PhD Dissertations

This dissertation examines the urban, architectural, and infrastructural transformation of the city of Amasea/Amasya—situated in the Iris River (Yeşilırmak) valley in the central Black Sea region of Turkey—during the late medieval period by foregrounding...

Despite substantial scholarship on Rumi’s poetry and biography, the roles of his shrine and Sufi lodges in shaping his legacy remain largely unexplored. This dissertation explores the entangled, shifting networks of patronage, the complex relationships...

Regulating Commerce narrates how a distinct Ottoman jurisdiction for adjudicating commercial life emerged in the nineteenth century, and how this legal system worked in practice. The nineteenth century was a period of intense legal and economic change in...

Cash Country is an ethnography of money in times of political upheavals. Following the 2011 popular uprisings in Tunisia and across the Arab region, I investigate how Tunisia’s national currency, the dinar, has become a public object. From widely...

Greenhouse tomato farming has arrived in Antalya at the same time as its ancient Roman sites are revived in what has become cast as the quintessential Mediterranean city of Turkey. Becoming a major off season vegetable production center with a new...

This study explores significant aspects of the history of Islamic higher education in the central Ottoman lands (Bilād al-Rūm) and Greater Syria (Bilād al-Shām) during the approximate period 1530-1650. Two general themes constitute the greatest part of...

This dissertation explores the multifaceted nature of early Ottoman temporal culture, arguing against its characterization as a monolithic entity. Temporal culture here refers to the system of practices, beliefs, and attitudes through which Ottomans...

Oman’s borderlands with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are beset with curiosities. At a time when the Omani state has been pursuing policy to incorporate peripheral, non-coastal regions into the Sultanate of Oman’s national territory, inhabitants of the...

How did Muslim communal institutions develop in Israel? Did Israel formulate a distinct "Islamic policy" towards shari'a courts, religious endowments (awqaf), holy places and religious education? What role did the Muslim community play in the...

“Untidy Households” explores how feelings among household members shaped conceptions of individuals and the family over the Qajar era. In attending to the emotional dimensions of domestic life, I reveal how affective tensions in Qajar households led to...