Sixteenth Conference of the School of Abbasid Studies

Tuesday 9 July – Sunday 14 July, 2024
Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy

Participants

Camilla Adang; Mohammed Allehbi; Hussain Alqarni; Reem AlRudaini; Sean Anthony; Nicholas Aubin; Arezou Azad; Francesca Bellino; Thomas Benfey; Monique Bernards; Teresa Bernheimer; Kevin Blankinship; Massimiliano Borroni; Sarah Bowen Savant; Julia Bray; Jelle Bruning; Marcel Camprubi; Paul Cobb; Bishara Ebeid; Maribel Fierro; Antonella Ghersetti; Matthew Gordon; Beatrice Gruendler; Najam Haider; Lara Harb; Stefan Heidemann; Nimrod Hurvitz; Steven Judd; Matthew Keegan; Hugh Kennedy; Pamela Klasova; István T Kristó-Nagy; Noëmie Lucas; David Marmer; Taro Mimura; Harry Munt; Pernilla Myrne; John Nawas; Nassima Neggaz; Letizia Osti; Abdurraouf Oueslati; Pavel Pavlovitch; Yara Perlman; Azad Raouf Qazaz; Guy Ron-Gilboa; Betty Rosen; Everett Rowson; Gabrielle Russo; Elias Saba; Ignacio Sánchez; Jens Ole Schmitt; Emily Selove; Shawkat Toorawa; Isabel Toral; Nurit Tsafrir; John Turner; Uwe Vagelpohl; Maaike van Berkel; Geert Jan van Gelder; James Weaver; Peter Webb; Hayrettin Yucesoy; Travis Zadeh.

Program & Abstracts

Below is the program of the conference. Click on the titles of the papers to read the corresponding abstracts.

HADITH (chaired by Elias Saba)
Pavel Pavlovitch Nāfiʿ, the freedman of Ibn ʿUmar, in Abbasid hadith transmission
Discussion Nimrod Hurvitz
EAST (chaired by John Turner)
Arezou Azad Economic life in the eastern Abbasid world of Khurasan (550/1155-618/1221): A view from below
Thomas Benfey A new source for early Samanid history: Two Arabic bifolios from Afghanistan at the National Library of Israel
Discussion Sarah Savant
MUSIC/MATHEMATICS (chaired by Peter Webb)
Marcel Camprubi Forbidding music, in theory
Taro Mimura The role of Thābit b. Qurra’s revision of Greek mathematical texts in the Arabic translation movement
Discussion Everett Rowson
THE HOUSEHOLD (chaired by James Weaver)
Yaara Perlman The role of pre-Islamic female ancestry in the contribution of Khuzāʿa to the Abbasid Revolution
Matthew Gordon On elite early Abbasid-era households
Discussion Pernilla Myrne
FOWL PLAY, OR VERY BAD BIRDS IN ABBASID BELLES LETTRES (chaired by Beatrice Gruendler)
Kevin Blankinship Poppycock, or birds as liars and tricksters in Abbasid Arabic literature
Emily Selove The hoopoe as symbol across genres
Discussion Geert Jan van Gelder
ALTERITY (chaired by Hussain Alqarni)
Gabrielle Russo Imagining an army: Boasting and human difference in al-Jāḥiẓ’s Manāqib al-Turk
Antonella Ghersetti The impaired body: Al-Jāḥiẓ on the leprous, the lame, the blind and the cross-eyed
Guy Ron-Gilboa Wondrous alterity: Slavery as moral bankruptcy in Kitāb ʿAjāʾib al-Hind
Discussion Matthew Keegan
FISCAL ADMINISTRATION (chaired by Stefan Heidemann)
Noëmie Lucas ʿUmar b. Mihrān: A man on a mule and his slave boy, or the story of an efficient Abbasid financial administrator in Egypt
David Marmer Financial risk assessment and investment management in third/ninth century Baghdad
Harry Munt The slave revolt in Medina in 145/762
Discussion Letizia Osti
ANIMALS (chaired by Nassima Neggaz)
Jens Schmitt Cold and colder fish: Ibn Abī l-Ashʿath on marine taxonomy
István T Kristó-Nagy The real Lion King: Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s unflattering take on a symbol of royalty
Discussion Ignacio Sanchez
MADHHAB (chaired by Camilla Adang)
Steven Judd Sufyān al-Thawrī and the resilience of Umayyad legal thought in the Abbasid period
Nurit Tsafrir The Transoxanian juristic tradition: Ibn Māza’s Kitāb al-Wāqiʿāt as a case study
Discussion Najam Haider
THE CITY (chaired by Isabel Toral)
Maribel Fierro Baghdad in al-Andalus: Emulation, legitimization, disconnection
Jelle Bruning Ibn al-Ṣabbāgh (fourth/tenth century) and the medieval Muslim imagination of Alexandria
Discussion Teresa Bernheimer
CRIME & PUNISHMENT (chaired by Paul Cobb)
Sean Anthony The justly killed imam: A Muʿtazilī defense of regicide attributed to Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī (d. 303/915)
Mohammed Allehbi The caliph and the shurṭa: The making of Islamic criminal justice (129-218/747-833)
Discussion Hayrettin Yücesoy
ADAB TERMINOLOGY (chaired by Camilla Adang)
Betty Rosen Baharta al-saḥra al-badīʿa: Making poetic marvels at the court of Sayf al-Dawla
Discussion Julia Bray
SHORT PROJECT PRESENTATIONS: DIGITAL HUMANITIES
Sarah Bowen Savant Demonstration for members: Open-access text reuse data now available online
Discussion