Dr. Raha Rafii received her PhD from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. She specializes in Islamic jurisprudence and Arabic philology, and has also written on Orientalism in Islamic art museum exhibitions, manuscript acquisition, and the ethics of digitization. She is a lecturer…
Reyhan Durmaz is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the cultural history of Christianity in the medieval Middle East. Her first book, Stories between Christianity and Islam (2022) examines the transmissions of saints’ stories between Christian and Muslim…
'The Forest of the Witch' is a traditional Anatolian shadow theatre performance. It has been adapted from the 19th-century text "Bloody Poplar" with a contemporary interpretation, and the play centers around a universal theme. Karagöz, who cuts down a tree growing…
Betty Rosen earned her Ph.D. in Arabic and Hebrew Literature from the University of California-Berkeley’s Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and Program in Critical Theory in 2023. She also holds an MA in Arabic Literature from SOAS University of London and an A.B. in Comparative Literature from Harvard College. Her…
In May 1945, the war in Europe ground to a close. The victory over Germany gave rise to various demands of the USSR in relation to its neighboring countries. After the end of the war in Europe, Soviet foreign policy towards the countries of the Middle East entered a novel stage. During June-July 1945, Iran and Turkey became the object of…
George A. Kiraz is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study, teaches Syriac at Princeton University, and is the director of Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. He has written extensively on Syriac studies, computational linguistics, and the digital humanities.
The Cairo Genizah, a treasure trove of…
Women’s associations (hevrot) tended to the sick, clothed the needy, dowered indigent brides, and perhaps most prominently, prepared the dead for burial. These sororities provided women with a formal communal setting in which they could express leadership, independent management and piety. The enterprise and efficiency women…
Associate Professor of History & Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies
Department of History