Welcome to the School of Abbasid Studies!

The School of Abbasid Studies was originally founded by the late Dr. D.E.P. Jackson and the late Professor J.N. Mattock in the early eighties and was based at the University of St Andrews. After some ten years in abeyance, the School was revived by Hugh Kennedy, James Montgomery, John Nawas and Monique Bernards in 2000.

Our mission

The School of Abbasid Studies (SAS) is intended to provide a forum for the discussion of the political, cultural, social, economic, religious and intellectual life of the Abbasid Caliphate from c.700 – c.1250 C.E., a time span approximately bounded by the formative period of early Islam and the invasion of the Mongols. (The Fatimid Caliphate and al-Andalus will only be covered tangentially.)

The aim of the School is to bring together scholars working on the Abbasid world but in disciplines which would rarely “talk” together – working towards a holistic contemplation of the Abbasid world.

Dialogue

The School holds biennial meetings hosted by the Universities of its directors or one of its members. Since 1992, fourteen conferences have been held at the universities of Cambridge, Leuven, St Andrews, Exeter, Istanbul, and Leiden. The most recent conference was held at Yale University (USA) in July 2018.

Latest news

Next conference

The Sixteenth Conference of the School of Abbasid Studies will take place from Tuesday 9 July to Sunday 14 July, 2024 at
Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy.

Scopus acknowledgement

The Journal of Abbasid Studies has been accepted for Scopus. The Scopus Content Selection & Advisory Board (CSAB) has reviewed the journal’s application and approved it for coverage. The editors are pleased with the Scopus acknowledgement and hope that the journal’s inclusion in the Scopus database will attract even more excellent work for publication in the Journal of Abbasid Studies.

New publications

History and Memory in the Abbasid Caliphate: Writing the Past in Medieval Arabic Literature
Letizia Osti

Disenchanting the Caliphate: The Secular Discipline of Power in Abbasid Political Thought
Hayrettin Yücesoy

Celebration

Brill’s celebrating Journal of Abbasid Studies reaching its 10th volume. We are happy to share with you a selection of outstanding and remarkable articles published in the journal in recent years.

These articles were specially selected by the Editors-in-Chief and will be offered as free access until 31 December 2023. No need to sign up for an account.

Find the selection here »

Happy reading!

Years of existence

Members

Conferences