The contributions to this fourth issue of al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā (UW) in its new (online, open-access, peer- 
reviewed) format includes, alongside a 
set of article-length studies, eight book 
reviews, including a contribution by 
Peter Brown (Princeton University); three 
conference reports; a short notice by 
Sean Anthony; and Elton Daniel’s obituary 
of the late and much lamented Ehsan 
Yarshater. We are particularly delighted 
to introduce a new feature, a thematic 
dossier guest edited by Maribel Fierro and 
Patrice Cressier, entitled “Formulating the 
Caliphate in the Islamic West: Umayyads, 
Ḥammūdids, and Almohads.” The dossier 
comprises five full-length articles preceded 
by a substantial introduction. Given that 
the Islamic West—the Maghreb, Sicily, 
and al-Andalus—has seldom received the 
attention it deserves in Anglo-American 
scholarship, we are particularly glad to 
present these studies.

We are, as always, forever grateful to 
our colleagues for their response to our 
invitations to submit current scholarship, 

write reviews of new books and other 
pertinent items, and participate on the 
editorial board. Special thanks are due, 
once again, to our uniquely talented 
managing editor Christiane-Marie Abu 
Sarah. To simply restate our central 
guiding principle from previous letters, 
we remain committed to using al-ʿUṣūr 
al-Wusṭā as a platform from which to 
bring out important and groundbreaking 
new scholarship. We seek, with each issue, 
to produce the journal in expeditious a 
manner as possible, thus providing our 
contributors the opportunity to bring their 
ongoing work to a broad audience in timely 
manner. We are no less committed to the 
publication of longer and more substantial 
research articles and book reviews. The 
present roster of articles, book reviews 
and conference reports speaks, we believe, 
t o  t h e s e  a i m s .  I n  a d d i t i o n ,  w i t h  t h e 
dossier on the Islamic West by colleagues 
in France and Spain, we are following 
up on our determination to promote 
non-Anglophone scholarship. Our hope is 
to publish our first article in French in the 

Letter from the Editors

Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018): i-iii

(Photo of Antoine Borrut by Juliette Fradin Photography)



Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018): ii

near future, and we strongly encourage 
our readers in the Middle East, Europe and 
elsewhere to submit their work to us.

We open with a solicited comment 
b y  S u z a n n e  S t e t k e v y c h  ( G e o r g e t o w n 
University), the 2017 recipient of the 
M i d d l e  E a s t  M e d i e v a l i s t s  L i f e t i m e 
Achievement Award. Professor Stetkevych, 
as readers of this journal know well, has 
played a critical role for years in the 
production and promotion of scholarship 
in Arabic poetics and literature. She 
has also been mentor to any number of 
students, many of whom went on to join 
the ranks of our respective disciplines of 
Arabic, Near Eastern and Islamic studies. 
I know we speak for the MEM board and 
membership in extending our warmest 
appreciation to Professor Stetkevych on 
the occasion of her award.

The six article-length studies begin 
with an extended study by Ian Morris on 
a long-standing problem of identifying 
the ancient toponym “Macoraba” with 
Mecca. The dossier on the Islamic West 
follows. It contains five research articles 
and an extended introduction by Maribel 
Fierro and Patrice Cressier. The five papers 
emerged from what is an ongoing project 
launched in 2015-2016 under Fierro and 
Cressier’s directorship, “The Caliphates 
of the Islamic West” (Los califatos del 
O c c i d e n t e / L e s  c a l i f a t s  d e  l ’ O c c i d e n t 
islamique), sponsored by the Casa de 
Velázquez and the Consejo Superior de 
Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC).

The first article, by Isabel Toral-Niehoff, 
considers Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih’s important 
fourth/tenth-century compilation, al-ʿIqd 
al-farīd, and its likely connection to the 
Umayyad court in Cordoba. Jan Thiele, in 
a discussion of Almohad claims to religio-
p o l i t i c a l  a u t h o r i t y ,  u n d e r s c o r e s  t h e 

ideological peculiarities of these claims. 
In a close reading of the politics of the 
Islamic West, Javier Albarrán considers 
the appeal to jihad on the part of the 
Andalusian caliphs, all in the context of 
seeking legitimation. Pascal Buresi’s topic 
is the Almoravid caliphate: he argues that, 
despite differences in the political histories 
of the Almohad and Almoravid states, 
it is important to keep in mind critical 
continuities from one dynastic period to 
the next as well. The final paper in the 
dossier, by Almudena Ariza Armada, takes 
up the significant numismatic evidence 
regarding the history of the Ḥammūdid 
dynasty, a polity little studied in modern 
scholarship. 

Alongside the articles, we are pleased to 
include eight book reviews. On display is 
an impressive range of scholarship, in the 
reviews and in the publications discussed 
therein. We can only reiterate our plea 
to colleagues across the disciplines to not 
only keep us posted regarding forthcoming 
and newly published works, but to agree 
to publish their reviews here. In addition, 
we have three reports of conferences held, 
respectively, at the American University of 
Beirut (two of the events) and the Marco 
Institute for Medieval and Renaissance 
Studies at the University of Tennessee 
(Knoxville).

As we continue to develop the journal a 
new milestone has been reached this year: 
al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā will continue its life 
online but also becomes available in print, 
through a print-on-demand option. Issues 
of the new UW from 2015 onwards will be 
obtainable through our website shortly, 
while hard copies will be presented at 
MEM’s business meeting in San Antonio. 

We close on two familiar notes. First, we 
continue to rely on your financial support. 

Letter from the Editors



Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 26 (2018): iii

Our journal is online, open access, and 
peer-reviewed, but it is certainly not free. 
To cover costs of publication and the work 
of our part-time managing editor, among 
other expenses, you provide valuable 
support by keeping your membership in 
Middle East Medievalists up to date. For 
information on membership and the fund, 
please proceed to the MEM home page at 
http://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/ 

and click on “MEMbership. Second, as we 
noted in a previous issue (UW 24 [2016]), 
the full run of the journal is available 
online. We are deeply grateful to Professor 
Fred Donner (University of Chicago) for his 
assistance in this regard. The full archive 
can be accessed on our website: 
http://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/
volume-index/ 

Letter from the Editors

Sincerely,
Antoine Borrut and  Matthew S. Gordon

http://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/
http://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/volume-index/
http://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/volume-index/