Lord of the Pen and Sword: Genealogy and Sovereignty in the Medieval Islamic West
Paper by Mohamad Ballan
Given at the twentieth annual Mellon Colloquium at University of Notre Dame, on March 25, 2022
Mohamad Ballan’s project closely examines the phenomenon of the “scholar-statesman”—litterateurs, physicians, and jurists who ascended to the highest administrative and executive offices of state—in late medieval Islamic Spain and North Africa. He focuses on the career and writings of Lisān al-Dīn ibn al-Khaṭīb (1313–1374), the preeminent historian, philosopher and chancellor of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, situating this figure within a vast intellectual-political network of scholars, functionaries and statesmen that extended from Seville to Damascus.
Lord of the Pen and Sword: Genealogy and Sovereignty in the Medieval Islamic West
Paper by Mohamad Ballan
Given at the twentieth annual Mellon Colloquium at University of Notre Dame, on March 25, 2022
Mohamad Ballan’s project closely examines the phenomenon of the “scholar-statesman”—litterateurs, physicians, and jurists who ascended to the highest administrative and executive offices of state—in late medieval Islamic Spain and North Africa. He focuses on the career and writings of Lisān al-Dīn ibn al-Khaṭīb (1313–1374), the preeminent historian, philosopher and chancellor of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, situating this figure within a vast intellectual-political network of scholars, functionaries and statesmen that extended from Seville to Damascus.
Mohamad Ballan is Assistant Professor of History at Stony Brook University. Click here to view his personal website, or follow him on Twitter @Ballandalus
Watch also the responses to Mohamad Ballan’s paper, from:
Ana Echevarría, Professor of Medieval History at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Antoine Borrut, Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland
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