beirut

Chair: Karen Moukheiber (University of Balamand)

Howayda al-Harithy (American University of Beirut), “Connecting the Dots: Tracing Beirut’s Mamluk Urban Layer” (Not recorded.)
Warren Schultz (DePaul University) “The Sūqs of Medieval Beirut: The Numismatic Evidence” (Not recorded.)
May Farhat (University of the Holy Spirit, Kaslik), “Beirut’s Great ‘Umari Mosque: A Contested History” (Not recorded.)
Pierre Moukarzel (Lebanese University), “Beirut’s Church of Saint Savior under the Mamluks” (https://youtu.be/wMwkVzyCbD0)
Question and Answer session for "The Uncovering of Mamluk Beirut" (Howayda al-Harithy, May Farhat, and Pierre Moukarzel) (https://youtu.be/0Mih3YLxEy0)

Women in Mamluk and Early Ottoman Documentary Sources

Chair: Daisuke Igarashi (Waseda University)

Daisuke Igarashi (Waseda University), “Father’s Will, Daughter’s Waqf: Tatarkhān bint Ṭashtamur, a Female Waqf Founder/Administrator” (Not recorded.)
Wakako Kumakura (Waseda University), “From Beneficiaries to Landowners: Patterns of Landholding and Women’s Involvement” (Not recorded.)
Takao Ito (Kobe University), “A Princess and Her Endowment” (Not recorded.)

Saturday, May 13

Ibn Taymiyya’s Impact on Mamlūk Religion and Society

Chair: Caterina Bori (University of Bologna)

Jon Hoover (University of Nottingham), “Ibn Taymiyya’s Impact on Early 14th-Century Mamlūk Ash’arism” (https://youtu.be/VZ6-Nre7obs )
Arjan Post (Utrecht University), “Ibn Taymiyya versus the Shādhiliyya: A Refutation and Its Impact” (https://youtu.be/VdHm-9Xek9w )
Abdelkader Al Ghouz (Annemarie-Schimmel-Kolleg, Bonn University), “The Sociology of Arabic Philosophy in 14th-Century Cairo: Shams al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī (d. 1348) and His Scholarly Network” (Not recorded.)
Caterina Bori (University of Bologna), “Defending the Right to Acknowledge Ibn Taymiyya as Shaykh al-Islām: Ibn Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Dimashqī’s al-Radd al-Wāfir and Its Concerns” (https://youtu.be/Dor6ahKLipg)
Question and answer session for "Ibn Taymiyya’s Impact on Mamlūk Religion and Society" (Jon Hoover, Arjan Post, Abdelkader Al Ghouz, and Caterina Bori) (https://youtu.be/Lss0V3-JDHU)

Aṣ-Ṣafadī as Critic and Commentator

Chair: Matthew Keegan (New York University)

Matthew Keegan (New York University), “What is an Author? Theories of Authorship in al-Ṣafadī's Nuṣrat al-Thā’ir” (https://youtu.be/922rXvq3a3U)
Elias Muhanna (Brown University), “Paronomastic Play in al-Ṣafadī’s Jinān al-jinās” (https://youtu.be/ZB-xSe-x0RA)
Adam Talib (American University in Cairo), “Emblematic or Exceptional? aṣ-Ṣafadī’s Ghayth and ad-Damāmīnī’s Nuzūl” (https://youtu.be/OSSJ1roGvEE)
Question and answer session for "Aṣ-Ṣafadī as Critic and Commentator" (Matthew Keegan, Elias Muhanna, and Adam Talib) (https://youtu.be/rF-rnezfvPQ)

The Oral and the Written: Cultures of Transmission across the ʿulūm

Chair: Anthony T. Quickel (Marburg University)

Ahmad Nazir Atassi (Louisiana Tech University), “Analyzing the Interest in Transmitting Ibn Sa’d’s Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kabīr during the Early Mamluk Period” (https://youtu.be/oRfgSSo_V-E)
Torsten Wollina (Orient-Institut Beirut), “The Transmission of Ibn Ṭūlūn’s ta’ālīq” (https://youtu.be/buhE-6U2yXY)
Mariam Sheibani (University of Chicago), “Authorship and Textual Transmission in Medieval Islamic Law: ‘Izz al-Dīn b. ‘Abd al-Salām’s Qawā’id al-aḥkām” (Not recorded.)
Christopher Bahl (SOAS, University of London), “The Transregional Circulation of Arabic Grammar Books during the Late Mamluk Period” (https://youtu.be/h2CK4pVUnH8)
Question and answer session for "The Oral and the Written: Cultures of Transmission across the ’ulūm" (Ahmad Nazir Atassi, Torsten Wollina, Mariam Sheibani, and Christopher Bahl) (https://youtu.be/JXIOBgil-GA)

Medicine in Mamluk Times: From Professionals to Daily Life

Chair: Thomas Thiemann (Münster University)

Syrinx von Hees (Münster University), “Medical Care for the Elderly: What Can We Learn from Biographies?” (Not recorded.)
Stephan Tölke (Münster University), “Plagued by the Plague and Not Much Time? Read this Quick Guide! Ibn Abī Ḥaǧalah’s Ṭibb al-masnūn fī daf’ aṭ-ṭā’ūn” (Not recorded.)
Thomas Thiemann (Münster University), “Narcotics in Mamluk Egypt: Not Everything is Hashish” (https://youtu.be/7JYvE9wrph4)
Question and answer session for "Medicine in Mamluk Times: From Professionals to Daily Life" (Syrinx von Hees, Stephan Tölke, and Thomas Thiemann) (https://youtu.be/NaMlzAxKVk0)