International colloquium "Interdisciplinary sources and methods for the study of societies without archives: Baghdad in the premodern era", June 7-8

International symposium organized by the Centre de recherche Moyen-Orient, Méditerranée (CERMOM, Inalco) and the Institut d'études avancées de Paris (IEAP).

Tuesday, June 7 and Wednesday, June 8, 2022 - at Inalco and the Institut d'Etudes Avancées de Paris (IEAP)

Organization:Nassima Neggaz (IEA) and Vanessa Van Renterghem (Inalco, CERMOM)

Contact: vanessa.vanrenterghem@inalco.fr

Registration required for each day.

Schedules and registration
Tuesday, June 7, 2022: 09:00-18:00 - Amphi 2
Inalco, PLC - 65, rue des Grands Moulins - 75013 Paris
Wednesday, June 8, 2022: 09:00-20:00 - EIPA
Institut d'études avancées de Paris - 17 quai d'Anjou - 75004 Paris

International Colloquium: Interdisciplinary sources and methods for the study of societies without archives: Baghdad in the premodern period

The aim of this colloquium is to bring together young as well as more experienced researchers working on different fields relating to the city of Baghdad before the Ottoman period. The study of the pre-Ottoman period presents particular challenges. On the one hand, we have no archives, which did not appear until the Ottoman period. On the other hand, we have no substantial archaeological evidence due to the repeated destruction of the city, particularly during the Mongol period, and the difficulty of conducting excavations in an urban environment. To meet these challenges, researchers working on medieval Baghdad have used a wide variety of sources, methods and approaches. We are particularly interested in innovative and original approaches developed in recent years, especially by young researchers who would benefit from collaborations with their "senior" colleagues whose methods of investigation are more traditional.

Among these recent original approaches is the use of satellite imagery to reconstruct the course of Iraq's main rivers, the Euphrates, Tigris and others, alongside information found in Arabic chronicles (Verkinderen, 2015). Another example is the use of digital humanities tools to trace the reuse, by authors from different periods, of Baghdad texts, or to establish the number of works produced in Baghdad at a certain period (Qurboniev, 2021), among others. A third example is the work carried out on epidemics by medieval historians working in collaboration with physicians and epidemiologists able to identify diseases based on descriptions found in medieval texts.

The symposium will bring together researchers working on different periods, including the Abbasid and Mongol eras, highlighting how sources and approaches can vary yet be interconnected. The researchers involved work on issues as diverse as topography and geography (including the study of river courses), literature, economic history and numismatics, social history, urban control, rural life, taxation, urban elites, demography, poetry, women and gender, among others. These researchers mobilize a variety of sources in their research: Arabic chronicles, biographical dictionaries, literary sources, collections of poems and songs (the Kitāb al-Aghānī), travelers' accounts, numismatic collections, textiles, monument remains, objects, as well as other material sources.

Many questions will be explored during this symposium: how can we use and interpret the material we have? For example, how can researchers working on Baghdad benefit from the information contained in the Kitāb al-Aghānī as a historical source? How can we innovatively combine modern technologies as well as medieval material, so as to sharpen our understanding of societies without archives? How can Arab historiographical sources be used to extract non-narrative information, such as topographical information? Hugh Kennedy, for example, will outline how he was able to extract valuable topographical information about the city of Baghdad from the work of ʿArīb b. Saʿd al-Qurṭubī (d. 979), information he was able to compare with archaeological evidence.

Public conference "Sources of Life: Food and water for the inhabitants of Abbasid Baghdad"

Wednesday, June 8, 2022 - 18:00-20:00 - IEA Paris - Conference in English

by Hugh Kennedy (SOAS, London, Professor) and Maaike van Berkel (Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands, Professor)

Managing access to clean water and large quantities of grain and other foodstuffs was essential for the development of an exceedingly large city such as Baghdad under the Abbasids. With half a million or more inhabitants this was not an easy task. Still we do not fully understand how it was achieved this. Existing historical approaches still often frame the institutional arrangements of Middle Eastern cities in relation to the premodern European city and emphasize the institutional weakness of the former. Yet how, then, did these cities support their numerous populations under challenging circumstances? In this combined presentation Hugh Kennedy will discuss the availability of river transport, while Maaike van Berkel investigates the multiple water systems that functioned in Abbasid Baghdad and the source(s) of their sustainability.