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IMC 2019: Sessions

Session 334: Seas and Floods in the Islamic West

Monday 1 July 2019, 16.30-18.00

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 334-aNile Flood Levels and Egyptian Revolts in the Early Medieval Period
(Language: English)
Andrew Marsham, Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Paper 334-bShips, Seafarers, Sails, and Bows: A Source Approach to Marine Networks and Coastal Settlement in the Western Mediterranean Basin on the Eve of the Rabaḍ Uprising in Córdoba, 202 AH/818 AD
(Language: English)
Xavier Ballestín, Departament d'Història i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Maritime and Naval Studies
Paper 334-cThe Sea in the Life Narratives of Andalusi Scholars and Saints
(Language: English)
Maribel Fierro, Departamento de Estudios Judíos e Islámicos, Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo, Madrid
Index terms: Genealogy and Prosopography, Islamic and Arabic Studies, Maritime and Naval Studies
Abstract

Nowhere is human activity more at the mercy of the material than on or by rivers and seas. This panel takes three complementary approaches to this theme. The first speaker analyses the impact of changes in Nile flooding on the stability of Egyptian society. The second considers the evidence for the marine connectivity of al-Andalus in the early 9th century in creating a society on the edge of revolt. Andalusi scholars are known to have travelled by sea in their search for knowledge. Some of these figures were later commemorated as saints. Their biographers give insights into the experience of marine travel.