Department Faculty

“I am a historian of the Islamic world in the period conventionally bounded by the emergence of Islam in the early seventh century of the Common Era and the Mongol sack of Baghdad in the middle of the thirteenth century. My research centers on al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia) and my first book examines Andalusi political ideology, political culture, and historiography. I am currently working on a book on intercommunal relations in al-Andalus and more specifically on how political and religious authorities accommodated and adjusted to acculturation to Arabic-Islamic cultural norms and conversion to Islam. In the process I have become interested in the development of Islamic law, the historical and social contexts of the performance and meaning of ritual, and the elaboration of concepts such as purity and pollution, sacred and profane, enemy and friend.

“My teaching is structured by chronological and political history but to a large extent incorporates discussions of religious belief and practice, heterodoxy and heresy, and more generally what religion means and whether or how it colors or shapes civilizations or societies. We discuss art and aesthetics, poetry, literature, and historical writing as avenues for understanding social life and culture, as well as gender, social organization, ethnic and religious identities and plurality.”