This year Near Eastern Studies is hosting two Fulbright Visiting Fellows, Farda Asadov and Zafar Najmiddinov.

Dr. Asadov is the Vice-Rector for International Affairs at Khazar University in Baku, Azerbaijan, and directs Arab Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Azerbaijan. During his Fulbright (October 2012–May 2013) at Princeton, Asadov will be researching the relationship between Arabs and Khazar Turks in the maintenance of international trade along the Silk Roads during the VII–X centuries.

Dr. Najmiddinov, an independent researcher, will be at Princeton from November 2012 through August 2013 and will study the development of Hanafi fiqh writing in Central Asia in order to show the role and place of Hanafi ‘ulama in the social life of post-Mongol Central Asia and to identify the most important religious texts serving as sources for the legitimation of the Central Asia dynasties of the Timurids and Shaybanids.