Historical Developments in the Muslim World: Sources, Conceptions, Interpretations

Akhmedov A.Sh. (Brunel University, London) Problems of dating the beginning of a Muslim stathood in the light of historical theories.

Atta Zabida M. (Helwan University, Cairo) With another eye of Muslim: about the spread of Islam in Egypt.

Boboyev F.B. (Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Dushanbe) “Nubuwwat” (prophetic movement) and Fatkh (the revelation) literary genres in “The History of al-Tabari”.

Filippov A.A. (Academy of Management of the President of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk) Political ideas of Michel Aflaq in the formation of the Syrian political system.

Gadirova A.A. (Baku) The attitude towards Islam in the works of Azerbaijani romanticism’s representatives.

Kuzahmetov R.K. (Orenburg State University, Orenburg) Shatranj in the history of the spiritual culture of the Muslim world: the origins and genesis.

Primakov D.Ya. (Saint Petersburg) The causes of the growth of Islamization in the Middle East.

Shakhov A.S. (The Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov MSU) Genesis of the melodramatic genre in Egyptian cinema: the Islamic factor.

Shukurov R.M. (MSU, Moscow) Harem Christianity: the Byzantine identity of Seljuk princes.

Stoyanov Yuri. (University of London, London) The Christian origin of the Ottoman bektashizm and alevizm.

 

Description of the panel

The proposed panel aims to discuss various problems of pre-modern Islamic history from the perspective of contemporary theoretical and historiographical approaches.

It is obvious that in spite of the fact that medieval history of Muslim cultures seems to be well-known and deeply studied, it remains highly controversial from the point of view of problematique constantly reinterpreted today.

On the one hand, academic discussions with their shift of research patterns between positivism, post-modernism and various interdisciplinary approaches as well as public discourse of Islam both in Muslim and non-Muslim societies provoke scholars to reset the set of problems and remake approaches and methodologies to solve them. Pure historical issues, like, for example those of early Islamic theological discussions became nowadays a subject of reinterpretation in contemporary political discourse.

On the other hand, academic community itself still needs to overcome barriers of interdisciplinary dialogue to achieve a common language of scientific description to promote mutual understanding between scholars of various disciplines dealing with the "classical" Islam, e.g. historians, philologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, specialists in fine arts, religious studies, philosophy etc.

Moderator of the section: Andrey Vitalyevich Korotaev (Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow), Patricia Crone (Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)