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Q&A with the author of Performing Worlds at the Baroque Court of Christine of France
Read more: Q&A with the author of Performing Worlds at the Baroque Court of Christine of FranceThis interview explores how Christine of France used Baroque court spectacles to shape political authority, global imagination, and cultures of consumption.
Q&A with Belal Abu-Alabbas, author of Al-Bukhārī
Belal Abu-Alabbas explores the making of the first comprehensive critical biography of Muhammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī.
Q&A: The Rise and Fall of the Barmakids
Tales of courtly intrigue, moral testing, romance and reversals of fortune from a rare Persian manuscript…
Who needs advice?
Margaret Mullett investigates advice literature from Byzantine texts to modern self-help culture.
The Warehouse of Bamiyan: Q&A with Arezou Azad
Arezou Azad rediscovers Bamiyan’s medieval archives, revealing a diverse, literate and interconnected Islamicate society in Afghanistan.
The destruction of ‘un- Islamic’ edifices by ISIS and the Taliban
by Shivan Mahendrarajah The Taliban are back in power, ushering in renewed fears of destruction of cultural heritages. Their first time in office (1996–2001), the Taliban destroyed edifices on the basis that they were ‘un-Islamic’ and/or ‘beacons’ for polytheists (mushrikin).…
Transcendent God, Rational World: A Māturīdī Theology
by Ramon Harvey Ramon Harvey introduces his approach to Islamic theology in his new book Transcendent God, Rational World: A Māturīdī Theology. Thinking today has become dizzying. Attention spans are diminished. No sooner does someone have an idea, but it…
The Lost Splendour of Ghazni: Rediscovering an Islamic Capital in Medieval Afghanistan
By Viola Allegranzi Located in present-day Afghanistan, Ghazni was once a prosperous commercial and cultural centre at the crossroads of Iranian, Central Asian and Indian regions. Under the rule of the Ghaznavid dynasty (r. 977-1186), the city was home to…
Three fun ways to create a medieval Arabic manuscript
From recycling to creating huge anthologies, Konrad HIrschler looks at some innovative ways that book lovers created their medieval Arabic manuscripts.
Tracing the life and work of Rashid al-Din
By Stefan Kamola, author of Making Mongol History: Rashid al-Din and the Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh Early in 1839, Professor of Linguistics Duncan Forbes arrived in Inverness with Mir Afzal Ali, representative of the Maharaja of Satara. They had come to visit…