I am currently a PhD student in the Department of History at the University of Chicago working on medieval and early modern Iberian history. I received my M.A. degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2009. My proposed dissertation project looks at the construction of political legitimacy and the articulation of Andalusi political thought in fourteenth-century Granada. I am interested, in particular, in how a particular scholar—Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib (d. 1374)—utilized historical narrative in order to construct a particular vision of the state. My research languages include Arabic, Spanish, Latin, and French. I am also currently learning Persian. In the past two years, I have also researched and written extensively about the early modern Ottoman world and Iran.

In addition to my current dissertation project, my research interests encompass a wide range of themes and subjects, including medieval Iberia, Mediterranean history, early Islamic history, the construction of orthodoxy, Islamic political thought, mysticism, polemics, and historiography. I am currently working on publishing two articles. The first deals with the question of Kharijite and Ibadi sectarian identity in ninth-century North Africa. The second is an annotated translation and analysis of Abdullah ibn al-Husayn al-Suwaydi’s account of the “Council of Najaf,” which looks at Ottoman-Iranian relations in the 1730s and 1740s.

Fraxinetum: An Islamic Frontier State in Tenth Century Provence The primary focus of this article is a reconsideration of Fraxinetum as an Islamic frontier state in tenth-century Provence. Traditional scholarship about Fraxinetum has interpreted the Muslim presence in Provence within the context of piracy. The interpretation of Fraxinetum as a pirate base centers largely on the interpretation of primary documents and the replication of the arguments of the Latin chroniclers within modern scholarship. Seeking to challenge the view that the Muslims in Francia were merely bandits, through a reassessment of primary sources and an analysis of some nontextual evidence, this article demonstrates that Fraxinetum was the political, military, and economic center of an Islamic frontier state in Provence that was populated largely by ghāzīs or mujāhidīn (Islamic frontier warriors) from al-Andalus. Reconceptualizing Fraxinetum as an Islamic frontier state should not be understood to mean that Muslim activity in Provence was centrally administered, but intends to convey that jihād, as well as certain economic motivations, played a crucial role in this frontier military settlement and, as such, needs to be adequately understood. This will allow scholars to comprehend more fully the nature of Fraxinetum, providing additional insight into the Muslim presence in Provence, and contributing to the understanding of the phenomenon of Islamic frontier states more broadly during the tenth century. Comitatus 41 (2010) : 23–76

--Medieval and early modern Spain, especially Castile and Nasrid Granada
--Islamic mysticism
--Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in the medieval Islamic world
--Islamic political thought
--Shi’ism
--Early Modern Europe

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