FACULTY

Co-Directors: both will attend all (or almost all) sessions of the Institute.

Fred M. Donner  Professor of Near Eastern History, The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.  PhD 1975 Princeton University (Near Eastern Studies).
Author of The Early Islamic Conquests (1981); Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing (1988); translator, The History of al-Tabari, vol. X: The Conquest of Arabia (1993); numerous articles.
Interests in Islam's origins; Islamic historiography; Islamic political thought; pastoral nomads and their role in Near Eastern societies; apocalypticism.

Kenneth R. Hall  Professor of History, Ball State University. PhD 1975 University of Michigan (History).
Author of The Origins of Southeast Asian Statecraft (1976), Trade and Statecraft in the Age of the Colas (1980), Maritime Trade and State Development in Early Southeast Asia (1985), An Economic History of Early Southeast Asia (1991), Structural Change and Societal Integration in Early South India (2001), many articles.
Interests in early economic history of the Indian Ocean realm, development of pre-modern south Indian and Southeast Asian societies and cultures.

Other Faculty: will be present for two or three days each to make presentations and lead discussion on topics of their expertise.

Cornell H. Fleischer, Professor of History, University of Chicago.  Ph.D. 1982 Princeton University (Near Eastern Studies).
Publications: Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The historian Mustafa Ali (1541-1600) (1986), many articles.
Interests in Ottoman and Turko-Iranian history, 1300-1600; Ottoman bureaucracy, intellectual history, and the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman "The Magnificent;" apocalypticism in the Islamic and Mediterranean worlds, 1400-1700. 

Daniel Goffman, Professor of History, DePaul University.  Ph.D. 1985 University of Chicago (History).
Publications: Izmir and the Levantine World, 1550-1650 (1989); The Ottoman City between East and West (ed., with E. Eldem and B. Master)(1999); The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (2002), other books, articles. Interests: Ottoman Middle East, Ottoman commerce and urbanism.

Stewart Gordon.  Ph.D. 1972 University of Michigan (History).
Publications: The Marathas, 1600-1818 (1993); Robes and honour: the medieval world of investiture (2001); Robes of honour: Khil'at in pre-colonial and colonial India (2003), other books, articles.
Interests: The Delhi Sultanate, Mughal India, origins of Islamic states in South Asia; practice and symbolism of medieval investiture; silk road communities.  

Jay Spaulding, Department of History, Kean University.  Ph.D. 1971 Columbia University (History).
Publications: The Heroic Age of Sinn-ar (1985); Medieval West Africa: views from Arab scholars and merchants (ed. with N. Levtzion, 2003), other books, articles.
Interests: history of East Africa, Swahili trade networks on Indian Ocean littoral and Sudan hinterland, east African slave trade.

Donald S. Whitcomb, The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.  Ph. D. 1979, The University of Chicago (Anthropology).
Publications: Quseir al-Qadim: 1978 preliminary report and Quseir al-Qadim: 1980 preliminary report (with J. H. Johnson); Before the Roses and Nightingales: excavations at Qasr-i Abu Nasr, Old Shiraz (1985).
Interests: transition from late antique (Byzantine-Sasanian) to early Islamic periods in the archaeological record; early Islamic urbanism; international trade.