SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Arabic Pasts: Histories and Historiography

Since the emergence of a major written tradition in the ninth century CE, history narrated in Arabic has been an important component of cultural patrimony. Beyond expressing Arab societies’ own reflections on their histories, Arabic historical narratives have provided reference points for communities throughout the wider Muslim world. As well as recording the past, Arabic historiography has served as a normative guide to the present, from the earliest history of the Muslim community, through key turning points in Islamic history, to the globalised debates and struggles of our own time.

Building on the successful workshops held in 2008, 2009 and 2010 papers in different areas of the field of Arabic historiography will map the state of the field, discuss areas of current work, and explore points of divergence and intersection at this one-day workshop. The goal of the workshop is exploratory: to bring together the disparate strands of contemporary studies of Arabic historiography and to provide a forum in which future projects can be envisioned. Building on the classic areas of textual commentary and critique focused on the canonical literary corpus, a whole range of studies can be envisaged that might expand and deepen our understanding of how the past has been — and continues to be — imagined and narrated in Arabic, across time and space from the classical age to the present.

Enquiries to Sarah Bowen Savant, sarah.savant@aku.edu, Konrad Hirschler, kh20@soas.ac.uk or James McDougall, james.mcdougall@trinity.ox.ac.uk.

Lunch is provided, rsvp Sarah Bowen Savant by September 11 to state your attendance.

Session 1 - 9.30am-11.15am
Chair: Hugh Kennedy, SOAS, University of London

• Farouk Topan, AKU-ISMC, London
  Welcome and introductory remarks
• Peter Webb, SOAS, University of London
  ‘Barbarism’ in Muslim Narratives of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Study of the ayyām al-ʿarab
• Sarah Savant, AKU-ISMC, London
  Into Arabic, Out of Pahlavi: A Theory regarding 'Sourcebooks' for Iranian History

Coffee - 11.15am‐11.45am

Session 2 - 11.45am‐1.15pm
Chair: Konrad Hirschler, SOAS, University of London

• Alex Mallett, Royal Holloway, University of London
  History as propaganda: Ayyubid period historians and the early leaders of the counter-crusade
• Nassima Neggaz, Georgetown University
  The fall of Baghdad to the Mongol invader, 656/1258: Historiography lessons from city-siege narratives

Lunch - 1.15pm-2.15pm

Session 3 - 2.15pm-4.30pm
Chair: Antoine Borrut, University of Maryland

• Abdelahad Sebti, Muhammad V University, Rabat
  Named Years in Moroccan Historiography
• Nick Chatrath, Wadham College, Oxford
  Butcher, baker, money changer: Ibn al-Ḥājj al-‘Abdarī’s (d. 737/1336) and Ibn al-Naḥḥās al-Dumyāṭī’s (d. 814/1411) use of earlier sources in rebuking innovation
• Elena Vezzadini, EHESS, Paris
  Writing hegemony in history: Historiography, resistance, and the struggle over history

Tea - 4.30pm‐5pm

Session 4 - 5pm‐5.45pm
Chair: James McDougall, Trinity College, Oxford

• Abdou Filali Ansari, AKU-ISMC, London
  Contemporary Debates about the Past: Questioning Popular Views on Arabism and Islam