Research and publications
Maaike van Berkel is assistant professor in Medieval History. Her research interests include the social and cultural history of medieval Islam and the relations between medieval Europe and the Middle East.
Recent and forthcoming publications
Research projects
Currently I am pursuing a number of projects:
1. Eurasian empires: integration processes and identity formations. A comparative programme
With Jeroen Duindam (Leiden University), Jos Gommans (Leiden University) and Peter Rietbergen (Radboud University Nijmegen) I am pursuing a large interdisciplinary project funded by NWO (The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) in which 6 PhD's and 2 postdocs are involved. The Eurasian Empires project aims at providing an agenda for change in the humanities: it goes beyond the narrow national orientation of historical research, breaks through the isolation of area studies, integrates history of art, religious studies, law, anthropology and other social science perspectives. At the same time, our method of joint comparative research by an international multi-language research team offers a starting point for testing and revitalizing the abstractions of comparative history with the contextual knowledge of area specialists.
What holds people together, what makes them willing to fit within larger political structures? The modern nation state long seemed to provide the model answer to this question, based ultimately on the state’s coercive potential, but primarily ensured by the strong collective identity of citizens, and their adherence to a shared political ideology. The Eurasian empires program examines political cohesion in the context of dynastic rulership ca. 1300-1800. The loose structures of dynastic power showed remarkable resilience over time, at the same time they experienced many challenges. The researchers in this program will study Eurasian dynastic centers in continental empires outside the set perspectives of the ‘rise of the West’ and ‘European expansion’. By analyzing patterns of identity formation and compliance around the dynastic centre they will reassess age-old images contrasting Asia and Europe . While this comparative perspective focuses on the key question of integration and identity, it takes into account the global connections andconjunctures increasingly manifest from the thirteenth century onwards.
Eurasian Empires
2. Political Communication under the 'Abbasids
In 2004 have been awarded a VENI-grant from the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme of NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) for a research on political communication in the ‘Abbāsid empire. By analyzing the role of various forms of communication (oral, written and non-verbal) in the exercise of power by various groups within the ‘Abbāsid caliphate (caliphal family, court attendants, bureaucrats, military, provincial elites and populace) I was able to answer questions on how the central authorities tried to control and maintain such a large empire. A monograph on this topic with the provisional title A Regime of Words. Power and Communication within the ‘Abbasid Empire will be finished in the winter of 2011-2012.
3. History of Corruption
History of Corruption is part of a large-scale research project to be funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Program Anti-Corruption Policies Revisited: Global Trends and European Responses to the Challenge of Corruption .
The history workgroup has been set up in order to examine the definition, development, and diversity of corrupt practices and anticorruption measures in comparative perspective. At the University of Amsterdam the project is supervised by Guy Geltner, James Kennedy, and myself. Together we will coach a postdoc and PhD student. More information about the project and a complete list of participants and work packages is available:Anti-Corruption
4. Court Culture under Caliph al-Muqtadir
With Hugh Kennedy, Letizia Osti and Nadia El Cheikh I am in the final stages of a book called Crisis and Continuity at the ‘ Abbasid Court . Formal and Informal Politics in the Reign of al-Muqtadir (295-320/908-932).
The reign of al-Muqtadir (295-320/908-932) has been projected as one of decline, the beginning of the end of the actual political power of the Abbasids, and a period in which the great city of Baghdad was itself diminished. This collection of essays questions the conventional view of the reign of al-Muqtadir and provides a new interpretation of this reign. This volume focuses on the reign of al-Muqtadir as an example of the functioning of the ‘Abbasid State (Caliphate), laying bare the formal and informalpolitics of the various power groups. This is done through a detailed and systematic examination of Abbasid institutions, limiting the inquiry into a specific period. The narratives pertaining to the reign ofal-Muqtadir are particularly rich for such an investigation due to the wealth of the contemporary and near-contemporary sources, the historical annals and other literary texts that refer to this period.Books
Zenobia, Khadîja en DolleAmina’s. Gender en macht in de islamitische geschiedenis
Het centrale thema van het 29e Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis is gender en macht in de islamitische geschiedenis. Zonder voorbij te gaan of zelfs maar te willen gaan aan de beperkingen die genderideologieën ook in de wereld van islam aan mannen en vrouwen opleggen, maken de auteurs in hun artikelen de autonomedaadkracht en invloed van vrouwen in verleden en heden zichtbaar. Dit levert interessante historische personages op: tot de tanden gewapende prinsessen, een aristocratische dame die de lever van haar tegenstander opeet, weduwen die machtskansen grijpen, slimme haremvrouwen, een Turks-Nederlandse marxistische feministeen Dolle Amina's in Marokko. De artikelen bieden met hunverrassende presentatie van illustere vrouwenlevens tegenwicht aan het dominante beeld van islamitische vrouwen als passief en onderdrukt.
(Amsterdam: Aksant, 2009)
Ibn Khaldûn enzijn wereld
Ibn Khaldûn en zijn wereld gaat in op het werk en de betekenis van I bn Khaldûn. Deze Noord-Afrikaanse geleerde en hoge ambtenaar leefde van 1332 tot 1406 en geniet wereldwijde faam als auteur van de Muqaddima,een verhandeling over de oorzaken van opkomst en ondergang van beschavingen, over de relatie van platteland en stad in de Middeleeuwen en over bestuur. De opstellen in dit boek belichten de visie van Ibn Khaldûn op de wereld vanuit historisch, antropologisch, sociologisch en filosofisch perspectief. Ter sprake komen Berbers, steden, architectuur, magie, dromen en deweerklank op de Muqaddima in Ibn Khaldûns eigen tijd en in het werk van latere onderzoekers.
(Amsterdam: Bulaaq, 2008)
Accountants and Men ofLetters.Status and Position of Civil Servants in Early Tenth Century Baghdad
Dissertation Amsterdam 2003
Accountants and Men of Letters analyzes the social position and status of scribes( kuttâb)of the ‘Abbasid State. In Arabic administrative manuals and treatises, kuttâb present a normative ideal of their own status and function. Lack ofsystematic research so farhad resulted in the uncritical adoption of this idealized self-image By studying the representationsof kuttâb in both historiographical and administrative sources the book demonstrates that the historical kâtib was often far removed from his idealized counterpart. In order to identify the kâtib ’s environment special attention is paid to the extent and specialization of the ‘Abbasid bureaucracy and the use of writing within it. The book shows that one of the most noticeable features of the Arabic bureaucracies of this era compared to those in medieval Europe, was theextensive use of specialized documents.