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IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 728: Remembering and Misremembering the Islamic World, I

Tuesday 3 July 2018, 14.15-15.45

Organiser:Ann R. Christys, Independent Scholar, Leeds
Moderator/Chair:Hugh Kennedy, Department of the Languages & Cultures of the Near & Middle East, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London
Paper 728-aThe Umayyads in the Kitab al-Aghani
(Language: English)
Andrew Marsham, Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Paper 728-bTruncated Memories: Historiographical Agency in the Arabic Mukhtaṣar of Ta’rīkh (Historical Digest)
(Language: English)
Fozia Bora, School of Languages, Cultures & Societies - Arabic, Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Leeds
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Paper 728-cEarly Hijazi Governors, Stewards, and Scholars: Personal History Set in Stone
(Language: English)
Ghali Adi, Independent Scholar, Manchester
Index terms: Epigraphy, Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Abstract

The first of two sessions presenting Islamic history from a wide range of perspectives, challenging accepted narratives of the past. The first paper will examine some key Umayyad succession narratives in the Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs) of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (d. c. 965) and the associated poetry said to have been performed in support of, or in opposition to, particular candidates for the succession. The second paper looks at a selection of historical digests from the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk eras showing that these texts were more than simple synopses, but rather both repositories and new interpretations of received narratives. The third speaker considers the value of graffiti for the prosopography of the early Islamic period.