The Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) proudly presents the 2008 H.A.R. Gibb Arabic & Islamic Studies Lectures on October, 22, 23 and 24 with Dr. Mercedes García-Arenal, Professor at the Grupo de Investigación de Estudios Arabes, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, CSIC, Madrid.

Dr. García-Arenal will lecture on the topic of 'Moriscos in Granada: the Lead Books affaire'

Wednesday, October 22, 5-7pm: The forgeries of the Sacromonte of Granada: authorship, polemics, sacred history

Lecture series welcome by CMES Director, Professor Steven Caton

Introduction by Professor Susan Miller

Thursday, October 23, 4-6pm:    Is Arabic an Islamic language: The debate from Granada to the Vatican

Introduction by Professor Roy Mottahedeh

Friday, October 24, 4-6pm: Singular lives and normal exception: Between Granada and Fez  

Introduction by Professor William Granara

*A reception will be held following the Wednesday lecture at CMES, room 102.  Lecture attendees are welcome to attend.

*Dr. García-Arenal will hold office hours (20 minutes per appointment) for Harvard students on Thursday morning. A sign up sheet will be posted outside Kristin Brown's office, room 108 at CMES, the week before the lectures.  Students may also sign up for a time by emailing Kristin at kebrown@fas.harvard.edu.

Dr. García-Arenal is a historian of the Early Modern Muslim West (Islam in the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb), she has published extensively on minorities: mudejars and moriscos in Christian Spain, Inquisition, Jews in Islamic lands, and dedicated much attention to processes of conversion, of messianism and millenarianism, to the study of saints and misticism. She has published eight books, edited and directed another five, and published about 70 articles in learned journals such as Annales ESC, Studia Islamica, The Maghreb Review, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Revue de l’histoire des religions, Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée, Israel Oriental Studies among others. Her forthcoming book Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur: the beginnings of Modern Morocco will appear in the Fall 2008 by Oneworld Publications, Oxford, UK in the series “Makers of the Muslim World”.

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