Journal of Middle East Medievalists (@mideastmedieval.bsky.social), a peer-reviewed, open-access journal on the medieval Middle East. Edited by Zayde Antrim (zaydeantrim.bsky.social) & Alison Vacca (@medievalqabq.bsky.social) https://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3muvdrzmosc2gNew article alert! Let’s start w/ a personal manuscript from 9/15th cent., including a letter from Cairo’s chief judge & a list of books for sale from Mamluk Baalbek. This article challenges the divide btw documentary & manuscript studies through a fresh look at texts, material & social practice07 Sep 2026 01:21 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3muvdrzmosc2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3mrpyh5cq4s2vNew article alert! How did theorists in the medieval Middle East standardize techniques for connecting texts composed in different languages? Join us in examining the long history of comparative literary theory through the premodern lens of ‘approximation’.28 Jul 2026 17:59 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrpyh5cq4s2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3mpu7omaqck2gNew article alert! Were we to leap back centuries & ask a madrasa student in Mostar or a storyteller in Dhaka, we would find that their idea of the Persian poet ʿAṭṭār differs starkly from the ʿAṭṭār on English-language bookshelves. This article explains why by tracing the fates of his Pandnama: https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/alusur/article/view/uw34najafian04 Jul 2026 23:29 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpu7omaqck2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3mphvrt6r5k2zNew article alert! Humans use numbers to think about other humans in many contexts: demography, taxes, votes, and historically, slavery. Our latest article shows how early Islamic narratives about the Saharan frontier use the number 360 to represent the relationship between race, space, and time. https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/alusur/article/view/uw34schine30 Jun 2026 02:00 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3mphvrt6r5k2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3mpcscorgic2sNew article alert! If you were to list important Arabic poets, who would you include? Abū Nuwās, Abū Tammām, al-Buḥturī, al-Mutanabbī…? In the 14th cent, Ibn Nubāta included all of them & more. He also included himself. Check out this new article about how self-citation worked in Mamluk texts. https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/alusur/article/view/uw34evans28 Jun 2026 01:14 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpcscorgic2shttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3mdjalanfdc2fHave you ever wondered what a Sasanian city sounded like? We can imagine the sounds of the past if we pay close attention to material, historical, & archaeological sources. Check out this new article on the soundscapes of Eranshahr-- & be sure to download the sound file for an immersive experience28 Jan 2026 21:43 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3mdjalanfdc2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3m7ik3b2lds26Thanks to all authors, reviewers, & readers as we close out issue 33! We published 550 pages in 2025: 7 articles; a thematic dossier w/ 4 more articles; a roundtable; an Arabic edition; a pedagogy file; 7 book reviews; & some short communications. Here’s a thread to gather some highlights! 🧵 https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/alusur/index08 Dec 2025 17:20 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7ik3b2lds26https://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3m4e5uzpqxs2tImperial Islam is Moon-worshiping—but Sun-worshiping too, straining algorithmically for the stars. Symbolized by 'Ali and Jesus, early modern Persianate Selenocentrism and Heliocentrism are Hermetically useful global-comparative categories for decolonizing the historiography of science and empire.29 Oct 2025 19:15 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4e5uzpqxs2thttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3lzt3n3psos2rNew article alert! Join us in exploring a phrase from Ibn Saʿīd al-Maghribī’s 13th-c. geography. He refers to the Damādim of northeast Africa as “Tatars of the Sūdān.” Hannah Barker interrogates the racializing discourses at play in such comparative claims. [image: British Library Or 1524]27 Sep 2025 13:29 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3lzt3n3psos2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3lu6aoiohcc2rNew article alert! The exploits of the ʿudhrī lovers Jamīl and Buthayna are well known, full of potential for romance and scandal and violence. This article asks how such celebrated stories read differently when read with an eye to Buthayna’s experiences instead of Jamīl’s performances17 Jul 2025 15:28 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3lu6aoiohcc2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3ltn2l227fs22New article alert! How can we rethink word stress in Classical Arabic? This article looks to an unexpected source: the traditional recitation of metra in Persian metrics. This evidence clarifies controversial patterning in Classical Arabic, with implications for Proto-Arabic word stress, as well10 Jul 2025 19:23 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3ltn2l227fs22https://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3lmdh6xvomk23The Editors of @alusuralwusta.bsky.social endorse @mesa1966.bsky.social's March 13 Statement on the repression of academic freedom and March 28 Joint Statement regarding Columbia. https://mesana.org/advocacy/letters-from-the-board08 Apr 2025 21:46 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmdh6xvomk23https://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3lgb7qih6m227New article alert! Explore the history of 15th-century Diyarbakır with us today! This new article relies on literary & epigraphic sources to tell a story of Aqquyunlu rulers & their relationship to the famous Armenian bishop, painter, & poet Mkrtičʻ Nałaš [shown here: remains at nearby Ergani]21 Jan 2025 15:56 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3lgb7qih6m227https://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3lfsgvlgzlk2fNew article alert! We invite you to explore a text composed in the northern reaches of the Caliphate in 744: the Armenian martyrology of Vahan of Gołtʻn. This article includes a translation and intro that analyzes the text’s construction of the Umayyad world and Armenian experiences within it15 Jan 2025 18:55 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfsgvlgzlk2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3lfmzb6n2n22kNew article alert! Ibn Khaldūn’s Muqaddima offers the most extended reading of a series of maps known from medieval literature. In this article, Alfred Hiatt parses Ibn Khaldūn’s text alongside manuscripts of al-Idrīsī’s 12th-cent. geography, prompting questions about Ibn Khaldūn’s art of history13 Jan 2025 15:07 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfmzb6n2n22khttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3ldqw3sagx22pWe close out the 2024 issue with a thousand and one thanks to our authors, reviewers, & readers! 618 pages of research articles, thought pieces, pedagogy file, conference reports & book reviews. here is a master thread that describes them all! 🧵⬇️ Share & follow because 2025 is going to bring more!20 Dec 2024 17:31 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldqw3sagx22phttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3ldollrl3ak2cCheck out Stephen Rapp’s pedagogy file on medieval Georgian coins to use in undergraduate classes! This example combines familiar format: “there is no god but God alone, who has no associate; Muhammad is the messenger of God” in Arabic, w/ Georgian margin “Christ, exalt Bagrat, king of the Apʻxaz”19 Dec 2024 19:18 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldollrl3ak2chttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3ldljy6enbc2sUW announces the publication of its first-ever roundtable! it showcases a variety of perspectives on the Global Middle Ages—its possibilities, perils, & problems—from fields associated w/ Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies.18 Dec 2024 14:11 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldljy6enbc2shttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3ldhakn2hf22eSince we are new(ish) to Bluesky, we want to make sure you did not miss all of the wonderful articles we published this year! We publish as soon as articles are through peer review and copyediting, so these have rolled out over the past 12 months: 🧵⬇️ https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/alusur/issue/view/99216 Dec 2024 21:11 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldhakn2hf22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3lb6ktpn2ol2oNew article alert! 10th-c. traveler Ibn Faḍlān describes non-Muslim Rūs: “When the chieftain dies, the members of his household ask his jawārī and ghilmān, ‘Who will die with him?’ One answers, ‘I will.’” Arabic texts suggest most funerary sacrifices among the Rūs were women17 Nov 2024 23:31 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3lb6ktpn2ol2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/alusuralwusta.bsky.social/post/3kfgj6deyua2ral-Usur al-Wusta articles reached readers in 108 countries this year alone! Could we all agree to send an article to our friends in Turkmenistan in 2024??30 Nov 2023 19:37 +0000at://did:plc:eeacppd2f4kbnaaqxmxwyr5v/app.bsky.feed.post/3kfgj6deyua2r