The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey - II. Truncated dust disks in H I-deficient spirals

By combining Herschel-SPIRE observations obtained as part of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey with 21 cm Hi data from the literature, we investigate the role of the cluster environment on the dust content of Virgo spiral galaxies. We show for the first time that the extent of the dust disk is significantly reduced in Hi-deficient galaxies, following remarkably well the observed “truncation” of the Hi disk. The ratio of the submillimetre-to-optical diameter correlates with the Hi-deficiency, suggesting that the cluster environment is able to strip dust as well as gas. These results provide important insights not only into the evolution of cluster galaxies but also into the metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium

The Nile: its role in the fortunes and misfortunes of the Fatimid dynasty during its rule of Egypt (969-1171)

The epoch spanning the years 935-1094 constitutes - on the whole - the longest and driest period on record in the history of the Nile. A stretch of relatively normal discharge followed this phase, only for dryness to return. The reasons of this dry-wet-dry phenomenon have been recently appraised in the context of global climatic changes – the so-called “Medieval Warm Period” - that affected most of the known world between the 11th and the 13th centuries. It was in this period of Egyptian history that the Shi‘i Isma‘ili Fatimids replaced the Sunni Ikhshidids as rulers in 358/969 and, with alternating fortunes, continued to reign until 567/1171. In this paper, I examine how, faced with the convergence of extraordinary geo-climatic factors, the Fatimids managed (and mismanaged) the Nile and its valley. I contend that the imperial aspirations of the Fatimids in Cairo and beyond were in many ways subject to the typical unpredictability of the natural cycles of the river, hence the Fatimids’ success and failure in managing the varied economic, political and trading activities that took place along the Egyptian section of the Nile valley. A case in point highlighted here will be the Fatimids’ privileging of flax cultivation over wheat

The Majmū al-tarbiya between text and paratext: Exploring the social history of a community’s reading culture

An innovative critical approach to the study of uses and cataloguing of multiple texts literary corpuses corpuses within the context of Islamic codicology, based on the analysis of text and paratext 12 manuscripts of a 12th century Tayyibi Ismaili work

Upper Egypt: a Shi’i ‘powerhouse’ in the Fatimid period?

Was there an extensive Shii presence in Upper Egypt at the time of the Fatimids? If so, when and how did Shiism come about in that region? What brand of Shiism might this be? Faced with the lack of material evidence, in this paper I resort to the contextualised analysis of information provided in a variety of literary sources, ranging from historiographies and chronicles to travelogues and documents, to address those questions

Lost and found: the Sarguẕasht-i Sayyid-nā. Facts and fiction of Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ’s travel to Egypt vis-à-vis the political and intellectual life of 5th/11th century Fāṭimid Cairo

In the year AH 469/1076 CE, a still young and recently initiated to Ismailism Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ (d. AH 518/1124 CE) reportedly left the city of Rayy in Iran to embark on a journey that was to take him to the Fatimid capital, al-Qāhira.Ḥasan's experience in Egypt was one that eventually led him to change the course of Ismaili history and leave an indelible mark on medieval Islamic history as a whole. Indeed, it was upon returning to Iran from Egypt that Ḥasan took control of most of the Iranian Ismaili organization and launched a new course for an Ismaili da‘wa that –from its headquarters in the fortress of Alamūt- was to become spiritually, organisationally and politically independent from al-Qāhira.Yet, Ḥasan's seemingly formative experience while in Egypt has received little to no attention from scholarship so far.In this paper I will revisit what medieval sources reported about Ḥasan's time in Egypt, in light of my examination of previously unstudied manuscripts of Ḥasan's biography titled Sarguẕasht-i Sayyid-nā. I will then contextually analyse information provided in the accounts of Ḥasan‟s stay in Egypt against the backdrop of the political and intellectual climates that prevailed there at the time of his presence. This analysis will serve as the basis for consideration as to the motivations that might have moved Ḥasan to set up a new, independent Ismaili da‘wa in Iran. More broadly Ḥasan‟s travelogue will serve me as a catalyst to illustrate aspects of the cross-culturalism that characterised life in Fatimid Egypt at the dawn of the new da‘wa

A patron of men: Sitt al-Mulk and the military at the Fatimid court

In this paper I will contextually analyse the multiple levels of engagement that are reported to have occurred between the princess Sitt al-Mulk and the military with a view to raise questions regarding the nature of authority that might have enabled Sitt al-Mulk to establish herself as a credible female leader in a men’s world, ‘a patron of men’. In attempting to answer these questions I will examine Sitt al-Mulk’s influence over members of the military apparatus in light of the reciprocal adherence to formal and informal rules of loyalty and obligation that prevailed in pre-modern Islamic courts, determined by the need to shape dynastic politics to mutual advantage

Transmitting Sunni learning in Fatimid Egypt: the female voices

In this chapter I propose to investigate the contribution of women as transmitters of Sunnī learning in Egypt under the Fāṭimids as part of a broader project I am conducting on the intellectual history of Sunnism in Fāṭimid Egypt. This study attempts to charter the careers of prominent 6th/12th century female figures such as Zaynab bint ‘Awf and Khadīja bint al-Silafī who were active in Alexandria, but also lesser known female transmitters who came to prominence in Fusṭāṭ in the 4th/10th and 5th/11th centuries

Beyond space and time: the itinerant life of books in the Fāṭimid market place

In this paper I explore practical aspects of intellectual interaction by considering the role that booksellers played in such transactions. I will focus on the trading of books in Fatimid Egypt considering in particular the reported biographies of a numbers of distinguished personalities. With the overall absence of the madrasa institution - unlike most parts of the medieval Islamic world -Fatimid Egypt represents a distinctive domain of enquiry

Hibat Allah Muhammad

The most comprehensive coverage to date of the activities of Hibat Allah Muhammad, a lesser known 12th century Abbasid vizier

Transmitting sunnī learning in Fāṭimid Egypt: the female voices

In this paper I propose to investigate the contribution of women as transmitters of Sunnī learning in Egypt under the Fāṭimids as part of a broader project I am conducting on the intellectual history of Sunnism in Fāṭimid Egypt. This study attempts to charter the careers of prominent 6th/12th century female figures such as Zaynab bint ‘Awf and Khadīja bint al-Silafī who were active in Alexandria, but also lesser known female transmitters who came to prominence in Fusṭāṭ in the 4th/10th and 5th/11th centuries