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IMC 2010: Sessions

Session 1028: Baghdad, Centre of the World

Wednesday 14 July 2010, 09.00-10.30

Organiser:Letizia Osti, Dipartimento di Lingue & Culture Contemporanee, Università degli Studi di Milano
Moderator/Chair:Maaike van Berkel, Afdeling Geschiedenis, Europese studies en religiewetenschappen, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Paper 1028-aThe Feeding of the Five Hundred Thousand: The Food Supply of Abbasid Baghdad
(Language: English)
Hugh Kennedy, Department of the Languages & Cultures of the Near & Middle East, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London
Index terms: Daily Life, Economics - Urban, Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Paper 1028-bBandits, Demons, and Singers in Early Abbasid Iraq
(Language: English)
Michael D. Cooperson, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Mentalities
Paper 1028-cBaghdadi Grammarians and their Wanderings
(Language: English)
Letizia Osti, Dipartimento di Lingue & Culture Contemporanee, Università degli Studi di Milano
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Abstract

This panel explores movements of people and objects to and from Baghdad during the Abbasid caliphate. This is considered the city's golden age as the centre of its own World System, the capital of the Eastern caliphate as well as a point of reference for the world around it. Papers will investigate the practical matters of how the city communicated with its surroundings and the outer world, as well as questions of scholarly affiliation linked to geographical locations.