Nancy Khalek is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and History, and specializes in medieval Islam. She received her Ph.D. in history from Princeton University in 2006. She is the author of Damascus after the Muslim Conquest: Text and Image in Early Islam, and she has published articles and essays in a number of scholarly journals and venues, including the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Der Islam, Arabica, and the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. She is currently working on a second book on the history of emotions and medieval (Arabic) Islamic literature. Courses taught include a range of topics spanning the medieval and contemporary Islamic world. She has conducted archaeological survey and other fieldwork in Syria, Turkey and Jordan. (For a full list of publications and activities, please refer to CV.)
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-A Cultural History of the Middle East and North Africa, volume 1 (Editor and chapter contributor, under contract, Bloomsbury Press). 2025.
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"Feeling." Critical Terms for Religious Studies, edited by Sarah Hammerschlag, Chicago, University of Chicago, 2024.
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"Writing Egypt: Al-Maqrizi and His Historical Project, by Nasser Rabbat." JAOS, 2024.
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Esra Sarıoglu and Nancy Khalek.
"Embodied Emotions:
Sociological and Social Historical Perspectives." Geschichte und Gesellschaft, vol. 49, no. 1, 2023, pp. 93-113.
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| Khalek, Nancy. "Ahmed Ragab. Piety and Patienthood in Medieval Islam. (Routledge Studies in Religion.) 256 pp. London: Routledge, 2020. £120 (cloth); ISBN 9780815361282. Paper and e-book available." Isis, vol. 112, no. 4, 2021, pp. 824-826. |
| Khalek, Nancy. "Life in An Egyptian Village in Late Antiquity: Aphrodito Before and After the Islamic Conquest. By Giovanni Ruffini. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. ix + 233. $39.99 (cloth)." Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 80, no. 1, 2021, pp. 202-204. |
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"Review, Piety and Patienthood in Medieval Islam by Ahmed Ragab." ISIS, The Journal of the History of Science Society , 2021.
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| Khalek, Nancy. "Al-Dāraquṭnı̄'s (d. 385 ah) Faḍā’il al-Ṣaḥāba: Mild anger and the history of emotions in religious merits literature." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. 83, no. 3, 2020, pp. 415-436. |
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"Review, The Emergence of Early Sufi Piety and Sunnī Scholasticism: ‘Abdallāh b. al-Mubārak and the Formation of Sunnī Identity in the Second Islamic Century by F. Salem." Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 140, no. 1, 2020.
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| "Affect” in A Universe of Terms." The Immanent Frame, 2020. |
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"John the Baptist in Islamic Material Culture”." in the Encyclopedia of The Bible and its Reception , De Gruyter, 2017.
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"Introduction to the 1995 Edition of the Tarīkh Madīnat Dimashq”." New Perspectives on Ibn ‘Asākir Islamic Historiography, Leiden, Brill, 2017.
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"Entries on “Damascus,” and “Jerusalem”." for the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2nd edition, Gale, 2016.
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| Perspectives on History, the Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association. Summer 2015. "Freedom of Religion in the Contemporary Middle East: Unsatisfactory Answers to the Wrong Questions,." Perspectives on History, the Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association, 2015. |
| Khalek, Nancy. "Some Notes on the Representation of Non-Muslim Officials in al-Ǧahšiyārī’s (d. 331/942) Kitāb al-Wuzarāʾ wa-l-kuttāb." Arabica, vol. 62, no. 4, 2015, pp. 503-520. |
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"Early Islamic History Re-Imagined: The Biography of ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz in Ibn ‘Asākir’s Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq,”." Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2015.
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"Medieval Muslim Martyrs to the Plague: Venerating the Companions of Muḥammad in The Jordan Valley”." Saints and Sacred Matter, The Cult of Relics in Byzantium and Beyond, Eds. Holger Klein and Cynthia Hahn (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Harvard University Press, 2015, pp. 83-97.
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| Khalek, Nancy. "Medieval Biographical Literature and the Companions of Muḥammad." Der Islam, vol. 91, no. 2, 2014. |
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"The Syriac Church." Metropolitan Museum of Art Catalog, Byzantium and Islam, 2012, pp. 66-7.
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"Notables”." in the Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought , edited by Gerhard Böwering, Princeton University Press, 2011.
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"*“Dreams of Hagia Sophia: The Muslim Siege of Constantinople in 674 AD, Abū Ayyūb and the Medieval Islamic Imagination”." The Islamic Scholarly Tradition: Studies in History, Law and Thought in Honor of Professor Michael Allan Cook, edited by Asad Q. Ahmed, Behnam Sadeghi and Michael Bonner., Leiden, Brill, 2011, pp. 131-46.
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Damascus after the Muslim Conquest: Text and Image in Early Islam. Oxford University Press, 2011.
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| Khalek, Nancy. "Jerusalem in Medieval Islamic Tradition." Religion Compass, vol. 5, no. 10, 2011, pp. 624-630. |
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"Patterns of Habitation in Post-Conquest Damascus and its Hinterland.”." Bibliothèque de l'Antiquité Tardive , no. 19, 2011, pp. 137-145.
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"He was Tall and Slender, and His Virtues Were Numerous: Byzantine Hagiographical Topoi and the Companions of Muhammad in Al-Azdī’s Futūḥ al-Shām/Conquest of Syria.”." Writing "True Stories": Historians and Hagiographers in the Late Antique and Medieval Near East , Brepols Press, 2010, pp. 105-23.
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"The Cult of John the Baptist amongst Muslims and Christians in Early Islamic Syria." Routes of Faith in the Medieval Mediterranean: History, Monuments, People, Pilgrimage Perspectives: Proceedings of an International Symposium, EKBMM, 2007, pp. 360-64.
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| "Methods of Instructing Syriac-Speaking Christians to Care for the Poor: A Brief Comparison of the Eighth Memre of the Book of Steps and the Story of the Man of God of Edessa,." Hugoye, The Journal of Syriac Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 2005. |
In addition to a focus on the formative period of Islamic history, my research interests include the history of emotions, hagiography, biography and historiography in the Byzantine and Islamic worlds, relic and saint veneration, Christian-Muslim dialogue, and the relationship of material culture to religious life. Over the years, I have also conducted archaeological, survey, and ethnographic fieldwork in Jordan, Syria, Greece and Turkey.
2016 Fellow, Cogut Center for the Humanities
2014 John Rowe Workman Award
2013 - 2014: Salomon Faculty Research Award
Summer 2013: International UTRA for travel and archaeology in Jordan (4)
2011- 2012: Henry Merritt Wriston Fellowship
Fall 2011: Fellow, Cogut Center for the Humanities
-A Cultural History of the Middle East and North Africa, volume 1 (Editor and contributor, under contract, Bloomsbury Press)
-"Emotions, " in A Cultural History of the Middle East and North Africa, 400-750CE, Forthcoming
-“Feeling” in Critical Terms in Religious Studies, second edition, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, chapter accepted, forthcoming)
Publications:
“Al-Dāraquṭnī’s (d. 385AH) Faḍā’il al-Ṣaḥāba: Mild Anger and the History of Emotions in Religious Merits Literature,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 83/3 (2020) 415-436.
“Affect” in A Universe of Terms, The Immanent Frame, https://tif.ssrc.org/2020/04/17/affect-khalek/
Multiple Entries in the Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity (Oxford University press, 2018): ‘Ā’isha bt. Abī Bakr; ‘Ā’isha bt. Ṭalḥā; ‘Abdallāh ibn ‘Umar; Abū Jahl; Abū Lahab; Almsgiving, Islamic, Asceticism, Islamic; Asma bt. Abī Bakr; ‘Ātika ibn Yazīd; Barīd; Bible, Interpretation and Commentary, Islamic; Companions of the Prophet; Fasting, Islamic; Fāṭima; Festivals and Calendars, Islamic; Ḥafsa bt. ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb; Hind ibn ‘Utba; Khadija bt. Khuwaylid, Islamic; Magic and Divination, Arabian and Islamic; Mariya al-Qibtiyya; Pilgrimage, Islamic; Prayer, Islamic; Qibla; Ramadan; Sa‘d ibn Abī Waqqās; Ṭalḥa ibn ‘Ubaydallāh; Talḥa ibn al-Zubayr; Qibla; Uḥud, Battle of.
“Introduction to the 1995 Edition of the Tarīkh Madīnat Dimashq” in New Perspectives on Ibn ‘Asākir and Islamic Historiography (Leiden:Brill, 2017)
“John the Baptist in Islamic Material Culture,” in the Encyclopledia of The Bible and its Reception (Degruyter, 2017)
Entries on “Damascus,” and “Jerusalem,” for the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2nd edition, edited by Richard C. Martin. (UK: Gale, 2016)
"Freedom of Religion in the Contemporary Middle East: Unsatisfactory Answers to the Wrong Questions," Perspectives on History, the Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association. Summer 2015. https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/summer-2015/freedom-of-religion-in-the-contemporary-middle-east
"Some Notes on the Representation of Non-Muslim Officials in al-Ǧahšiyārī’s (d. 331/942) Kitāb al-wuzarā’ wa-l-kuttāb." Arabica 62 (2015): 503-20.
"Medieval Muslim Martyrs to the Plague: Venerating the Companions of Muḥammad in The Jordan Valley.” Saints and Sacred Matter, The Cult of Relics in Byzantium and Beyond, Eds. Holger Klein and Cynthia Hahn (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Nov. 2015) 83-97.
"Early Islamic History Re-Imagined: The Biography of 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Azīz in Ibn 'Asākir's Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq," Journal of the American Oriental Society 134.3 (2015):1-21.
"Medieval Biographical Literature and the Companions of Muhammad," Der Islam, 2014.2, 272-94.
"Patterns of Habitation in Post-Conquest Damascus and its Hinterland." Bibliothèque de l'Antiquité Tardive (BAT 19) Le Proche-Orient de Justinien aux Abbassides Peuplement et dynamiques spatiales (2011):137-145.
"Jerusalem in Medieval Islamic Tradition." Religion Compass, 5/10 (2011):624-30. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00305.x/full
"Dreams of Hagia Sophia: The Muslim Siege of Constantinople in 674 AD, Abū Ayyūb and the Medieval Islamic Imagination." The Islamic Scholarly Tradition: Studies in History, Law and Thought in Honor of Professor Michael Allan Cook, Eds. Asad Q. Ahmed, Behnam Sadeghi and Michael Bonner. (Leiden: Brill, 2011) 131-46.
Monograph: Damascus after the Muslim Conquest: Text and Image in Early Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). Top Five Finalist, Best First Book in the History of Religion Award, American Academy of Religion.
"Notables," in the Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought ed. Gerhard Böwering. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011) 42-3.
"He was Tall and Slender, and His Virtues Were Numerous: Byzantine Hagiographical Topoi and the Companions of Muhammad in Al-Azdī's Futūḥ al-Shām/Conquest of Syria." Writing "True Stories": Historians and Hagiographers in the Late Antique and Medieval Near East, Collected Conference Proceedings. Ed. Arietta Papaconstantinou. (Belgium: Brepols Press, 2010) 105-23.
"The Cult of John the Baptist amongst Muslims and Christians in Early Islamic Syria." Routes of Faith in the Medieval Mediterranean: History, Monuments, People, Pilgrimage Perspectives: Proceedings of an International Symposium. (Thessaloniki: EKBMM, 2007) 360-64.
"Methods of Instructing Syriac-Speaking Christians to Care for the Poor: A Brief Comparison of the Eighth Memre of the Book of Steps and the Story of the Man of God of Edessa," Hugoye, Journal of Syriac Studies, Volume 8, no. 1 (2005). http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol8No1/HV8N1Khalek.html
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | PhD | Princeton University |
| 2003 | MA | Princeton University |
| 2001 | MA | University of Michigan |
| 1999 | BA | Princeton University |
| RELS 0090M - Islam, Violence and Media |
| RELS 0090M - Religion Violence and Media |
| RELS 0095A - Islam from the Ground Up |
| RELS 0290D - Islamic Sexualities |
| RELS 0600C - Radical Islam (?) |
| RELS 0600D - Black & Brown Islam in America |
| RELS 0600D - Black & Brown Islam in the US |
| RELS 0600E - Islamic Modernities: Religion, Culture, and Power |
| RELS 0835 - Black and Brown Religion in America |
| RELS 0835 - Edward Said and Cornel West |
| RELS 0843 - How do you Feel? The History of Emotions |
| RELS 1530B - Heresy and Orthodoxy in Islamic Thought |
| RELS 1530D - Medieval Islamic Sectarianism |
| RELS 1530F - The History of Emotions and Medieval Islamic Tradition |
| RELS 1530G - The History of Emotions and the Study of Islam |
| RELS 1530H - Problems in Islamic Studies: Shaking up the Study of the Islamic World |
| RELS 2400A - Orthodoxy and Heresy in Islamic Thought |
| RELS 2400J - Stories of the Prophets in Medieval Islamic Literature |
| RELS 2400L - Topics in Islamic Studies: Methods and Theories |
| RELS 2460 - Professionalization Seminar |
