Happy to see that they moved quickly to rename this otherwise great series!

Update: In a statement, Bonn University confirms the renaming of the Otto Spies Memorial Series because of the archival material I quoted in my blogpost. In the meantime, the local newspaper Bonner General-Anzeiger published an article on the issue as well.
www.ioa.uni-bonn.de/isl/de/nachr...

"In this regard, we Germans are glad that we finally once again have a consciously national government, one that is cleaning up in our own country and taking action against the international lies and slanders about Germany that have been staged by the Jews and the Socialists." 3/3

It is difficult to know how to go about explaining to students that this series was named—in 2015!—for a member of the Nazi Party who was writing things like: 2/3

This is really startling! I have found that Bonn's memorial lecture series and publication provides accessible introductions to topics at the forefront of research in Ottoman studies. For Monday I had even assigned Faroqhi's contribution on Ottoman slavery to an intro course I am teaching. 1/3

Trotz NS-Vergangenheit: Universität Bonn ehrt Otto Spies Seit 2015 trägt eine Vorlesungs- und Publikationsreihe an der Universität Bonn den Namen des Orientalisten Otto Spies – obwohl seine Nähe zum Nationalsozialismus dokumentiert ist. Neue Forschungsergeb...

I wrote a blog post explaining why I consider an honour for the orientalist Otto Spies (1901-1981) problematic, based on correspondence I examined in Berlin this summer:
disorient.de/magazin/trot...

My first peer-reviewed article, based on my BA thesis at FU Berlin, has just been published (OA). It traces Palestinian libraries from the late Ottoman period in the so-called Abandoned Property Collection (NLI). Thank you to everyone who supported! doi.org/10.1353/mns.... @sims-mss.bsky.social

Liner Note 37. Chicago's Gift to Trump Hyde Park, Chicago on June 25, 2017    It’s great when you’re President of the United States and are unlawfully taking apart the national sy...

Trump cuts STEM funding and universisties cut non-STEM. The ugly bank shot analyzed in my new post - the case of UChicago. utotherescue.blogspot.com/2025/08/line...

Please send abstracts electronically to mehat2025 [at] gmail [dot] com, no later than Friday, January 31, 2024!

39th Annual Middle East History and Theory Conference — Call for Papers We are excited to announce that the 39th Annual Middle East History and Theory Conference (MEHAT) will take place at The University of Chicago on May 2-3, 2025

Excited to share the CfP for the Middle East History and Theory Conference at UChicago, May 2–3, 2025. Organized by Sharidan Russell! This year's theme: Conceiving Time & Navigating Space: Spatiotemporal Engagements in the Middle East & North Africa.
theoknights.com/mehat/2024/1...

The prof’s reasoning also just seems illogical here? She “wrote” the txtbook so she doesn’t have to spend time lecturing abt historical context and can focus on the texts. Except when are the students going to read the texts now if they’re spending all their time reading the txtbook?
In class lol?

As a result of this narrow conception, he also fails to recognize that these writers regard political authority/emāret not as synonymous with cāh but rather as merely one specific way of deploying cāh, which is a much wider concept.

something more than political rank. This is a reality astutely demonstrated by Jessica Goldberg in her work on how Geniza merchants employed cāh in their letters with one another, where it meant something closer to reputation or personal connections.

Kunt's article traces the economic thought attributed to DMP by the historian Naʿīmā during his tenure as governor of Baghdad. He argues that the Paşa's justification for engaging in commerce represents a departure from classical Islamic and Ottoman economic theory...

I've written up some scattered thoughts about the issues I found with Metin Kunt's argument in his well known article "Derviş Mehmed Paşa, Vezir and Entrepreneur" Particularly, his misreading of the meaning of cāh, which he translates as political rank.
theoknights.com/afewthoughts/

Thanks!

The Ottomans doing their damndest to follow standard IMF advice on avoiding a wage-price spiral

We need more posts about manuscripts. Let me know if you want to be added or if I missed someone.
#skystorians #medievalists #jewishhistory #hebrew #arabic #manuscripts #middleages

Explore GrocerIST! 📊 This database presents the preliminary findings of the FWF-funded project "Grocers of Istanbul," showcasing 18th-19th c. inheritance inventories from kadi sicills. Regular updates coming soon! Explore: grocerist.acdh.oeaw.ac.at & find details: grocerist.univie.ac.at

Judith Tucker & Beshara Doumani's work foremost among them. My hope is that by making it available here it might serve as a useful jumping off point for others trying to prepare something similar and hopefully better.

No doubt, it reflects both my own idiosyncrasies and inexperience and it is by no means intended to constitute a comprehensive list of all published social histories of the Middle East. A time crunch at the end meant that there are undoubtedly some unfortunate omissions...

Islamicate History Syllabus: A Socio-Historical Approach This syllabus offers a critical homage, from the perspective of social history and history from below, to Marshall Hodgson's project of writing a "general history of Islamicate civilization,&...

I thought I'd share the reading list I developed over the last 9 months while prepping for my Islamicate History comp. The list was conceived as a critical homage to Hodgson's project in The Venture of Islam from the perspective of social history and history from below.

Also in a rather bold move he concludes his exams with some advice for the department: more exams more frequently

I don’t have photos of the full essay so I’m not sure if he discusses Gibbon, but he ends up proposing four of which he dismisses the two Greeks:

The questions Marshall Hodgson was asked in 1951 for his written comprehensive exam in Social Thought are preserved in his papers. He completed the exam near the end of his PhD and it appears he was rather tired of writing about the Nizaris.