We are pleased to present the new issue of al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā (UW). As announced in our preceding 
issue (UW 23, 2015), we have expanded the 
role, format and content of the journal: 
the transition to an online, open access, 

peer-reviewed publication is complete. 

Our aim is to provide a venue for up-to-

date scholarship across the variety of 

fields in Islamic, Arabic and Middle East 
studies, while remaining a source of news 

and information on developments in these 

same fields.
We would be remiss in not acknowl-

edging our debt of gratitude to a number 

of colleagues for their willingness to act 

as reviewers. We thus continue where we 
left off in our previous issue in publishing 
a set of high-caliber and original research 

articles. Fred Donner—a former president 

of Middle East Medievalists (MEM) and a 

long-time editor of UW—argues in his 
contribution for a reconsideration of the 

well-known term fatḥ, drawing on his 
considerable work on the early Islamic 

period and the Arab/Islamic conquests 
in particular. Sean Anthony, a member 

of the MEM board, considers the difficult 
question of whether Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī, 
the third/ninth-century historian and 
geographer, is properly to be considered a 

Shiʿite author. In his submission, Matthew 
Melvin-Koushki takes up the arguments 

regarding writing and written transmis-

sion in late medieval Arabic and Islamic 

scholarship with a discussion of the work 

of Ṣāʾin al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Turka 
Iṣfahānī (770-835/1369-1432). The fourth 
contribution is that of Theodore S. Beers. 

Turning to the later Persianate literary 

realm, Beers offers a close assessment of an 
unpublished manuscript text containing 

Letter from the Editors

Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 24 (2016): i-ii

(Photo of Antoine Borrut by Juliette Fradin Photography)



the earliest documentation of the life and 

career of Ṣāʾib Tabrīzī (d. ca. 1087/1676).
We provide, alongside the four articles, 

two short notices (Jonathan Brown on 

Ibn ʿUqda, and Christian Mauder and 
Christopher Markiewicz on majālis in 
the Mamluk period) and a set of six book 

reviews covering a range of topics. The 

appearance of the new volumes under 

review only underscores the continued 

vitality of our respective fields. We would 
reiterate the point that, in its present 

format, UW offers the opportunity to 
produce extended reviews of this kind. It 

remains a significant goal of this journal 
to produce reviews of new works not only 

in European languages but those of the 

Middle East and North Africa as well. We 
urge you, our readers and colleagues, to 

continue sending us material of this kind.

We are also pleased to include in this 
issue detailed reports of three conferences 

held in 2015-2016; a remembrance by Sarah 

Eltantawi of our much lamented colleague, 

Shahab Ahmed; and the statement by 

Richard Bulliet (the recipient of the 2015 

M E M  L i f e t i m e  A c h i e v e m e n t  A w a r d ) . 

We also take advantage of this letter to 
congratulate MEM’s two new honorary 

members, Denise Aigle (École Pratique des 

Hautes Études) and Ayman Fuʾād Sayyid 
(former director of the Egyptian National 

Library).

The editors also express their gratitude 

to Gabriella Hoskin, Alexis May, and Brett 

Savage, from the Institute for Advanced 

Study staff, for their help with the copy 
editing process of this issue of UW.

T o  m a k e  t h e  p o i n t  a g a i n ,  w e  a r e 

convinced that al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā provides 
the ideal venue in which to publish new 

and exciting scholarship on the history of 

the medieval Middle East. We invite you, 
our readers and colleagues, to participate 

by contributing your latest work.

We are also delighted to announce that 
the full run of UW is now available online. 
We have digitized all of UW’s back issues 
to facilitate access to this unique MEM 

archive and memory. Please visit our 

“volume index” page on our website: 
http://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/
volume-index/

We will close with what will become a 
familiar note to faithful readers: we rely 
on your financial support. Our journal 
is now 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.”

Letter from the Editors

Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā 24 (2016): ii

Sincerely,

Antoine Borrut and  Matthew S. Gordon