Position:

University Lecturer in Arabic; Fellow of St Cross College

Faculty / College Address:

Oriental Institute / St Cross College

Email:

judith.pfeiffer@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests:

• Islamic history, historiography, and hagiography of the 13th to 16th centuries
• Conversion processes, in particular conversion to Islam in the Mongol Empire
• Post-Mongol (13th to 16th century) theology and philosophy
• Buddhism during the Ilkhanid period
• Turco-Mongol tribal structures and marriage patterns
• Early European scholars in Oriental Studies

Current Projects:

• From Late Medieval to Early Modern: 13th to 16th Century Islamic Intellectual History. This is a five year project funded by the European Research Council under the FP7 Program for Support for Frontier Research (2010-2015).
• Conversion to Islam in the Ilkhanate

Courses Taught:

• Introduction to Islamic History and Culture
• Islamic History, 570-1500
• Religion and politics during the Mongol period
• The rise of Sufi orders in the Islamic world, 1200-1500
• ‘Slave Dynasties' in Islam: From the Ghaznavids to the Mamluk Sultanate
• Writing Islamic history, 1250-1500 A.D.: from palaeography to historiography
• Arabic palaeography

Recent Publications:

• History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East. Studies in Honor of John E. Woods. Eds. Judith Pfeiffer and Sholeh A. Quinn. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006.
• Theoretical Approaches to the Transmission and Edition of Oriental Manuscripts. Eds. Judith Pfeiffer and Manfred Kropp. Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2007 (Beiruter Texte und Studien 111).
• “Ah⋅mad Tegüder’s Second Letter to Qalā’ūn (682/1283).’ In History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East, eds. Judith Pfeiffer & Sholeh A. Quinn, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006, pp. 167-202.
• “Reflections on a ‘Double Rapprochement:’ Conversion to Islam among the Mongol elite during the early Ilkhanate.” In Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan. Ed. Linda Komaroff. Brill: Leiden, 2006, pp. 369-389 (Islamic History and Civilization, 64).
• “‘A turgid history of the Mongol empire in Persia:’ Epistemological reflections concerning an edition of Vas⋅s⋅āf’s Tajziyat al-ams⋅ār va tazjiyat al-a‘s⋅ār.” In Theoretical Approaches to the Transmission and Edition of Oriental Manuscripts, eds. Judith Pfeiffer and Manfred Kropp, Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2007, pp. 107-129.