November 28: Memory and Power in Early Islamic Syria
Please join us for the fourth lecture in our 2012-2013 Islamic Studies Lecture Series! This event marks the final installment of the Fall lecture series, "From Late Antiquity to Early Islam." Our Spring segment will focus on Qur'anic studies and will begin in late January. This talk will be held on Wednesday, November 28, 6:00pm, in the Mortara Center.
Antoine Borrut (University of Maryland) presents:
"Memory and Power in Early Islamic Syria"
Antoine Borrut is a professor of early Islamic history at the University of Maryland. His current projects include research on the much-neglected genre of astrological histories and on the role of court astrologers in historical writing in early Islam. The project notably aims to shed a new light on the thorny question of lost sources in early Islamic historiography and on the various forms of historical writing that flourished in Muslim contexts. Dr. Borrut's work also includes research on the construction of early Islamic sites of memory (lieux de mémoire) and its impact on the making of an agreed upon version of the early Islamic past. In this perspective, he is currently studying one of founding episodes of early Islam, namely the martyrdom of al-Ḥusayn at Karbala in 61/680.
