THE CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES NEWS HARVARD UNIVERSITY

2019–20

3 LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR A message from CMES Acting Director Cemal Kafadar

5 NEWS AND NOTES New faculty; fall reception; Q&A with Rosie Bsheer; updates from faculty, students, alumni, and visiting researchers; faculty books; student dispatches from Turkey, Tunisia, and Florence; virtual commencement

39 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS Lectures, workshops, and conferences ON THE COVER: Sunrise in Sidi Bou Said, by Hacı Osman “Ozzy” Gündüz LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR 2019–20 HIGHLIGHTS A message from 2019-20 CMES Acting Director Cemal Kafadar

The original script made it look easy. I was Academy. Her cohort includes another going to be Acting Director for a year, while dear CMES friend and former faculty who Bill Granara would enjoy his hard-earned is now in the other Cambridge, namely sabbatical leave. The first eight months Khaled Fahmy. Kudos to them both! were indeed smooth, thanks above all to Bill Granara’s new book, Narrating our administrative staff, working with great Muslim Sicily: War and Peace in the Medieval professionalism and efficiency under (to Mediterranean World, was the true delicacy me) Lady Lauren Montague. Speaking of of fall 2019. Why should I be embarrassed to our staff colleagues, the fall opened with promote it? Gülru and I took it along on our the felicitous news that Carol Ann Young journey to Sicily in December, and it turned had given birth to Olive, whose visits to the out to be a fabulous travel companion. I experimented with something new in Center were the most cheerful moments of It was a great joy to have my first full terms of my own seminars, and that was the semester—no contest. year of colleagueship with Rosie Bsheer the highlight of the year for me as a history In September, the book I co-edited with at the Center and to see her take charge of teacher. No, make that the highlight of Gülru Necipoğlu and Cornell Fleischer, of the her teaching and advising responsibilities several years. Beshara Doumani, a colleague University of Chicago, arrived from Leiden with such poise and generosity. We sorely at Brown University, and I structured a in a handsome set of two volumes. Treasures needed a modern Middle East historian, seminar around a set of recent books in of Knowledge: An Inventory of the Ottoman and we lucked out by having Rosie in that early modern and modern Middle East Palace Library (1502/3–1503/4) is the product role. The public lecture series that she history, alternating the venue for each of a group project launched in 2014 with a organized, inviting authors of some exciting week’s session between Cambridge and workshop at Harvard, to offer a detailed anal- new books in Middle East studies, was an Providence. We provided the syllabus and ysis of the library collection of the Topkapı­ intellectual feast, well attended by engaged led the discussion, but it was the brilliant Palace through its inventory from 1502 to audiences. (Spoiler alert: the field will be Middle East history students (from both 1504, listing more than seven thousand titles blessed with an accomplished and stun- Brown and Harvard) who provided the in different disciplines. The twenty-two ningly original new book this fall, namely intellectual vibrancy that became our essays on the intellectual life of the empire Rosie’s own volume on Saudi Arabia.) weekly fix. CMES’s logistical support was include those of Harvard colleagues Khaled Working with Jesse Howell, CMES’s essential in pulling this traveling circus off. El-Rouayheb, Mohsen Goudarzi, and ­Himmet Academic Programs Manager, was another Our J-Term programs in Tunisia and Taşkömür and CMES alumni Aleksandar­ first-full-year colleagueship pleasure. Not Turkey went as usual, namely superbly, Shopov and ­Hüseyin Yilmaz,­ with contribu- only did he and I and Lauren collaborate thanks to Sihem Lamine and Jesse Howell, tions by Hesna Ergun Taşkömür and CMES and conspire regularly, but he and I also respectively. students Didar Akbulut­ and Eda Özel. co-ordinated the proseminar for our superb February opened the second semester In recognition of her “outstanding con- cohort of first-semester AM students, who nicely with two big events. Derek Penslar, tributions to subjects within the humanities gave an engaging and entertaining hard who published his eagerly awaited book on and social sciences,” Gülru Necipoğlu was time to different CMES faculty members Theodor Herzl that month, hosted Noam named Corresponding Fellow of the British and guests each week. Shuster-Eliassi, a wizard comedian who

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 3 LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR knows how to turns matters of gravity into he felt, and he told me that he was “robbed the least, and by the time it was announced, the stuff of hilarity with biting humor and of his senior year experience that he had the writ was on the wall. daring. The room was packed, of course, been looking forward to for four years.” As if the pandemic was not enough, there and bursting with laughter. But the other Neither he nor I doubted the wisdom of was another—dare I say, bigger—cataclysmic big event had an audience flowing into the the University’s decision, but we could not event to unfold. On May 23, first day of the corridors, because colleagues and students clear the heavy air of the feeling of loss that Eid, I gave an interview to Medyascope, a from many different parts of the university the circumstances dished up. Turkish web news channel, where we spoke came together to celebrate and discuss We were all robbed of the spring 2020 about pandemics in the past and our current Bill’s book on Sicily. Engaged does not experience. Online teaching was odd but circumstance, simply thinking of coronavirus begin to describe the audience, carried by not too bad, and in fact enjoyable in its and the strange “normal” of the lockdown. Bill’s passion about his subject. own right at times. Given the absence of At some point, I happened to mention that I We had a fabulous lineup for the rest of bodily travel, it also inspired us to invite had read about the fact that a far larger num- the spring: concerts (Ara and Onno Dinkjian, a “commencement speaker” for our own ber of Black than White Americans were Ezgi Stump); film opening (Zeynep Dadak’s graduating students for the first time. hit by the virus, and added that “the virus is Invisible to the Eye, based on Eremya The award-winning author–intellectual working on the major fault-line of American Kömürjian’s seventeenth-century account Leila Slimani kindly agreed and dazzlingly society, the racial divide.” That much was of Istanbul); a visit by a celebrated author delivered. But nothing, absolutely nothing, and is obvious to anyone following the news. (Kapka Kassabova); book launches (CMES can replace the person-to-person face-to- But how could any of us have known what alum Ayfer Karakaya-Stump; the Harvard face corporeal experience of a university, we May 25 would bring and lead to? team of our Treasures of Knowledge); all realized anew. The rest of the spring and I need not go over the events since the distinguished lectures; and more. summer, faculty and staff colleagues in the tragic murder of George Floyd on that And then came March 2020. I’d better administration and on various committees fateful day. We have posted a letter to our be brief about it. My memory of those days worked tirelessly to articulate and keep CMES community that is on our website. is foggy on many details but vivid when refining new regulations regarding access to And even that does not do it for a full it comes to the feeling of uncanniness and mobility on campus. account of the spring and summer. Having that was growing by the hour, as news Our developing fluency with Zoom already acquired unmatched notoriety circulated about an unparalleled challenge allowed us to bring together our globally by the summer, the year 2020 also gave that we were facing and unprecedented dispersed PhD students for a three-part us the devastation in Beirut, where some decisions that had to be made. It was the workshop titled Research and Disruption. dear members of our community, and an saddest moment in my thirty-five years as Students were able to share the challenges extended family of sorts, friends, friends of a teacher when I saw the faces of students of conducting research abroad at a time friends, former visitors, colleagues, students, during those few days when they were still when the pandemic (in tandem with his- happened to be witnesses to the tragedy and around but had been told that the campus toric floods in one case) caused closures of suffered the trauma. Words do not do much would need to be vacated. I remember essential libraries and archives, disrupting in these instances, but I know that each one running into a senior I know in the lobby all well-laid plans and research expecta- of us, wherever we are, would like to ex- of Widener Library. Were we still shaking tions. Seeing their committment and re- press that we share their loss and their deep hands? We certainly were not wearing sourcefulness in the face of such obstacles mourning and look forward to the revival of masks yet. One could still take for granted was a jolt of energy for all of us. that glorious city of invincible citizens. an encounter with a warm human touch in The wait for the University’s decision How I wish we had Roger with us for that sumptuous setting. I asked him how regarding fall 2020 was suspenseful, to say some bottomless conversations about all this.

4 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 Will you now think that I am being disingenuous if I say that there is also a lot to be cherished? But there is. Staying close NEWS AND NOTES to home, I am thinking, above all, of the AT THE CENTER Born in Egypt, Muhammad Ahmed remarkable resilience and perseverance of CMES welcomed two faculty members to Habib received his MA and PhD in our community as well as the remarkable Harvard’s Middle Eastern studies com- Arabic language and linguistics from instances of solidarity that I have witnessed munity in fall 2019. Richard Cozzens and Al-Azhar University in Egypt. He was an and heard about from so many. ­Muhammad Ahmed Habib both joined the Assistant Teaching Professor of Arabic at Looking out beyond this Center of our Department of Near Eastern Languages Georgetown University and previously own, I am cautiously but not skeptically and Civilizations as Preceptors in Arabic. taught at Duke University. His research encouraged and inspired by the response Cozzens has been teaching Arabic for interests include Arabic linguistics, to all of the above in many corners of the over ten years. He received his AB in Near syntax, and morphology as well as world. I was born in 1954 and have lived my Eastern Languages and Civilizations and teaching Arabic as a foreign language, life in an age defined, not unambiguously Music from Harvard and has lived in Syria Arabic literature, Islamic studies, and or unequivocally I am afraid, by decolo- and Jordan for study and work. Cozzens Qur’anic studies. He has published a nization. This is one of the few moments holds an EdM degree from the Harvard monograph in Arabic, Usul al-nahw wa in this age of decolonization when the Graduate School of Education, where he masa’ilahi al-khilafiya (Principles of decolonizing looks sharp and earnest in the studied experiential pedagogy and class- Arabic grammar and scholarly debates very centers of colonialism. Never have I room dynamics. In addition to teaching among medieval grammarians) and seen the critique of racism, colonialism, and Arabic at universities and schools, he has several academic articles on historical ethnicity- and gender-based violence co- directed the STARTALK Arabic Summer Arabic grammar and contemporary alesce and speak to each other so sincerely Academy in Boston since 2011. His profes- Arabic language pedagogy. He studied and productively. At least in academia, I can sional interests include second language the art of Arabic calligraphy at the attest to a sense of purpose and resolve to acquisition, developing curricular mate- Calligraphy Institute in Cairo and has do things differently in a substantive man- rials for various levels of proficiency, and given workshops on Arabic calligraphy at ner rather than keep relying on statistical Arabic literature and music. universities around the United States. advances in inclusivity and diversity. Maybe it is that September air that blesses us each year with a collective sense of rejuvenation, with the possibility of a be- ginning. A new semester is upon us. Having started my own sabbatical leave, and thou- sands of miles away from the campus, I can still feel the buzz, the energy, the optimism and determination no matter what. This is a university, after all, and we believe in the power of education to make this a better world. That is our work, our vocation, our calling. May you all enjoy good health to con- Richard Cozzens Muhammad Ahmed Habib tinue to contribute to that noble mission. •

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 5 NEWS AND NOTES FALL RECEPTION 2019

Lisa Gulesserian, Reilly Barry

Acting Director Cemal Kafadar welcomes the CMES community

Mitch Bacci, Akif Yerlioglu, Daria Kovaleva

John P. Murphy, Kathryn Lorber Falk, Nana-Korantema Koranteng, Mouhanad Al Rifay Cemal Kafadar, Meryem Demir

6 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 Richard Cozzens, Eleanor Ellis

Nevenka Korica Sullivan, William Graham, Muhammad Ahmed Habib, Meryem Demir, Jesse Howell, Melani Cammett

William Graham, Nicholas Boylston, Siren Çelik Lenore Martin

Hüseyin Oylupinar, Himmet Taskomur Dina Khatib, Badriyyah Alsabah

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 7 NEWS AND NOTES

FACULTY NEWS Muslim Cultures Lecture, Seminar, Harvard, March 2020. Theatrical History of Indige- Ali Asani, Murray A. Albertson University of Calgary and Melani Cammett, Clarence nous Theatre and Early Professor of Middle Eastern University of Alberta, Edmon- Dillon Professor of Interna- Playwriting in Iran.” Meryem Studies and Professor of ton, March 2020. He was tional Affairs, published, with Demir, Preceptor in Modern Indo-Muslim and Islamic awarded the Harvard Founda- Ishac Diwan and Irina Varta- Turkish, received a Certificate Religion and Cultures, pub- tion Faculty of the Year award nova, “Insecurity and Political in Teaching Excellence for fall lished “Nizari Ismaili Engage- for making Harvard a more Values in the Arab World,” 2019. In October and November ments with the Quran,” in inclusive place. Yael Berda, Democratization 27.5. With Evan 2019 she published two related Communities of the Qur’an: Gerard Weinstock Visiting Lieberman, she wrote the white short stories in Turkish in Ek Dialogue, Debate and Diversity Lecturer on Sociology, pub- paper “Building Solidarity: Periodical, “Fear” and “L’shanah in the 21st Century, ed. Emran lished “Managing ‘Dangerous Challenges, Options, and Tovah,” which are inspired by El-Badawi and Paula Sanders Populations’: How Colonial Implications for Covid-19 Jewish Quarters in Budapest (Oneworld, 2019). He curated Emergency Laws Shape Citizen- Responses,” Edmond J. Safra and Venice. Gareth Doherty, “In the Eye of Beholder,” an ship,” Security Dialogue, January Center for Ethics, Harvard, Associate Professor of Land- exhibition of art created by 2020. Rosie Bsheer, Assistant April 2020. With Lama Mourad, scape Architecture and Director students of his course Multi­ Professor of History, spoke she wrote “The Twin Crises and of the Master in Landscape sensory Religion: Rethinking about her research, focusing on the Prospects for Political Architecture Program at the Islam through the Arts, Smith her forthcoming book, Archive Sectarianism in Lebanon,” Leba- Graduate School of Design, Campus Center Art Gallery, Wars: The Politics of History in nese Center for Policy Studies, lectured in both the Critical December 2019. He participated Saudi Arabia, and her next book April 2020. And she received Humanities Lecture Series and in musical performance “The project, “Crude Empire,” at the Harvard’s 2019 Government the Arabian Crossroads Lecture Covenant of Love: The Poetry, Standing Committee on Women Department Graduate Student Series at NYU Abu Dhabi in Music and Spirituality of South Mini-Symposium, Harvard, Association Faculty Mentorship December 2019. In October Asian Muslim Cultures,” with October 2019. She was the Award. Jocelyne Cesari was 2019, he spoke at the Inter­ Pakistani singer and musician Inaugural Speaker for the series awarded the 2020 Distinguished national Federation of Land- Ali Sethi ’06 and Grammy- Scholarship in Conversation, Scholar Award of the Interna- scape Architects’ Africa region award-winning musician Noah New York University, February tional Studies Association for conference in Tunis and Georgeson, the finale of the 2020. She spoke at the Histori- her work in religion and politics. lectured on his book, Paradoxes Harvard Arts First Festival in ans and Public Engagement Richard Cozzens, Preceptor in of Green, at the Harvard CMES spring 2019. He gave the speaker series, Department of Arabic, received a Certificate in Tunisia Office.Kristin Fabbe, lectures “Pluralism, Intolerance History, Harvard, February Teaching Excellence for fall Assistant Professor of Business and the Quran,” Annual Dinner 2020. She was a discussant on a 2019. In November 2019, Sheida Administration, with Matt of the Harvard Club of North panel for Rashid Khalidi’s new Dayani, Preceptor in Persian, ­Buehler and Joon Han pub- Shore, June 2019, “Understand- book, The Hundred Years’ War was awarded an Honorable lished “Postmaterialism and ing Islam in a World of Fake on Palestine: A History of Settler Mention for “superior scholar- Attitudes toward Migrants in News,” West Vancouver Colonial Conquest and Resis- ship, originality, clarity, and the Morocco,” International Studies Community Centre, December tance, 1917–2017, Columbia significant contribution [made] Quarterly (forthcoming); 2019, and “Understanding Islam University, March 2020. And to the field of Iranian Studies” “Republic of Turkey,” in The in an Age of Polarization and she gave the talk “The Archive for her PhD dissertation, Government and Politics of the Misinformation,”­ Inaugural Question” at the Middle East “Juggling Revolutionaries: A Middle East and North Africa,

8 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 Process during the 1980s and 1990s” at the international conference Islamic Studies Today at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies. He accepted memberships to the Advisory Board of the Journal of Islamic Research (Islam Arastirmalari Dergisi), November 2019, and the Faculty Review Board of the Graduate Journal of Harvard Divinity School, December 2019. After five years of research, CMES Research Associate Susan Miller completed the manuscript for her new book, “Out of Morocco: The Refugee Crisis in North Africa during World War II,” the story of

William Granara, Sihem Lamine, and Gareth Doherty at the CMES Tunisia Office Hélène Cazes Benatar, who organized a program of relief in Morocco for European refugees ed. Sean Yom (Routledge, 2020); “From Revenge to Forgiveness: and Sons, 2020). Baber fleeing Nazism. Morocco’s first with Efe ­Murat Balikcioglu and Strengthening Durable Peace in Johansen, Professor of Islamic woman lawyer, Benatar was Umit Ozlale, “Islamic Capital- Post-Conflict Iraq” (2019); and Religious Studies, gave the disbarred by the Vichy regime in ism and the Rise of Religious- Center for Excellence for keynote speech, “The Integra- 1941 following the imposition of Conservative Big Business,” in Development Impact and tion of the Mentally Ill into the anti-Jewish quotas. Braving Business, Ethics and Institutions: Learning, “Syrian Refugee’s Ritual Community of Islam numerous threats, she helped The Evolution of Turkish Business Development, Refugee through the Cosmic Causes of thousands of Europeans on Capitalism in Global Perspective, Livelihoods, and Regional Time and Space,” at the their way to freedom.” In ed. Geoff Jones and Asli Colpan Trade” (2019). William colloquium Casuistry, Contin- 2019–20, Derek Penslar, (Routledge, 2019). She received Graham, Murray A. Albertson gency, Ambiguity: New William Lee Frost Professor of grants from Innovations for Research Professor of Middle Approaches to the Study of Jewish History, published Poverty Action, Peace and Eastern Studies and Harvard Ethics in the Islamic Traditions, Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Recovery Program, “Covid-19: University Distinguished University of Cambridge Faculty Leader (Yale University Press); Businesses and Social Cohesion Service Professor, published the of Divinity, July 2019. In “Gender and Economics in Turkey” (2020) and “Busi- chapter “Revelation,” in The September he gave the talk “The through a Trifocal Lens,” as part nesses and Social Cohesion in Wiley-Blackwell Concise Supreme Constitutional Court’s of the forum The Economic Turkey” (2019); Riksbankens Companion to the Hadith, ed. Interpretation of Islam as part Turn in American Jewish Jubileumsfond (Sweden), Daniel W. Brown (John Wiley of Egypt’s Democratization History in American Jewish (continued on page 19)

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 9 NEWS AND NOTES

Q&A WITH ROSIE BSHEER

Rosie Bsheer is Assistant Professor of nation-states, colonialism and imperialism, History in the Department of History and a social and intellectual movements, petro- member of the CMES Steering Committee. states in global perspective, and religion and Her teaching and research interests center politics. At the graduate level, my focus has on Arab intellectual and social movements, mostly been on the historiography of the petrocapitalism and state formation, and the modern Middle East as well as theories and production of historical knowledge and com- methods in studying the region, in addition memorative spaces. She teaches graduate and to directed reading courses that prepare undergraduate courses on oil and empire, PhD students to take their general exams. social and intellectual movements, petro­ In fall 2020, I am teaching a new modernity, political economy, historiography, undergraduate seminar titled “Reformers and the making of the modern Middle East. and Revolutionaries in the Arab World.” It Her first book,Archive Wars: The Politics of will examine the local, regional, national, History in Saudi Arabia, will be published in and international contexts within which fall 2020 by Stanford University Press. social movements have operated in the Arab world from the late Ottoman to the What classes have you been teaching contemporary era. The course aims to since coming to Harvard? introduce students to the kinds of questions I have taught several courses since joining and issues that peasants, workers, unionists, Harvard University in September 2018. At feminists, leftists, nationalists, Islamists, have to go it on my own. For one, Roger’s the undergraduate level, I taught “Oil and secularists, and liberals were dealing with legacy and spirit remain guiding posts Empire,” an advanced writing seminar that throughout the twentieth century and the for all of us here at the Center for Middle explores how the political economy of oil imperial, colonial, and postcolonial worlds Eastern Studies, and for me in particular, has shaped the rise and fall of empires, the they were caught in. I plan on going on especially as I occupy the same office he fate of nation-states, the making of “the research leave in calendar year 2021 and so called home for so many years, his office. At economy,” the nature of class, gender, and will not be teaching until spring 2022. the same time, wonderful colleagues at the racial discrimination, and the production History Department as well as at the Center of historical knowledge and the built urban You are the first tenured or tenure-track have made my landing, and the transition, environment. I also taught a survey course historian of the modern Middle East to as smooth as one can hope for. While there titled “The Making of the Modern Middle teach at Harvard since the late Roger was a substantial community of eager East,” which looks at how the region of Owen retired in 2013. Does stepping into students for whom the modern Middle North Africa and West Asia between the a role that has been somewhat in flux for East was a primary or secondary field, they Atlantic and Central Asia was constructed, several years come with any extra sense all came to me with excellent training and physically and discursively, as “the Middle of pressure or scrutiny? Does it have any preparation. This made working with a East.” Some of the themes the course covers effect on the nature of the courses you’ll large group of students, many of whom took include challenges in the study of the mod- offer or the material you’ll teach? their exams in my first teaching semester, ern Middle East, the politics of modernity, It goes without saying that I have some somewhat manageable. I was also advising Ottoman reform, the formation of modern really big shoes to fill, but at least I do not new graduate students, which was an es-

10 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 sential part of building the modern Middle historical memory in Mecca has been pacifying wartime popular opposition, East field. The long absence of ladder facul- complemented by the belated creation reshaping the politics of subject formation, ty in modern Middle East history necessar- and memorialization of an official, secular and diversifying the petroleum economy. ily meant that I had to cater my teaching history in Riyadh. Archive Wars explores The ensuing struggle over state form—what and mentoring to their diverse methodolog- this dissonance through a genealogical I call archive wars—revolved around the ical and theoretical needs, which I try my reading of the material, spatial, and production of history, the reordering of best to do even under usual circumstances. symbolic politics of Saudi petromodernity. space, and the repurposing of valuable real It addresses the late-twentieth-century estate. Historicizing these practices helps What is your upcoming book about? production of state archives, memorial us rethink the nature of modern archival My book, Archive Wars: The Politics spaces, and urban redevelopment plans, and formation as well as statecraft while calling of History in Saudi Arabia, will be the power struggles therein, as everyday into question scholarly assumptions about out in September 2020. Taking late- practices of state-making. Specifically, in the cohesiveness of authoritarian states, Ottoman Arabia as one of many possible the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, ruling and of states in general. Approaching starting points, the book explores elites in Saudi Arabia adopted measures the domains of history-making and how the destruction of one form of that aimed to reconfigure state power by urban planning as mutually constitutive,

Rosie Bsheer speaking at the Middle East Seminar in March 2020

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 11 NEWS AND NOTES contested, and ongoing material practices Washington Post, The Nation, and other village. Jadaliyya—as a community of both of state formation complicates conventional popular media outlets. How do you view editors and contributors—was my village. understandings of the nature of state power the relationship between your popular Writing in other popular platforms also and its imbrication with archive formation. writing and your academic work, and forced me to reconsider, in more pressing how do they inform one another? ways, the historian’s craft and the respon- What is the focus your current research? My popular writing and academic work sibilities that come with it—issues of audi- I am currently working on a second book are dialectically related and have fed into ence, accessibility, positionality, political project, tentatively titled “Crude Empire.” each other in the most productive and stakes, and “truth,” among others. Having It examines the history of Saudi Arabian lasting of ways. I joined the editorial team access to the popular press necessarily state formation through connected and of Jadaliyya in late 2010, shortly before the implicates one in processes and politics competing processes of capital accumula- e-zine went live, which also occurred on of knowledge production. It is at once a tion, land redistribution, and infrastructural the eve of the 2011 Arab uprisings. I was privilege and a responsibility, especially development. As a legal history of private conducting dissertation research in Saudi when writing about a place like Saudi property ownership in Saudi Arabia, it takes Arabia at the time and began to write short Arabia whose own citizens and residents seriously the emergence and centrality of pieces that, to some extent, intersected are largely prevented from voicing their private land ownership to state formation. with my research and forced me to think of opinions, let alone speaking truth to power. Doing so sheds light on the kinds of social and write about it in more accessible ways. relations that the kingdom’s successive Over the years, I also worked closely, and You were an Associate Producer of property laws were meant to engender and on a daily basis, with hundreds of writers, the documentary filmMy Country, My the struggles they prompted. Relatedly, the scholars, activists, and artists. Many were Country, which tells the story of an Iraqi project explores the transnational political, directly involved in political organizing doctor and political candidate during the economic, social, and technical networks across the Arab states and wanted to US occupation of Iraq. What was your that have shaped state formation through foreground the struggles they were role in that project, and how did you a study of the various flows of capital and involved in. Others—as firsthand observers become involved? expertise that have enabled the ruling Al or as analysts—were trying to make sense I worked on the post-production of Saud monarchy’s imperial conquests in of the uprisings, the potential for creating the Sundance-sponsored and Oscar- the Arabian Peninsula, and the subsequent a different future, and the major obstacles nominated My Country, My Country, an transformation of their empire into a state to doing so, not least of which was the intimate portrait of Iraqis living under US in 1932. Local as well as seafaring mer- reactionary counterrevolution that ensued. occupation and the tragic narrative of how chants operating across the Indian Ocean While my work with Jadaliyya initially this occupation unfolds. I did so first as a and South Asia, multinational corpora- slowed down my academic writing, it in translator and then as an aspiring editor. tions, and imperial powers financed and fact deepened it and made me a more In 2005, after translating over 180 hours constructed the state’s infrastructural and critical thinker and writer. I was learning, of footage that Laura Poitras had filmed in bureaucratic requirements. Along with almost firsthand, about myriad social Iraq, I taught myself how to edit and joined legal scholars, these have sustained the and political movements and how they the small team of two in the studio/editing authoritarian state in its current form, as connected with or departed from past room, day in, day out. It turned out that I the project aims to show. struggles, a subject I now teach on a regular was really bad at (and did not like) editing, basis. The experience also taught me that but I was not so bad at making other You are a co-editor of the Jadaliyya writing is a communal act; no one person things needed for the film happen, hence e-zine and you have contributed to the is the sole author of any work, it takes a Associate Producer. •

12 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 NARRATING MUSLIM SICILY War and Peace in the Medieval Mediterranean World

“The history of Muslim Sicily is often Much of what we do know about the thought of in terms of the history of Muslim Muslim period in Sicily, beginning around Spain,” says CMES Director William 827, when Arabs came to the island on a Granara, who this May was awarded a military expedition against the Byzantine Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship for Empire, and lasting until some time around his book Narrating Muslim Sicily: War 1220, when Frederick II ultimately expelled and Peace in the Medieval Mediterranean them from the island, comes through the World (I.B. Taurus, 2019). And although work of nineteenth-century Italian patriot there are similarities to their histories, and historian Michele Amari. Amari there are marked differences as well. For collected all the manuscripts and printed one, the conquest of Spain came through a material dealing with Muslim Sicily that he series of wars in the name of the ummah, or could find into a volume called Biblioteca collective Islam. Muslim Sicily, on the other Arabo-sicula, a depository of historical hand, “was the first jihad movement in writings, literature, and biography, and he Islamic history that was not coming from a spent many years thereafter writing his unified Islam. This was a political jihad that multivolume Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia. was launched by an autonomous group of A generation of Italian Orientalists followed people for very political reasons.” Second, in his path, “but by and large it was Amari while there exists a wealth of primary who created a paradigm for the history Chapter one revisits Amari’s basic sources on the Islamic period in Spain, of Muslim Sicily and developed a schema narrative of Muslim Sicily, but through there are few extant primary sources from that has existed up until today. And there’s the particular lens of jihad. “When you Muslim Sicily. “We do have some primary really no work that doesn’t make some kind read through the chronicles,” Granara sources from this time, but much of it has of reference to Amari.” says, “every time there was a new ruler, been lost.” “What I’m trying to do in the book is his immediate reaction upon assuming Muslim Sicily also becomes “somewhat to move away from that grand narrative power was to go on some kind of a foray of a footnote” to the subsequent Norman of Muslim Sicily,” Granara explains. “I’m into Christian territory to get new land.” period, from which many archives and trying to look at the gaps, and to deal with This was partly to gain money and prestige, other primary sources remain. In histories questions that in some ways disturb or but much of it had to do with authority of Sicily, Granara says, there typically are destabilize the general narratives of what and legitimization. “I’m looking at the extensive treatments of the classical period, went on. The book is basically about how idea that Sicily was a military operation and the Byzantine period, and “then there’s medieval Arabs—poets, historians, legal that eventually evolved into a civil society, about three paragraphs on the Muslims in scholars, geographers—viewed Muslim but that the jihad was always there,” that Sicily—they came in and then they left,” and Sicily, the way that they interpreted it it became “a motor for authority or for then extensive coverage of the Normans, the or remembered it, because most of the legitimization.” Bourbons, the Angevins, and so on, up until knowledge that we have of Muslim Sicily Chapter two traces the idea of treason. the modern period. “Muslim Sicily doesn’t comes from primary sources that were “Muslim Sicilian history begins with have a very big press in scholarship.” written after the fact.” treason and it ends with treason,” Granara

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 13 NEWS AND NOTES

William Granara, Cemal Kafadar, Sarah DeMott, and Gareth Doherty at a February book talk at CMES, co-sponsored with the Committee on Medieval Studies says. Around 827, a Byzantine commander let the Normans into Sicily. “Treason just and it was a place you could reinvent in Sicily named Euphemius decided to permeates this whole period of history. your own identity or remake yourself. revolt against Constantinople, and he It was a trope that was constantly used It was a place that drew in pirates and petitioned the Aglabids in North Africa not only by poets but by geographers mercenaries and all kinds of people. Acts to bring in armies to conquer the island. and chroniclers.” Sicily was a border of treachery and betrayal were part and Two hundred and fifty years later, as the area—between east and west, north and parcel of the terrain,” an environment that island was breaking up into fiefdoms, a south, Christendom and Islamdom—and Granara connects to ideas of loyalty and warlord named Ibn al-Thumna went to the its own historical and political borders of identity in Sicily. “This was an island Normans for help against his rivals, and he were porous. “People came in and out, that was never fully Islamicized. It was

14 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 never fully Hellenized, it was never fully Hamdis was a religious zealot. He wasn’t a sense of impending loss and doom and Latinized, or Bourbonized. Even today a religious zealot at all. He talked about the end of the world. “I’m looking at these you’re going to find Sicilians who say we’re wine and women and dancing, singing late not so much as poems of praise as poems not Italian, we’re something else. Loyalties at night and getting drunk. That’s really of survival, and I’m seeing these poets as a could be bought and sold, and this was a not religious zealotry as far as I know. I community of people who were writing to marketplace for such things.” wanted to show that much of the political one another,” a dwindling Muslim Sicilian Chapter three deals with a number of content of the first three chapters was very population attempting to keep each other fatwas relating to the conquest and rule much part of what Ibn Hamdis was writing going amid moments of trauma and tension. of Muslim Sicily. In a series of comments about.” Like the politicization of Sicilian Chapter five thus confronts more and fatwas in the ninth century, Tunisian jihad that manifested itself in legal affairs, directly the contemporary idea of jurist Muhammad ibn Sahnun made a a similar politicization of jihad appears in convivencia, “the myth of interfaith claim that “of all the lands conquered by some of Ibn Hamdis’ poetry. “He evolves utopia that has held sway in this field for Islam, none was more unlawful than the eventually as a poet who uses jihad as a way a long time—the idea that Muslim Spain conquest of Sicily.” And a later Sunni jurist of liberating his homeland.” and Muslim Sicily were areas in which named al-Daudi, who left Sicily when the By 1090 the Norman conquest of Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived Fatimid Shiites took over, wrote a series of Sicily was complete. King Roger II, together and created these wonderful fatwas about settlements of land in Spain, however, needed and appreciated Muslim moments in history where there was Sicily, and North Africa—most of which are scholarship, agriculture, technology, harmony and peace. There was convivencia, devoted to Sicily—in which the conquest of and culture, and many Muslim poets but there wasn’t one day in the four Sicily was deemed to be illegal according worked at the Norman court, writing centuries of Muslim Sicily where there to certain Islamic precepts. Ongoing Arabic panegyrics in favor of Roger II and wasn’t some kind of fighting going on. contestations between Muslim jurists over eventually his grandson William II. Chapter What my book is trying to do is to negotiate such questions were as much political five deals with “what I would call the texts between war and peace, to question how as legal, and the jihad of Sicily “becomes and the subtexts of these panegyrics.” The these forces and conditions fed off each somewhat of a juridical and political poems were written nominally in favor of other, sometimes in positive ways.” football between Sunnis and Shiites and Roger, “whom the Arabs liked—Roger was Ultimately, “what I wanted to do was to between certain factions of jurists from pretty good to them,” and Normans in the look more closely at some of the cracks and North Africa.” eleventh century did embrace aspects of missing pieces in Muslim Sicilian history, Chapter four is a study of the poet Arabic culture. But as Roger got older he at questions that have never really been Ibn Hamdis, who was born in Syracuse became more and more Christian, and the answered,” Granara says. “I wanted to look in 1055. Sometime after Palermo fell to island became more populated by Lombard in the back alleys of the traditional grand Robert Guiscard, in 1072, Ibn Hamdis barons, and things became more difficult for narrative and explore where post-Amari and his family left the island, going first the Arabs. “I take the view that these poems scholarship can lead.” • to Sfax and eventually to Spain, where were written at a time of high anxiety. They he worked as a poet in the Abbadid court were written by Arabs for Arabs, in high Hear more from William Granara on this in Seville. Throughout his life he wrote classical Arabic, not the kind of Arabic that subject in “Muslim Sicily and Its Legacies,” constantly about Sicily in his panegyrics. was spoken on the street. These panegyrics episode 452 of the Ottoman History “I extracted from his poetry what I would to Roger were actually odes to the island Podcast, hosted by Chris Gratien (www. call the trope of jihad,” Granara says. “But of Sicily.” Apocalyptic images run through ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2020/02/ I contest the oft-quoted line that Ibn the poems, as do references to Caesar, and muslim-sicily.html).

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 15 NEWS AND NOTES

TREASURES OF KNOWLEDGE preliminary study by Miklós Maróth, pub- An Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library (1502/3–1503/4) lished in 2003. Shortly thereafter, a copy of the inventory was obtained by Harvard’s To a historian, few things are as exciting as the sixteenth century. The palace library Aga Khan Librarian András Riedlmayer. the discovery of a key document that reveals and its disciplines are further explored in 25 Recognizing the inventory’s tremendous a hidden world of knowledge. Such a dis- essays by specialists in Ottoman and Islamic potential, Necipoğlu, Kafadar, and Fleischer covery was made in Ottoman history several book culture and intellectual history. The first began to work on it independently, and years ago. Only recently, however, with the second volume includes a facsimile of the then joined forces. A three-day workshop publication of Treasures of Knowledge: An inventory and a complete transliterated text, held at Harvard in 2014 established a work- Inventory of the Ottoman Palace Library prepared by Himmet Taşkömür, Senior Pre- ing structure that culminated in the 2019 (1502/3–1503/4) in 2019, has this extraordi- ceptor in Ottoman and Modern Turkish, and edition, handsomely published by Brill. nary document become widely available. Hesna Ergun Taşkömür. The Inner Treasury of Istanbul’s The “treasures” of the publication’s Ismail Erünsal was the first modern Topkapı Palace was built in the 1460s by title are the thousands of books that were scholar to note the existence of ‘Atufi’s Bayezid II’s father, Mehmed II, not long collected, produced, and stored in the ­Inner inventory, having located it in the Oriental after the audacious conquest of the great Treasury of Istanbul’s Topkapı Palace. The Collection of the Library of the Hungarian imperial city of Constantinople in 1453. “inventory” is a detailed list of these works, Academy of Sciences. The manuscript, Topkapı is a sprawling complex of radiating commissioned by the Ottoman Sultan MS Török F. 59, was then the subject of a circles, but it is easy to see the treasury as Bayezid II and carried out by Hayrüddin Hızır ‘Atufi, his royal librarian. ‘Atufi’s 365- page inventory—the only known example of its kind—lists 5,700 volumes and over 7,200 individual titles (many individual volumes were compendiums holding multiple works bound together). Treasures of Knowledge is the two-volume critical edition of ‘Atufi’s inventory, edited by Harvard’s Gülru Necipoğlu, Aga Khan Profes- sor of Islamic Art, and Cemal Kafadar, Vehbi Koç Professor of Turkish Studies, together with Cornell H. Fleischer of the University of Chicago. The editors—three luminaries of Ottoman studies—open the first volume with three essays that locate the inventory within the physical, social, and intellectual dimen- sions of the Ottoman palace at the dawn of

View from the Marmara Sea of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, with the Inner Treasury (Treasury–Bath complex) (vol. 1, p. 2).

16 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 its focal point. The double-arched portals scripts that once filled its bookshelves. ‘Atufi’s their own smallish section, along with of its loggia frame a perfect view of the inventory provides a precise account of the works in Chaghatai and Qipchak Turkish, Anatolian shoreline; below is the sparkling library’s holdings in 1502/3, twenty years into and a limited number of Greek, Syriac, and confluence of the Bosphorus and the Sea the reign of Bayezid II. The document does Old Church Slavonic titles. of Marmara. Metaphorically surveying two not include the relatively small number of Following Bayezid II’s directive to “clas- seas and two continents, the treasury is the manuscripts written in western European sify each book according to its particular ideal vantage point from which to take in languages. Instead it enumerates the thou- discipline” (vol. 1, p. 24), the inventory divides the expansive domains of the ascendant sands of books written in Islamic languages the library’s holdings into twenty sections, or- Ottoman empire. The decision, by a young that were the heart of the royal collection. ganizing them by subject, form, and language. Sultan Mehmed II, to fill this privileged Reflecting its place in the linguistic hier- Perhaps reflecting his patron’s reputation for location with a wide-ranging collection of archy of the polyglot Ottoman world, Ara- piety, the inventory’s first section lists copies works of learning is striking. bic is the language of majority of the works of the holy Qur’an, followed by a multitude Ottoman chroniclers and foreign observ- listed in the inventory. Some 450 titles in of entries on the Islamic sciences. The ers alike marveled at the treasury’s riches, Persian are also registered, although actual remaining categories survey a broad range which included chests of coins, jewels and numbers were higher, as some authors were of subjects from Sufism to horsemanship to precious gems, scientific instruments and so obviously tied to the Persian language medicine and the interpretation of dreams. holy relics. But scholars could only speculate that no indication was needed (Jalal al-Din Two prefaces are attached to the begin- about the identity and number of the manu- Rumi, for example). Turkish works have ning of MS Török F. 59: one in Arabic and one in Turkish. These invaluable texts artic- ulate the central logic of ‘Atufi’s classification scheme, which is based on the popularity of subjects and titles. The librarian placed the titles he expected to be most frequently sought at the top of each section, to facilitate the most likely requests. As Necipoğlu points out, the document is not only the only sur- viving example of its kind from the Ottoman period, it is the only known catalogue from any pre-modern Islamic library that spells

Left: “Bursa-arched” wall niches with horizontally stacked volumes at the royal observatory in Galata, Istanbul, where chief astronomer Taqi al-Din works with his colleagues, from 1581 manuscript Shahanshāhnāmah, Seyyid Lokman (vol. 1, p. 15). Right: An assembly of Sultan Bayezid II, from ca. 1495 manuscript Shāhnāma-i Malik-i Āhī, calligrapher and painter Darwish Mahmud b. Abdullah Nakkash (vol. 1, p. 184).

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 17 NEWS AND NOTES out its organizing principles (vol. ical ambitions. While scholars 1, p. 3). By prioritizing popular- from the Ottoman lands had felt ity, ‘Atufi greatly expands our undervalued by his father, who understanding of the reading had a reputation for favoring preferences of a palace that was foreigners, many of the authors both a royal household and a and intellectuals promoted by center for learning and intellec- Bayezid II were born and edu- tual production. cated in Ottoman territory. ‘Atufi Topkapı’s Inner Treasury himself was from Amasya, the was not a static hoard of dusty intellectually lively if provincial tomes, but an active circulating Anatolian city where Prince library whose collection was an Bayezid also spent the first 27 educational tool for the sultan, years of his life. his family, and the Ottoman Hayrüddin Hızır ‘Atufi elites who lived and studied lived a long and productive life in the palace complex. These after completing his inventory. included the pages in the palace Unlike some of his contempo- school and the women of the raries in Ottoman service, he royal harem. Notes on certain never obtained great fame as title pages confirm the circula- a scholar or author. He served tion of books within the palace as a tutor in the palace school (vol. 1, pp. 37, 95). Thanks to this and as court librarian. He had a single document, we are able special interest in medicine and to gain a precise snapshot of dream interpretation and four the intellectual horizons of the of his works on these subjects center of the Ottoman world. are listed in the inventory. Like ‘Atufi’s inventory is also a his patron Bayezid II, he tends reminder of importance of Top- Pages from ‘Atufi’s inventory of the palace library (vol. 2, p. 251). to be overshadowed by the bril- kapı Palace as a locus of book liance of others. The sultan and production. The inventory includes many uscripts were written by the sultan’s own his librarian both labored to give coherence works previously obtained by Mehmed II, hand. In the years following ‘Atufi’s inven- and order to a vast and cacophonous realm. and many produced for his successor. The tory, the palace collection would continue As a scholar and author, ‘Atufi would no latter works were largely produced by the to expand under the sultan’s patronage. doubt prefer to be remembered for his own calligraphers, binders, and decorators of As Kafadar points out, the years after works. Yet, after lying dormant for half a the palace workshop that had been orga- 1484 were noteworthy for the production of millennium, it is his painstaking work as a nized by Bayezid II. The sultan, who was a a great number of works on the history and compiler of the works of others that proves trained calligrapher, was closely involved in lore of the Ottoman dynasty supported by invaluable. • the production and organization of his book the patronage of Bayezid II. ‘Atufi’s inventory —Jesse Howell, CMES Academic collection. In fact, it is believed that some comes on the heels of this dynamic period Programs Manager and titles written on the opening pages of man- that fused the sultan’s intellectual and polit- Associate Director of the AM Program

18 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 resources, a collection of over sponsored by the Harvard Law Medium, Composition,” at the 100 global online digital School Library, November 2019, conference The Art Academy resources, and a set of teaching and a book talk panelist at the Outside Europe, held at the resources. Also on the Islamic American Society for Legal Clark Art Institute, Williams­ Law Blog, she curated and History Wallace Johnson Early town, Massachusetts, organized published the series Covid-19 Career Workshop, HLS, October by Yukio Lippit and Claudia and Islamic Law, including 2019. She received an S. T. Lee Mattos. In November 2019, he roundups of global develop- Innovation Grant, in partner- delivered the paper “New ments in Islamic law and ship with Harvard Law School Technologies of the Image in scholarly commentary on Library Associate Director 19th-Century Iran,” for the plagues and pandemic in Kevin Garewal, for StackLife conference Re-Thinking Islamic history. She published 2.0, a search and visualization Modernity: Global Art History “Interpreting Islamic Law tool to browse Islamic law and Conference, organized by Dean through Legal Canons,” in history sources in Harvard Shao Yiyang, at the Central Routledge Handbook of Islamic Libraries. David J. Roxburgh, Academy of Fine Art, Beijing. Law, ed. Khaled Abou El Fadl, Prince Awaleed Bin Talal During the same visit he gave a History; “What’s Love Got To Ahmad Atif Ahmad, and Said Professor of Islamic Art History, keynote lecture on “The Do with It? The Emotional Fares Hassan (Routledge, 2019); continued in his role as Chair of Timurid-Ming Embassy of Language of Early Zionism,” in and, with Bilal Orfali, “Islamic the Department of History of 1419–1422” and the broader The Journal of Israeli History; Law in Literature,” in Arabic Art and Architecture during topic of artistic exchanges and “Comparing the Incompa- Literary Culture: Tradition, academic year 2019–20. He between East and Central Asia. rable: Analytical Tool or Moral Reception, and Performance, ed. offered four courses: Genghis He visited several exhibitions in Stimulus?” in a forum on Bashir Margaret Larkin et al. (Harras- Khan and His Successors: Art in Beijing and made studio visits to Bashir and Amos Goldberg’s sowitz, 2019). She gave the talk the Wake of the Mongol contemporary artists Xu Bing edited volume The Holocaust “Transitions in the Middle East” Conquest, a lecture course; and Wu Jianan. He continued as and the Nakba, in The Journal of as a workshop participant in the Islam vs. Image? Visual President of the National Genocide Research. In view of Middle East Legal Studies Representations in Islamic Art, Committee for the History of the Covid-19 related inaccessi- Seminar hosted by Yale Law a freshman Seminar; Medieval Art, the US Affiliate of CIHA, bility of the library, Intisar School in Madrid, Spain, Architecture of Greater Iran and and to participate in the CIHA Rabb, Professor of Law at January 2020. She presented Central Asia, a proseminar; and board meetings and planning Harvard Law School, published the paper “The Qur’ānic co-taught the revamped lecture related to the 35th Congress on a Field Guide for Digital Islamic Uncanon” at the conference The course Landmarks of World the theme of motion, divided Law on the Islamic Law Blog Transmission and Reception of Architecture with Lisa between Florence (Motion: (islamiclaw.blog). From the Qur’ān in Light of Recent Haber-Thomson. For his Trans­formations) and Sao Paulo discussion guides to links to Scholarship at Harvard, landmark, he lectured on the (Motion: Migrations). The translated primary sources, this December 2019. She was a Alhambra, Granada. At the NCHA organized two panels for guide features online resources panelist at a book talk for beginning of the academic year, the College Art Association for Islamic law and history, and Elizabeth Kamali’s Felony and he presented “The Birth of Art/ annual meeting—held at related topics, in virtual settings. the Guilty Mind (Cambridge Craft in Mid-19th Century Iran: Chicago in February 2020—to The guide includes Harvard University Press, 2019) Dialogues between Subject, prepare for the Brazil congress

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 19 NEWS AND NOTES and also continued to support (4th/10th and 5th/11th Rights at the University of STUDENT NEWS the global conversations panels Centuries),” at the Middle East Cambridge; presented the and events organized by the Beyond Borders Workshop, paper “Foreign Animals in PHD STUDENTS CAA International Committee February 2020; “Legal Canons Middle Eastern Markets” at Chloe Bordewich published and the Getty Foundation. The and the Evolution of Islamic the University of Vienna the article “Diaries of an Otto- Brazil congress is now Legal Philosophy,” at the Animals in the Middle East man Spymaster?: Treason, Slan- postponed until August 2021. Institute of Arabic and Islamic Workshop; gave a presentation der, and the Afterlife of Memoir His publications in 2019 Studies, Exeter, UK, December on Family Law and Legal in Empire’s Long Shadow” in include “Emulation in the Arts 2019; and “Judicial Misconduct Change at the Islamic the Jerusalem Quarterly, July of the Book: Baysunghur’s Two and the Critique of Adjudica- Religious Council of Singapore; 2019. Caroline Kahlenberg Kalīla wa Dimna Manuscripts,” tion in Medieval Damascus: spoke about Animal Law in the published the article “New in The Arts of Iran in Istanbul The Case of the Orphan and American Legal Academy at Arab Maids: Female Domestic and Anatolia, ed. Olga Her Cunning Guardian,” at the the NALSAR University of Law Work, ‘New Arab Women,’ and Davidson and Marianna Shreve American Society for Legal in Hyderabad, India; presented National Memory in British Simpson (Harvard University History Annual Meeting, draft chapters of “Halal Mandate Palestine” in the Inter- Press and the ILEX Founda- Boston, November 2019. Her Animals” at the HLS Animal national Journal of Middle East tion, 2019); “The Art of Writing article “Innovation, Influence, Law and Policy Workshop Studies. Mira Xenia Schwerda and Its Collection in the and Borrowing in Mamluk-Era series; participated in the successfully defended her PhD Islamic Lands” and catalogue Legal Maxim Collections: The Wesleyan University Sympo- dissertation, which focuses on entries in Bestowing Beauty: Case of Ibn ‘Abd al-Salām and sium on Ethics and Animal the impact of photography on Masterpieces from Persian al-Qarāfī” is forthcoming in the Ethnography; and gave the politics during the Iranian Con- Lands—Selections from the Journal of the American Inaugural Lecture in Animal stitutional Revolution (1905– Hossein Afshar Collection, ed. Oriental Society. Kristen Stilt, Rights Law and Policy at the 1911), in the spring of 2020. Aimee Froom (Museum of Professor of Law at Harvard University of Victoria. She Her dissertation was awarded Fine Arts and Yale University Law School, is also the Faculty published “Trading in honorable mention for the Al- Press, 2019); and a review of Director of the Program on Sacrifice” in the edited volume waleed Bin Talal Prize for Best Art, Trade, and Culture in the Law and Society in the Muslim Studies in Global Animal Law. Dissertation in Islamic Studies. Islamic World and Beyond: World and the Animal Law and Under her directorship, the In her final year at Harvard, From the Fatimids to the Policy Program. During the Animal Law and Policy she presented her research at Mughals: Studies Presented to 2019–20 academic year she Program launched the Animal international conferences in Doris Behrens-Abouseif, ed. continued work on her book Law and Policy Clinic this Berlin and Istanbul and chaired Alison Ohta, Michael Rogers, project, “Halal Animals: Food, academic year. Stilt also served a panel on new research on and Rosalind Wade Haddon Faith, and the Future of as Deputy Dean of HLS this Qajar Iran at MESA in New (Gingko Library, 2016), in Planetary Health,” conducting year and continues to Orleans. In November 2019 she Review of Middle East Studies research in India, Malaysia, co-convene the Middle East delivered an invited lecture at 53.1 (2019). Mariam Sheibani, Singapore, and the UK. She Beyond Borders graduate Edinburgh University titled Lecturer on Islamic Studies at gave the keynote address on student workshop with Malika “Negotiating Constitutionalism HDS, gave the talks “A Tale Of Islamic Animal Rights at the Zeghal, Prince Alwaleed Bin and Conflict in the Qajar Era: Two Tarīqas: The Iraqi And inaugural event of the Talal Professor in Contempo- A Close Reading of the ‘bast’ at Khorasani Shāfi‘ī Communities Cambridge Centre for Animal rary Islamic Thought and Life. the British Legation.”

20 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 CONGRATULATIONS 2020 GRADUATES! Dissertation: “The Image Dissertation: “The Sin of Ghī- as Commodity: The ba in Early Islamic Thought: AM PROGRAM Earthquake.” Advisor: Soha Commercial Market for Disciplining the Tongue in ■ Badriyyah S. Alsabah Bayoumi Single-Folio Paintings in the Zuhd Tradition and Its ■ Sultan Faiez Althari ■ Thomas Roland Harris Ottoman Istanbul, 17th–18th Late Antique Background.” ■ Hannah M. Clager—Thesis: ■ Ryan Herring c.” Advisors: Gülru Necipoğlu Advisors: Afsaneh Najmabadi “The ‘Houthification’ of ■ Maria Khoury—Thesis: and David Roxburgh and Roy Mottahedeh Education in Yemen: A “Ghosts and Parallel Times: ■ Ekin Kurtic—Dissertation: ■ Mira Xenia Schwerda— Revival of Pedagogical The Haunting of Palestinian “Sedimented Encounters: Dissertation: “How Battlegrounds?” Advisor: Citizens of Israel.” Advisor: Dams, Conservation, and Photography Changed Rosie Bsheer Rosie Bsheer Politics in Turkey.” Advisors: Politics: The Case of the ■ Eleanor Takenaka Ellis— ■ Kit Hoi (Jerry) Li Ajanthan Subramanian, Steve Iranian Constitutional Thesis: “The Afterlives of Caton, and Christine Walley Revolution (1905–1911).” Aftershocks: Collective JOINT PHD PROGRAMS (MIT) Advisors: David Roxburgh Memory and the 1992 Cairo ■ Gwendolyn Collaço— ■ Arafat Abdur Razzaque— and Gülru Necipoğlu

Cemal Kafadar, William Granara, and Jesse Howell with 2020 CMES AM and PhD graduates

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 21 NEWS AND NOTES

NOVELIST LEILA SLIMANI OFFERS INSPIRATION TO CMES GRADUATES AND GUESTS

On May 27, CMES’s virtual commencement youth, your youth, is probably the most I felt that nothing that was happening celebration included an address by French– exciting moment of life. When you are around me mattered. The real life was Moroccan novelist Leila Slimani, bestselling twenty you have everything to win. When elsewhere. And if I wanted to become author of The Perfect Nanny, one of the you are forty, and I am forty, you have a lot someone I needed to leave my country. I New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best to lose. needed to leave my family and all that I Books of the Year, and Adèle, for which she When I was asked to write this address have ever known. But I had no plan, no won Morocco’s La Mamounia Prize. Slimani to you, I began remembering my academic strategy. I left my country. I went to Paris is French president Emmanuel Macron’s years and asking myself what I have to study literature and philosophy. I was personal representative for the promotion of learned from them. So today I want to share seventeen. the French language and culture and was on with you my own experience. When I was The world in which I arrived was Vanity Fair France’s annual list of The Fifty twenty, I had no idea of who I was, or who I completely unknown to me. And of course Most Influential French People in the World. wanted to be. But I had ambition. I wanted I experienced moments of doubts, of to change the world. I was not conscious terrible loneliness, and sometimes I had I want to congratulate all the students, at all of all the difficulties, all the obstacles, the desire to give up and go back home. and I’m very, very sorry I have to do that or the challenges I was going to face. And But the truth is I don’t really remember in front of a computer. I would have loved all the better for that. Because if I had those dark moments. What I remember so much to do that in front of you and to listened to all the people who told me that is the excitement, the freedom, the joy of meet you and to have the time to know my dreams were impossible to achieve, I spending all my hours reading books and you. But I want to tell you that you should wouldn’t be here today in front of you. studying. Because I was very conscious of be very proud for your hard work, for When I was eight, my father asked my privilege. You have to remember that I your ambition, and you should enjoy this me, “What do you want to do when you come from a country where 70 percent of moment and enjoy those joys. grow old?” At that time a little girl would the women in the ’80s were illiterate. My I don’t know if you know this very respond, “I want to be a princess,” or maybe grandmother couldn’t read or write. famous French writer Paul Nizan. He was an actress, or perhaps a doctor. But I said My nanny, who inspired the main born in 1905, he was a friend of Jean-Paul to my father, “I want to be paid to think.” I character of The Perfect Nanny, couldn’t Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and he remember that my own grandmother was either. She never went to school. She taught wrote a novel called Aden, Arabie. And the very, very shocked by my answer, and by me how to walk. She knew me when I was a first sentence of the novel is, “I was twenty my confidence. She said to my mother that baby. She spent nights with me when I was years old, I won’t let anyone say that these I was very presumptuous, and that it was sick. She was probably the most important are the best days of our lives.” And you a shame. But my father understood. I even person in my life when I was a little child. know what? I think that for me Nizan is think that he was proud. He said to me, And I remember how she suffered when wrong, because I know deep inside me “You are right—there is no better life than a I began to go to school. Every day I would that I envy you, I envy your youth. Because life dedicated to knowledge.” come back, and I had learned something for me, my twenties were the best days of I grew up in Rabat, the capital of new. I was six, she was forty. I could write my life. Those who get old like to reassure Morocco. In the eighties it was a tiny little my name, and she couldn’t. themselves. They will tell you that you town, quite boring, with no bookstores, no I always knew that learning, studying, are stronger at thirty, more serene at forty, cinema, no entertainment. At that time I was not only something you have to do to wiser at fifty, and that may be true. But the felt I was living independently of the world. succeed in life, but it is an extraordinary

22 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 privilege. My grandmother, my nanny, they lived in the dark. All their life, they were dependent on someone, especially on men. They couldn’t read a map and find their way. They couldn’t read the prescription of a doctor. They couldn’t read the law and defend their rights. Studying is of course the best way to emancipate yourself and to defend your dignity. So I was in Paris, and I entered Sciences Po. And I remember very precisely my first day there because it was September 12, 2001. And I had just turned twenty, the world had changed, and I was in Sciences Po to study geopolitics and international relations. When I got my diploma I had different options. I could become people value who you really are, and not never written an article. I knew nothing a diplomat, a journalist, or I could enter only what you represent. about journalism. But when I arrived in politics. At that time, a very famous French I was twenty-two and I wanted to leave. the office of my future boss, I acted very party contacted me, and the man said, “You I wanted to enjoy my youth. So I took a confident. I said that I was not afraid are a woman, you are from Maghreb, and job as a waitress and I decided to study at all of traveling all over Africa, that I people see you as a Muslim. That would dramatic arts. For three years I acted on had contacts over there, which was a lie. be the jackpot for us. We want you. Come stage and in movies also. I read the most Anyway, the managing director looked at in our party, and you can be sure we will beautiful texts of the repertoire and I me and he said, “I am going to put you in give you extraordinary opportunities.” learned a lot: how to speak in public, how the pool. If you can swim, good for you. If This man asked me nothing about what I to fit in a group. I learned not to be afraid you drown, I’m sorry for you.” That was wanted, about my convictions, my dreams, of being ridiculous, not to be afraid at all. quite rough, but I think it was good advice. my ambitions. The only thing he was seeing But I didn’t become an actress. And to Because there are a lot of things in life that in me was an image, a cliché. Of course I be really honest, I was not very talented you can’t learn in books, obstacles that you refused what he offered, and I never had and I couldn’t imagine a life waiting that will face and for which your training will regrets. Don’t let people manipulate you. someone would call me for a role. be useless. Don’t choose a way because you think it’s So I submitted an application to the So you have to do with what you have, going to be easy. Ask and demand that newspaper Jeune Afrique. At that time I had with what you are. You have to learn to

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 23 NEWS AND NOTES adapt yourself, to not be afraid to jump. failures, of frustration. You fail all the time. other, even if we have nothing in common. So I tried to use my personal experience, Even when you finish your book, you have So don’t give too much credit to all the my dreams, my souvenirs, and I was not the feeling you failed to write exactly what labels, the cliché, and seek for complexity; afraid of making mistakes. I was not afraid you wanted to write. But it doesn’t matter. beware of Manichaeism and ideologies. of failing. I traveled all over Africa, and to What matters is that you are doing exactly Affirm your own singularity far away from be really honest, sometimes I was dying what you wanted to do. What matters is the crowd and from conformism. Don’t try of fear. But I did it. And I discovered that the fight is meaningful. to please, or to seduce. We live in a world something about myself—that I was capable Don’t let failure discourage you. You obsessed with the number of likes. But I of doing that. have to take risk and not be afraid to waste think you should always prefer the truth to But I didn’t want to be a reporter either. time. No time is wasted, if you are enjoying the approbation of others. And I was not ready for all the sacrifices what you do. Because we live in a world, And as a conclusion, I would like to you have to make if you want to have this a very utilitarian world, where everything speak especially to the young women kind of life. I wanted to be a writer. Since you do is supposed to be for a reason. But among you. Because when I grew old, I I was a little girl I’ve always dreamed of let this reason be pleasure, enjoyment. became aware of the fact that one of the writing a novel. I was thirty, and I still You should give yourself the right to do most difficult things in life is to conciliate haven’t written this novel, and I was telling something just because you want to do it. your personal life and your professional all my friends, “You’ll see, you’ll see—one When I left Morocco, my father said to ambition. No one ever asked a man, “How day I will write a novel.” And I was afraid me, “Work as hard as you can. And if you do you be at the same time a good father that I was going to become a woman in her fail, don’t ever tell me that’s because you’re and a good professional?” As a woman I am forties, in her fifties, saying to her friends, a woman or an Arab—I don’t care about being asked this question all the time. For a “You’ll see, you’ll see—one day I am going your excuses.” It takes a whole life to know man, it’s natural to be ambitious and to have to write a novel. who you are, and maybe you never know a family. But as a woman, people are going So I decided to quit my job and to take who you are. And to be honest, I’m not a big to make you feel guilty. They will insinuate one year—not more—to write a book. If fan of the verb “to be.” I prefer the verb “to that you should sacrifice your own ambition at the end of this year, I haven’t written a become,” or “to believe.” In that matter, I for your family. book, I was decided to continue my life as a think I’m an existentialist. I think that we If I have any advice to give you, it is to journalist and never talk again of the novel are what we do, that we are defined by our read a text, a wonderful text, by Virginia I was going to write. So, the day after my actions, our beliefs, our fights. Woolf, called “The Angel in the House.” In resignation, at eight am, I began to write On my passport, it’s written that I am this text, she explained that we are raised, a novel. After a few months, I sent it to all a woman, that I am Moroccan. So what? as women, not to be selfish. We are used the publishing houses in Paris, and they What does it say about me? Not much. So if to think of other people before thinking all refused it. And they all said to me that someone tries to reduce me to that, I refuse of ourselves. But don’t let the guilt stop it was really bad. But I was not ready to it. That’s what I love about being a writer: you. Be selfish sometime and accept the give up. So I threw the first novel away and When I write, I can be whoever I want. I idea to disappoint people. I disappoint my I wrote another one. It was accepted by can put myself in other people’s shoes. I can children, my husband, my own mother. But Gallimard, and a few months later, it was a be a man, a child, an old Russian aristocrat, I am a free woman. And freedom is not free. success, and I was a writer. or a poor Caribbean child. Writing fiction So beware of the myth of the superwoman, Samuel Beckett wrote, “You tried, you taught me that there is a link between all because the truth is, you can’t succeed all failed, whatever. Try it again, fail again, fail human beings, that emotions are universal, the time, but it should not be your problem. better.” The life of a writer is a life full of and that we are able to understand each So be free. •

24 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 I, ISTANBUL

Selina Xu, Harvard College ’21, traveled with the 2020 CMES Winter Excursion to Turkey. This article originally appeared in slightly different form on her personal website, Selina Xu: Telling Life Like a Story (selinaxu.com).

The cypress and plane trees, the rooftops, the heartache of dusk, the sounds coming from the neighborhood below, the calls of hawkers and the cries of children playing in mosque courtyards mingled in my head and announced emphatically that, hereafter, I wouldn’t be able to live anywhere but in their city. —My Name Is Red, Orhan Pamuk

Funny how all you need is a novel to throw you back into the feeling that a city gave you. Memory isn’t too reliable now that I’m sitting on my bed in Cambridge trying to recollect the city from the glimpses and fragments on my phone camera roll. And Orhan Pamuk’s My Name Is Red. Istanbul has to be seen from up above—the balcony of the Galata Tower, the mountaintop views at the Pierre Loti Café, on the cable car from the waterside at Eyüp. After the ascent, or during, there’s a breathtaking moment where your eyes drink in the three peninsulas: on one side, Asia, the other, Europe, and then the historical side with a skyline of minarets, domes, coastal villas, electric lines. As I type this post, pausing ever so often, I am casually flipping through the dog-eared pages of My Name Is Red, which has traveled with me from Istanbul to Singapore to Cam- bridge—I started reading it on the rocking

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 25 NEWS AND NOTES

ferry across the Golden Horn and finished it on the red-eye flight from Istanbul to Singapore. Even a continent away, now, the pages still immediately engulf me in the chill and mystery of winding streets; the sheets of rain tickling a Bosphorus that has seen far too many conquerors and armies on its banks; the incredible awe that leaden domes, cypress trees, stone walls, minaret towers inspire at first sight; the bitter burn of çayı (tea) when gulped down too fast; the clink of teaspoons against the curve of the glass; the sound and fury of lives past; the romance of Istanbul. Words, photos, and memories coalesce. I think of sensory vignettes. The meat and onion-filled mantı (dumplings) with a generous scoop of yogurt, topped off with a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Striking blue tiles. Ornate stalactite patterns. Golden pyramids of baklavas. Cigarette butts on the floor, embers glowing. A hint of fog, always. The heartache of dusk dissipated by the fluorescent glow of the streetlamp. The city is, to the eye, a painting. I, Istanbul, the city sings and intones. A first-person proclamation that asserts its undisputed character amidst modernization. But Istanbul is so hard to unravel. His- tory assaults you on the streets, so saturated that it seeps in through your soles with all its layers and contradictions. Once the epi- center of Christendom and then the heart of the Muslim caliphate when conquered by Mehmed II in 1453, Constantinople was the seat of the Sultan till 1923—the year the Turkish Republic was founded. The modern republic was for Turks, an ethnic-driven nationalism that would erase and stifle the breathing space even further (after the 1915 Armenian genocide) for the minorities.

26 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 you don’t officially belong and yet its lands are all that you’ve known? On January 19, 2020, I attended the first protest in my life, commemorating Hrant Dink’s assassination 13 years ago outside what was once the offices of the Armenian weekly Agos and now Hrant Dink’s Site of Memory. People held placards that read “Shoulder to shoulder against fascism” and “We are all Hrant. We are all Armenian.” A Turkish journalist of Armenian heritage, Dink fought for minority rights in a country where such causes counted as violating Article 301 of the Turkish penal code (pe- nalizing remarks against the state or insults against Turkishness). If there’s one place I recommend that you visit in Istanbul apart from Hagia Sophia, it would be the Site of Memory. I knew nothing about the man before visiting but was moved by his fiery sense of justice and bold crusade for his beliefs. His words would eventually cost him his life, but I walked away realizing that ideas are bullet- proof. They live on. May my pen too never falter.

Istanbul, Constantinople, Byzantium, call you by whatever name: Be a book on the palm of my hand, let me run my fingers over your ridges, your weathered pages, blemished margins, the ink illegible, in a font of sorrow, a palimpsest of empires and histories, Who gets to define who counts as a citi- What is Turkishness if these people have layer upon layer, zen? In our two weeks there, we saw Greek all lived on this piece of land for centuries, teach me how to read you. schools and Orthodox churches, Armenian through the rise and fall of three empires? foundations, Syrian and Iranian restaurants. What is it like to grow up in a state where Good night x •

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 27 NEWS AND NOTES

CMES MARKS FOURTH WINTER TERM IN TUNISIA panied us in our trips around the country. They both were a WhatsApp message away In January 2020, NELC PhD candidate Hacı Istanbul/Constantinople. On the flight to ready to answer any questions and help Osman “Ozzy” Gündüz joined a dozen other Tunis, I reread al-Tamgrūtī’s account and with any needs. In addition to road trips graduate and undergraduate students from wondered what he would say about the and urban excursions, we were also invited across the University for CMES’s fourth miracle of flying. I also wondered what my to lectures and panels that the Center orga- annual Winter Term Study Excursion to first impression of Tunis would be like. I nized. The program lasted for three weeks, Tunisia. Here is his account of the trip. have been a student of the Arabic language, and it flew by too fast. We visited around culture, and literature for a long time. I had ten cities and towns in addition to major On Saturday, 1st of Jumādā al-’Ūlā in 997 the opportunity to travel and live in the sites in and around the city of Tunis. (March 18, 1589), ‘Alī b. Muhammad al- Arab Mashriq, but I had never set foot in The first urban excursion was in the Tamgrūtī (d. 1594/5) set off on a diplomatic the Maghrib. I was truly exhilarated. My medina quarter of Tunis, a labyrinthine mission to the court of the Ottoman sultan knowledge of North Africa in general and network of narrow streets flanked by from his native Tamegroute in Morocco. Tunisia in particular was not more than beautiful white-washed houses with iconic His account of the journey makes it clear cursory readings of the region’s history, a blue doors. It was an absolute pleasure that he was not fond of sea travel. Raging few novels and Abū al-Qāsim al-Shābbī’s to walk through the medina with Ms. storms and fear of pirates prowling the famous lines of poetry which became the Lamine, who is an architect. In each trip North African coast added to his distaste rallying cry of the Arab Spring. This trip and excursion, we also had well-informed of the sea. He was happiest when his feet was definitely destined to fill a void. and passionate guides. It also helped that, were firmly on the ground. Tunis was one The Winter Term Study Excursion in in our group, we had fellow travelers of the stops in this arduous journey to Tunisia is one of the programs that CMES knowledgeable of the architecture and Constantinople. One morning he roamed runs in the country. This year’s program history of the region. There was no need the streets of the city as the “forehead of was the fourth of its kind, and I can confi- to resort to Wikipedia at all! My highlights horizon peaked through the veil of dusk.” dently state that the excursion was again of the medina were little shops selling He was struck by the beautiful gardens and a great success. In previous years, groups shawāshī (sing. shāshiya) skullcaps that pleasant skyline of timeless buildings; it of graduate students traveled to Tunisia dominated the headgear fashion of the was the perfect coastal town. The city, in to partake in the program, and, this year, Ottoman empire for quite a while, and, of no doubt, al-Tamgrūtī notes, deserves the undergraduate students were also ad- course, al-Zaytuna Mosque, the second poems sung for it, like the following line mitted. Our group had thirteen members mosque built in North Africa. The mosque he cites in his work al-Nafha al-miskiyya fī hailing from diverse backgrounds. Under is a calm oasis in the midst of a bustling al-safāra al-Turkiyya: the supervision of CMES Director William medina, a forest of splendid columns, spolia Granara, Gordon Gray Professor of the from the nearby ruins of Carthage. Tunis is the best of abodes in the west; Practice of Arabic, and Sihem Lamine, Ad- I was also able to explore the city on my A home to any stranger who settles in it. ministrative Manager of the CMES Tunisia own. I took the train from Sidi Bou Said, Office, the Center organized a meticulously where our hotel was, to the city center, and My trip to Tunis was not as arduous. I planned itinerary. Unfortunately, we did walked to the medina quite a few times. did not have to brave any raging tempests, not enjoy the pleasure of having Professor I learned from the Urbex photographer nor did I have to be fearful of pirates. I Granara with us. Ms. Lamine and Laura Mourad Ben Cheikh Ahmed after his boarded a plane in Boston and landed Thompson, a PhD candidate in the Study lecture at the Center about a street famous in Tunis safely after a lengthy layover in of Religion at Harvard University, accom- for its bookstores, Rue des Tanneurs (Nahj

28 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 al-Zaytuna Mosque Takrouna al-Dabbāghīn). He showed us pictures of a peculiar bookstore occupying a four-story old building with piles and piles of books stacked against walls and shoved into dusty bookshelves. I had to find it, and I did. The bookstore does not have a name, it is simply known as Khālid’s bookstore. It is easy to miss as the door that opens to the chaotic assemblage of books is rather unassuming. Khālid has been running his bookstore for decades. He gathered a formidable collection of books during his trips throughout the Arab world. He seemed to have total mastery in locating books within a minute or so. He was very welcoming and friendly. We had lengthy conversations, and he allowed me into the top floor, albeit at my own risk—I had to jump over books Dougga and squeeze myself through bookshelves.

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After three un- forgettable weeks, I left Tunisia with an additional suitcase full of books, three shawāshī, Tunisian molokhia, and many other keepsakes. This trip gave me the opportunity to explore the country in a way that I could not have done on my own. I must note here that I also finally developed a taste for couscous. A milk-soaked couscous dish topped with nuts and dates we had in El Kef did the trick! The trip was also a great opportunity to strike up pleasant

The Medina of Tunis friendships. I am very grateful to Pro- fessor Granara, who I visited Khālid a few times, each time Tunis, the first would be the small town of spearheaded the program, and Ms. Lamine exploring a new room. Takrouna, tucked into the hills between and Ms. Thompson, who ran it masterfully. All the road trips we had to amazing Hammamet and Sousse. We visited the Just like al-Tamgrūtī I also went on a sites were beautiful. We were transported town in the afternoon, and we were treated sunrise stroll, not in Tunis but in Sidi Bou in two vans, a “lecture” van and a to a gorgeous sunset in addition to freshly Said. A fellow traveler and I left our hotel “quiet” van. I had the pleasure of being baked bread, and olive oil. The second in the dark and by the time we climbed a permanent member of the former. The would be the archaeological site of Dougga, up a hill to a Sufi shrine, in al-Tamgrūtī’s lecture van had facing seats; we entertained some 110 kilometers southwest of Tunis. words, “the king of the east was putting ourselves by reciting poetry, listening to It is a gleaming crown in the midst of on his golden crown.” One of the poems a fellow traveler’s expertise about this or emerald fields. I definitely understood why al-Tamgrūtī cites in his travelogue declares that topic, or simply chatting. If I had to the country is called Green Tunisia (Tūnis that whoever visits Tunis will wish to go choose two favorite sites we visited outside al-khadrā’). back. I definitely wish so. •

30 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 TIMELESSNESS IN FLORENCE: LOCKDOWNS, FLOODING, AND DISRUPTION

While conducting dissertation research in previously. But I was not one of those noble, moderately accurate time. Astrolabes were Italy, Maryam Patton, PhD candidate in virtuous souls who took this opportunity expensive, luxury devices. At best, the History and Middle Eastern Studies, has to explore new hobbies, catch up on average individual could rely on fixed clock had the unusual fortune to experience both reading, or formulate a new domestic towers or sundials in the city center or on severe flooding in Venice and quarantine in routine to stand in place of the social one. prominent buildings, which they would Florence. Here is her account. Instead, I wanted to participate in this likely not be able to see from their homes. new experiment and try to understand this The geographical extent of their temporal Time flies when you’re having fun, as the experience through the lens of my research. awareness might be extended by listening saying goes. So too, apparently, when you I am a historian of time and I study the for the calls to prayer, or the chiming of the are under national lockdown and lose all ways in which past cultures grappled with bell towers. And barring all that, they could sense of daily rhythm and order. Since Oc- time, organized their lives, and understood approximate based on the position of the tober, I’ve been living in Italy for the second time in both real and philosophical sun in the sky. And that was enough. leg of my dissertation research. I first found senses. My dissertation addresses these During the first few weeks of quaran- myself in Venice, then in January I moved questions through an integrated history tine, before everything really sank in back to Florence. I remember feeling aware that that links fifteenth- and sixteenth-century on campus, I felt profoundly alone. I did the growing crisis in Northern Italy was Istanbul and Venice. The average early not have Zoom meetings with colleagues, lurking ever nearer in late February, and I modern Venetian or Istanbulite would not and none of the virtual events like lectures wondered whether to stay or go. I chose to have had a portable timepiece that kept and conferences that we have now were a stay. A few weeks later, on March 13, all of Italy came under national lockdown and it was here in Florence that I spent the next two months under strict quarantine, only venturing into the empty city center once a week for groceries. And to this day, in late June, I wonder where exactly that time went, and how could I not feel its passing. I know that every one of you reading these words felt something like what I am describing, this sense that the days we spent, and are still spending, under quarantine passed by imperceptibly, and that time itself felt very different. Suddenly stripped of most of the trappings of campus life and the daily rituals and activities which gave structure and a semblance of order, I had more time than ever to fill with whatever I wanted to do, undistracted by administrative tasks that filled my days

The Duomo in Florence, March 22, 2020. Just behind me is my grocery store I would frequent once a week. 2019–20 | CMESNEWS 31 NEWS AND NOTES thing then. Except for my calls to family, would have felt. The answer is undoubtedly that warned of the impending waters. Still time zones didn’t matter because my world yes, but not because of the actual personal unaware of what was in store, I returned was contained in my apartment. For a few experience of this strange force which rules to my residence on the small island of San weeks, I had no need to keep the time. our lives, but because of the inescapable so- Giorgio just a short ferry ride away, where What was the point? My weekly grocery cial and cultural structures around us that luckily, I was staying on the second floor. I shop wasn’t weekly because I had decided shape what we believe makes for a valuable never did get back in to the Marciana. The that was a reasonable rate. It was all I could use of time. These are the structures that I rare book room was still shut when I left fit in my fridge. In the absence of external study for the fifteenth and sixteenth centu- three weeks later. After the initial flooding, pressures, I reverted to Maryam time. It ries, and for a few weeks, I felt free of my I was stranded at my residence until I could turned out to be a very relaxed, unstruc- own culture’s structures. get hold of a pair of the highly unfashionable tured way of seeing the world. I spent a lot This was not the first time that I expe- knee-high plastic shoe covers. Eventually, of time thinking, thinking about things like rienced a major disruption to my research. I learned to follow tide charts and how to how the expression “spending time” didn’t I was in Venice for the record breaking safely navigate to and from home while really capture what I was doing because my acqua alta that hit November 12, 2019. I was avoiding most of the water, and realized that time was no longer a finite commodity that blissfully unaware this could happen, and I’ll all that separated my experience of the tides I had to ration. I thought about whether never forget that night when the librarians from the sixteenth-century Venetians was my experience of time was fundamentally of the Bibliotheca Marciana called me over that I could pull these charts up on my smart different from what the protagonists I study to the windows, and we listened to the sirens phone. It led to an unexpected angle in my research about the ways Vene- tians relied on lunar cycles, and the experiences of cities situated on water. A little disruption can be a good thing. I still feel unable to truly plan out what I should do in the next few months, and that discomfort has made me question my assumptions about many things. I know that, all told, I have been very fortunate, that I and my family have been safe during these difficult times. I hope that has also been the case for anyone reading this. As we cautiously emerge from lockdown and begin the return to the temporal regime of synchronicity, I hope to hold on Flooding in the San Giorgio plaza, Venice, November 13, 2019. The vaporetto station in the background is the only way off the island to some of those lessons from when I came unstuck in time. •

32 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 ALUMNI NEWS AM ALUMNI Zena Agha (’17) is a writer and policy analyst. She published “The Palestinian Authority Is a Sinking Ship” in the New York Times (February 2020) and “Israel’s Problematic Role in Perpetuating Water Insecurity for Palestine” in the Atlantic Council (June 2019). Her re- search on mapping and cartog- raphy was published in Al- Shabaka and presented at the British Library. She was awarded a writing residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts in August 2019 and her poetry Contesting the Iranian Revolu- Can Help Ease Idlib’s Catastro- ­Geneva and Vienna. He oversees manuscript “Objects from April tion: The Green Uprisings, was phe” (March 2020). Richard a broad cluster of health and and May” was selected as a published in March 2020 by Anooshian (’77) recently spear- pandemics, human rights, dis­ finalist for the Alice James Book Cambridge University Press. headed the republication, by the armament, labor, narcotics, Award. Hind Al-Ansari (’16) is Oula Alrifai (’19) became a Armenian Institute, of I Ask You, nuclear energy, and terrorism enrolled at a PhD program in fellow at the Washington Insti- Ladies and Gentlemen, Leon issues in the multilateral arena. education at the University of tute for Near East Policy’s Arab Surmelian’s personal tale of In November 2019, his narrative Cambridge. Her research is Politics Program in September deep sorrow and profound grati- nonfiction book Our Name is about the impact of political and 2019, where her research fo- tude, of terrible loss and a lively Mutiny: The Hidden History of religious trends on the educa- cuses primarily on Syria and embrace of life itself. The out- the Singapore Mutiny and the tion sphere in Qatar. At the same Iran. In addition to providing of-print book, first published in Global Revolt Against the Raj time, she examines the ways in policy analysis and recommen- 1945, a bestseller in its time, was (Landmark Books) was which Qatari women capitalize dations, she meets and engages inter­nationally acclaimed and launched in Singapore, where it on their education to achieve with US government officials to translated into many languages. debuted on the nonfiction top social change. She published advise them on the Middle East. After nearly fifteen years cover- ten bestseller list. The inter­ “The Challenges of Education Since September, she has pub- ing Middle East issues in Singa- national launch has been post- Reform in GCC Societies” on lished several pieces, one of pore’s Foreign Ministry, includ- poned to later in the year. the London School of Econom- which was featured in the ing three consecutive postings Samah­ Choudhury (’14) will ics Middle East Centre Blog in Washington Post—“Assad Is in the Gulf Arab region, Umej defend her dissertation on February 2020. Pouya Growing Stronger under Bhatia (’05) took post in August American Muslim humor from Alimagham (’09) is a lecturer in Trump’s Non­existent Syria 2019 as Singapore’s Ambassador UNC Chapel Hill’s department MIT’s history department. His Policy” (December 2019)—and to the United Nations and Inter- of Religious Studies in June PhD-dissertation-turned-book, another on CNN—“How the U.S. national Organisations in 2020. She will join the Depart-

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 33 NEWS AND NOTES

and the Struggle for Dignity, has Libya. Aaron Magid (’15) since 2004, served from 2018 to just been published by New started working as a senior 2019 as head of the Human York University Press. Middle East analyst with Leidos Rights and Rule of Law Unit at Archibald­ Hovanesian (’74), in September. This past year he the US Embassy in Kabul, where Esq., has backed away from his published “Iraq Is Not an Ira- he led the US team in the post- law practice, with enthusiastic nian Vassal State” in Foreign peace planning donor process to help and assistance from the Policy. In a piece published in safeguard human rights, and coronavirus. “Though Florida’s the Washington Post in May spearheaded policy on detainee nitwit governor hasn’t ordered a 2020, Amir Hossein Mahdavi issues. For the past year he has statewide stay-at-home order,” (’17) argues that the US policy of served as Deputy Director in the he writes, his own county “has blocking Iran’s access to any Department of State’s Bureau of been more sensible.” He has sort of financial resources to Political-Military Affairs, over- often wondered what has be- address its severe coronavirus seeing regional security and come of the group of agreeable outbreak has been an invitation arms transfers to the Middle and bright people he was so for the “invisible government” East and Africa. Effective sum- happy to be a part of for two to usurp the functions of the mer 2020, he will serve as Dep- ment of Philosophy and Religion years, and would be pleased to elected government, a situation uty Director in the Bureau of at Ithaca College as an Assistant hear from them at hovanesian@ that will have a permanent Near Eastern Affairs’ Office of Professor of Islamic Studies in aol.com. In May 2019, Scott impact on the nature of gover- North African Affairs overseeing the fall. Amber Glavine (’19) Liddle (’07) was appointed nance in Iran. Aya Majzoub policy towards Egypt. Alex began work as an undergraduate Special Advisor to the UK Sec- (’16) is the Lebanon and Bahrain Shams (’13) is currently a PhD Admissions Officer at Harvard retary of State for International researcher at Human Rights student in sociocultural anthro- in 2019. As part of this role, she Development. In October 2019 Watch, where she investigates pology at the University of evaluates admissions applica- he became Director of Policy for human rights abuses in both Chicago. Since 2018 he has been tions from several Middle East- Rory Stewart’s electoral cam- countries and conducts national based in Tehran, where he has ern and North African coun- paign for Mayor of London. In and inter­national advocacy. She been conducting fieldwork tries. Shortly after starting in March 2020 he led a team estab- has documented security force research focused on the politics this position, she was promoted lishing SpareHand (www. abuse and torture during Leba- of religious pilgrimage and to work as a Financial Aid Offi- spare-hand.org), a platform for non’s revolution and has written sacred space in Iran and Iraq. In cer for both prospective and matching volunteers to charities extensively on a range of issues February 2020, he organized a current students as well. She is and community organisations from free speech to access to workshop at the Lahore Bien- excited to be able to use her during the Covid-19 crisis. healthcare. Her writing has nale bringing together academ- regional expertise, gained at While David L. Mack (’74) been published in local and ics and artists from Iran and CMES, to serve Middle Eastern continues his many years of international outlets, including Pakistan to discuss cultural and students at Harvard. Manata support for the Middle East the Guardian and Al Jazeera, historical connections between Hashemi (’07) is the Farzaneh Institute in Washington, he has and she has been quoted in the the two countries. In April 2020, Family Assistant Professor of changed his primary affiliation Washington Post, NPR, the New he gave a talk via Zoom at the Iranian Studies at the University to the Atlantic Council. He York Times, and the BBC, among Weatherhead Center for Inter- of Oklahoma. Her first book, focuses his attention on Iraq, the others. ­Alexander Schrank national Affairs about Iran’s Coming of Age in Iran: Poverty Arabian Peninsula states, and (’01), a Foreign Service Officer experience with the coronavi-

34 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 rus. Ben Smith (’04) published lations. Included have been with minarets; there is little “Transitional Portraits: Syrian interviews with an Iranian appropriate zoning; theft in Immigrants of the North Ameri- pharmaceutical executive trying monuments is rampant, and the can Mahjar in ‘Abd Al-Masih to produce medicine under military government seems Haddad’s Prose” in Mashriq and sanctions, an ER doctor in Gaza indifferent to the uniqueness Mahjar: Journal of Middle East describing how the blockade and value of this area’s cultural, and North African Migration makes medical resources scarce, historic, and architectural Studies, February 2020. George a first-hand account of how legacy.” John Zavage (’13) is the Somi (’12) has written two refugees are losing access to Foreign Area Officer Chair on articles, “Bilcon v. Canada: A food and services under Jor- the faculty at the Naval Post- New Paradigm for Causation in dan’s lockdown, and many more. graduate School in Monterey, Investor–State Arbitration?” Andrew Watkins (’15) recently California. He teaches a course forthcoming in the Ohio State joined the International Crisis titled Security Sector Assistance Journal on Dispute Resolution, Group, a global conflict resolu- in an Era of Great Power Com- and “The Death of Nonresident tion research organization, as petition, and also collaborates Contribution Limit Bans and the their Senior Analyst on Afghani- with the Defense Security Coop- Birth of the New Small, Swing stan. In 2019, he served as a eration University to teach State,” forthcoming in the Wil- political affairs officer with the courses in Middle East regional liam and Mary Bill of Rights United Nations mission in and cultural orientation. He Journal. He has moved back to Afghanistan, and conducted recently partnered with two Massachusetts from New York research on the Taliban insur- colleagues to jointly author an City and just accepted an offer gency that was published in article for the Carnegie Middle as an associate at an employ- 2020 by the US Institute of East Center, “Security Assis- ment law firm, the Law Office of Peace in a peer-reviewed report, tance in the Middle East: A Joseph L. Sulman, Esq. Mandy “Taliban Fragmentation: Fact, Three-Dimensional Chess- Terc (’04) has been serving as Fiction and Future.” In Decem- board.” He intends to retire the Executive Director of the ber and January, Caroline from the military later this year Middle East Research and Williams (’65) took ten of her but aspires to continue working Information Project (MERIP) family—four grandchildren, in the field of security studies. for almost a year now. It’s an three daughters, and two sons- lished Architecture of the Islamic organization and publication in-law—to Egypt, for a week PHD ALUMNI West: North Africa and the Ibe- that many Harvard students, with the Pharaohs and a week Sa’ed Atshan (’13) published rian Peninsula, 700–1800 (Yale alums, and faculty have been a with the Sultans. “It was magi- two books in May 2020: Queer University Press) in June 2020. part of over its 50-year history. cal for them,” she writes, “but Palestine and the Empire of Elise K. Burton (’17) joins the MERIP has a new series called for me rather sad. Egypt has Critique (Stanford University University of Toronto in fall “Voices from the Middle East,” a changed greatly since I first Press) and, with Katharina 2020 as a tenure-track assistant series of interviews with people discovered it fifty-eight years Galor, The Moral Triangle: professor at the Institute for on the ground describing how earlier. The monuments have Germans, Israelis, Palestin- the History and Philosophy of Covid-19 is threatening the become commodified: In Is- ians (Duke University Press). Science and Technology. Sarah region’s most vulnerable popu- lamic Cairo cell towers now vie Jonathan­ Bloom (’80) pub- Chayes spent the past year

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 35 NEWS AND NOTES

completing her book On Cor- gave a talk on it at the inaugural Mark Farha (’07) published and “The Caucasian Alans ruption in America: And What Hay Literary Festival in Abu Lebanon: The Rise and Fall of between Byzantine Christian- Is at Stake, published by Alfred Dhabi. Aykan Erdemir (’04) a Secular State under Siege ity and Traditional Paganism,” A. Knopf in August. It was a has been promoted to be the (Cambridge University Press) Nartamongæ 14 (2019). He is soul-searing book to write. The Senior Director of the Turkey in September 2019. He gave the preparing a book entitled “The balm was doing so, self-isolated, Program at the Foundation for talk “Religion, State, and Soci- Ossetes: Modern-Day Scythians overlooking a meander of Defense of Democracies, where ety in Lebanon: Consociational of the Caucasus,” which is due the Cacapon River in West he co-authored a monograph, Curse or Blessing?” at Colum- to be published by I.B. Tauris Virginia. Alireza Doostdar’s Brothers in Arms: The Consol- bia Global Centers, Amman,­ in 2022. In the meantime he (’12) book, The Iranian Meta- idation of the Turkey–Qatar in February 2020. Richard is chronicling his research on physicals (Princeton University Axis, in December 2019. The Foltz (’96) has published three his blog A Canadian in Ossetia Press, 2018) has won the 2020 same month, he received the journal articles on the popu- (www.canadossete.com). Emily Vinson Sutlive Book Prize in First Freedom Award from lar religion of the Ossetes, an Gottreich (’99) is completing historical anthropology from the Hellenic American Lead- Iranian-speaking people of the her final semester as Chair of the Anthropology Department ership Council in recognition Caucasus descended from the the Center for Middle East- at William and Mary. He will of his advocacy for minority ancient Scythians: “The Rekom ern Studies­ at UC Berkeley. deliver the Sutlive Lecture rights and religious freedoms. Shrine in North Ossetia and She recently advanced to Full there in September. Ahmed El Erdemir, who was one of the its Annual Ceremony,” Iran Adjunct Professor in Global Shamsy (’09) published his new founding legislators of the and the Caucasus 24.1 (2020); Studies and the Department of book, Rediscovering­ the Islamic International Panel of Par- “Scythian Neo-Paganism in History, and her newest book, Classics: How Editors and Print liamentarians for Freedom the Caucasus: The Ossetian Jewish Morocco: A History from Culture Transformed an Intel- of Religion or Belief in 2014, Uatsdin as a ‘Nature Religion,’ ” Pre-Islamic to Post-Colonial lectual Tradition (Princeton rejoined the initiative’s steer- Journal for the Study of Religion, Times (I.B. Taurus) was pub- University Press) in 2020 and ing committee in March 2020. Nature and Culture 13.3 (2019); lished by in February 2020.

36 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 USA; religious communities on engaging and adapting faith in light of Covid-19; K–12 teachers­ on religious literacy and ped- agogy through the Glasscock School, Sacred Heart Schools of Chicago, and the Secondary Teacher Educator Program; and middle school through college students in interfaith leadership through the National Alterna- tive Winter Break program, Fort Bend Interfaith Student Coun- cil, Rice Interfaith Council and Rice Student Leadership Sum- mit. She was honored by Rice Leor Halevi (’02) published has been amazing, as teachers and programming that counters University for her 2019 publica- Modern Things on Trial: Islam’s report almost 95 percent atten- hate crimes and promotes peace tions. Ayfer Karakaya-Stump Global and Material Reforma- dance in most classes. “We don’t as a supporter of the Tanen- (’08) is Associate Professor of tion in the Age of Rida, 1865–1935 know how long their enthusi- baum Peacemaker’s Action History at the College of Wil- (Columbia University Press) asm will last,” she writes. “But Network, national trainer and liam and Mary. She published in July 2019 and won a Gug- someday when Covid is behind subject matter expert with The Kizilbash/Alevis in Ottoman genheim fellowship. Perween us we will surely remember the US Department of Justice, Anatolia: Sufism, Politics, and Hasan (’84) is Vice-Chancellor with a smile the time when vir- board member of the Commu- Community (Edinburgh Univer- of Central Women’s Univer- tual classrooms became real and nity of Conscience, and leader in sity Press) in December 2019. sity in Dhaka, Bangladesh. gave respite.” Zahra N. Jamal the Houston Coalition Against Darryl Li (’12) published his This all-women’s university is (’08) published in Foreign Policy Hate. She trained diverse audi- first monograph, The Universal located in the old part of the Magazine in 2020, addressed ences, including chief diversity Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the city, one of the worst Covid-19 the United Nations Association officers and corporate VPs on Challenge of Solidarity (Stanford affected areas. In this lockdown, USA on the role of religion in religious diversity in the work- University Press) in December faculty members are regularly achieving gender parity via place through the Tanenbaum 2019. Paul Magnarella (’71) conducting online classes and Sustainable Development Goals. Center, Religious Freedom and published Black Panther in Ex- have incorporated Covid-19 She interviewed Congressman Business Forum, National and ile: The Pete O’Neal Story (Flor- into courses wherever possible. Andre Carson on the role of reli- Texas Diversity Council, Fort ida University Press), about the Students have been assigned to gion in politics, and Aga Khan Bend Chamber of Commerce; former head of the International keep journals to record their Award for Architecture Director civic leaders on engaging reli- Section of the Black Panther own experiences during this Farrokh Derakhshani on the gious freedom and pluralism in Party in Algiers, in April 2020. critical time. The way students award as a catalyst for socioeco- the public sphere through the Paul Malik Mufti (’93) pub- are responding to online teach- nomic change and peace-build- Dallas Institute, Solid Ground, lished The Art of Jihad: Realism ing, a novelty in Bangladesh, ing. Jamal advanced research and the Ismaili Council for the in Islamic Political Thought

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 37 NEWS AND NOTES

VISITING with the Palestinians, by Enquête d’archives/In Search RESEARCHER NEWS As’ad Ghanem, Mohanad of Archives: Contemporary Visiting Fellow Ibrahim Mostafa, and Salim Brake, in Approaches to the Past, Khatib founded and hosted The Arab World Geographer forthcoming from Archive three meetings of the 23.1 (2020). Visiting Fellow Books. Visiting Scholar Palestine/Israel research Mansour Salsalibi published Arif Orçun Söylemez won forum at CMES, initiated “Weapons of Mass Destruction a grant from the Scientific a Palestine/Israel research Prohibition: In Pursuit and Technological Research guide project, a collaboration of Peace and Justice in Center of Turkey. He has between CMES and the International Relations and signed two book contracts, Harvard Library, and received the Middle East,” International one with Routledge for a book a Harvard Experiments Journal of Humanities titled “Is It Possible to Predict Working Group grant. He gave (Tehran University of Tarbiat the Foreign Exchange Rates?” the talks “Conflict, Resistance, Modares) 27.1 (January 2020). and the other with Emerald and Justice,” Visions of Peace He presented the paper Publishing for a book titled Initiative, Tufts University “Shiite Ulama Contending “Rethinking International (SUNY Press) in October 2019, (2019); “Conflict, Democratic Responses to the Educational Capital: Building a Stable and “Is Ibn Khaldūn ‘Obsessed’ Values, and Reconciliation Modernization and the 1906 Global Financial System.” with the Supernatural?” Journal­ in Context of Protracted Constitutional Revolution” at He also wrote the chapter of the American Oriental Society Conflict,” International the Southeast Regional Middle “Significance of Non-monetary 139.3 (July–September 2019). Relations Department, Hebrew East and Islamic Studies Forms of Capital: Importance Martin Nguyen (’09) was University of Jerusalem (2019); Society Spring Conference, of Social Capital” in an edited promoted to the rank of full “Conflict Framing, Democratic Middle East and South Asian volume in the Contributions professor at Fairfield University Values, and Reconciliation Studies Department, Emory to Management Science series, in the Department of Reli- in Zones of Protracted University (March 2020). forthcoming from Springer. gious Studies­ and will become Conflict,” School of Political He gave the talk “Religiosity Visiting Fellow Zeynep Tek the Chair of the department Science, Government, and and Violence: Shiite Ulama published two articles in beginning with the fall term. International Affairs, Tel-Aviv Responses to Modernization 2019 (in Turkish): “Meaning Aleksandar Shopov (’16) is a University (2019); “Conflict and the 1906 Constitutional Areas of ‘a Broken Language’: postdoctoral fellow at the Max Perception, Democracy, and Revolution” for the CMES Women in Çiğdem Sezer’s Planck Institute for the His- Reconciliation in the Middle Middle East Forum (November Poems,” Hacettepe University tory of Science in Berlin. From East,” School of Political 2019). Visiting Fellow Carol Journal of Faculty of Letters 2021 he will be a tenure-track Science, University of Haifa Solomon continues work 36.2 (2019); and with Emine assistant professor in early (2019); and “Understating on her book manuscript “Art Yücel, “An Analysis of Refik modern Ottoman history (ca. the Arab–Israeli Conflict,” and the Transformation of Halit Karay’s ‘Yatık Emine’ 1300–1800) at SUNY Bingham- Middle East Seminar, Harvard Society in Morocco.” Her essay within the Framework ton. Eve Troutt Powell (’95) (2020). He published a “Reclaiming the Past: Post- of the Dehumanization was elected to the American book review of Israel in the 1999 Visual Art, the Archive, Phenomenon,” Mediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences in Post Oslo Era: Prospects for and Moroccan Postcolonial Journal of Humanities IX.2 April 2020. Conflict and Reconciliation History” will appear in (2019).

38 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

SEPTEMBER 2019 including a talk and Karagöz The Iranian Revolution at puppet show, featuring stage 40: Precursor to an Age and film actress, writer, and of Populism? A talk with activist Sona Tatoyan and Houchang Chehabi, Professor journalist, actor, artist, and of International Relations and puppet master Ayhan Hülagü. History, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston City of Black Gold: Oil, Ethnic- University. Co-sponsored ity, and the Making of Modern Stefano Portelli, Aylin Yildirim Tschoepe, Michael Herzfeld with the Weatherhead Center Kirkuk. The inaugural talk in for International Affairs. the CMES Modern Middle East Speaker Series, with Arbella Urban Activism: Staking Bet-Shlimon, Assistant Pro- Claims in the 21st Century fessor, Department of History, City. A conference organized University of Washington, by Aylin Yildirim Tschoepe, on her 2019 publication. University of Basel, Joan Chaker, Harvard, and Stefano New Authors on Palestine. Portelli, Harvard. Co-sponsored A conversation in the CMES with the Center for African Modern Middle East Speaker Studies, Department of Series with authors Noura

Anthropology, Department of Erakat, Justice for Some: Law Ayhan Hülagü History, Center for History and As Politics in the Question of Economics, David Rockefeller Palestine (2019); Seth Anziska, Center for Latin American Preventing Palestine: A Political Studies, Charles Warren History from Camp David Center for Studies in American to Oslo (2018); and Tareq History, and the Weatherhead Baconi, Hamas Contained: Center for International Affairs. The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance Trauma, Magic, Love: Being (2018). Moderator Sara Roy. in Aleppo with Karagöz Puppets, My Ancestors, and The Gaza Seldom Seen: the Spirit of Osman Kavala. Innovating and Aspiring A presentation of the Hrant Palestine Refugees. A talk Arbella Bet-Shlimon Dink Memorial CMES Fund with David de Bold, Senior

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 39 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

Deputy Director of Operations The Baghdad Clock. A talk in Gaza, United Nations with author Shahad Al Rawi Relief and Works Agency, on her novel, which was and Edward S. Mason Fellow, short-listed for the 2018 Harvard Kennedy School of International Prize for Arabic Government. Co-sponsored Fiction, and translator Luke with the Weatherhead Center Leafgren, Lecturer on Near for International Affairs. Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard. Representing Power at the Court of Ottoman Tunisia “Erdogan’s Empire”: in the 19th Century. A talk Continuity and “Revolution” Noura Erakat, Seth Anziska, Tareq Baconi, Sara Roy in the Harvard University in Turkish Foreign Policy Aga Khan Program Lecture in the Middle East? A Series by art historian and talk with Soner Cagaptay, curator Ridha Moumni, Director, Turkish Research 2019–20 CMES Tunisia Program, Beyer Family Fellow, Postdoctoral Fellow. Co- Washington Institute for Near sponsored with the Harvard East Policy. Co-sponsored University Aga Khan Program. with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. OCTOBER 2019 Islands of Heritage: Champions of Peace? Tools Conservation and in Whose Hands? The True Transformation in Yemen. A Story of Norway and the Ridha Moumni Nathalie Peutz book talk in the CMES Modern Peace Process in the Middle Middle East Speaker Series East. A talk with Hilde with cultural anthropologist Henriksen Waage, Professor Nathalie Peutz, Associate of History, University of Professor of Arab Crossroads Oslo. Co-sponsored with Studies, NYU Abu Dhabi, the Weatherhead Center on her 2018 publication. for International Affairs.

A Contemporary Sufi Tradi- NOVEMBER 2019 tion: The Case of the Late Ot- The Catastrophe of toman Elite and Sufi Sheikh Translation. A presentation Ken’ân Rifâî. A talk with Arzu in the Mahindra Center for Eylül Yalçınkaya, Lecturer, the Humanities Rethinking

Sandra Naddaff, Shahad Al Rawi, Luke Leafgren Institute for Sufi Studies, Translation Seminar with Üsküdar University, Istanbul. Adriana X. Jacobs, Associate

40 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 of Jerusalem. Co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of World Religions, HDS.

On Feminist Labors. A ­MEdiNA GSD talk with designer, curator, researcher, and writer Rosana Elkhatibf, co- founder of f-architecture. Co- sponsored with MEdiNA GSD.

Schools for Conflict or for Hilde Henriksen Waage Karam Dana Peace in Afghanistan: Jihad Literacy, Community-Based Education, and the Shifting Goals of US Foreign Policy in the Region. A talk with Dana Burde, Associate Professor and Director, International Education Program, Inter­ national Education and Politics, New York University; Research Fellow, Center for Economic Research in Pakistan; Editor in Chief, Journal on Education

Suzy Hansen Dana Burde in Emergencies. Co-sponsored with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Professor and Cowley Lecturer Arabic Classes and Classics Response. A talk with Karam in Modern Hebrew Literature; in the Opera House. A talk Dana, Associate Professor Seeing America from a Fellow, Oxford Centre for with Samuel England, Associate of Middle East Politics and Distance: Reflections from Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Professor of Arabic, University Islamic Studies, University Turkey and Beyond. A talk University of Oxford. Co- of Wisconsin–Madison. Co- of Washington Bothell. by writer Suzy Hansen, 2018 sponsored with the Minda sponsored with the Committee Pulitzer Prize finalist for de Gunzburg Center for on Medieval Studies. Jerusalem: City of the Book. Notes on a Foreign Country: European Studies: Charles A talk with Benjamin Balint, An American Abroad in a Knapp Israel Studies Fund, The “Deals” of the Century writer based in Jerusalem, Post-American World. Center for Jewish Studies, and from Balfour to Trump: and Merav Mack, Research Department of Near Eastern The Political Economy of Fellow, Truman Institute for Religiosity and Violence: Languages and Civilizations. Failure and a New Palestinian Peace, Hebrew University Shiite Ulama Responses to

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 41 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

University of California, Santa Cruz, on her 2019 publication.

JANUARY 2020 Understanding the Arab– Israeli Conflict: Between Perceptions, Democratic Values, and Reconciliation. A talk with CMES Fellow Ibrahim Khatib. Co-sponsored with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Denis Sullivan FEBRUARY 2020 Comedy or Leadership? A conversation with activist- turned-comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi, Visiting Fellow with the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative, HDS. Co-sponsored with the Center for Jewish Studies.

Heads and Tails (Baştan Başa). A screening of Aylin Ibrahim Khatib Noam Shuster-Eliassi, Derek Penslar Kuryel and Firat Yücel’s 2019 documentary on the hair trade between Turkey Modernization and the 1906 national Affairs, Northeastern puppet play based on the Per- and Israel, followed by a Constitutional Revolution. University. Co-sponsored sian epic Shahnameh, followed Q&A with the directors. A talk with CMES Research with the Weatherhead Center by a Q&A with the director. Fellow Mansour Salsabili. for International Affairs. Following the Laws in Islam: DECEMBER 2019 A Phenomenological Per- In Name Only: Dismantling Meet the Director: Hamid The Lived Nile: Environ- spective. A talk with Hessam Citizenship and Human Rights Rahmanian and a Film ment, Disease, and Material Dehghani, Lecturer in Philos- across the Arab World. A talk Screening of Feathers of Fire. Colonial Economy in Egypt. A ophy, Bentley University, and with Denis Sullivan, ­Director, A screening of designer and book talk in the CMES Modern Lecturer in Persian and Arabic Boston Consortium for Arab director Hamid Rahmanian’s ­Middle East Speaker Series with Language and Linguistics, Bos- Region Studies, and Professor film version of his stage produc- Jennifer L. Derr, Associate Pro- ton College. Presented by Aga of Political Science and Inter- tion Feathers of Fire, a shadow fessor, Department of History, Khan Fund for Iranian Studies.

42 CMESNEWS | 2019–20 Sciences in the College, and emy Scholar, Harvard Academy Lecturer in Law, University of for International and Area Chicago. Co-sponsored with the Studies; Assistant Professor of Program in Islamic Law, HLS. History, University of Virginia.

MARCH 2020 Familiar Futures: Time, Çağatay Akyol and Bülent Selfhood, and Sovereignty Evcil: A Magical Journey in Iraq. A book talk in the through Music with Flute CMES Modern Middle East and Harp. A performance Speaker Series with Sara D. presented by the Consulate Pursley, Assistant Professor, General of Turkey in Boston. Middle Eastern and Islamic

Rosie Bsheer, Darryl Li, Intisar A. Rabb Studies, New York University. Reciprocal Pan-Islamism: Bosnian Muslim Reformists The US–Iran Crisis: A and the Young Turk Reporter’s Firsthand Revolution, 1908–1914. Perspective. A talk A talk with independent with freelance foreign scholar Harun Buljina. Correspondent and Peabody Award winner Reese Erlich. The Archive Question: The Politics of History in Saudi APRIL 2020 Arabia? A talk with Rosie The Probable Implications Bsheer, Assistant Professor of of the Long-lasting Fight History, Harvard. Co-sponsored for Bread in Turkey. A Chris Gratien with the Weatherhead Center virtual talk for the CMES for International Affairs. community with CMES Visiting Scholar Arif Söylemez. Modernism and Political Gordon Gray Professor of A Friendship Forged in Modernity: Tunisian Art the Practice of Arabic. Co- Wartime: Ukrainian– Byzantine Studies Talks. in the Time of Bourguiba sponsored with the Committee Turkish Encounters on the Virtual talks for the CMES (1957–1979). A talk with on Medieval Studies. Galician Front in WWI. A community by CMES CMES Tunisia Postdoctoral talk with Hüseyin Oylupinar, Byzantine Postdoctoral Fellow Ridha Moumni. The Universal Enemy: Jihad, CMES Postdoctoral Fellow Fellows Siren Çelik and Empire, and the Challenge in Turkish–Ukrainian and Nathanael Aschenbrenner Narrating Muslim Sicily: of Solidarity. A book talk in Crimean Tatar Studies. on their ongoing research, War and Peace in the the CMES Modern Middle with response by Dimiter Medieval Mediterranean East Speaker Series with An Environmental History of Angelov, Dumbarton Oaks World. A book talk with CMES Darryl Li, Assistant Professor the Late Ottoman Frontier. Professor of Byzantine Director William Granara, of Anthropology and Social A talk with Chris Gratien, Acad- History, Harvard University.

2019–20 | CMESNEWS 43 Remy the cat, Cemal Kafadar

William Granara

Sheida Dayani AT A GLANCE

FACULTY NEWS Q&A WITH ROSIE BSHEER NEW FACULTY BOOKS STUDENT NEWS VIRTUAL COMMENCEMENT ALUMNI NEWS VISITING RESEARCHER NEWS EVENT HIGHLIGHTS