Ergon-Verlag

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This volume contains a collection of papers originally presented at a conference on Mamluk history called “Towards a Cultural History of Bilād al-Shām during the Mamluk Era: Prosperity and Decline, Tolerance or Preservation”, held at the University of Balamand in May 2005, which were then collected and published by the University and the Orient-Institut Beirut. The two main objectives of this conference as well as of its contributions consists in considering the cultural history of the Mamluk Sultanate and investigating the state’s relations to the various social groups within the area of Bilād al-Shām. Together the assembled papers investigate new lines of research and serve as a reminder of the communal diversity of late medieval Syria and Egypt, also by  exploring areas such as Tripolis and Mount Lebanon, which have received comparatively little attention in sciences so far.

Mahmoud Haddad is professor of Finance at the University of Tennessee and holds an M.B.A. in Accounting and a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Alabama. Among others he has taught finance at the American University of Beirut and is a research fellow at the Economic Research Forum of the Arab Countries. Arnim Heinemann was a research assistant at the Orient-Institut Beirut from 2004 until 2008 and currently holds the position of managing director at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies. John L. Meloy is an associate professor at the Department of History and Archaeology at the American University of Beirut. Souad Slim currently holds the positions of Director of the Centre of Documentation and History and of Professor of History, Cultural Studies and Methodology at the University of Balamand.