Middle East in Historical Context

The Middle East in Historical Context is a four-part speakers series that will result in the creation of lesson plans.  

Organized by the Department of History, the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program, and the CHSSP, this program aims to improve our public understanding of Middle Eastern History.  

Scholar talks start with a reception from 4:30-5:30 pm.  The talk and conversation will take place from 5:30-7:00 pm.  Talks will take place at the UC Davis International Center

Blue background flier with information about Middle East Speakers Series
  • January 23, 2025. Our first session features Professor Brian Catlos. Brian Catlos is Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Mediterranean Studies Seminar at the University of Colorado. He has authored several books, including Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain, a history of al-Andalus that accounts for how religion often served as the language of conflict, but it was rarely its source. He will speak on Muslims, Christians, and Jews in medieval Spain.
    • Abstract: In 1066, an event took place in the Muslim kingdom of Granada that is sometimes described as an anti-Jewish pogrom. Townsfolk of the capital rose up to kill the Jewish wazīr and would-be regicide and usurper, Yusuf (Joseph) ibn Naghrīla, and are reported to have attacked the city’s Jewish community resulting in many deaths. Yusuf was the son of Ismāʿīl (Samuel) ibn Naghrīla – renown as a poet, rabbi, and ha-Nagid (“prince” of the Jews) – who had served as wazīr and confidant to the kings of the Berber Zirid dynasty. Reviewing the primary sources, Brian Catlos reveals this a complex situation that cannot be defined simply on sectarian terms. Rather than evidence of interfaith “intolerance,” the history of al-Andalus was one profound integration of Muslims and Jews. Far from being a watershed event, the Naghrīlas' situation and the violent episode which brought them down fit into established political patterns; they reflect the convergence of Muslim and Jewish society in Islamic Spain.
  • February 25, 2025. Orit Baskin, University of Chicago
  • April 24, 2025. Charlotte Karem Albrecht, University of Michigan
  • May 6, 2025. Ussama Makdisi, UC Berkeley
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