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Part of the “Source of Life: Water Management in the Premodern Middle East” project (Radboud Institute for Culture and History). 

Ep2. Mesopotamia: Taming the Euphrates

Mesopotamia means “the land between the rivers.” The fertile silt and life-giving waters from the rivers Tigris and Euphrates allowed the region to develop into a key area of human settlement and culture in the late Holocene around 12000 years ago. In this episode we discuss the earliest settlements in Mesopotamia and how humans have managed their rela.tionship to the rivers in Iraq up until today.
Speaker: Jaafar Jotheri. Interviewer: Edmund Hayes.
Dr. Jaafar Jotheri is Assistant Professor in Geo-Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Al-Qadisiyah
https://csm-qadiss.academia.edu/JaafarJotheri
This episode was produced by Edmund Hayes and Jouke Heringa.

Further Reading
“Tigris-Euphrates River System”, Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/place/Tigris-Euphrates-river-system
T Wilkinson, L Rayne, J Jotheri, “Hydraulic landscapes in Mesopotamia: the role of human niche construction” Water History 7 (4), 397-418
TJ Wilkinson, J Jotheri “The Origins of Levee and Levee-Based Irrigation in the Nippur Area–Southern Mesopotamia” From Sherds to Landscapes: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honor of McGuire Gibson, SAOC 71, edited by Mark Altaweel and Carrie Hritz  (Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2021).


Edmund Hayes
twitter.com/Hedhayes20
https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-hayes-490913211/
https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/EdmundHayes
https://hcommons.org/members/ephayes/

Abbasid History Podcast is sponspored by IHRC Bookshop

Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases online and in-store. 
Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout. 
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This episode was produced by Edmund Hayes and Jouke Heringa.
Ep1. Water History and the Pre-Modern Middle East The cities of the medieval Middle East were some of the largest in the world, dwarfing the major cities of western Europe, for example. So how did they support large populations in relatively arid conditions? In this episode we provide an overview of the kinds of hydraulic infrastructure and social institutions that allowed pre-modern Middle Eastern cities to function.
Speakers: Maaike van Berkel and Josephine van den Bent. Interviewer: Edmund Hayes.
This episode, and this series on water history and the medieval Middle East was produced by Edmund Hayes and Jouke Heringa as part of the project, “Source of Life: Water Management in the Premodern Middle East” at Radboud University. The “Source of Life” project was funded by the Dutch NWO VICI funding scheme. Additional funding for this podcast series was supplied by the Radboud Fonds of Radboud University.
Maaike van Berkel is Professor of History at Radboud University and director of the project “Source of Life: Urban Water Management in the Premodern Middle East” funded by the Dutch NWO VICI programme.
Josephine van den Bent is a researcher on the Source of Life project at Radboud University and assistant professor of Medieval History at the University of Amsterdam.
Further reading
Maaike van Berkel, “Waqf Documents on the Provision of Water in Mamluk Egypt,” in M. van Berkel, L. Buskens and P.M. Sijpesteijn (eds.), Legal Documents as Sources for the History of Muslim Societies (Brill: Leiden, 2017).
Peter Brown and Maaike van Berkel, “Water Provision in Early Islamic Cities: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Urban Water Governance,” in E Rose, M de Bruin, and R Flierman (eds) City, Citizen & Citizenship 400–1600: A Comparative Approach (Palgrave Macmillan: London, forthcoming).
Josephine van den Bent and Peter Brown, “Constructing Hydraulic Infrastructure in the Abbasid and Tulunid Capitals: Water Conduits in Baghdad, Samarra, and Cairo between the eighth and ninth centuries,” Al-Masāq, forthcoming.
Edmund Hayes,  “A Late Umayyad Reform to the Water Distribution System in the Hinterland of Damascus,” Al-Masāq, forthcoming.


Edmund Hayes
https://twitter.com/Hedhayes20
https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-hayes-490913211/
https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/EdmundHayes
https://hcommons.org/members/ephayes/
Maaike van Berkel
https://radboud.academia.edu/MaaikevanBerkel
Josephine van den Bent
https://radboud.academia.edu/JosephinevandenBent


Abbasid History Podcast is sponspored by IHRC Bookshop

Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases online and in-store. 
Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout. 
Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.
https://linktr.ee/abbasidhistorypodcast
 

Hayrettin Yücesoy is a historian with a specialization in the premodern Middle East. His scholarly interests revolve around the intricate realm of political thought and practice, covering themes such as political messianism, monarchy, republican practices, visions of social order throughout premodern literature, and the historiography of these subjects.
In his written works and publications, Yücesoy delves into the convergence of discourse and political practice, unraveling the polyphonic and dialogic nature of texts. His research endeavors aim to uncover unconventional and dissenting voices, which act as a counterpoint to both contemporary and premodern "master narratives." Yücesoy is interested in discourse and social position and in the language's capacity not only to articulate but also to shape life-worlds. Throughout his career, Yücesoy has contributed to scholarship through publications in English, Arabic, and Turkish. His recent research revolves around the discourses of "good governance" as a point of entry for tracing the lineage of non-theological and non-ulema-centric political discourses in Middle Eastern history.
His latest monograph, Disenchanting the Caliphate: The Secular Discipline of Power in Abbasid Political Thought from Columbia University Press is a significant contribution to the history of political thought in the Middle East. Closely reading key eighth-century texts, Yücesoy argues that the ulema’s discourse of religious governance and the political thought of lay intellectuals diverged during this foundational period, with enduring consequences. He traces how notions of good governance and reflections on prudent statecraft arose among cosmopolitan literati who envisioned governing as an art and illuminates the emergence and impact of a vibrant secular political thought tradition that spread across regions and over centuries. Disenchanting the Caliphate provides an insightful and thought-provoking reconsideration of key aspects of political discourse in the intellectual history of Muslim societies.
In his previous monograph, Messianic Beliefs and Imperial Politics in Medieval Islam: The Abbasid Caliphate in the Early Ninth Century, Yücesoy embarks on an analytical journey to understand the interplay between ideology and practice, using the political actions of the early ninth century Abbasid caliph as a specific case study.
In an earlier monograph, The Development of Sunni Political Thought: The Formative Period (published in Arabic), Yücesoy traces the emergence of Sunni political discourse against the backdrop of socio-political and theological developments between the 8th and 10th centuries. Going through a wealth of textual sources, he illuminates how the Sunnis developed a political awareness that treaded a fine line between monarchical rule and “electoral consent” in the context of their dialogic engagement with the caliphate, sectarian formations, and lay bureaucrat-scholars.
Yücesoy's related scholarly work has also been featured in prominent journals and published volumes. The list of publications includes titles such as "Language of Empire: Politics of Arabic and Persian in the Abbasid World," "Translation as Self-Consciousness: The Abbasid Translation Movement, Ancient Sciences, and Antediluvian Wisdom (ca. 750-850)," "Ancient Imperial Heritage and Islamic Universal Historiography: Al-Dinawari’s Secular Perspective," "Political Anarchism, Dissent, and Marginal Groups in the Early Ninth Century: The Ṣufis of the Mu’tazila Revisited," and "Justification of Political Authority in Medieval Sunni Thought."
Yücesoy's current academic responsibilities encompass teaching a range of courses, including premodern political thought and practice,  the history of slavery, the life of the prophet Muhammad, the history of Islamic civilization, the history of food, and premodern Islamic history. His teaching methodology, much like his research, is in harmony with a critical de

Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥarīrī was an Arab poet, scholar and Seljuk government official who died in 1122CE aged 68 years old. His work al-Maqāmāt, a compilation of 50 highly-stylised comic anecdotes about the exploits of trickster Abū Zayd, received widespread renown in his time across the Muslim world and is regarded as a high point of Arabic literature.
We are pleased to be joined by Nasim Hassani in Tehran. Ms. Hasani hold a master's degree in Islamic Studies from Shahid Beheshti University,Tehran, Iran, where her dissertation was an Analysis of Mary and Jesus' Birth and Early Life in Quran and Apocrypha: James and Infancy Gospel of Thomas. She has a number of articles and translations in publication. 
This is an unusual episode in that  despite attempts at Zoom calls, the internet is currently too unstable in Iran, so instead I have sent audio files of my questions which she has kindly edited together for our presentation.
TIMESTAMPS:
02:29 Al-Ḥarīrī was born in Basra 1054CE. He was descended from a companion of the Prophet Muḥammad. His family was wealthy. Before we look at his work, what do we know about the author's life and socio-political context?
14:23 Before we speak about his al-Maqāmāt and this specific illustrated edition, tell us about this genre of Arabic literature.
20:00 Before we dive into this specific illustrated edition, give us an overview of al-Ḥarīrī's al-Maqāmāt.
25:55 Now tell us more about this specific illustrated edition.
31:00 And finally before we end tell us where listeners can turn next to learn more about today's topic and what are other current projects that listeners can anticipate?
Edited and produced by Nasim Hassani
For more on our guest:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nasimhassani
 
SPONSOR: 
We are sponsored by IHRC bookshop. Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases online and in-store. 
Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout. 
Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.
IslamicHistory #MedievalHistory #AbbasidHistory #Poetry #ArabicPoetry #Literature #WorldLiterature #Seljuk   https://linktr.ee/abbasidhistorypodcast
 

In 1319 Roger de Stangrave, a Hospitaller knight, and a Jew named Isaac arrived in England. For a ransom of 10,00 gold florins, Isaac had freed Stangrave, a stranger to him, from over 30 years of Mamluk captivity and then accompanied the knight home to be repaid. By 1322, Isaac has converted to Christianity and become Edward of St. John, with King Edward II taking him as godson.
What motivated Isaac to ransom a stranger for such an exorbitant cost and leave his native Egypt and end up baptised in England which at the time had expelled all Jews with the decree of Edward I in 1290 (father of Edward II) until it was formally overturned under Oliver Cromwell in 1656?
With the backdrop of the Crusades and European antisemitism, to share with us today his investigation of this curious tale is Dr. Rory MacLellan. Dr MacLellan completed his PhD in Medieval History 2019 at St. Andrews and is currently a cataloguer and manuscript researcher at the British Library. He specialises in medieval religious history, especially the crusades and the military-religious orders. His first book, ‘Donations to the Knights Hospitaller in Britain and Ireland’, 1291-1400, is published by Routledge.
TIMESTAMPS:
02:20 The first records of Jews in England start with William the Conqueror although one can speculate there may have been Jews prior during the Roman occupation. What many viewers may not know is that Jews were officially expelled from England by Edward I in 1290 until it was formally overturned under Oliver Cromwell in 1657.
15:37 The reign of Edward II (1284-1327) coincides with the titular caliphates of Al-Hakim I (1262 - 1302) and Al-Mustakfi I (1302-1340) and the de facto rule of a number of Mamluk sultans starting with Qalawun (1279-1290) and ending with the second reign Nasir ad-Din Muhammad (1299-1309). What was the socio-political context of Edward's reign domestically and abroad, and what was he like as a person?
20:41 He was also cucked by a Frenchman. His wife Isabella shacked up with a Roger Mortimer and declared war on her husband. What happened there?
24:27 And give us also an overview of the Crusades and how that forms the backdrop to our story.
28:43 Before we look at Isaac and his journey to England, tell us first about Stangrave and how he ended up as a prisoner of war.
30:35 Enter Isaac. What do we do know about him?
39:08 And tell us more about the Domus Conversorum: a London hospital for baptised Jews and their relatives.
44:05 Your essay is a really good example of a critical reading of the sources. Tell us what you think really happened and why.
51:30 Comparison of Jewish life in Mamluk Egypt and Christian England
1:00:08 You have also looked at how the so-called 'alt right' can manipulate medieval history for their political agenda. Tell us your views about that.
For more on our guest:
https://twitter.com/RFMacLellan
https://bl.academia.edu/RoryMacLellan
SPONSOR: 
We are sponsored by IHRC bookshop. Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases online and in-store. 
Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout. 
Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.
IslamicHistory #MedievalHistory #AbbasidHistory #jewishhistory #crusades #baptism #egypt

https://linktr.ee/abbasidhistorypodcast

This is the second part of two presentations. 
More on our guest: https://isabelle-imbert.com
0:50
In your previous presentation, you gave us an overview of the history of Islamic art. Give us an overview of the Islamic arts market scene: who are the main players? Where are the main auctions, and so on?
7:05
You advised in your Bayt al-Fann interview that beginners should buy what they like. At what stage can a beginner can consider himself a serious investor?
Link to interview: https://www.baytalfann.com/post/the-a...
11:12
Some viewers may be concerned about buying stolen items. How can buyers protect themselves?
16:34
Where do you feel the Islamic arts market is heading and your final advice for would-be buyers?
21:00
Off-script: on affordable art investment strategies
30:55
Call for patrons!
31:25
And finally before we end tell us where listeners can turn next to learn more about today's topic and what are other current projects that listeners can anticipate?
We are sponsored by IHRC bookshop. Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases. Visit IHRC bookshop at https://shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.
Originally posted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_6fRzS5SnE
Oct 22, 2022
https://linktr.ee/abbasidhistorypodcast