Carleton will present well-known Near East historian and author Fred Donner on Friday, Feb. 27 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in Leighton Hall Room 304. His lecture, entitled “Islam’s Origins in the Light of New Papyrus Evidence,” is free and open to the public.
Donner is a well-known Near East historian and author who teaches early Islamic history, social history, and Islamic law at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. His interests include the origins of Islam, tribal and nomadic societies, early Islamic history, Arabic-Islamic historiography, and again, Islamic law. He is also the editor of Al-User al-Wista, the Bulletin of Middle East Medievalists.
Some of his books include: Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, No. 14), The Early Islamic Conquests (Princeton Studies on the Near East), The History of al-Tabari: The Conquest of Arabia: The Riddah Wars A.D. 632-633/A.H. 11 (SUNY series in Near Eastern Studies), The Articulation of Early Islamic State Structures (Formation of the Classical Islamic World series), The Expansion of the Early Islamic State (The Formation of the Classical Islamic World series), and recently edited (July 2014), The Rise of Historical Writing Among the Arabs, (Modern Classics in Near Eastern Studies). He is also the author of numerous chapters in books, articles, and monographs about early Islamic history.
This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Department of History. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4202. Leighton Hall is located at the end of College Street on the Carleton campus and is also accessible via Highway 19 in Northfield.