Islamic History as the History of the West: The Pre-Modern Mediterranean & The Sea in the Middle

22 Feb 2023

pittadmin

Announced by the University of Pittsburgh:

Join authors Thomas Burman (Notre Dame), Brian Catlos (CU Boulder) and Mark Meyerson (U Toronto) in conversation with John Esposito on the subject of their new text book, The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650, and the accompanying source anthology, Texts from the Middle: Documents from the Mediterranean World, 650–1650 (U California, 2022). Eschewing the established historical meta-narrative which centers the history of narrow pre-Modern West on Latin Europe, these books present a history of the pre-Modern Abrahamic West – one that stretches from the Indus to the Atlantic, south through the Sahel and north to the Baltic – in which the Mediterranean is the dynamic center of contact, conflict and acculturation among individuals and communities from Africa, Europe and West Asia, who identified as Christians, Muslims and Jews. This perspective integrates the history of the Islamicate, Christian and Jewish worlds, by avoiding facile essentializations and plumbing a rich and complex history. Data-driven rather than aspirational the resulting narrative presents this Mediterranean-centered “the West” as the foundations of the Modernities that emerged over the course of the last few hundred years. This is book and reader for the diverse student bodies of the twenty-first century, and provides a complete package for college and university professors how wish to engage with this perspective in their teaching. Useful as a coursebook for undergraduate surveys, the set is also suitable as a supplementary or introductory text for upper-level undergraduates and for graduate seminars, and even advanced high school classes. The authors will discuss the motivations and methods behind this project, and how this book can be used in the classroom.

Event Date: 
Wednesday, February 22, 2023 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Institution(s): 
Sponsored By: 
ACMCU
Location: 
Virtual