Itineraries in the Muslim Mediterranean, 1350

The Center for World History
Presents a Lecture Series
Itineraries in the Muslim Mediterranean, 1350-1950:
Individuals, Change and Memory in a World Region
Where is the Muslim Mediterranean? The world historical meeting point of Asia, Africa
and Europe, the Mediterranean has played a major role in the interaction of world cultures from ancient
times to the present. Starting with Arab conquests in the 7th and 8th centuries, the Muslim
Mediterranean came into being. At one it point embraced the Balkans, the Middle East and North
Africa and Andalusia (Spain). Itineraries in the Muslim Mediterranean explores the transformation of
the Muslim culture zone in the Mediterranean from the 14th century to the 20th century as seen through
the lives of six notable men and women, Muslim and non-Muslim. In the process we come to
understand the ways in which modernity happened across the region.
The subject of Lucette Valensi’s lecture, Mardochée Naggiar was a Tunisian Jewish scholar of Arab
Muslim culture in 19th century Paris. Mary Wilson takes up the story of Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri the
leader of Algerian resistance to the French in the nineteenth century, and his efforts to come to terms
with the cultural realities of European power in the Mediterranean. Can a person be Jewish and
Muslim at the same time? This is one of the surprising questions raised by Marc Baer’s lecture on the
prophetic Ottoman rabbi Shabtai Tzevi and his followers. Brian Catlos’ portrait of Philip of
Mahdiyya and Norman Sicily introduces us to the ambiguous political environment of the
Mediterranean during the Crusades. The subject of our final lecture is Pietro Vasai, an Italian worker
resident in Alexandria, Egypt . Ilham Makdisi’s lecture opens up for our inspection the previously
hidden history of labor and anarchism in the Eastern Mediterranean prior to World War I.
Winter 2007
January 8
Lucette Valensi (Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris), “In Search of Mardochée
Naggiar: Cultural Boundaries in the 19th century Mediterranean"
March 5
Mary Wilson (History, University of Massachussetts-Amherst), "Abd alQadir ibn Muhyi al-Din al-Jaza'iri: Sufi, Algerian Resistance Leader and
Protector of Christians"
Spring 2007
April 16
Marc Baer (History, UC Irvine), "Sabetay Sevi, I Wait for Thee: 17th
Century Ottoman Jewish-Muslim Prophet and his Followers"
April 30
Brian Catlos (History, UC Santa Cruz), "Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Philip of
Mahdiyya and the Ambiguous Court of Muslim Sicily”
May 21
Ilham Makdisi (History, Northeastern University), "Pietro Vasai:
Anarchist Worker in the Eastern Mediterranean"
All lectures are in
Cowell Conference Room at 3:30 p.m.