The Caliphal Finances project is organising a lecture series hosted by our own department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) at the University of Edinburgh, starting in January 2025. The series will offer both in-person and online attendance options. You can explore the full programme in the post!
The overarching theme of the series will be taxation. All Caliphal Finances team members will be presenting their own research on Abbasid fiscal practices. We are also excited to welcome guest speakers Nik Matheou and Stefano Nicastro from the University of Edinburgh, who will provide additional perspectives on fiscal matters from their research. And since taxation inevitably involves tax evasion, we are delighted to include our IMES colleague Simon Loynes, who will speak on a different topic: his research on medieval tafsīr.
This series is co-organised by the Edinburgh Centre for Late Antique Islamic and Byzantine Studies (CLAIBS).
Read the full programme below, or access a pdf of the programme here: IMES Research Seminar Spring 2025.
For online access to the sessions please email caliphalfinances@ed.ac.uk.
Programme
All sessions take place in the Project Room (1.06) at 50 George Square.
The Monday 5.15pm seminars will be followed by a reception.
| Monday 13 January 5.15pm (week 1) |
Caliphal Finances Team (IMES) | ‘They have come to a place where there is no one who can read them.’ The many lives of the Aberdeen papyri from Egypt to Python. |
| Tuesday 28 January 1pm (week 3) |
Simon Loynes (IMES) |
From esoteric communication to verbatim revelation: The conspicuous absence of the root w-ḥ-y in the schematics of revelation in medieval tafsīr. |
| Monday 10 February 5.15pm (week 5) |
Nik Matheou (History) |
Crisis of accumulation in the Chinggisid world order: Land, capital and fiscal administration in Ilkhanid Ani, 1256-1335. |
| Tuesday 25 February 1pm (week 6) |
Caliphal Finances Team (IMES) | People and Money: The agents of Abbasid taxation from the village to the caliph. |
| Monday 10 March 5.15pm (week 8) |
Caliphal Finances Team (IMES) | Accounting practices in the multilingual administration of the Abbasid era. |
| Tuesday 25 March 1pm (week 10) |
Stefano Nicastro (History) |
The Port of al-Iskandarīyya: The physical infrastructures and administrative roles of the Mamluk Dīwān and the Genoese funduq in shaping Egyptian-Genoese commerce and interactions (twelfth-fifteenth centuries). |
Banner image: Project Room (1.06) at 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh. Photo credit: Andrew Lee.
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