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Dr. Maya Yazigi, Scholar-In-Residence

Dr. Maya Yazigi is a historian with a primary focus on the formative period of Islamic history and more precisely on the history and historiography of the first few centuries of Islam. Her research thus far has dealt with: the study of methods of legitimization in the Islamic historical and biographical literature, the impact of sectarian polemics during the first centuries of Islam on the formation of the divergent Islamic traditions, the Arabic genealogical literature (Ansab literature) and the formation of the first Muslim class of religious scholars.

Dr. Yazigi is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Issues of Identity: History and Social Order in Early Arabic Genealogies. The book examines the social context for the writing down of Arabic genealogies in the early Islamic period and traces the development of this historiographic genre in the subsequent few centuries as it strove to accommodate the changing nature of Islamic society. It also explores how Arabic genealogies can benefit the modern historical study of early Islamic society, by assessing their utility for historical reconstruction.

Dr. Yazigi has already co-edited with Niall Christie a book on Medieval Warfare (Brill, 2006) and published articles on many aspects of early Islamic history and historiography in Studia IslamicaArabica, Journal of Semitic Studies, Oriens and other venues.

For a Complete CV, please click here.