School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Zhicheng Ye

Key information

Roles
School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics PhD researcher
Qualifications
PhD Candidate (SOAS, University of London), MSc (University of Edinburgh), BA (University of Washington)
Email address
684317@soas.ac.uk
Thesis title
Ma'rūf al-Karkhī and Islamic asceticism in the context of early Abbasid society
Internal Supervisors
Professor Hugh N Kennedy & Dr Mustafa Shah

Biography

Zhicheng is a PhD student at SOAS, University of London.  Before joining SOAS, he obtained his master’s degree on Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic from University of Edinburgh. He is from Nanchang, a beautiful riverside city in southern China. He greatly enjoys reading and traveling.

Research interests

Zhicheng’s research is mainly on the society and religious trends in early Abbasid Iraq, focusing on the dynamics between Islamic Sufi traditions, Shiism, and Christianity in the region. Apart from the religious perspective, he also studies on various socio-economic changes in early Abbasid Iraq, including the urbanization process, economic developments, and immigration, exploring their traces in the biographies of people who experienced them. His current project involves a comprehensive study on the historical life and later depictions of a widely revered Sufi saint in Baghdad, Ma'rūf al-Karkhī, along with a full translation into English of Ibn al-Jawzī's Manāqib Ma'rūf al-Karkhī, a classical Arabic biography of the saint.

Contact Zhicheng