SCORE Conference 2022

The Emmy Noether research group, Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period (SCORE), invites submissions for an international conference on the theme of rebellion in the early Islamicate world (c. 600–1000 CE), to be held in Hamburg (Germany) on 22–24 September 2022. SCORE studies rebellion and related categories (such as banditry, martyrdom, or civil war) foregrounding socio-political and socio-economic rather than more traditionally emphasised religious causes (www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/score).

We invite submissions that discuss rebellion in the early Islamicate world from theoretical and/or source-based perspectives. We particularly welcome papers that seek to apply methods, theories, and insights from other fields to the study of rebellion in the early Islamic period. Recognising the complexity and diversity of early Islamicate societies, we are also especially keen to include papers on contention in non-Muslim communities under Muslim rule, as well as contributions that examine rebellions by non-elite and marginalised groups and individuals (e.g., women, slaves, peasants, certain groups of mawālī).

Speakers are invited to discuss rebellion in all its dimensions; these include, but are not limited to, the following themes and questions:

Definitions and typologies

• What makes a rebellion? Are there particular acts, processes, slogans, or symbols that qualify contentious events as rebellion? Is time a relevant factor for the definition of rebellion, i.e., does rebellion extend beyond a particular moment?
• Is it useful to typologise rebellion? If so, what are the criteria underlying such typologies?
• Rebellion vs. civil war vs. separatism: when and why is contention considered not as rebellion, but as a conflict afflicting (and potentially sundering) a whole polity? (How) can we differentiate between original intention and eventual outcome?
• Can we identify common traits of rebels across different categories of rebellions? Is there an archetype or textbook example of a rebel?

Causes and impact factors

• What were the immediate triggers that sparked rebellions, and (how) do such triggers relate to longer-term historical processes and developments?
• What role do apocalypticism and messianic expectations play in the outbreak of a rebellion?
• To what extent is religious identity a motive for rebellion? Can we observe particular triggers, incentives, strategies, or processes of rebellion among particular confessional communities?
• What is the role of social class and status (esp. the role of slaves and mawālī) in the outbreak of rebellion?
• Family or clientage networks: how are relatives and clients utilised, especially in the preparation and the aftermath of rebellions?
• Clusters of rebellions and rebels: was rebellion used disproportionately often by particular groups or in certain regions or periods? E.g., can we identify geographical clusters of contention?

Rebellion and/in the political system

• What role does rebellion play for the functioning of the system of political rule? To what extent was rebellion used as a negotiation tool, by whom and in which situations?
• Did the attitude towards rebellions change after the ʿAbbāsid takeover in 750 CE?
• When and how do rebellions end? Are there particular patterns to how the aftermath of a rebellion (e.g., the establishment of a local ruling house; socio-political/economic (re-) integration; the use of force) comes about?
• When is a rebellion successful and how do we measure this ‘success’? Does a whole career sustaining rebellion still qualify as ‘rebellion’?
• Is rebellion inevitably violent? What other means were at the disposal of rulers and ‘rebels’ in order to prevent confrontation from escalating to armed conflict?

Memory and historiography

• How much was rebellion guided by memories and narratives of past rebellion?
• Can we observe distinct narrative patterns and tools in the portrayal of rebels and rebellions? Was rebellion used to convey particular issues and concerns, e.g. relating to rulership?
• To what extent can we reconstruct a rebel’s original aims and intentions from the sources at our disposal?
• What roles does the memory of early Islamicate rebellion play in later discourses?

Papers will be pre-circulated. Each paper will be allotted a 45-minute slot, comprising 15 minutes for a short presentation of the paper’s main points followed by 30 minutes of discussion. Interested speakers should submit an abstract (300 words) and a short biography to hannahlena.hagemann[at]uni-hamburg.de by 1 February 2022. We welcome submissions from established as well as junior scholars, advanced PhD students, and independent researchers. Travel and accommodation for four nights will be covered.

Confirmed speakers will be asked to send their draft paper for pre-circulation by 1 August 2022. We plan to publish the results of this conference, so please let us know in advance if you are interested in contributing to the proceedings. We’re looking forward to receiving your abstracts!

[pdf]

This CfP was published in November 2021.

Thursday, 22 September 2022

09:15–09:45 Registration

09:45–10:00 Welcome

Panel 1: Contention and the State
Chair: Hannah-Lena Hagemann (Universität Hamburg)
10:00–10:45 Mehdy Shaddel (Universiteit Leiden), ‘How Does Civil War Impact State Formation? The Case of the Early Caliphate’
10:45–11:30 Alon Dar (Universität Hamburg), ‘“We Did Not Pull Our Hand from Obedience”: The Rebellion of the jund against al-Faḍl ibn Rawḥ ibn Ḥātim al-Muhallabī (794 CE)’

11:30–11:45 Break

Panel 2: Questioning Labels
Chair: Jürgen Paul (Universität Hamburg)
11:45–12:30 Natalie Kontny-Wendt (Universität Hamburg), ‘Making a Rebel, an Imam, or a Bandit? – The Revolt of Yaḥyā b. Zayd b. ‘Alī (d. 125/743) in Khurāsān’
12:30–13:15 Hannah-Lena Hagemann (Universität Hamburg), ‘Poet, Scholar, Khārijite? Navigating Rebellion with ʿImrān b. Ḥiṭṭān (d. 703 CE)’

13:15–14:30 Lunch

Panel 3: Landscapes
Chair: Maxim Romanov (Universität Hamburg)
14:30–15:15 Christian Sahner (University of Oxford), ‘The Medieval Islamic World: A View from the Mountains. Conquest, Conversion, Revolt, and State Formation’
15:15–16:00 Walter Beers (University of Haifa), ‘Becoming “People of the Mountain”: Aristocratic Accumulation and the Ruralization of Anti-Chalcedonianism in Sixth-Century Northern Mesopotamia’

16:00–16:30 Break

16:30–17:15 Philip Grant (University of California, Irvine), ‘The Zanj Revolt (255–279 AH/869–883 CE) as Infrastructure: Fighting, Nature, Culture, and Agency’

18:30 Reception

Friday, 23 September 2022

Panel 4: Rebellious Discourses and Rhetoric
Chair: Hannah-Lena Hagemann (Universität Hamburg)
09:30–10:15 Marjan Asi (University of Edinburgh), ‘(Anti-)Rebellion Discourse in the Hadith Corpus: The Politics of Islamic Scholarly Giants’
10:15–11:00 Andrew Marsham (University of Cambridge), ‘“He Made All the Muslims’ Wealth that was Pleasant ... into Something for His Own Glory”: Pleasure, Wealth, and the Image of the Umayyads’

11:00–11:15 Break

Panel 5: Urbanism
Chair: Maxim Romanov (Universität Hamburg)
11:15–12:00 Yaacov Lev (Bar-Ilan University), ‘The “Urban Autonomy” Paradigm and Medieval Muslim Society’
12:00–12:45 Antonia Bosanquet (Universität Hamburg), ‘A Leader, an Army, a City, a People. Agents of Rebellion Against Aghlabid Rule in the 3rd /9th Century’

12:45–14:30 Lunch

Panel 6: Constituencies
Chair: Jürgen Paul (Universität Hamburg)
14:30–15:15 Alison Vacca (Columbia University), ‘The Rebels of Early Abbasid Albania’
15:15–16:00 Robert Haug (University of Cincinnati), ‘Arab Rebellion and Local Resistance: The Response among the People of Khurāsān and Transoxiana to the First and Second Fitnas and the “Rebellions” of ʿAbdallāh b. Khāzim and his son Mūsā’

16:00–16:30 Break

16:30–17:15 Leone Pecorini (University of Edinburgh), ‘“When the Banū ʿUmayya Reach Thirty Men They Will Appropriate the Wealth of God, Seize the Servants of God, and Corrupt God’s Book”: A Generational Explanation of the Third Fitna (126–136/744–754)’

19:00 Conference Dinner

Saturday, 24 September

Panel 7: Khurūj and Identity
Chair: Natalie Kontny-Wendt (Universität Hamburg)
09:30–10:15 Adam Gaiser (Florida State University) & Enki Baptiste (Université Lumière Lyon 2), ‘Early Ibāḍī Historiography: the Case of the Khawārij’
10:15–11:00 Najam Haider (Barnard College), ‘Making an Imam in the Shadow of Power: Zaydi Reconstructions of the Revolt of Ṣāḥib Fakhkh Ḥusayn b. ‘Alī (d. 169/786)’

11:00–11:15 Break

Panel 8: Taxation
Chair: Alon Dar (Universität Hamburg)
11:15–12:00 Marie Legendre (University of Edinburgh), ‘Revolts and Papyri: Everyday Administration and Elites in the Turbulent Long Eighth Century’
12:00–12:45 Alasdair Grant (Universität Hamburg), ‘Armenia, 774–5: A Tax Revolt?’

12:45–14:30 Lunch

Panel 9: Religion and/as Symbol
Chair: Alasdair Grant (Universität Hamburg)
14:30–15:15 Nimrod Hurvitz (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), ‘Religion and Rebellion: Mobilizing a Following Through Religious Image-Building, the Cases of the Qaramita and Zanj’
15:15–16:00 Muhamed Riyaz Chenganakkattil (Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi), ‘Three Ka‘abas, Three Rebellions: Pilgrims, Rebels and Religiopolitical Imaginations in Early Islamic World’

16:00 Concluding Remarks

19:00 Informal Dinner

[pdf]

The abstracts of the conference presentations can be downloaded as a reader in pdf format here.

The reader includes the following abstracts:

•  Asi, Marjan: “The Politics of Islamic Scholarly Giants and (Anti-) Rebellion Hadiths”
• Baptiste, Enki & Gaiser, Adam: “Early Ibāḍī Historiography: the Case of the Khawārij”
• Beers, Walter: “Becoming ‘People of the Mountain’: Aristocratic Accumulation and the Ruralization of Anti-Chalcedonianism in Sixth-Century Northern Mesopotamia”
• Bosanquet, Antonia: “A Leader, an Army, a City, a People. Agents of Rebellion Against Aghlabid Rule in the 3rd/9th Century”
• Chenganakkattil, Muhamed Riyaz: “Three Kaʿabas, Three Rebellions: Pilgrims, Rebels and Religiopolitical Imaginations in Early Islamic World”
• Dar, Alon: “’We Did Not Pull Our Hand from Obedience’: The Rebellion of the jund against al-Faḍl ibn Rawḥ ibn Ḥātim al-Muhallabī (794 CE)”
• Goodall, Leone Pecorini: “When the Banū al-Ḥakam Reach Thirty Men They Will Appropriate the Wealth of God, Seize the Servants of God, and Corrupt God’s Book”: a Generational Explanation of the Third fitna (126-136/744-754)”
• Grant, Alasdair: “Armenia, 774–5: A Tax Revolt?”
• Grant, Philip: „The Zanj Rebellion as Marronage: The Waterscape as Agent”
• Hagemann, Hannah-Lena: “Poet, Scholar, Khārijite? Navigating Rebellion with ʿImrān b. Ḥiṭṭān (d. 703 CE)”
• Haider, Najam: “The Zaydī Imāmate in the Shadow of Power: Reconstructions of the Revolt of Ṣāḥib Fakhkh Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī (d. 169/786)”
• Haug, Robert: “Arab Rebellion and Local Resistance: The Response among the People of Khurāsān and Transoxiana to the First and Second Fitnas and the ‘Rebellions’ of ʿAbdallāh b. Khāzim and his son Mūsā”
• Hurvitz, Nimrod: „Religion and Rebellion: Mobilizing a Following Through Religious Image-Building, the Cases of the Qaramita and Zanj”
• Kontny-Wendt, Natalie: “Making a Rebel, an Imam, or a Bandit? – The Rebellion of Yaḥyā b. Zayd b. Alī (d. 125/743) in Khurāsān”
• Legendre, Marie: “Revolts and Papyri: Everyday Administration and Elites in the Turbulent Long Eighth Century”
• Lev, Yaacov: “The ‘Urban Autonomy’ Paradigm and Medieval Muslim Society”
• Marsham, Andrew: “‘He Made All the Muslims’ Wealth that was Pleasant ... Into Something for His Own Glory’: Abu Hamza’s Rebel Sermon and the Image of the Umayyads”
• Sahner, Christian: “The Medieval Islamic World: A View from the Mountains. Conquest, Conversion, Revolt, and State Formation”
• Shaddel, Mehdy: “Civil War and the Premodern State: The Early Islamic Empire”
• Vacca, Alison: “The Rebels of Early Abbasid Alban