ARABIC POETRY IN THE CAIRO GENIZAH is seeking abstracts for our workshop:
History and Anthropology Through Literature: APPROACHES AND METHODOLOGIES TO THE STUDY OF MEDIEVAL AND MODERN TEXTS AND MANUSCRIPTS
15th of July 2022 @ Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
The Cairo Genizah is a treasure trove of medieval and early-modern manuscripts stored away in Egypt’s Ben Ezra Synagogue over nearly a thousand years. All manner of written texts, from lost works of Jewish literary legend to the mundane ephemera of everyday life have been found there. Until recently, however, there has been comparatively little focus on the Arabic literary manuscripts of the Genizah, particularly its poetry. These fragments of literary history are fascinating insights into the multicultural Cairo cosmopolis, demonstrating a rich cultural exchange through the literature, as well as their Hebrew-Arabic transcriptions. But the study of these texts poses challenges in understanding Jewish life and Jewish-Arabic relations in Islamic lands. On the one hand, it seems self-evident that Arabic poetry had a tremendous influence on the culture of the Jews of the Genizah world, as so many Arabic poems are found in the Genizah. But on the other hand, some manuscripts contain just small excerpts from much larger or epic Arabic poetical works. To what extent can we say this is an instance of artistic exchange? Or perhaps it is the case that such excerpts become adages, common currency of Cairene culture? How do we investigate the nuances of pre-modern manuscripts in such a cosmopolitan atmosphere, whilst maintaining authentic translation and linguistic analysis? How might the study of such texts – their creation, their copying, their circulation, and their reuse – shed light on the Arabic and Jewish communities, their communal interrelations and shared experience of cultural life?
This one-day workshop seeks to bring together scholars of various disciplines, including, but not limited to, manuscript sciences, history, anthropology, literary criticism, philosophy, and sociology for an exciting workshop on emerging approaches and challenges to the investigation of history, sociology, and anthropology though pre-modern literature and its manuscripts.
If you would be interested in taking part and giving a paper, then please send us an abstract of 300-800 words, with your approach to the workshop theme. Abstracts related to the following topics are particularly encouraged to apply:
Please submit two documents, an Abstract with CV by February 1st 2022 with the subject ‘APCG Abstract Submission’ to:
Ben Outhwaite: bmo10@cam.ac.uk and Mohamed Ahmed: ahmedm4@tcd.ie
Authors will be notified by March 1st 2022. Successful candidates will receive a bursary toward their travel costs and accommodation for two nights. Should you wish to participate online, please let us know in your submission email.
For more information, please contact Raymond Davidson: rdavidso@tcd.ie
This workshop is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 851411)
Military Orders VIII: In a Wider World
Nottingham Trent University (online) 8-16 September 2022
Call for Papers
This online conference encourages discussion on the military orders’ interactions with their broader environment whether political, spiritual, or economic etc. It also provides a forum for those wishing to pioneer new methodologies or to ask fundamentally new questions about either the military orders or the crusading movement in general. Key topics for discussion include:
§ The military orders’ place in the broader monastic world
§ cross-cultural dimensions
§ their activities beyond the cloister
(i.e. in courtly, commercial, or diplomatic contexts)
§ their broader significance both within Western Christendom and globally
§ their role in driving social, economic or technological change
§ 20th-21st century deployments of their memory
§ their theological ideas (and their origins)
§ new methodologies (esp. digital and interdisciplinary) and sources
Submission deadline: 1 March 2022 / Email: militaryorders8@gmail.com
Structure
This will be an online conference with a distinctive structure. Rather than giving their papers live, speakers will be invited to submit a video recording of their papers several months in advance (which can consist of them solely speaking to camera accompanied, should they wish, by a presentation). Delegates joining the conference will be invited to complete an online sign-up following which they will be given access to the recorded presentations, several weeks prior to the commencement of the conference, which they can then watch at their leisure. The live conference itself in September will consist primarily of daily 2hr discussion panels, each focused on specific clusters of papers, during which delegates can pose questions to the speakers via a mediator who will also lead a broader discussion on the questions raised by this cluster of papers. There will also be a single live plenary lecture on the first day of the conference.
The provisional timetable is as follows:
Instructions for speakers
If you would like to apply to contribute a recorded paper to this conference then in the first instance please submit a title + 250-word abstract for your proposed talk by 1 March 2022. This should be emailed to the dedicated conference mailbox: militaryorders8@gmail.com. We will aim to give your our decision on your paper proposal soon afterwards, giving you time to complete your recorded paper over the following months.
Instructions for delegates
Whether you wish to give a paper or just to attend, you will be prompted by email to complete an online registration form which will give you access to an online platform containing the recorded lectures as well as the timetable and other conference details (to be circulated in April-May). We do not intend to levy any registration charge for attending this conference. If you are not already on the Military Orders VIII mailing list then please email us at the above address and we will add your name and contact details.
As previously we will aim to publish the conference proceedings in an edited collection of essays.
The full PDF of the Call for Papers can be viewed here: Military Orders VIII cfp.pdf
On 30 June-1 July the SSCLE held its first online Postgraduate/Early Career conference, hosted by Royal Holloway, University of London. Over 240 people registered for the event, participants from 20 nationalities spoke in 16 panels and we had audience members from South America, the Middle East and Australia, as well as Russia, Europe and North America. The conference provided a fascinating platform for younger scholars to broadcast their research to their peers and to a wider audience, including the senior scholars who chaired the sessions. The chronological, thematic and geographical range of the papers was similarly huge – a testimony to the energy and diversity of the event; for the full programme see here. Gordon Reynolds (University of Edinburgh), winner of the Bernard Hamilton Prize for best Postgraduate/Early Career essay submitted to Crusades opened the event, chaired by Professor William C. Jordan (Princeton). Professor Nick Paul (Fordham University, New York), chaired by Professor Benjamin Z. Kedar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), gave a closing plenary by way of showing a senior scholar’s own ‘work in progress’ and sending us on our way towards our next planned meeting, the postponed 10th quadrennial SSCLE conference, now scheduled for 27 June - 1 July 2022.
As announced in an email to members of the society, the following were the electoral results for the 2020 election, which was postponed to 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. The announcement material is appended here:
We are pleased to announce the results of elections for the new SSCLE committee. A total of 202 ballots were cast. Here are the results:
Jonathan Phillips received 95.7% of votes in affirmation of his election as President.
Nikolaos Chrissis received 63.8% of the votes for Secretary, with Judith Bronstein receiving 36.2%.
Danielle Park received 99% of votes in affirmation of her election as Bulletin Editor.
Simon Parsons received 99.5% of votes in affirmation of his election as Treasurer.
Kyle C. Lincoln received 99.7% of votes in affirmation of his election as Webmaster.
William Purkis and Anna Gutgarts received 54.1% of votes for Postgraduate Officer, Andrew Buck received 38.6%, and Dirceu Marchini Neto received 7.2%.
Dear fellow members of the SSCLE,
We are saddened to inform our members of the passing of Professor Jean Richard, just two weeks short of his centenary. Professor Richard, Emeritus Professor at the University of Dijon, was a founding member of our society and its first president. He numbers among the great modern scholars of the crusades and his outstanding career as a medievalist included many other interests, among these as an eminent scholar of Burgundian history. He was a member of several learned societies, among them the Institut de France, the Académie des sciences, arts et belles-lettres de Dijon, the Société éduenne des lettres, sciences et arts, the Regional Association for the Conservation of Heritage of Burgundy, and the National Society of Antiquaries of France. He was recipient of numerous prestigious awards including those of Knight of Arts and Letters, 1991, Knight of Military Merit, 1963, officer of the Legion of Honor in 2000 and Grand Officer of Merit in 2004.
Professor Richard was known and respected by our members and by students of the crusades in general for his eminence as a scholar of the crusader period and the Latin East. He was author of several major studies in the field, and his classic work, Royaume latin de Jérusalem (Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 1953) remains today among the finest syntheses on the subject of Frankish history and society. He was a warm and kindly man and will be sorely missed by our society.
We send our deepest condolences to his family.
Adrian Boas President SSCLE
It is with considerable sorrow that we learn of the death of our distinguished member, Professor Giles Constable. Professor Constable was an eminent historian of the Middle Ages, author of numerous publications including many major works on medieval religious and intellectual history. He was highly regarded by his colleagues, friends and students, both as a scholar and as a kind and caring man.
On behalf of our organization, I send our deepest condolences to his family.
Adrian Boas
President
SSCLE
It is with the deepest regret that I inform our members of the tragic and untimely death of our colleague, Professor Ronnie Ellenblum. Ronnie was a outstanding figure in Crusader studies, a brilliant, bold and original thinker whose contribution to the field is beyond measure. Ronnie was more than a colleague for me. He was a personal friend. I spent several years in close contact with him when we-co-directed the project that he had organized at the remarkable Templar fortress of Vadum Iacob. I regard that period as one of the high points in my own career as an archaeologist. The opportunity to observe how his mind worked, to exchange and develop ideas, and the pleasure of his company was one that I cherished. Of the many and significant contributions to the field of Crusader studies and to the other areas of his interest, to his colleagues and students, there is much to say and much will be said. For the moment let me just, on behalf of our members, express our deepest condolences to his family in their tragic loss and to the academic community as a whole in the loss of one of its brightest stars. He will be sadly missed.
The Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East wishes to offer its congratulations to a Former President of the Society, Prof. Benjamin Ze'ev Kedar, on the announcement that he has won two major prestigious prizes, the 2019 Emet Prize for Art, Science and Culture and the 2020 Israel Prize, the highest cultural honour presented for excellence in his field.
It is with great sorrow that we are informed of the passing of our former president, colleague and mentor, Professor Bernard Hamilton.
Bernard was Professor Emeritus of Crusading History at the University of Nottingham. He served as the fifth president of the SSCLE for the years 2008-2016. He was a major scholar and author of numerous publications including The Latin Church in the Crusader States: The Secular Church (1980), The Medieval Inquisition (Foundations of Medieval History) (1982), Crusaders, Cathars and the Holy Places (1999), The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (2000), Religion in the Medieval West (2003) and The Christian World of the Middle Ages (2013).
Bernard was highly regarded by all for his scholarship and intelligence, and much loved for his character. As president of the SSCLE he did much to advance the organization and was renowned for his support of young scholars, in tribute of which the SSCLE committee established the Bernard Hamilton Prize in his honour, now in its second year.
I am personally sorrowed by Bernard’s passing. I was fortunate to have served for a number of years as his secretary on the SSCLE committee. What distinguished him was his patience, great charm and kindness. We send our condolences to his family.
He will be sorely missed.
Editors: Matthew E. Parker, Ben Halliburton and Anne Romine
Crusade scholarship has exploded in popularity over the past two decades. This volume captures the resulting diversity of approaches, which often cross cultures and academic disciplines. The contributors to this volume offer new perspectives on topics as varied as the application of Roman law on slavery to the situation of Muslims in the Latin East, Muslim appropriation of Latin architectural spolia, the roles played by the crusade in medieval preaching, and the impact of Latin East refugees on religious geography in late medieval Cyprus. Together these essays demonstrate how pervasive the institution of crusade was in medieval Christendom, as much at home in Europe as in the Latin East, and how much impact it carried forth into the modern era.
Contributors are Richard Allington, Jessalynn Bird, Adam M. Bishop, Tomasz Borowski, Yan Bourke, Sam Zeno Conedera, Charles W. Connell, Cathleen A. Fleck, Lisa Mahoney, and C. Matthew Phillips.
https://brill.com/abstract/title/38872
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