Leiden Islam Blog

Art, literature and media

“Knowledge is Richness beyond Wealth”

(Elimu ni utajiri kuliko mali) An investigation into the private library of Mahmoud Mau inspires new research on Islamic intellectual history and the Swahili poetic production of coastal Kenya.

Annachiara Raia • 05-02-2020

History

The Governor’s Orders: Part Two

Read the history behind the story published here last year on the arrival of a message from the governor of Egypt in an eighth-century Egyptian village.

Eline Scheerlinck • 24-01-2020

History

An Arabic Astronomical Curriculum in the Leiden University Library

Medieval Muslim scholars are famed for their contributions to astronomical knowledge, but it is less clear how new students first learned to approach complex expert works like the Almagest. Part of the story may be found in the Middle Books of astronomy.

Christine Roughan • 20-12-2019

History

Conquest through Negotiation: The Arab Takeover of Qom in Sasanian Iran

The term “early Muslim conquests” brings to mind Arabs taking a place with violence, without any cooperation from the local population. No doubt that was sometimes the case. But did the early Muslim “conquests” of Sasanian Iran follow this pattern? How did the locals’ reactions affect the conquests?

Said Reza Huseini • 06-12-2019

Art, literature and media

Dabke on Dutch Dancefloors: Reattribution of Folk Tradition

Dabke is often framed as a village dance. The current popularity of dabke performances in the Netherlands shows how migration attributes new meaning to traditional practice. Diasporic dabke swings between reinvention of identity and creative cultural exchange.

Femke Groeneveld • 21-11-2019