Amira Bennison, Monique Bernards, Julia Bray, Nadia Maria El Cheikh, Michael Cooperson, Amikam Elad, Geert Jan van Gelder, Robert Gleave, Paul Gledhill, Beatrice Gruendler, Rotraud Hansberger, Matthew Keegan, Hugh Kennedy, James Montgomery, Michael Mumisa, John Nawas, Alastair Northedge, Letizia Osti, Gavin Picken, Ignacio Sanchez, Nuha al-Sha’ar, Devin Stewart, Shawkat M. Toorawa, John Turner, Uwe Vagelpohl, Johan Weststeijn, Lydia Wilson.
Ninth Conference of the School of Abbasid Studies
7th-9th July, 2008
Cambridge University
Participants

Programme
Amira K. Bennison, The Necklace of Shifa’: ‘Abbasid borrowings in the Islamic West |
Michael Cooperson, An Arabist reading of Digenis Akrites |
Discussion: Shawkat Toorawa |
Nadia Maria El Cheikh, To be a Prince in the fourth/tenth century ‘Abbasid court |
Letizia Osti, Culture and education at and around the court of al-Muqtadir |
Discussion: Hugh Kennedy |
Ghada Jayyusi-Lehn, Like father, like son: Harun al-Rashid and al-Mu‘tasim |
John Turner, The end of the Mihna |
Johan Weststeijn, The ‘Abbasid caliphs: Successors to both prophets and tyrants |
Discussion: John Nawas |
Robert Gleave, The fiqh of Imam Musa al-Kazim |
Gavin N. Picken, A Scholar of the Holy Precincts: The life, works and methodology of Ibn al-Mundhir al-Naysaburi |
Discussion: Shawkat Toorawa |
Amikam Elad, The Armies of al-Ma’mun: Recruitment of its contingents and their commanders and their social-ethnic composition |
Alistair Northedge, ‘Abbasid military settlement: A structural analysis from archaeology and texts |
Discussion: Hugh Kennedy |
Beatrice Gruendler, Royal Brevity in the pre-modern Apostille (Tawqi‘) |
Julia Bray, What are the fusul qisar of Ibn al-Mu‘tazz? |
James Montgomery, Abu Nuwas, the Justified Sinner? |
Discussion: Geert Jan van Gelder |
Uwe Vagelpohl, Cultural accommodation and the idea of translation |
Rotraud Hansberger, The “Internal Senses”: The evolution of a philosophical concept |
Discussion: James Montgomery |
Devin Stewart (Shawkat Toorawa), The Tabaqat genre, the legal madhhabs, and religious authority |
Paul Gledhill, Reliable transmissions or tendentious forgeries? A comparative study of reports in two early ninth century compendia |
Discussion: John Nawas |
Closing session: The School of ‘Abbasid Studies, The Official Web Site of the ‘Abbasid Empire, The Occasional Papers, And Other Very Important Matters |