Middle East, Islamic, and African Studies - Brill Publishing

29/10/2025

🔥Fresh off the press🔥

"Philosophy and Mysticism in the Islamic World,"

edited by Reza Hajatpour and with contributions by Ulrich Rudolph, Peter Adamson, Mansooreh Khalilizand and many others.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112218204

28/10/2025

While most previous research on Lebanese history textbooks has focused on the diverging narratives of religious communities, Bouchra Saab's study shows these textbooks as the outcome of a tension between two major forces: educational traditions, on the one hand, and contemporary politics, on the other.
A diversity of historical narratives has progressively converged into one dominant narrative held up by most religiously affiliated textbooks today.

Read more 👉 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111577296

28/10/2025

On 6 November 2025, University of Copenhagen is hosting a workshop organized by the editors of our book series "Annotated Legal Documents on Islam in Europe".

Limited space for guests available.

https://teol.ku.dk/english/research/dept/scala/events/legal-documents-on-islam-in-europe/

26/10/2025

Abdurraouf Oueslati is happy to attend the second symposium of Athirat titled Fauna in Ancient Arabia. Many intersting papers were presented to be published soon at De Gruyter Brill.
We thank HE shaykh Hasan bin Mohammed for his generous sponsoring, the editor-in-chief Mohammed Maraqten, and the great oranizing team in Doha directed by Aymen Aiblu.

24/10/2025

Forthcoming Book Series: Indian Ocean Cultures (IOC)

Indian Ocean Cultures (IOC) is a new platform for the study of the tangible and intangible heritage of the vast Indian Ocean space. It covers a culturally diverse contact zone that has been formed by pluralistic societies within the region and by cultures from around the world.

Through the centuries, the linked the worlds of , , the and , facilitating encounters, exchanges and networks that gave rise to cities, ports and civilizations, which, while remaining distinctive, also exhibit traces of interactions and shared knowledge.

There is no time to lose: with and rising sea levels, maritime and littoral heritage are at serious risk.

*Call for Manuscripts*

The series is open to monographs and edited volumes (including co-publications, publications in Open Access, and relevant translations) from diverse fields of study, such as , , , , , , and . Editions and studies of archival documents and manuscripts are very welcome, as well as studies with an inter- and multidisciplinary profile, and relevant contemporary topics.

All relevant original studies of cultural, social, religious, political, diplomatic, and economic connections and interactions between societies and cultures of the coastal landscapes of the Indian Ocean will be considered for inclusion. The series aims to encourage a reconnaissance of the Indian Ocean as a centre of focus for the study of the .

If you have a proposal you think is suitable for this series, please get in touch with the Acquistions Editor Teddi Dols ([email protected])

Executive Series Editors:

Dejanirah Couto, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris
Asma Ibrahim, Quetta Archaeological Museum, Pakistan
Stéphane Pradines, Aga Khan University, London
Jorge Santos Alves, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon

Advisory Editorial Board:

Rogaia Abusharaf, Georgetown University, Qatar
Anne Katrine Bang, University of Bergen
Uday Chandra, Georgetown University Qatar, Doha
Michael Feener, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto
Thomas Fibiger, Aarhus University
Neelima Jeychandran, Virginia Commonwealth University, Qatar
Mahmood Kooria, University of Edinburgh
Xialing Liu, University of Macau
Mohammed Ali Mwenje, National Museums of Kenya, Lamu Museums, Sites and Monuments
Scott Reese, Northern Arizona University
Anne Regourd, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris
Noha Sadek, independent scholar, Paris, Centre français de recherche de la Péninsule arabique (CEFREPA) in Kuwait
Abdulrahman al-Salimi, German University of Technology, Sultanate of Oman
Hideaki Suzuki, National Museum of Ethnology, Japan
Imran bin Tajudeen, National University of Singapore
Annabel Teh Gallop, British Library, London
João Teles e Cunha, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon

https://brill.com/page/514133?language=en&srsltid=AfmBOopn0x0XzppM3P4SuRNvkemIl24c9tXhpgexmZEL5CIFGwmzQLxy

15/10/2025

It's finally here: Daniel Varisco's Handbook of Rasulid Yemen

It is a comprehensive guide to the primary sources and scholarship on Yemen’s Rasulid dynasty (13th–15th centuries CE). It covers the geography of the Rasulid realm, their political history and administration, diplomatic relations with the Mamluks and other governments, trade and sailing seasons through Aden, weights and measures of Yemen, relations with the Zaydi imams and even a translation of a Mamluk account of early 14th century Yemen.

Read more here: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111595078

13/10/2025

*Open Access Publication and Podcast*

Global Arabic Literary Cultures

is a new peer reviewed book series that aims to extend Brill’s coverage of the Middle Eastern Literatures and Cultures program to include Arabic literature that has moved into the realm of global literature.

Recently most titles have been published in .

Series Editors: Beatrice Gruendler, Freie Universität Berlin and Isabel Toral, Freie Universität Berlin.

This week we will promote all the recently published Open Access titles to celebrate the successful launch of this new series.

First up is volume 2 in the series:

"An Unruly Classic: Kalīla and Dimna and Its Syriac, Arabic, and Early Persian Versions", edited by Isabel Toral and Beatrice Gruendler.

In this collected volume, published in Open Access, members of the Kalīla and Dimna project discuss, from different perspectives, a core aspect of their work with this textual tradition: the study of variation and mutability. The aim is to shed light on Kalīla and Dimna’s so-called mouvance and establish typologies of textual mobility and instability across linguistic traditions and historical periods, as well as to develop analytical tools to describe, classify, represent, and interpret these dynamics. Web page with OA ebook: https://brill.com/edcollbook-oa/title/64276

Listen to a recent podcast on the book. The conversation with the authors focuses on the study of textual variation and mutability in the Kalīla and Dimna tradition:

https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/isabel-toral-and-beatrice-gruendler-an-unruly/id1627925259?i=1000720470179&l=en-GB

De Gruyter Brill

"An Unruly Classic, Kalīla and Dimna and Its Syriac, Arabic, and Early Persian Versions" published on 23 Sep 2024 by Brill.

03/10/2025

NEW Forthcoming Series: Sensory Histories and Cultures


We will soon be launching a new Brill series that aims to be a new platform for the exploration of the recent sensory turn in scholarship across the humanities and social sciences with a global focus.:

Sensory Histories and Cultures (SHC)

It welcomes revealing studies on the heritage, history, culture, anthropology, transmission, use and geography of food, perfume, music, etc. across different regions and time frames, drawing from a wide range of disciplines, including visual and material culture, sensory studies, philosophy and medical history.

The series welcomes monographs, edited volumes and translations of important source texts such as historical recipe books.

Call for Manuscripts:

If you are working on a book with a topic that you think is suitable for the series, please get in touch with the Acquisitions Editor Teddi Dols: [email protected]

https://brill.com/page/514761?language=en&srsltid=AfmBOoqUc40uu1qYO3wi1pdkBGdeMe3KbIw4xHK-LuTO3q5d_DDsZ046

02/10/2025

De Gruyter Brill is represented by Abdurraouf Oueslati at the Riyadh International Book Fair 2025, held at the Princess Nourah University. If you are around, please drop by to browse through a selection of our newest titles, or to chat about your publication plans or new partnerships.
Location: Princess Nourah University
Booth: A-225

02/10/2025

30/09/2025

*Just Published*

The Dvādas Bhāv, A Mughal version of a Sanskrit story

By Anjali Duhan-Gulia, Jawaharlal Nehru University

The Mughal emperor Akbar had a Sanskrit book called the Dvādas Bhāv translated to Farsi. Dismembered pages or painted folios from this manuscript were dispersed in auctions. This is the first time this book has been put back together and translated into English. The study reveals how the thirteen paintings that interspersed this text were intrinsic to communicating its meaning.

This was not the first or last Sanskrit work to be translated to Farsi or be illustrated for a Muslim monarch in Hindustan. The Mughals (and some of the Sultans before them) recognized the significance of Indian knowledge traditions. This book however, provides insight into what went into such translations. Who decided which text should be translated and what governed the decisions?

Get your copy here:

https://brill.com/display/title/71151

30/09/2025

*Free Access*

Read the introduction and "Discourses on the Demolition of Jerusalem"

From:

Colonial Diplomacy through Art: Jerusalem 1918–1926
https://brill.com/display/title/63543

By Moya Tönnies, Freie Universität Berlin

for free on our website!

In this groundbreaking, timely art historical study that centers on Jerusalem under British rule, Moya Tönnies shows how from an early stage onwards, Great Britain’s Jewish National Home policy divided government circles and policy makers in London and in the Middle East.

She analyses how three members of the British administration of Palestine used art as a diplomatic sphere for the protection of Arab Palestinian heritage.

Between 1918 and 1926, artist C. R. Ashbee, architect Ernest Tatham Richmond, and governor of Jerusalem Ronald Storrs, all three identifying with the International Arts and Crafts Movement, attempted to slow down and counteract the implementation of Zionist culture by emphasizing the Arab character of local cultural heritage. This included attempts to facilitate the overdue restoration of the Dome of the Rock.

The Temple Mount dispute and numerous other art-related aspects within the historic Zionist-Arab conflict are meticulously researched. In her innovative approach, building on archive material and artefacts, the author illustrates the complexity of British rule in Palestine through the arts.