Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7^th-16^th centuries)

Sources, Analyses, Projects

A monthly Webinar (Zoom)

Link on demand at: libyemedievale@gmail.com

Despite being well-known for the Greek and Roman era, Libya remains rather unknown for the ten centuries of the Islamic era, that began with the Islamic conquest of the 1^st/7^th century and ended with the progressive establishment of the Ottoman rule in the 10^th/16^th century. Thus, this webinar aims at reactivating the academic interest toward this space, that can be conceptualized as a crossroad within the global Islamic world, connecting the Maghrib with the Mashriq, the Mediterranean Sea and Saharan Africa.

Following the first cycles (2021-2024), in 2024-2025 we will continue to explore the sources available to the historians to write, reshape and reconsider the history of medieval Libya. A special emphasis will be put on new corpuses, especially material documentation.

Organization committee: Hafed Abdouli (LERIC, University of Sfax, Tunisia) ; Inas Mohamed Ali Bubtana (Archaeology department, University of Benghazi, Libya) ; Sébastien Garnier (University of Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France) ; Aurélien Montel (University of Toulouse-2, France).

Session 1 (16 October 2024, 18h CET) :

Women in the Ibadi legal corpus

Lamya Sharfeddine (University of Tripoli, Libya)

Session 2 (11 December 2024, 18h CET) :

Zawīla during the Middle Ages

Mostafa el-Burki (University of Benghazi, Libya)

Session 3 (19 February 2025, 18h CET)

Rewriting the ašʽarī creed in times of turmoil. Presentation and analysis of al-Ḫarrāṭ’s commentary of al-ʽAqīda al-Murshida, revised by his disciple al-Šaybānī al-Tarābulusī (14^th century CE)

Ilyass Amharar (IREMAM-Centre Jacques Berque)

Session 4 (16 April 2025, 18h CET)

The evolution of the Nafusa mountains area in the Middle Ages and its architectural traces

Muḥammad al-Zuwārī (Institut supérieur d’arts et métiers de Tataouine, University of Gabes, Tunisia)

Session 5 (25 June 2025, 18h CET)

Libyan coinage during the Middle Ages

Jamaa Kashbūr (University of Benghazi, Libya)

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