“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 • February 05, 2020
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 • January 24, 2020
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 • December 20, 2019 • 1 comment
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 • December 06, 2019
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 • November 21, 2019
Kunnen moslims wijn drinken? Moslims en wijn, is er een connectie? Pooyan Tamimi Arab gaat in dit blog en tijdens zijn lezing op 6 november dieper in op deze vraag. Pooyan Tamimi Arab • November 05, 2019
In het islamdebat zijn niet alleen rechtse populisten of moslimfundamentalisten het probleem In hun nieuwe bundel 'Wordt het nog wat met het islamdebat?' laten Jan Jaap de Ruiter en Gert Jan Geling verschillende mensen reflecteren op het islamdebat in Nederland Gert Jan Geling and Jan Jaap de Ruiter • October 24, 2019
A Short History of Kashmir: 1947–2019 Kashmir regularly makes international headlines but the history of the region is often unknown to many. What shaped the current situation and what is happening in Kashmir right now? Idrees Kanth • October 10, 2019
Turkish Academics for Peace Recently, ten Turkish academics who signed a petition in 2016 protesting against state violence towards the own population in South-East Turkey, have been cleared by Turkey’s Constitutional Court of charges of terrorist propaganda. What does this say about Turkey’s constitutional state? Petra de Bruijn • September 26, 2019
