OxByzList: Trinity Week 1 Oxford Listings, 26 April - 2 May
Oxford University Byzantine Society
Monday
27/04/2026, 17:00 - Conduit Room, New College, New College Ln, OX1 3BN
New College and Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies - Mathias Ghyoot and Athina Pfeiffer (Princeton University): The Making of Hagarism: Preliminary Findings
Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (1977) remains one of the most discussed and controversial works in the field of Islamic Studies. For some, it represents a welcome revisionist approach to the history of early Islam; for others, it epitomizes a new manifestation of ill-fated Orientalism. Drawing on interviews and the personal archives of Patricia Crone (d. 2015) and Michael Cook (b. 1940), this paper reconstructs the intellectual and academic milieu that produced Hagarism and the broader strand of skeptical scholarship that emerged in Islamic Studies during the 1970s. The discussion begins with Crone and Cook's early encounters with John Wansbrough (d. 2002) in London, before turning to Crone's 1973 single-authored paper "Hagarism," which laid the groundwork for her long scholarly collaboration with Cook. Together, they embarked on a search for early sources-in Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, and more-across the libraries of the United Kingdom. Following the book's controversial release in 1977, the paper examines its reception and enduring legacy within and beyond academic circles, including attempts to translate it in the Arab world.
27/04/2026, 17:00 - Wharton Room, All Souls College, High St, OX1 4AL; for Teams access join group “Medieval History Research Seminar” (team code rmppucs)
Medieval History Research Seminar - Ruth Mazo Karras (Trinity College, Dublin): Parental Control of Women’s Marriage in Late Medieval Paris
Tuesday
28/04/2026, 13:00 - First Floor Seminar Room, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
Byzantine Epistles and Prosopography: Mapping the Lost Byzantine Generations of the Thirteenth Century
The fragmentation of Byzantium into a multitude of states from 1204 and until the Palaiologan reconquest of 1261 represents a terra incognita for current prosopographies of Byzantium. Outside of the chronological coverage of both the Prosopography of the Byzantine World (PBW) and the Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit (PLP) research initiatives, these two/three generations of Byzantine society are not detailed in any currently published database.
The information to connect the two established research tools lies in the vast and often overlooked corpora of some 500 letters produced in the thirteenth-century Balkans. These texts detail how peoples navigated a liminal life between the Byzantine successor-states, Latin Crusaders, and Slavonic-speaking powers. Often demonstrating the survival or reconstitution of imperial institutions and offices beyond the collapse of central authority, this seminar series is designed as a means to read these letters. The focus will be on identifying the individuals either written to or described, and placing them within a chronological and geographical window.
With the aid of digital mapping and database management, these individuals can be brought to light and contextualised and a black hole of digital humanities in Byzantium slowly filled. We will be working initially on the dossier of Demetrios Chomatenos, Archbishop of Ohrid (1216–1236), foremost legal mind of his day.
All welcome. Interested participants should contact Nathan Websdale at nathan....@history.ox.ac.uk.
28/04/2026, 16:00 - The Schwarzman, 30.020, Seminar Room, OX2 6GG
Byzantine Literature Lectures - Stratis Papaioannou (Oxford): “The View from the Margins: Byzantine Literature of the Provinces”
For info, contact: stratis.p...@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
28/04/2026, 17:15 - Lecture Theatre, Weston Library, Broad Street, OX1 3BG
The Lyell Lectures - Mercedes García-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid): Muslim Book in Christian Hands: From Iberian Moriscos to Early Modern Europe.
Booking required. For more information visit visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/the-lyell-lectures-2026.
Wednesday
29/04/2026, 15:00 - The Schwarzman, 30.502, Seminar Room, OX2 6GG
Byzantine Text Seminar - Stratis Papaioannou (Oxford): Readings from a variety of genres and texts (4th-15th c.)
For info, contact: stratis.p...@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
29/04/2026, 17:00 - Lecture Theatre, Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar - The Oxford University Byzantine Society: Research Trip to Sicily
Thursday
30/04/2026, 17:00 - Dorfman Centre, St Peter’s College, OX1 2DL
After Roman and Further East Seminar - Adrian Pirtea (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna): From Damascus to Spain: The Maronite Chronicle of 713 and its Mediterranean Context
30/04/2026, 17:15 - Lecture Theatre, Weston Library, Broad Street, OX1 3BG
The Lyell Lectures - Mercedes García-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid): Muslim Book in Christian Hands: From Iberian Moriscos to Early Modern Europe.
Booking required. For more information visit visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/the-lyell-lectures-2026.
30/04/2026, 17:15 - KRC Lecture Room, Khalili Research Centre, 3 St John St, OX1 2LJ
Khalili Research Seminar - Hala Qasqas (Barakat Trust Postdoctoral Fellow, KRC): Embodied Shadows: Puppets, Performance, and Social Critique in Late Ottoman Damascus
If there are any events you would like to share with the OUBS, please get into contact with us.
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Nidanu O'Shea
DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Secretary, Oxford University Byzantine Society
http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com