This four-part seminar series will explore how deep theological controversy, dabblings in the occult, and a complex set of cultural and social hierarchies shaped the rich scientific culture of mediaeval and early modern Islam. This is a history of boundaries in at least two senses: disciplinary and geographical. On the former, the seminar will speak to the ongoing historical research programme that collapses and redraws our sometimes anachronistic distinctions between learned magic, art, and science proper. Geographically, the seminar highlights how Islamic science diffracted through Islam’s porous boundaries, across and outside the Islamic world.

This series is open to anyone with an interest, and no previous knowledge of the Mongols, Mamluks, or the Islamic scientific tradition is assumed.

You can also join on Teams Link: bit.ly/3pOWQF4

Please contact the organiser for any queries: mailto:yusuf.tayara@wolfson.ox.ac.uk