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Colloque international : “Knowledge, Authority & Practice in the Mamluk Period. Reassessing intellectual life in Syria and Egypt (1250–1517)”, univ. Waseda (Japon), 6 décembre 2025.

Programme

Long marginalized in intellectual historiography in favor of the so-called classical and modernperiods, the Mamluk era (1250–1517) is today increasingly recognized as a moment of intensescholarly activity and conceptual creativity. Recent scholarship has moved beyond the nowoutdated paradigm of stagnation, revealing a dynamic and plural intellectual world in whichreligious, legal, historical, and scientific discourses were constantly reformulated, negotiated, andsometimes contested (Berkey, 1992).This seminar brings together scholars working on various aspects of intellectual life in MamlukSyria and Egypt to examine the modes through which knowledge was produced, legitimized, andput into practice in a variety of institutional, textual, and embodied contexts. Rather than viewingthis period as a mere conduit of earlier traditions, the papers will show how knowledge wasactively reshaped in response to shifting political realities, social expectations, and disciplinarytransformations (Chamberlain, 1994).Special attention will be given to the ways in which scholars of the period approached questionsof authority, legitimacy, and orthodoxy — whether in legal reasoning, theological debate, orspiritual practice. The seminar will also highlight the material and performative dimensions ofscholarship, such as manuscript culture, the physical organization of texts, and the social spacesin which learning was transmitted and regulated. In this regard, the study of Mamluk-era Arabicmanuscript collections, many of which remain underexplored, offers valuable insight into scholarlypriorities, transmission networks, and the evolving structure of the book.In this context, the “social life” of texts — how they were read, circulated, annotated, or performed— becomes central to understanding the intellectual practices of the time. Knowledge was notlimited to the act of writing: reading and reception practices played a crucial role in theconstruction and negotiation of scholarly authority. As Konrad Hirschler has shown in his study ofmedieval Arabic reading practices, the Mamluk period saw a diversification of reading publics,modes of textual engagement, and forms of scholarly sociability, including among non-elitegroups (Hirschler, 2012).While many scholars operated within the framework of established legal schools (madhāhib) ortheological traditions, their intellectual activity was often far more flexible and inventive than iscommonly assumed. Several prominent figures developed sophisticated methodologies aimed atreconciling transmitted knowledge (naql) with rational inquiry (ʿaql), sometimes challenging theestablished boundaries between disciplines. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), for example, combinedrigorous textualism with critical reflection on legal theory, dialectics, and philosophical reasoning,articulating a complex epistemology grounded in a deep concern for authenticity and coherence (Berriah, 2022)

By addressing a wide range of disciplines — including religious sciences (theology, ḥadith, law), political thought, historiography, musicology, and the arts — the seminar highlights the plurality of
epistemic traditions that coexisted and interacted in the Mamluk world. It will also explore how scholars navigated between commentary and innovation, conformity and dissent, and how intellectual authority was affirmed or challenged through writing, citation, and transmission practices.

In doing so, this conference seeks to contribute to the broader effort to reassess the Mamluk period not as a mere post-classical echo, but as a critical moment in the longue durée of Islamic
intellectual history — one whose conceptual debates, institutional forms, and textual legacies resonated well beyond its chronological limits.

Selected bibliography
Jonathan P. Berkey, The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education, Princeton University Press, 1992.
Michael Chamberlain, Knowledge and Social Practice in Medieval Damascus, 1190–1350, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Konrad Hirschler, The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural History of Reading Practices, Edinburgh University Press, 2011.
Mehdi Berriah, “Ibn Taymiyya’s Methodology Regarding His Sources: Reading, Selection and Use.Preliminary Study and Perspectives,” in Élise Franssen (ed.), Authors as Readers in the Mamlūk Period and Beyond, Venice: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, 2022, pp. 45–81.

Organization
Mehdi Berriah (Ifpo), Daisuke Igarashi (Waseda University) & Tetsuya Ohtoshi (Waseda University)

https://www.ifporient.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/flyer_7.pdf

Full programm


OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Sami Benkherfallah (27 novembre 2025). Colloque international : “Knowledge, Authority & Practice in the Mamluk Period. Reassessing intellectual life in Syria and Egypt (1250–1517)”, univ. Waseda (Japon), 6 décembre 2025. Diwan. Consulté le 10 février 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/158cn


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