Jonathan Berkey

My research interests focus on Islam in the medieval period, but of course many students are especially interested in modern history, so I offer an upper-level class on nationalism and colonialism in the Arab world in the 19th and 20th centuries. Perhaps my favorite classes are a 200-level methods class on jihad and crusade, an upper-level course on the history of Egypt over the last 6,000 years and another on the Crusades which I co-teach with my colleague Kuba Kabala.

My research and writing focus on Islamic religious culture in medieval Egypt and Syria. I'm the author of The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education (Princeton University Press, 1992), and Popular Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic Near East (University of Washington Press, 2001). My most recent book, The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 2003), received the top annual book prize from the Middle East Studies Association (MESA).

I'm currently working on a revised and expanded edition of The Formation of Islam, and also under contract to Norton for my manuscript, Shattered Mosaic: The Middle East Since the Rise of Islam, a narrative of the history of the Middle East since the rise of Islam.

Teaching

I teach the full range of Middle Eastern history since the rise of Islam. My "bread and butter" courses are surveys of the classical/medieval and modern history of the Middle East, HIS 175 and 176, courses which I try to offer every year. My courses include:

• HIS 175 Islamic Civilization and the Middle East, 600-1500
• HIS 176 Islamic Civilization and the Middle East, 1500-Present
• HIS 218 Jihad and Crusade
• HIS 312 The Crusades, Then and Now (co-taught with my colleague Kuba Kabala)
• HIS 372 Egypt, From Soup to Nuts
• HIS 375 Nationalism and Colonialism in the Modern Arab World