MEM is excited to be hosting a special membership reception at the IMC Leeds for the second time!
Alongside three panels officially sponsored by MEM (!), the program for the upcoming International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds (Monday 07 July to Thursday 10 July 2025) features a truly impressive array of panels and papers addressing key themes in the medieval Islamic world, in relation to this year’s thematic focus (“Worlds of Learning”).
A list of 16 panels featured in the program, including three sponsored by MEM denoted by an asterisk (*), is provided below, after the lunch reception details.
IMC reception details:
Time: Tuesday, 08 July, 13:00–14:00
Hosted by: Middle East Medievalists
Location: University House, Little Woodhouse Room
Members of Middle East Medievalists and scholars of the medieval Islamic World interested in joining MEM are invited to a lunch to discuss the work MEM has been doing and celebrate our recent accomplishments.
IMC Middle East Medievalist Panel list:
MONDAY 07 JULY 2025
Keynote Lectures 2025
Esther Simpson Building: LG08
Monday, 07 July 2025 09:00–10:30
Title: Worlds of Learning – Histories of Reading in Medieval Southwest Asia / North Africa (Language: English)
Speaker: Konrad Hirschler, Universität Hamburg
Session 120 Newlyn Building: 1.02*
Monday, 07 July, 11:15–12:45
Title: EMBODIED IMAMATE, I: ‘BODIES’ OF KNOWLEDGE
Sponsor: ERC Horizon Starting Grant ‘Embodied Imamate’ (IMBOD) / Middle East Medievalists
Organisers: Edmund Hayes, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit
Leiden and Leone Pecorini-Goodall, Leiden Institute for Area Studies,
Universiteit Leiden
Moderator: Edmund Hayes, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden
- 120-a: Visiting Bodies of Knowledge: The Materiality and Spatiality of
Early Shiʿite Ziyāra, 3rd/9th Centuries and 4th/10th Centuries
(Language: English)
Aila Santi, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden - 120-b: Through the Eyes of Mothers: Transmitting Knowledge and
Accessing the Imams (Language: English)
Zahra Azhar, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden - 120-c: The Materiality of the House in the Designation Ahl al-Bayt:
People of the House (Language: English)
Simon O’Meara, Department of History of Art & Archaeology / Centre
for Iranian Studies, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of
London - 120-d: Portrayals of Imams and Imamic Encounters in al-Sanawbari
(Language: English)
George Warner, Shi’i Studies Unit, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
Session 131 Parkinson Building: B.10
Monday, 07 July, 11:15–12:45
Title: LEARNING EMPIRE: TRANSCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE LANGUAGE(S) OF MEDIEVAL IMPERIAL FORMATIONS
Organiser: Johannes S. Lotze, Martin Buber Society of Fellows, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Moderator: Katharine Sykes, Department of History, University of Birmingham
- 131-a: ‘Informal Learning’ at a Time of War: The Mamluk-Mongol Military ‘Dialogue’ over 60 Years, 1260-1320 (Language: English) Reuven Amitai, Institute for Asian & African Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- 131-b: ‘Testibus […] qui inteligunt linguam arabicam’: Empire, Layered Statehood, and Vertical Language Policies – Mamluk Empire and Venice in the Early-15th Century (Language: English) Georg Christ, Department of History, University of Manchester
- 131-c: The Politics of Language in Late Medieval Iraq: Fuzuli, the Trilingual Litterateur (Language: English) Ferenc Csirkés, Department of History, University of Birmingham
- 131-d: Examination Cultures and Institutional Translation in Multilingual Sinitic Empires (Language: English) Johannes S. Lotze, Martin Buber Society of Fellows, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Session 220 Newlyn Building: 1.02*
Monday, 07 July, 14:15–15:45
Title: EMBODIED IMAMATE, II: TRACING NETWORKS ACROSS ISLAMICATE ‘WORLDS OF LEARNING’
Sponsor: ERC Horizon Starting Grant ‘Embodied Imamate’ (IMBOD) / Middle East Medievalists
Organisers: Edmund Hayes, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden and Leone Pecorini-Goodall, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden
Moderator: George Warner, Shi’i Studies Unit, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
- 220-a: Spreading Processes in Early Islamicate Networks: The Case of the Quranic Reading Traditions, Qirāʾāt (Language: English) Jeremy Farrell, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden
- 220-b: ‘Genealogy is a noble and sublime science’: Learning and Transmitting Imami Genealogies in Sunni and Shiʿa Sources (Language: English) Leone Pecorini-Goodall, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden
- 220-c: What Was a ‘Companion’ in Early Imāmī Shiʿism? (Language: English) Adam Ramadhan, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden
- 220-d: Taxing and Teaching: The Overlap between Networks of Shiʿi Tithes-Collectors and Tithes-Theorists, c. 700-900 (Language: English) Edmund Hayes, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden
Session 229 Parkinson Building: B.22
Monday, 07 July, 14:15–15:45
Title: MEDITERRANEAN WORLDS OF LEARNING, II: ISLAMIC AND CHRISTIAN NETWORKS INTERTWINED
Organiser: IMC Programming Committee
Moderator: Regula Forster, Abteilung Orient- und Islamwissenschaft, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
- 229-a: Networks of Scholarship: Female Mobility in the Islamicate Mediterranean, c. 1100-1500 (Language: English) Hannah Cole, School of History, Queen Mary University of London
- 229-b: Between ‘Darkness’ (al-ẓulmat) and ‘Good News’ (al-bushrā): 12th-Century Arabic Grammatical Examples as Educational History (Language: English) Hannah VanSyckel, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame
- 229-c: Learning Arabic in the Time of Translations: Toledo Cathedral Clerics and the Making of an Arabic-Latin Culture (Language: English) Nour Dahmani, Département d’Histoire / France méridionale et Espagne, Histoire des sociétés du Moyen Âge à l’époque contemporaine (FRAMESPA – UMR 5136), Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès
- 229-d: Visualising Medical Translation as Cross-Cultural Communication: The Author Portraits in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Vitr. 26-1 (Language: English) Merih Danali, Department of Art, Wake Forest University, North Carolina
TUESDAY 08 JULY 2025
Session 523 Maurice Keyworth Building: 1.03*
Tuesday, 08 July, 09:00–10:30
Title: WAYS OF KNOWING IN THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMICATE WORLD
Sponsor: Middle East Medievalists
Organiser: James Weaver, Historisches Seminar, Universität Zürich
Moderator: Letizia Osti, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature, Culture e Mediazioni, Università degli Studi di Milano
- 523-a: Knowledge and Agency in the Medieval Reception of Miʿrāj Narratives (Language: English) David Bennett, Department of Graduate Studies, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
- 523-b: Poetry as Knowledge of the World in the Work of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (Language: English) Pamela Klasova, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago
- 523-c: Knowledge of the Past and Theological Epistemology in Arabic-Islamic World Histories (Language: English) James Weaver, Historisches Seminar, Universität Zürich
Session: 515 Newlyn Building: 1.02
Tuesday, 08 July, 09:00–10:30
Title: CAIRO TO CONSTANTINOPLE: BYZANTINE AND ARMENIAN DISCOURSE ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST
Sponsor: Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art & Culture
Organiser: Samuel England, Department of African Cultural Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Moderator: Janine Su, British Institute at Ankara
- 515-a: Translating Byzantium: Collaborative Translators in Constantinople (Language: English) Sergio La Porta, Armenian Studies Program, California State University, Fresno
- 515-b: An Arabic Anatolia in Egypt: Literature, Politics, and Religion (Language: English) Samuel England, Department of African Cultural Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- 515-c: Hanutçu, Then and Now: Navigating Place and Memory on a World Stage (Language: English) Janine Su, British Institute at Ankara
Session: 531 Michael Sadler Building: LG.15
Tuesday, 08 July, 09:00–10:30
Title: MODES OF LEARNING ACROSS MONGOL EURASIA I: NEW FINDINGS IN ILKHANID HISTORIOGRAPHY
Organisers: Geoffrey Humble, School of Medicine, University of Leeds and Márton Vér, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, Universität Hamburg
Moderator: Jonathan Brack, Department of History, Northwestern University
- 531-a: The Philologic Study of Akhbār-i Mughulān, an Early Il-Khanate Material (Language: English) Hairuo Ma, Department of History, Peking University
- 531-b: Mongol Historiography in the Tārīkh-i Jahāngushā (Language: English) Jan Jelinowski, Département d’études arabes / Groupe d’études orientales, slaves, et néo-helléniques (GEO – UR 1340), Université de Strasbourg
- 531-c: Which Nogai Is Which?: Confused Mongol Marriages and Approaching History in the Jāmiʿal-tawārīkh (Language: English) Jack Wilson, Department of Historical Studies, Central European University, Budapest/Wien
Session: 623 Maurice Keyworth Building: 1.03*
Tuesday, 08 July, 11:15–12:45
Title: LEARNING AND DOING SCRIBAL AND EPIGRAPHIC WORK IN THE ISLAMICATE WORLD: A COMPARATIVE APPROACH
Sponsor: Invisible East / Middle East Medievalists
Organiser: Arezou Azad, Arts et Patrimoine de l’Afghanistan, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris / Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford
Moderator: Arezou Azad, Arts et Patrimoine de l’Afghanistan, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris / Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford
- 623-a: Inscribing Epitaphs in 8th- to 9th-Century Egypt: Templates and Typologies (Language: English) Teresa Bernheimer, Institut für den Nahen und Mittleren Osten, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- 623-b: Learning to Write Personal Letters in Medieval Afghanistan (Language: English) Ofir Haim, Mandel Scholion Research Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- 623-c: Learning to Write State Documents in the Islamicate East (Language: English) Nadia Vidro, Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford
- 623-d: The (State) Scribes of Fatimid Egypt (Language: English) Yusuf Umrethwala, Department of History, Aljamea-Tus-Saifiyah, Mumbai / Princeton Geniza Project, Princeton University
Session: 724 Clarendon Building: 1.06
Tuesday, 08 July, 14:15–15:45
Title: ENTANGLED HEAVENS AND BODIES IN THE INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMICATE WORLD
Organiser: Katarina Roberts, Abteilung Orient- und Islamwissenschaft, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Moderator: Regula Forster, Abteilung Orient- und Islamwissenschaft, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
- 724-a: Mindfulness Cosmologies: The Human Body and Spiritual Ascension in the Syriac World (Language: English) Stefanie Rudolf, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin
- 724-b: ‘Whoever is fearful of humoural science will find no benefit’: Prophetic Medicine and the Body as a Place of Learning in the Kitāb al-Raḥma fī l-ṭibb wa-l-ḥikma (Language: English) Katarina Roberts, Abteilung Orient- und Islamwissenschaft, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
- 724-c: Conjunctions in the Heavens, Crises on the Earth: The Astrological Context of Niẓāmī’s Persian Romance Seven Beauties, 12th Century (Language: English) Razieh S. Mousavi, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin
Session: 831 Michael Sadler Building: LG.15
Tuesday, 08 July, 16:30–18:00
Title: MODES OF LEARNING ACROSS MONGOL EURASIA IV: LEARNING TO RULE: LEGITIMACY, DIPLOMACY, AND IDEOLOGY IN THE MONGOL EMPIRE
Organisers: Geoffrey Humble, School of Medicine, University of Leeds and Márton Vér, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, Universität Hamburg
Moderator: Rong Fan, Institut für Orient- und Asienwissenschaften, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Respondent: Geoffrey Humble, School of Medicine, University of Leeds
- 831-a: King Ch’ungson and Hybrid Rule in Mongol-Era Koryo (Language: English) Kang Hahn Lee, Department of Korean History, Academy of Korean Studies, Seongnam
- 831-b: Divine Diplomacy: Religion and Power in Mongol-Muslim Relations during the Yuan Dynasty (Language: English) Amina El Ganadi, Biblioteca Giuseppe Dossetti, Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni XXIII, Bologna / Dipartimento Culture e Società, Università degli Studi di Palermo
- 831-c: The First Lord of the Age: Astrological Ideology in the Shadow of Mongol Rule (Language: English) Stefan Kamola, Institut für Iranistik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
WEDNESDAY 09 JULY 2025:
Session: 1005 Parkinson Building: B.11
Wednesday, 9 July, 09.00–10.30
Title: ASSESSING AND REASSESSING DOCUMENTS AND DOCUMENTATION FROM LOUIS IX’S CRUSADE OF 1248-1254
Organiser: Mohamad El-Merheb, Department of History, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Moderator: Cecilia Gaposchkin, Department of History, Dartmouth College
- 1005-a: Louis IX’s ‘Letter to the French’ of August 1250 (Language: English) Cecilia Gaposchkin, Department of History, Dartmouth College
- 1005-b: ‘Lady’ Shajar al-Durr: ‘Sultan’ of Egypt and ‘Queen of the Muslims’ in Mamluk Political Thought (Language: English) Mohamad El-Merheb, Department of History, School of Advanced Study, University of London
- 1005-c: Death on the Nile (Language: English) Xavier Helary, Centre Roland Mousnier, Centre de Recherche en Histoire Médiévale, Moderne et Contemporaine (UMR 8596), Sorbonne Université, Paris
- 1005-d: The Baḥriyya Regiment and the Mamluks as Seen by Joinville and the Crusaders (Language: English) Mehdi Berriah, Département des Études Arabes, Médiévale
Session: 1131 Esther Simpson Building: 1.01
Wednesday, 09 July, 11:15–12:45
Title: WORLDS OF LEARNING IN MONGOL EURASIA, II: MULTILINGUALISM AND GLOSSARIES
Organiser: Jonathan Brack, Department of History, Northwestern University
Moderator: Qiao Yang, Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem
- 1131-a: Systematising the Learning of Eurasian Worlds: On the Origins of Multilingual Thematic Vocabularies in Mongol Eurasia (Language: English) Márton Vér, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, Universität Hamburg
- 1131-b: Knowledge Transmission through Translation: Persian-Chinese Glossaries at the Ming Court (Language: English) Rong Fan, Institut für Orient- und Asienwissenschaften, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
- 1131-c: The Political Economy of Language in the Chinggisid World-Order: Situating the Armenian Material in the Rasulid Hexaglot (Language: English) Nicholas Matheou, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh
Session: 1130 Parkinson Building: B.22
Wednesday, 09 July, 11:15–12:45
Title: LEARNING CAUCASIAN WORLDS, II: CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC LIFE
Sponsor: Medieval Caucasus Network
Organisers: James Baillie, Institut für Iranistik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien and Nick Evans, School of Historical Studies, Birkbeck, University of London / King’s College, University of Cambridge
Moderator: Irakli Tezelashvili, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London
- 1130-a: Ibn Ḥawqal in Tiflīs (Language: English) Ann Christys, Independent Scholar
- 1130-b: Politics, Commerce, and Conflicts in the Medieval Caucasus: New Database on Samshvilde Archaeological Excavations (Language: English) David Berikashvili, Department of Archaeology, Anthropology & Art, University of Georgia
- 1130-c: Prowess, Piety, and Persian Tales: Learned Masculinities in the High Medieval Caucasus (Language: English) James Baillie, Institut für Iranistik, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien
Session: 1231 Esther Simpson Building: 1.01
Wednesday, 09 July, 14:15–15:45
Title: WORLDS OF LEARNING IN MONGOL EURASIA, III: TRANSLATION, TRANSLATORS, AND COMPARISONS
Organiser: Jonathan Brack, Department of History, Northwestern University
Moderator: Nicholas Matheou, School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh
- 1231-a: Acquiring and Practising Linguistic Knowledge in Mongol Eurasia (Language: English) Michal Biran, Department of History, Ewha Womans University, South Korea / Department of Asian Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- 1231-b: Medium for Differences: ‘Conversion’ as Imperial Practice in Mongol Eurasia (Language: English) Yoichi Isahaya, Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University
- 1231-c: Beyond Textual Translation: The Transmission of Islamicate Astral Sciences to 13th-15th-Century China (Language: English) Qiao Yang, Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem
Session: 1331 Esther Simpson Building: 1.01
Wednesday, 09 July, 16:30–18:00
Title: WORLDS OF LEARNING IN MONGOL EURASIA, IV: INTERSECTIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Organiser: Jonathan Brack, Department of History, Northwestern University
Moderator: Geoffrey Humble, School of Medicine, University of Leeds
- 1331-a: Matters of Experience: Science, Religion, and Hands-On Experience in Ilkhanid Iran (Language: English) Jonathan Brack, Department of History, Northwestern University
- 1331-b: A Hybrid World of Learning: Confucian Academies under the Mongol Yuan (Language: English) Linda Walton, Department of History, Portland State University, Oregon
- 1331-c: Nomadism, Mobility, and the Transmission of Knowledge in the Mongol Middle East (Language: English) Ahmed al-Rahim, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia
THURSDAY 10 JULY 2025
Session: 1511 Stage@leeds: Stage 2
Thursday, 10 July, 9:00–10:30
Title: KNOWLEDGE-MAKING AND MEDIEVAL WOMEN IN MUSLIM LANDS
Organisers: Sally Hany Abed, Department of Near & Middle Eastern Studies, Trinity College Dublin and Maha Baddar, Communication Division, Pima Community College, Arizona
Moderator: Sally Hany Abed, Department of Near & Middle Eastern Studies, Trinity College Dublin
- 1511-a: Female Poetry as a Source of Knowledge in the Abbasid Harem (Language: English) Maha Baddar, Communication Division, Pima Community College, Arizona
- 1511-b: Networks of Knowledge: The Life and Legacy of a Mamluk Princess (Language: English) Sally Hany Abed, Department of Near & Middle Eastern Studies, Trinity College Dublin
- 1511-c: Seljuk Palace Women Who Encouraged Education (Language: English) Zehra Odabaşı, Tarih Bölümü, Selçuk Üniversitesi, Türkiye