A.H. Morton Scholarship for Doctoral Research in Classical Persian Studies
The Gibb Memorial Trust is pleased to announce an Annual Scholarship in memory of Alexander (Sandy) Morton for doctoral research in the area of classical Persian Studies. Sandy Morton (1942-2011) worked at the British Museum and as Senior Lecturer in Persian at the London School of African and Oriental Studies. His interests ranged widely over the field, from glass weights and numismatics to Persian literature and the history of Iran from the Saljuqs to the Safavids. He was a long-standing Trustee of the Gibb Memorial Trust.
The award is for a maximum of £3,000 and can be applied to any year up to the final completion of a course of doctoral study at a British university, including for an approved period of study abroad; it will be paid at the start of the academic year in question, up to the submission of the dissertation.
The Gibb Memorial Trust was founded in 1902 to commemorate Elias John Wilkinson Gibb. He devoted his life to researching the history, literature, philosophy and religion of the Turks, Persians and Arabs and the objectives of the Trust are to promote the study and advancement of these topics.
Eligibility:
The award is open to all students undertaking doctoral research at a British university in the field of classical Persian studies, loosely defined to embrace Persian literature and history of the pre-modern era but not excluding other areas of study.
Recipients of the award will not be eligible to reapply another year. Those unable to take up an award will need to reapply.
Applications:
- Should be submitted in writing and sent by post or email to the address below;
- Should be received not later than 30 April for the academic year starting the following October;
- Should include proof of application or of acceptance to study on a course of doctoral research at a British university;
- Should contain a brief curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages) and description of the dissertation topic and intended use of the award (maximum 2 pages plus budget);
- Should be supported by two references from the dissertation supervisor(s) or persons familiar wth the student’s previous graduate or undergraduate work, to be sent separately to the Trust by the same deadline.
Applications will be reviewed by the Trustees and shortlisted applicants may be called for an interview in person, if in the UK or, if overseas, by Skype.
Awards will be announced by early June. They will be paid in two instalments, depending on the nature of the support requested. The first will be made on proof of commencement or continuation of the doctoral programme at the start of the next academic year; the second instalment will follow receipt of a satisfactory progress report supported by the dissertation supervisor(s), to be received by the 30 April following.
In the event of applications including an approved period of research abroad, the first instalment will be made on receipt of proof of travel arrangements and the second instalment on submission of a final report with proof of the expenditures borne. Money not spent within the academic year in question should be returned.
All recipients of the A.H. Morton Scholarship will be required to acknowledge this support in their dissertation and to write a final report on their grant and how it furthered their work, for publication on the website of the Gibb Memorial Trust.
Annual Scholarship
The Gibb Memorial Trust invites applications for the Gibb Centenary Scholarship of up to £2,000, which is awarded annually.
Postgraduate students at an advanced stage of their doctoral research in any area of Middle Eastern Studies (7th century to 1918), and who are studying in a British university, are eligible to apply.
Applicants should submit their CVs and two references, together with an outline of not more than three pages of their research and a statement of their funding position. Applications must reach The Secretary, The Gibb Memorial Trust by the end of April.”
The result will be announced at the end of June and posted on our web site www.gibbtrust.org
Secretary to the Trustees: P R Bligh FCA
Address: 2 Penarth Place, Cambridge CB3 9LU, United Kingdom
Email: secretary@gibbtrust.org
The Gibb Memorial Trust scholarship for the year 2011 was awarded to Wagheeh Mikhail, who is working to complete his thesis. This analyses an Arabic Christian manuscript of the 9th century, written by Ammar al-Basri.
Acknowledgements and work of post graduate students supported by The Gibb Scholarships
Grantor: Gibb Memorial Trust Scholarship
Grantee: Shivan Mahendrarajah
Grantee’s Affiliation: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
Grant year: AY 2013/14
Dissertation entitled Sufi Shaykhs of Jam: A History, from the Il-Khans to the Timurids
I submit this report to the Trustees of the Gibb Memorial Trust with gratitude for the generous grant made in the fourth-year of my doctoral program. The dissertation was timely, submitted for examination in March 2014 and passed on 30th May 2014.
The grant helped to defray expenses incurred during the write-up of my dissertation. I examined the mystical community at Turbat-i Jam in Iran that venerated Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad-i Jam (d. 1141). The period of inquiry is from the Mongol irruptions (ca. 1220-21), to the collapse of the Timurid dynasty in Persia (ca. 1506). The saint, his many descendants, and the winsome shrine-complex at Jam, are examined. Explicated is the patronage that the shrine-complex received as mosques, portals (iwan), domes (gunbad), hospices (khanaqah), and madrasas; and pious endowments (waqf) and royal land grants (soyurghals) as described in Islamic legal instruments, and in Mongol and Timurid chancery documents.
In the 9th /15th century, certain Shaykhs of Jam affiliated with the inchoate Khwajagan-Naqshbandiyya. A select history of these Khwajagan mystical currents, from their hazy Transoxianan origins, to their spiritual endeavors in Cisoxiana; and explications of their evolving doctrines and hybrid practices, are proffered in the dissertation.
I am honored to be the recipient of an academic grant from a memorial endowment being devised in A.H. ‘Sandy’ Morton’s name. I regret that I never had the privilege of knowing Mr. Morton, who became terminally ill sometime after I matriculated at Cambridge. Scholars in Persian Studies, notably my supervisor and my external examiner, independently stated that Sandy Morton would have enjoyed reading my dissertation. Moreover, one scholar commented when I was battling a particularly stubborn medieval Persian manuscript, that ‘Sandy Morton would have been the best person’ to assist me with de-ciphering barely legible Perso-Arabic orthography, and in interpreting abstruse Persian prose. I have, however, made profitable use of Mr. Morton’s scholarship on Sarbadar numismatics. Nevertheless, I regret that Mr. Morton did not have the opportunity to critique my scholarship – for better or for worse – nor have the opportunity to read with me tracts from my eclectic collection of Persian manuscripts.
I am grateful to the Trustees and honored to have been selected for this grant.
Francesca Biancani
On the 20th of June 2008, I was generously awarded by the Board of Trustees of the Charity in memory of E J W Gibb the 2008 annual scholarship for the 2008-09 Academic Year as a support to my doctoral project about the political economy of prostitution in Colonial Cairo, from 1882 to 1952.
I am writing to provide you with a brief report about the progression of my research. After conclusion of primary research in the Dar al Watha’iq (the National Archives) and in the Dar al Kutub (National Library) in Cairo in 2007-8 (at the time of application I was based in Cairo in fact), I moved back to Europe where I started working on the third archival strand of my research – the first being the colonial one- National Archives, Kew and Women’s Library, London covered in 2006-07 - the second the local one on Egyptian sources). This third strand on foreign communities resident in Cairo, among which the Italian one has been chosen as a case-study by virtue of its peculiar linkage with the sex-work milieu in Cairo, entailed the surveying of a sample of Consular Court Cases from the Italian Consulate of Cairo (1915-1935) related to prostitution in the Historical and Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome and extensive research on Interpol papers kept at the National Archives in Rome, essential for the reconstruction of the dynamics of feminized migration dynamics across the Mediterranean area. In this respect, the grant effectively supported me in covering my living expenses in Rome for two months. I recently had my end of the year review panel at the London School of Economics and I am now registered for my 4th and final year. I now plan to write the last chapter of the dissertation and start revising and editing the whole thesis, in order to submit the final work in September 2010. In providing you with this brief report, I take the chance to express again my deepest gratitude for the interest showed in my work.
Amina Elbendary
Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge
As a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge for the past four years, I was fortunate to be awarded a Gibb Centenary Scholarship by the Gibb Trust in 2006-2007. The title of my dissertation is Faces in the Crowd: Urban Protest in Late Medieval Egypt and Syria. It focuses on incidents of urban protest against state authority as reported in contemporary historical literature. Late medieval historical literature is remarkable and for the depth of detail it provides on life in cities like Damascus and Cairo. This broad scope allows the common people to enter the historical scene. One type of activity that ensured common people of the cities a mention in historical literature is incidents of popular protest.
Urban protest took a variety of forms including complaints and petitions, rioting, direct physical attacks on officials, and market strikes. Different motives spurred these protests, including fluctuations in the grain market or recurrent debasing of the currency or perceived injustice by government officials. However, all reported protests had a legitimizing justification. Reports of protest bring to light the different roles played by various social groups in medieval Egypt and Syria. Rather than paint a picture of pre-modern Arab- Muslim societies as neatly divided between autocratic exploitative governments and disempowered exploited subjects, an analysis of protest offers a more dynamic portrayal that brings out the roles of merchants, craftsmen, tradesmen, scholars of various standing, pious men, Bedouin, government officials and military officers. During a time of economic crises and recurring plagues, this portrayal shows that far from silently and stoically enduring the hardships of the times, the common people of Egypt and Syria were actively protesting, voicing their demands and manipulating the political, social and economic system to better their living conditions. This further complicates modern historiographical paradigms such as Oriental Despotism and the political quietism of Sunni Muslim political thought.
The Gibb Scholarship partially supported my last year of study in Cambridge, allowing me to focus on writing up the dissertation. It also enabled me to acquire more sources for my research, namely Syrian sources that were not available in Cambridge. The funding was greatly appreciated especially as the Gibb Trust is one of the few funding bodies that favour students of Arab and Ottoman history in the late stages of their research, when other sources of funding typically run out. Thanks in part to the support of the Gibb Trust I was able to submit my dissertation on time.
Murat Cem Menguc
Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge
While a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, I was awarded the Gibb Centenary Scholarship for 2006-2007 by the Gibb Memorial Trust. At the time, the award came as a very important contribution, as I was coming close to completing my dissertation. My work focused on 15th-century Ottoman historiography. The earliest evidence for a comprehensive Ottoman history book dates to the 1410's and it remains the only example of its kind until the 1450's. Between 1450 and the 1480's, further Ottoman histories emerge. Thus, the second half of 15th century is described as the period in which Ottoman historiography came into existence. My thesis argued that our understanding of this phenomenon was in need of re-evaluation. Contrary to the suggestions of modern scholars, throughout the century Ottoman historiography was not a homogenous phenomenon. Similarly, the Ottoman palace was far from successfully dictating an established Ottoman ideology through comprehensive Ottoman history books. Even though rulers may have wished to see a single type of Ottoman history, they were exposed to more than one kind of Ottoman past. In fact, during the second half of the 15th century, there were at least three versions of Ottoman histories that were known among the literary elite.
During the second half of the century, Ottoman historiography was marked by a debate that took shape in the hands of the literary elite who discussed the content of all types of Ottoman histories with which they were familiar. In this debate, the anonymous Ottoman histories became quintessential texts. These texts neither represented the Ottoman palace nor its elite servants. They were texts meant for the general Turkish- speaking community written by unknown and less educated scribes. They had an inclusive discourse, a populist style, a genuine concern about the well-being of the common people and advocated the disgruntled subjects of the empire who considered themselves alienated by a centralized state. Also, a number of historians who came from educated backgrounds and wrote in Turkish integrated the content of these anonymous texts into their own work, thus initiating a transition to a new period of historiography. A transformation occurred in Ottoman historiography during the late 15th century, not as a result of an ideological shift in the palace as is argued by modern scholarship, but from an internal debate which took place among the historians themselves.
At the time I received the Gibb Scholarship, my thesis was a mixture of notes and ideas waiting to be penned down as a coherent argument. I have appreciated the support of the Gibb Trust because it helped me to focus on writing up the dissertation, acquire at least two further primary sources from the European manuscript collections and partially paid for my living expenses. Since I received the award towards the end of my studies, I remember it as a much-needed fresh breath of air before submitting my work.
Georgios C. Liakopoulos
The Hellenic Institute, History Department of Royal Holloway, University of London
I am pleased to report on the progress of my doctoral thesis, entitled 'A study of the early Ottoman Peloponnese in the light of an annotated editio princeps of the TT10-1/14662 Ottoman taxation cadastre (ca. 1460-1463)', conducted under the supervision of the late Julian Chrysostomides at The Hellenic Institute, History Department of Royal Holloway, University of London. You will be pleased to know that my thesis passed subject to minor amendments.
The thesis explores geographic, economic and demographic aspects of the Peloponnese in the first years of the Ottoman conquest (1460), on the basis of an annotated editio princeps of the first Ottoman taxation cadastre of the province of the Peloponnese (Defter-i Liv?'-? Mora), compiled sometime between ca. 1460-1463. So far, no complete edition of the text has appeared. Numbering 284 pages this cadastre was split into two parts in the recent past, and is now preserved in Istanbul (TT10, Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives) and Sofia (1/14662, St. Cyril & Methodius National Library of Bulgaria).
The study comprises two Parts (I-II), in two volumes respectively. Part I contains an Introduction, three Chapters (1-3) and a Conclusion. The Introduction presents the aims, scope and methodology adopted, followed by a survey of previous scholarship conducted on the subject, and a brief historical examination of the late Byzantine Peloponnese and its conquest by the Ottomans. It concludes with a brief codicological and palaeographical description of the cadastre. Chapter 1 is devoted to the historical geography of the Peloponnese. All place-names mentioned in the cadastre are listed in the sequence they appear therein, accompanied by topographic and linguistic notes. This is followed by a set of digital maps of the Early Ottoman Peloponnese using GIS (Geographical Information Systems). Chapter 2 is a demographical investigation of the cadastre, including the settlement patterns, the density of population and its categorisation into urban/rural, sedentary/nomadic, concentrating in particular on the influx and settlement of the second largest ethnic group in the peninsula after the Greeks, namely the Albanians. Chapter 3 explores the economy and administration of the province concentrating on the Ottoman t?m?r system and the economic mechanisms. A detailed presentation of the level of agricultural production, types of crops, livestock, fishing, commerce, industrial development, etc. is illustrated with tables and charts. The Conclusion summarises the findings of the research and suggests areas for further investigation. Part II comprises a diplomatic edition of the transliterated Ottoman text, preceded by a note on the principles and conventions adopted in the edition. The thesis closes with a full bibliography followed by selected samples of facsimiles of the cadastre.
I would like to express once more my deep gratitude to the Gibb Memorial Trust for the grant I was awarded, which enabled me to proceed and complete my research in this unexplored area. Your support has been fully acknowledged in the Preface to my thesis, and will also be acknowledged to any relevant publication in the future.
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