"An Islamic Historian's View of Social Mobilization" with Richard Bulliet
Thursday, October 24, 2013 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM EDT
Buchanan Hall, Edwin Meese Room
As the relationship of Islam to society evolved over a period of centuries there were corresponding changes in patterns of social and political mobilization. Though these patterns parallel those at successive stages of Western society, Islam has a distinctive history that defies easy incorporation into Western mobilization models.
Richard Bulliet is a professor of history at Columbia University who is regarded as one of America’s most prominent scholars of Middle Eastern history specializing in the social and institutional history of Islamic countries, the history of technology, and the history of the role of animals in human society. He has chaired and served on the board of many academic organizations including the Middle East Studies Association, Society for Iranian Studies, and the Columbia University Press, for which he currently serves on the Board of Trustees. Dr. Bulliet is the author of fifteen books, including Cotton, Climate, and Camels in Early Islamic Iran: A Moment in World History (2009), Islam: The View from the Edge (1993), and Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History (1979) to name a few. One of his most well known works, The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization (2004), has been translated in five languages including Arabic and Turkish. He is also an accomplished novelist whose first work of fiction, Kicked to Death by a Camel (1973), was nominated for an Edgar Award. Dr. Bulliet’s columns, syndicated by Agence Global, have been featured in several major newspapers including the Guardian and the New York Times International, and he has authored dozens of journal articles for a range of academic journals and reference books. Dr. Bulliet has taken enormous strides to advance academia in the digital age by recording and posting a series of his class lectures to Youtube as well as offering his class on the History of the Modern Middle East on iTunes.
