Ali Humayun Akhtar describes the Middle Ages as a highly interconnected period. In the centuries leading up to the Renaissance, Christians, Jews, and Muslims traveled widely, exchanging both goods and ideas from southern Europe to the Middle East and East Asia.

“There was a kind of globalization in the premodern world, even before the rise of modern transportation and industrialization,” says Akhtar, an assistant professor of religious studies, of classical and medieval studies, and of Asian studies.

Ali Humayun Akhtar, associate professor of religious studies and of classical and medieval studies.

Akhtar wanted to know more about the communities that lined the trade routes that flourished between the eighth and 13th centuries, and how groups from southern Spain to Iraq moved across boundaries of geography, politics, and culture.

His first book, , explores the interplay between local authorities and higher rulers, and the influence of Hellenistic learning on politics and culture.

The book, published by Cambridge University Press, challenges common assumptions about the kingdoms, sultanates, and caliphates of the medieval world. “Europe and the Middle East were not ruled as theocracies in those days, and power was not simply exercised top-down,” Akhtar says.

As in the modern world, structures of local authority in cities, neighborhoods, and families had significant influence on local affairs. The Umayyad caliphs of Cordoba, the Fatimids of Cairo, and the Abbasids of Baghdad, who ruled between the eighth and 13th centuries, were not all-powerful. As was the case in much of Europe, ruling circles had to work with layers of local institutions and leadership structures to govern.

In medieval Baghdad, for example, a sultan’s administration might have ultimate legal authority over public spaces such as marketplaces, but in a neighborhood, mediators among Muslims, Christians, and Jews handled conflicts.

“Often it was the case that if administrators wanted to push some piece of legislation or policy, they had to be in dialogue with not only the Eastern Christian clergy, the Jewish rabbis, and the scholars of Islam, but also with urban patricians and businesspeople,” Akhtar says.

These local figures, who sometimes included women, wore multiple hats — they were teachers, judges, scientists, and in a period of polymathic knowledge, they also studied theology, ethics, medicine, and other subjects with equal vigor. The Muslim judge Averroes and the Jewish rabbi Maimonides, who both lived in 12th-century Cordoba, were also medical doctors and philosopher-scientists.   

Much of their knowledge, and the tools for gaining more knowledge, drew on ancient sources. Greek philosophy and other late antique writings of the Near East were translated from Greek and Aramaic to Arabic.

Socrates (Suqrat) and his pupils as portrayed in a 13th-century Arabic manuscript preserved in Istanbul (Wikimedia Commons)

As it spread, Hellenistic learning was central to conceptions of ethics and interpretations of scripture in the medieval Islamic world. It also had practical applications, informing medicine, astronomy, psychology, commercial navigation, and civil engineering.

The impact of ancient Greece, Iraq, and the late antique Hellenistic world under the Umayyad, Fatimid, and Abbasid caliphates, Akhtar says, shows an overlooked continuity between the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds — and between Renaissance Europe and the Middle East.

“The works of the Persian physician Avicenna were used as standard medical textbooks in Europe for centuries,” Akhtar says.

Renaissance European thinkers read ancient Greek philosophy and science together with volumes of commentaries and new works in Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin.

“This entire history goes against the assumption that only Europe had a Judeo-Christian and Hellenistic heritage,” Akhtar says. “In the Middle East, this Hellenistic heritage and its Jewish and Christian social context thrived during the medieval Islamic era.”

The connections between Europe and the Middle East persisted in the early modern era. For his next two books, Akhtar is researching the commercial connections between Venice and Ottoman Istanbul in the 17th century, and the trade relationships linking European maritime companies with the Middle East, China, and Southeast Asia.

Interest in Hellenistic learning in the Islamic world extended to architecture, exemplified in the Dome of the Rock Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to its left in Jerusalem. (Wikimedia Commons)

Studying the history of the Mediterranean world in a global context highlights the common heritage of Europe and the Middle East, Akhtar says — and undermines some of today’s political narratives, which portray Europe and the Middle East as part of distinct, even clashing, civilizations.

“There are timeless connections between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia which call into question how we think about modern issues like immigration, the refugee crisis, and the boundaries of global trade,” he says. “We have assumptions about different worlds that have overlapped for more than a millennium.”

Jay Michaelson gives the autumn 2014 Zerby Lecture at �ֲ���ý.

An author, scholar and rabbi, Jay Michaelson discusses optimum ways to discuss Israel and Palestine in campus settings at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29, in a �ֲ���ý presentation at the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Michaelson’s talk is titled Multiple Narratives of Israel/Palestine: Or, Will Alan Dershowitz and Steven Salaita Ever Get Along? Open to the public at no cost, the Zerby Lecture is sponsored by the Multifaith Chaplaincy at �ֲ���ý.

For more information, please call 207-786-8272.

Some of the loudest voices on Israel and Palestine are also some of the most intransigent, as pro-Israel and pro-Palestine activists often talk past, rather than with, one another.

At �ֲ���ý, Michaelson will look at flashpoints of debate — around academic freedom, “pinkwashing” and the conflict in general — from the perspective of multiple narratives. Can American allies of Israel and/or Palestine understand the narratives of the “other side” in a way that advances conversations? What lessons can we bring from our own efforts at respectful dialogue?

Michaelson is a visiting scholar at Brown University, adjunct professor at Chicago Theological Seminary and director of the LGBT Global Rights Initiative at the Democracy Council.

His work has been featured on NPR, CNN and in The New York Times. He is a contributing editor to the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper and a weekly columnist for the Daily Beast. His influential article “How I’m Losing My Love for Israel” was the first major statement of the growing divide between American liberals and Israel. It won the Society for Professional Journalists award for opinion writing.

Michaelson is the author of five books and more than 300 articles on religion, sexuality, law and contemplative practice. His most recent book, Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism and the Next Generation of Enlightenment, was published in 2013 by North Atlantic.

His other books include God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality (Beacon Press, 2012) an Amazon best-seller and Lambda Literary Award finalist; Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism (Trumpeter, 2009); and Another Word for Sky: Poems (Lethe Press, 2007).

The Rayborn Lindley Zerby Lectureship on Contemporary Religious Thought was established with a gift to �ֲ���ý in 1965. The series was initiated the following year by the late Samuel Miller, dean of Harvard Divinity School.

The lectureship honors Zerby, a professor who devoted many years to the growth of �ֲ���ý. He chaired the Department of Religion and Philosophy from 1930 to 1945. He served as director of the College Chapel (now the Peter J. Gomes Chapel) from 1945 until his retirement, in 1962, and was appointed dean of the faculty in 1958.

In the same cafe as the the one with waiter serving tea (previous slide)Ž, a woman begs with her children. Despite her desperate condition, I noticed that no one paid attention to her plight. Phillip Dube '16/�ֲ���ý College.

A waiter serving Turkish tea at a cafeŽ in Urfa, southeast Turkey. Cafes are places to socialize, play games and have some beverages. Phillip Dube '16/�ֲ���ý College.

Rooftop soccer: A ball belonging to a group of boys falls off the rooftop as they play soccer, a common sport in most parts we visited. A lack of flat spaces in this area leads them to play the game on a rooftop. Phillip Dube '16/�ֲ���ý College.

Road construction in Mardin, a city in southeast Turkey. With the economic boom in Turkey, many cities across the country are investing in infrastructure projects. Sometimes these projects inconvenience people, as the workers here piled paving stones on the sidewalk while they worked on the road. Phillip Dube '16/�ֲ���ý College.

A typical Turkish breakfast with generous spreads of cheese, cold meats, olives, bread, etc. Most Turks usually have breakfast with tea in these wasp-waisted glasses. And they drink it throughout the day over conversation or with meals. Phillip Dube '16/�ֲ���ý College.

Short Term can be the best time of the academic year at �ֲ���ý, and one reason is that it allows students in a course to travel together.

This past Short Term, I took the course “Turkey: From Empire to State” with Assistant Professor of Politics Senem Aslan. The class explored the ethnic and religious diversity of the country and current developments in Turkish politics. For part of the course, we ventured forth to Turkey to engage in conversation with different groups of people there, and to visit the historic mosques and Gobeike Tepe, a stone structure built 11,000 years ago for, it’s believed, religious purposes.

After two weeks in Turkey we had acquired vast first-hand knowledge and taken a lot of photographs. This slideshow documents our experience in Turkey.

With the exception of Hakimah Abdul-Fattah, Ashley Brunk, Cameron Sheldon and Destinee Warner, shown below, here are the 2013 Fulbright grant recipients, photographed during a May reception at the home of �ֲ���ý President Clayton Spencer. From left: Catherine Tuttle, Libby Egan, Tara Prasad, Marisa Mohrer, Spencer, Valerie Jarvis, Hansen Johnson, Nora Hanagan, Taryn O’Connell. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

2013 Fulbright grant recipient Hakimah Abdul-Fattah. Photograph by Michael Bradley/�ֲ���ý College.

2013 Fulbright recipient Cameron Sheldon.

2013 Fulbright grant recipient Destinee Warner ’13. Photograph by Michael Bradley/�ֲ���ý College.

Ashley Brunk ’13 received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Malaysia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

• Hakimah Abdul-Fattah of Holland, Pa. An anthropology major and French minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in France.
• Ashley Brunk of Phoenix, Ariz. An English major and education minor, Brunk received a Fulbright English Teacher Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Emily “Libby” Egan of Harvard, Mass. A sociology major and education minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Bulgaria.
• Nora Hanagan of Singapore. A politics major and education minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Turkey.
• Valerie Jarvis of Granville, Mass. A major in biological chemistry with a minor in Spanish, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Hansen Johnson of Stowe, Vt. A biology major and music minor, he received a research grant for work in Norway.
• Marisa Mohrer of Guilford, Conn. A psychology major and minor in German, she received a Fulbright Austria U.S. Teaching Assistantship.
• Taryn O’Connell of Georgetown, Mass. A major in environmental studies and minor in history, O’Connell was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Tara Prasad of Lincoln, R.I. A major in biological chemistry and minor in education, Prasad received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in South Korea.
• Cameron Sheldon of Canton, Conn. A politics major and Spanish minor, Sheldon received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Armenia.
• Catherine Tuttle of Pittsford, N.Y. A double major in Spanish and English, Tuttle was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Spain.
• Destinee Warner of Providence, R.I. Warner received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in the Republic of Georgia.

Heartbeat.

�ֲ���ý presents the young Israeli and Palestinian musicians of Heartbeat, a band seeking to use music to promote peace in the Middle East, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, in the Benjamin Mays Center, 95 Russell St. A reception follows the performance.

Admission is open to the public at no cost. The event is sponsored by the Multifaith Chaplaincy, the Student Government, the Student Activities Office, Bridges for Peace, J Street, Hillel, the Arts House, and several other �ֲ���ý departments and organizations. For more information, please call 207-786-8272.

Heartbeat, an ensemble of Arab and Jewish artists aged 17 to 21, has performed across Israel, the Palestinian territories and Germany. Their program features uplifting performances interweaving traditional and modern music from East and West.

Members also share experiences of growing up amidst the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, highlighting their creative effort to build a better future.

Based in Jerusalem, Heartbeat is an international nonprofit organization uniting musicians, educators and students to build mutual understanding and transform conflict through the power of music.

Founded in 2007 with support from a Fulbright-mtvU Award, Heartbeat creates opportunities and spaces for young Israeli and Palestinian musicians to work together, hear each other and amplify their voices to influence the world around them. Sharing in sustained music-based dialogue, Heartbeat artists develop creative nonviolent tools to express themselves and become voices for their communities.

Heartbeat seeks to combat the tidal wave of separation, fear, violence and injustice in the Middle East with powerful sounds and voices calling for cooperation, equality and peace.

Anthropology major Devin Tatro ’14 talks with Saudi men at a desert farm in the Eastern Province during a Short Term trip last spring to Saudi Arabia led by Dana Professor of Anthropology Loring Danforth. Photo: Ana Bisaillon ’12.

The English-speaking Saudi Gazette newspaper publishes “Bridging the Cultural Gap,” an account of the �ֲ���ý Short Term trip to Saudi Arabia written by Casey Andersen ’12 and Devin Tatro ’14 and featuring photos by Leena Nasser ’12.

Led by Dana Professor of Anthropology Loring Danforth and facilitated by Saudi citizen Nasser, the trip was ambitious in scope, the authors write.

“We dreamt of towering sand dunes, camels and palm trees, but we also wanted to learn about other, more important, aspects of the Saudi society: the medical, legal, economic and political systems.”

Getting answers meant near-constant conversation: with street vendors, artists, performers, NGO and business leaders, students, journalists, and women and men, young and old.

At a mosque, the students asked the Imam’s daughter about wearing her veil, or niqab. Didn’t it make women feel self-conscious?

“If I didn’t cover and wear my niqab that’s when I would feel self-conscious,” she explained.

In his letter to The New York Times, Dana Professor of Anthropology Loring Danforth takes issue with comments journalist Karen Elliott House makes in her book On Saudi Arabia.

Anthropology major Devin Tatro ’14 talks with Saudi men at a desert farm in the Eastern Province during a Short Term trip last spring to Saudi Arabia led by Dana Professor of Anthropology Loring Danforth. This was a rare moment in Saudi society: women talking with men publicly, and not asked to wear the abaya. Photo: Ana Bisaillon ’12.

Danforth’s letter is in response to a of On Saudi Arabia published in the Times. Danforth takes issue with Totten’s review for not criticizing “House’s portrayal of Saudis as passive, somnolent, undereducated, docile and unquestioningly obedient. These generalizations oversimplify what is in fact a very complex, diverse and rapidly changing society.”

In the wake of anti-American protests in the Middle East, Kari Jorgensen Diener ’99 and co-author Victoria Stanski tell Christian Science Monitor readers that these countries, especially Yemen, need foreign aid more than ever.

This family in Yemen’s Mawza District received vouchers to buy food as part of Mercy Corps’ emergency response to Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. Photograph by Cassandra Nelson / Mercy Corps.

In their Sept. 25 they write:

“Simply increasing short-term relief aid — although an important stopgap measure — is not a durable solution. What Yemen needs are simultaneous initiatives to build a more dynamic private sector, while supporting market development, job training, and youth employment programs to address systemic issues.

“In other parts of the world — notably the nearby Horn of Africa — the United States Agency for International Development is piloting a ‘resilience’ approach to aid. That multi-pronged approach addresses immediate needs while also focusing on the underlying factors that make a population vulnerable to recurring humanitarian crises.”

Diener, a magna cum laude graduate in political science who earned a master’s at Georgetown, is a senior policy adviser on the Middle East with She reports that her editor at The Christian Science Monitor was a fellow alumna: Cricket Alioto Fuller ’05.

Author Peter Beinart. Photograph by Guillaume Gaudet.

Peter Beinart, whose latest book predicts a breach between young U.S. Jews and Israel if that country maintains its current policies toward the Palestinians, speaks at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 15, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Beinart’s talk is sponsored by the �ֲ���ý chapter of J Street U, a national student activist organization promoting peace, security and social justice for Israelis and Palestinians. The event is open to the public at no cost.

Beinart is the author of The Crisis of Zionism, released in March by Times Books. In it, he argues that despite Israel’s many accomplishments, liberal Zionism faces a tremendous challenge. As Israel’s Jewish population continues to expand in the West Bank, the possibility of a two-state solution decreases, and the likelihood of Israel ceasing to remain a democratic Jewish state grows.

Equally concerning for Beinart is the possibility that as Israel fails to live up to its founding values, young progressive American Jews will fail to identify with this state founded to be the national home for the entire Jewish diaspora.

Beinart also offers a groundbreaking portrait of the two leaders at the center of the crisis: Barack Obama, America’s first “Jewish president,” a man steeped in the liberalism he learned from his many Jewish friends and mentors in Chicago; and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who considers liberalism the Jewish people’s special curse.

Beinart is a senior political writer for The Daily Beast, associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the former editor of The New Republic. He has written for Time, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Boston Globe and The Atlantic.

His first book, The Good Fight: Why Liberals — and Only Liberals — Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again, was published by HarperCollins in 2006. His second book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris, appeared in 2010, also published by HarperCollins.

An op-ed in the English-language newspaper Arab News praises Leena Nasser ’12, the �ֲ���ý student who has helped to craft an anthropology course scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia in May.

Leena Nasser ’12 is a politics major from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

a Saudi writer, economist and NGO activist, describes the email he received from Nasser, a politics major from Dhahran.

“She said she has a dream, simply put, to plan a short trip for students to Saudi Arabia,” Al-Alami writes.

The Short Term course, developed cooperatively by Nasser and Loring “Danny” Danforth, Dana Professor of Anthropology, will be the college’s first to involve significant coursework in Saudi Arabia.

And as is typical with Short Term courses that go abroad, Danforth and his students will do intensive background studies on campus before traveling to Saudi Arabia.

In country, Danforth and his students will visit Dhahran, Riyadh and Jeddah. They will investigate the impact of modernization on traditional Saudi society, the role of oil in the country’s economic development, the impact of Islam on Saudi culture and the position of women in Saudi society.

Nasser has been instrumental in planning the course, says Stephen Sawyer, director off-campus study at �ֲ���ý.

Loring “Danny” Danforth, Dana Professor of Anthropology

Adds Danforth, “Leena’s contribution to planning this course has been invaluable. She is spending a great deal of time contacting individuals and groups with whom we can meet in order to have in-depth conversations about many aspects of Saudi society and culture.”

Nasser’s help is so pivotal, Danforth says, that the course is likely to be a unique, one-time offering in the �ֲ���ý curriculum.

In her email to Al-Alami, Nasser said she hopes to “give �ֲ���ý students first-hand experience in delving deeply into studying different cultures and creating links between their studies and different parts of the world.”

“What a vision!” Al-Alami exclaims.

Writing under the headline “Our Ambassador Leena Nasser,” Al-Alami notes that “Leena’s objective is for foreign students to get to know and understand Saudi people, as opposed to simply studying the clichéd and stereotypical side of KSA.”

He adds, “There is no better opportunity to facilitate improving the relationship between Saudi Arabia and all nations than through the creation of a healthy and continuous dialogue between them.

“Well done, Ms. Leena,” Al-Alami concludes. “You are an example of which we are very proud.”