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Parallel Concepts Found In The Thousand And One Nights And Sufi Hagiography, Walaa Kamal Emam Kamel 2026 American University in Cairo

Parallel Concepts Found In The Thousand And One Nights And Sufi Hagiography, Walaa Kamal Emam Kamel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that The Thousand and One Nights functions as more than mere populist entertainment; rather, it constitutes a literary corpus imbued with Sufi mystical epistemologies that reflect the spiritual quests and Sufi concepts evident in hagiographical traditions. Through discourse and intertextual analysis of two Nights stories, “The City of Brass” and “The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad,” alongside Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār’s Tadhkirat al-awliyāʾ, this study demonstrates how shared rhetorical strategies—specifically David Pinault’s Leitwörter analysis and L.A. Paul’s Transformative Experience concept—reveal a narrative and rhetorical emphasis on the metamorphosis of the self from worldly attachment toward …


The Religious Groups Of Mecca And Medina In The Sixth And Seventh Centuries Ce, Ilkka Linstedt 2026 University of Helsinki

The Religious Groups Of Mecca And Medina In The Sixth And Seventh Centuries Ce, Ilkka Linstedt

Abdou Filali-Ansary Occasional Paper Series

Ancient and modern urban centres have been important loci for encounters between individuals of different identities. In this article, I present Mecca and Medina as multi-religious towns in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods of the sixth and seventh centuries ce. Mecca was a very small town, but the Kaaba shrine there served as a regional pilgrimage site that drew people from different faith communities. Medina was a larger settlement with a significant Jewish population. Jews, Christians and others (‘pagans’) lived in both towns. Some of these ‘others’ had also adopted some of the basic ideas of monotheism, although they …


Infinite Line, Infinite Knowledge: The 'Spera' And Organized Chaos In Lambert's Encyclopedia, The 'Liber Floridus', Ava Romano 2026 CUNY Hunter College

Infinite Line, Infinite Knowledge: The 'Spera' And Organized Chaos In Lambert's Encyclopedia, The 'Liber Floridus', Ava Romano

Theses and Dissertations

The Liber Floridus is a medieval encyclopedia renowned for its program of circular diagrams, or sperae. Inside this manuscript of 190 chapters, these diagrams frame and embody written knowledge, revealing a connection between encyclopedism and life in the Benedictine monastery by creating a coherent visual organization of chapters.


Women And Magic In Medieval Romance: Genre, Intertextuality, And Power, By Jane Bonsall, Melissa Elmes 2026 Western Michigan University

Women And Magic In Medieval Romance: Genre, Intertextuality, And Power, By Jane Bonsall, Melissa Elmes

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.


The Cost Of Defense: Labor And Construction Of 10th Century Danish Fortifications, Noah James Eckert 2026 University of New Hampshire, Durham

The Cost Of Defense: Labor And Construction Of 10th Century Danish Fortifications, Noah James Eckert

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.


The Canonical-Legal Status Of Autocephaly And Autonomy In The Context Of Pan-Orthodox Dialogue, Ivan Yovchev 2026 Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

The Canonical-Legal Status Of Autocephaly And Autonomy In The Context Of Pan-Orthodox Dialogue, Ivan Yovchev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Historical procedures for granting autonomy and autocephaly are not strictly standardized in canonical law and often rely on local traditions, agreements, and specific historical-political circumstances. This leads to a diversity of practices – from unilateral tomoses (decrees) of autocephaly issued by the mother church to decisions supported by a broader pan-Orthodox consensus. At the pan-Orthodox level, the question of how new autocephalous and autonomous churches are proclaimed has been under discussion since the Pan-Orthodox preparatory commissions of the 20th–21st centuries. Preparatory documents envisage the need for a pan-Orthodox agreement, with autocephaly to be granted through a tomos signed by the …


Iberoamerican Neomedievalisms: “The Middle Ages” And Its Uses In Latin America, Edited By Nadia R. Altschul And Maria Ruhlmann, Emily Francomano 2026 Georgetown University

Iberoamerican Neomedievalisms: “The Middle Ages” And Its Uses In Latin America, Edited By Nadia R. Altschul And Maria Ruhlmann, Emily Francomano

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.


A Convert’S Tale: Art, Crime, And Jewish Apostasy In Renaissance Italy, By Tamar Herzig, Lyn Blanchfield 2026 Western Michigan University

A Convert’S Tale: Art, Crime, And Jewish Apostasy In Renaissance Italy, By Tamar Herzig, Lyn Blanchfield

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.


White Before Whiteness In The Late Middle Ages, By Wan-Chuan Kao, Thelma Trujillo 2026 The University of Iowa

White Before Whiteness In The Late Middle Ages, By Wan-Chuan Kao, Thelma Trujillo

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.


The Hungry City: A Year In The Life Of Medieval Barcelona, By Marie A. Kelleher, Jessica Minieri 2026 Western Michigan University

The Hungry City: A Year In The Life Of Medieval Barcelona, By Marie A. Kelleher, Jessica Minieri

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.


The Permeable Self: Five Medieval Relationships, By Barbara Newman, Laura Moncion 2026 Universität Tübingen

The Permeable Self: Five Medieval Relationships, By Barbara Newman, Laura Moncion

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.


Eleanor Of Aquitaine, As It Was Said: Truth And Tales About The Medieval Queen, By Karen Sullivan, Lauren Wood 2026 University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point

Eleanor Of Aquitaine, As It Was Said: Truth And Tales About The Medieval Queen, By Karen Sullivan, Lauren Wood

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.


Chaucer And Becket’S Mother: “The Man Of Law’S Tale,” Conversion, And Race In The Middle Ages, By Meriem Pagès, Daisy E. Black 2026 University of Wolverhampton

Chaucer And Becket’S Mother: “The Man Of Law’S Tale,” Conversion, And Race In The Middle Ages, By Meriem Pagès, Daisy E. Black

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.


Anti-Muslim Rhetoric In The Trial Of The Templars (1307-1312), Samantha J. Froemming 2026 University of Central Florida

Anti-Muslim Rhetoric In The Trial Of The Templars (1307-1312), Samantha J. Froemming

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis investigates the existence of anti-Muslim rhetoric within documents produced by the French monarchy and papacy during the Trial of the Templars (1307-1312). When French King Philip IV accused the Templars of heresy in 1307, he issued orders for their arrest in an unofficial document which employed anti-Muslim rhetoric against them, even though they were an order of Latin Christian warrior-monks who fought against Muslims in the Middle East. Pope Clement V later reflected this rhetoric in his papal bull Pastoralis praeeminentiae, an official order to arrest the Templars­— evidence of Philip IV’s influence over the papacy during …


Problems And Possibilities Of Namelessness In Late Antiquity And The Early Middle Ages, Jamie Wood, Hope Williard, Máirín MacCarron, Julia Hillner, James R. Burns 2026 School of Humanities and Heritage, University of Lincoln

Problems And Possibilities Of Namelessness In Late Antiquity And The Early Middle Ages, Jamie Wood, Hope Williard, Máirín Maccarron, Julia Hillner, James R. Burns

Medieval People

No abstract provided.


Navigating Mercy: Ethical And Emotional Terrains In Carolingian Society And Politics, Wei-Ting Chen 2026 University of Kentucky

Navigating Mercy: Ethical And Emotional Terrains In Carolingian Society And Politics, Wei-Ting Chen

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation investigates mercy in the Carolingian period, especially its political dimensions. A sustained, holistic examination of mercy in the early medieval period remains lacking. This study examines mercy not only as a history of an idea but also as a history of emotion, tracing its transformation from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds through patristic literature and into Carolingian political discourse. This study argues that mercy played a central role in the construction of Christian kingship within Carolingian political discourse. Early Church Fathers reinterpreted mercy from a controversial concept in Roman Stoic philosophy into a positive virtue in Christian …


Interpreting “Vampire” Burials In Medieval Eastern Europe, Arleen Chau 2026 Virginia Commonwealth University

Interpreting “Vampire” Burials In Medieval Eastern Europe, Arleen Chau

Undergraduate Research Posters

Since the early twentieth century, various atypical or deviant graves have been excavated across Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland. These discoveries have prompted much speculation, as the individuals were interred with items such as sickles placed over their necks or abdomens, along with other mortuary artifacts not considered normative compared to those found in typical community burials. Such practices suggest that these individuals were regarded as deviant or pariahs within their social contexts. Consequently, many have been quick to label these as “vampire burials,” interpreting them as measures intended to keep the dead from rising. However, this definition is problematic, …


Objects Of Power: Female Instrumentalists In Medieval To Early Modern Europe, Emma Scherrer 2025 University of Missouri-St. Louis

Objects Of Power: Female Instrumentalists In Medieval To Early Modern Europe, Emma Scherrer

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Women are difficult to locate in traditional histories of western music, especially performers and particularly instrumentalists. The relationship between a female performer, the instrument she played, and her audience was especially fraught, constituting a complicated web of gendered relations and power dynamics. An examination of the contexts in which women played instruments in medieval to early modern Europe elucidates how women in these societies interacted with music and musical institutions. While women were generally excluded from musical institutions and discouraged from playing most musical instruments, many women nevertheless chose to take up an instrument outside of professional contexts. From the …


Maritime Trade And Imperial Ambitions: Yemeni Politics And Trade In The Indian Ocean World (626/1228-858/1454), Beck Sjostedt 2025 The American University in Cairo AUC

Maritime Trade And Imperial Ambitions: Yemeni Politics And Trade In The Indian Ocean World (626/1228-858/1454), Beck Sjostedt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the role of Yemen, particularly under the Rasūlid dynasty (626/1228-858/1454) in the medieval Indian Ocean trade. I argue that the Rasūlids attempted to create an “imperial maritime space” wherein Yemen would be the imperial core, and the western Indian Ocean and Red Sea the subjugated peripheries. While the Rasūlids managed to organize state power towards their imperial project via diplomacy, military and naval expansion, and a robust and efficient bureaucracy, they never fully realized their goal of creating a thalassocratic empire in the western Indian Ocean. Nonetheless, medieval Yemen played a significant role in the political, social, …


A Detestable Nation Of Orcs: Echoes Of Eurasian Nomads In Early Fantasy And The Literary Ecosystem Behind Them, Axel Hansen 2025 Valparaiso University

A Detestable Nation Of Orcs: Echoes Of Eurasian Nomads In Early Fantasy And The Literary Ecosystem Behind Them, Axel Hansen

Journal of Tolkien Research

It is well known that Orcs and Easterlings in J.R.R. Tolkien's works share features with Eurasian nomadic peoples such as Huns and Mongols. The same is true for Tolkien's literary predecessor William Morris' Dusky Men in The Roots of the Mountains. This article will provide an examination of these features from a historical viewpoint, on how interactions with and subsequent records about various steppe nomads in European history can be tied to villains in early modern Fantasy literature. It will then present a short review of how a network of historic accounts, academic theories and pop cultural works – …


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