Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists
@alusuralwusta.bsky.social
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)
Pinned
Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta
Middle East Medievalists (MEM) is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the Islamic lands of the Middle East during the medieval period (defined r...
journals.library.columbia.edu
Thanks 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! 🧵
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! 🧵
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-Wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
Welcome to Middle East Medievalists
MEM is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the medieval Middle East.
www.middleeastmedievalists.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-Wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
UW is open-access: please read and share these publications (and more!) on our site. We look forward to new horizons in 2026!
Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta
Middle East Medievalists (MEM) is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the Islamic lands of the Middle East during the medieval period (defined r...
journals.library.columbia.edu
December 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
UW is open-access: please read and share these publications (and more!) on our site. We look forward to new horizons in 2026!
The 2025 issue also includes a pedagogy file by Sylvia Wu on mosque architecture in China, aimed at helping to diversify the types of sources available in the undergraduate classroom.
December 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
The 2025 issue also includes a pedagogy file by Sylvia Wu on mosque architecture in China, aimed at helping to diversify the types of sources available in the undergraduate classroom.
We also published an Arabic edition of Kitāb al-Safar, a book on the management of travel by a Yemeni Rasulid Sultan. Edited by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Jāzim w/ forward by Danuel Varisco.
December 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
We also published an Arabic edition of Kitāb al-Safar, a book on the management of travel by a Yemeni Rasulid Sultan. Edited by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Jāzim w/ forward by Danuel Varisco.
The 2025 issue includes UW’s second-ever roundtable! “A Sea of Sorcery” asks historians to consider what we gain by thinking of the past alongside works of fiction, focusing on Shannon Chakraborty’s Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi.
The roundtable is also on Ottoman History Podcast!
The roundtable is also on Ottoman History Podcast!
A Sea of Sorcery: Roundtable with Shannon Chakraborty
produced by Shireen Hamza and featuring Fahad Bishara, KD Thompson, Liana Saif, Mahmood Kooria, Rebecca Hankins, and Samantha Pellegr...
www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
The 2025 issue includes UW’s second-ever roundtable! “A Sea of Sorcery” asks historians to consider what we gain by thinking of the past alongside works of fiction, focusing on Shannon Chakraborty’s Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi.
The roundtable is also on Ottoman History Podcast!
The roundtable is also on Ottoman History Podcast!
The thematic dossier on the Indian Ocean was guest edited by Jyoti Balachandaran. It includes peer-reviewed research articles on Blackness in Arabic & Chinese sources; engagements btw Mamluk Cairo & Sultanates of India; an Indian jurist in Mamluk Cairo; and the idea of an Indian Ocean “world”
December 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
The thematic dossier on the Indian Ocean was guest edited by Jyoti Balachandaran. It includes peer-reviewed research articles on Blackness in Arabic & Chinese sources; engagements btw Mamluk Cairo & Sultanates of India; an Indian jurist in Mamluk Cairo; and the idea of an Indian Ocean “world”
Thanks 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! 🧵
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! 🧵
Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta
Middle East Medievalists (MEM) is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the Islamic lands of the Middle East during the medieval period (defined r...
journals.library.columbia.edu
December 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Thanks 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! 🧵
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! 🧵
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social
to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
Welcome to Middle East Medievalists
MEM is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the medieval Middle East.
www.middleeastmedievalists.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:15 PM
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social
to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
Matt Melvin-Koushki's new article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:
Selenocentrism and Heliocentrism in Early Modern Persianate Imperial Cultures: ʿAlī versus Jesus, with Hermes Presiding
| Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta
journals.library.columbia.edu
October 29, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Matt Melvin-Koushki's new article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:
Imperial 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.
October 29, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Imperial 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.
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
Welcome to Middle East Medievalists
MEM is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the medieval Middle East.
www.middleeastmedievalists.com
September 27, 2025 at 1:30 PM
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:
The Tatars of the Sūdān
| Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta
journals.library.columbia.edu
September 27, 2025 at 1:30 PM
The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:
New 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]
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]
September 27, 2025 at 1:30 PM
New 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]
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]
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
Welcome to Middle East Medievalists
MEM is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the medieval Middle East.
www.middleeastmedievalists.com
July 17, 2025 at 3:28 PM
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:
Emotional Manipulation, Coercion, and Precarity in the Tales of Jamīl and Buthayna
| Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta
journals.library.columbia.edu
July 17, 2025 at 3:28 PM
The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:
New 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 performances
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 performances
July 17, 2025 at 3:28 PM
New 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 performances
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 performances
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
Welcome to Middle East Medievalists
MEM is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the medieval Middle East.
www.middleeastmedievalists.com
July 10, 2025 at 7:23 PM
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:
'Masʾalatun or Mas'ʾalatun? That Is the Question!
| Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta
journals.library.columbia.edu
July 10, 2025 at 7:23 PM
The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:
New 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 well
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 well
July 10, 2025 at 7:23 PM
New 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 well
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 well
We affirm that our use of Columbia Libraries open-access publishing is in solidarity with students, faculty, and staff protesting genocide and calling for justice in Palestine.
April 8, 2025 at 9:46 PM
We affirm that our use of Columbia Libraries open-access publishing is in solidarity with students, faculty, and staff protesting genocide and calling for justice in Palestine.
The 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.
Letters from The Board
mesana.org
April 8, 2025 at 9:46 PM
The 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.
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
Middle East Medievalists
MEM is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the medieval Middle East.
www.middleeastmedievalists.com
January 21, 2025 at 3:56 PM
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:
Mkrtičʻ Nałaš: An Armenian Bishop as Pillar of the Aqquyunlu State?
| Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta
journals.library.columbia.edu
January 21, 2025 at 3:56 PM
The article is open access, so you can read, download, & share it here:
New 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]
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]
January 21, 2025 at 3:56 PM
New 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]
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]
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!
Middle East Medievalists
MEM is an international professional non-profit association of scholars interested in the study of the medieval Middle East.
www.middleeastmedievalists.com
January 15, 2025 at 6:55 PM
as always, you don't need to be a member of @mideastmedieval.bsky.social to read/submit to al-ʿUsur al-wusta. however, membership dues help keep the journal running. please consider becoming a MEMber today. while you’re at it, check out all the other stuff MEM is up to!