Curriculum Vitae

Reuven Amitai

 

Areas of Interest

The medieval history of the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Inner Asia, mainly: the Turks and Mongols; the Mamluk Sultanate; the Mongols in the Islamic World; the Crusades and Muslim responses; military history; conversion; late medieval Arabic epigraphy; Palestine in the medieval period.

  

Education

1990-1991, Post-doctorate, Princeton University, Dept. of Near Eastern Studies.

1990, Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Subject of dissertation: “The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War: Its Origins and Conduct up to the First Battle of Homs (A.H. 680 / A.D. 1281).” Degree received summa cum laude.

1985-1986, Visiting post-graduate student, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

1985, M.A., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dept. of the History of the Islamic Countries (now called Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies).  Degree received summa cum laude.

1976, B.A., University of Pennsylvania, Dept. of Oriental Studies, Near East Division.  Degree received cum laude.

Central High School of Philadelphia, graduated in 1973.

 

 

Academic Experience and Positions

2016 (May), Professeur invité at l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, L’Institut de Recherche sur Byzance, l’Islam et la Méditerranée au Moyen Âge (IRBIMMA)

 

2014-2016, Research Fellow, Annemarie Schimmel College for Mamluk Studies, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.

 

2010-2014, Dean, the Faculty of Humanities, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

2008-2010, Director, Institute for Asian and African Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

 

2008, Professor, Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

2007 (January and February), Professeur invité at l’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Section des Sciences Religieuses, Paris.

 

2005, Eliyahu Elath Professor of the History of the Muslim Peoples, the Hebrew University

 

2004 (November), Visiting researcher, Seminar für Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft Zentralasiens at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.

 

2004-2007, Founding Director, Nehemia Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

2001-2004, Director, Institute for Asian and African Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

 

2001-2004, Director, James Shasha Institute for International Seminars, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

2000, Associate Professor, Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

2000 (spring term), Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 

 

1997-2001, Department Head, Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

1996-1997, Visiting Fellow, St. Antony’s College, Oxford.

 

1995, Senior Lecturer, with tenure, in the Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

1993, Lecturer in the Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

1991, Teaching Fellow with the rank of Lecturer in the Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

1990-1991, Visiting Research Fellow (Post-doctoral year), Near Eastern Studies Dept., Princeton University.

 

1986-1990, Instructor, Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

1983-1985, Research Assistant to Prof. M. Sharon, Dept. of the History of the Muslim Countries, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

1980-1981, 1982-1983, Research Assistant to Prof. R. Kark, Dept. of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

 

Grants & Fellowships

2016-2018, PI in project supported by the Israel Science Foundation: “Gaza and its Rural Hinterland under Mamluk Rule (1260-1516): A Case Study in the History of late Medieval Palestine.” 160,000 NIS per year for two years.

 

2013-2015, PI in GIF (German-Israel Foundation for Scientific Research and Development) Fellowship for research project: “Coinage, Commerce and Taxation in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Middle Age,” with Prof. Stefan Heidemann, Hamburg University, and Dr. Haim Gitler, Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

 

2011-2014, Co-convener with Prof. Sabine Schmidtke (Freie Universität, Berlin) of series of Summer Schools for advanced studies, “New Frontiers in Islamic Studies,” supported by the Einstein Foundation, Berlin.

 

2009-2014, PI and coordinator of “Center of Excellence” from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF): “The Formation of Muslim Society in Palestine (ca. 600-1500 CE)”, with Amikam Elad, Rachel Milstein, Daniella Talmon-Heller and Ronnie Ellenblum.

 

2007-2010, PI in Israel Science Foundation (ISF), Bikura Program, for research project: “Medieval Human History of the Levant Written on Horseback,” with Ronnie Ellenblum and Gila Kahila Bar-Gal.

 

2007-2010, PI in GIF (German-Israel Foundation for Scientific Research and Development) Fellowship for research project: “Slavery in the Later Medieval Mediterranean: Turco-Mongolian Slaves from the Black Sea Region as a Case Study” with Dr. Christoph Cluse, Trier University.

 

2004-2007, PI in Israel Science Foundation (ISF) for research project: “The Military History of the Mamluk Sultanate”.

 

1996-1997, Israeli Junior Research Fellowship, St. Antony’s College, Oxford.

 

1993-1996, Alon Fellowship.

 

1990-1991, Rothschild Fellowship for postdoctorate year at Princeton University.

 

1988-1990, Ph.D. grant from Committee for Planning and Budgeting (“VATAT”), Council of Higher Education, Israel.

 

1987-1988, Ph.D. grant from the Golda Meir Fellowship Fund, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

1985-1996, Rothschild Fellowship for one year of studies at University of London as visiting post-graduate student.

 

 

Supervision of Graduate Students

(year of completion of degree in parenthesis; name of co-supervisor at end)

 

Ph.D. students:

 

*Nimrod Luz (2001), with Prof. Rehav Rubin

*Katia Cytryn-Silverman (2005), with Prof. Miriam Rosen-Ayalon

*Leigh Chipman (2007), with Prof. Zvi Langerman (Bar-Ilan University)

*Kate Raphael (2008), with Prof. Ronnie Ellenblum

*Amir Mazor (2012)

*Chaim Nissim (2013), with Prof. Michael Winter (Tel Aviv University)

*Emil Abramoff (University of Haifa), with Prof. Sophia Menache and Prof. Yitzhak Shichor (2013)

*Shai Shir, with Prof. Michal Biran

*Naama Arnon

*Or Amir

*Pakrad Berjkian, with Prof. Michael Stone

*Rachel Goldberg Hoffman

*Brigitte Ouahnouna, with Dr. Katia Cytryn-Silverman

 

M.A. students:

 

*Michal Biran (ca. 1993), with Prof. David Ayalon, z”l

*Muhammad al-Hajjuj (ca. 1997), with Prof. B.Z. Kedar

*Shai Shir (2006)

*Naama Arnon (2007, Bar-Ilan University), with Prof. Yvonne Friedman

*Naama Bartov (2010), with Prof. Amnon Cohen

*Yonatan Barak (Brack) (2010), with Prof. Michal Biran

*Yevgenia Yudkevitch (2012)

*Irina Shupak (2013)

*Or Amir (2013)

*Omer Bab, with Prof. Ronnie Ellenblum

*Nissim Sofer

 

Editorial Boards of Journals

*Cathedra [Hebrew] – active co-editor – 2009-11

*HaMizrah HeHadash [Hebrew]

*Jama`ah [Hebrew]

*Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam

*Mamluk Studies Review (Chicago)

 

 

Activities Outside the Hebrew University

Chairman, Publications Committee, the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Association of Israel (from 2006-2010)

 

Chairman, Committee for the Study of History in the Arab Sector, the Ministry of Education (from 2006-2010)

 

Member, editorial board, publishing house of Yad Itzhak Ben-Zvi, Jerusalem (2008-2010)

 

 

Membership in Scholarly Associations

Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Association of Israel; Mongolia Society; Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East; American Oriental Society.