From Morning Hunt to Beloved Gazelle

All times are in GMT

Wednesday 15 December

9.00 – 10.00: Welcome and Keynote

‘The human and non-human animal in classical Arabic literature

James Montgomery, University of Cambridge

10.00 – 11.30: Animals and politics in the premodern period

‘Slaughtering foxes in the vineyard? A pervasive topos and its mise-en-SCèNE in early and classical Arabic historiography of the early Islamic conquests

Georg Leube, Universities of Bayreuth and Hamburg

‘The political and religious meaning of animals in al‐Andalus and the Maghrib (3rd/9th‐4th/10th centuries)’

Maribel Fierro, Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean CSIC, Spain

‘Ibn Sharaf al-Qayrawānī’s ode to a giraffe: An episode in Fatimid – Zirid diplomatic relations’

Russell Hopley, Independent Scholar

11.30 – 11.45: Break

11.45 – 13.15: Animals and political margins in twentieth-century literature

‘Wildmen of Yemen and their beasts: Jews, Muslim pariahs, and animals at the margins of Yemeni society’

Mark S. Wagner, Louisiana State University

‘Narrating through animals: The nonhuman as an ethical agent in contemporary central Asian literature’

Jeanine Dağyeli, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan

‘Animal representations and beyond: Their absence, presence, and manifestations in the literature of life-imprisoned Kurdish writers’

Dilek Hattatoğlu and Ahu Karasulu, Independent Scholars

13.15 – 14.00: Lunch

14.00-15.30: Animals, sickness, and mourning

‘Patient animal: Science and care in medieval Arabic literature

Anna Ayse Akasoy, City University of New York

‘Desert animals: Mourning and the she-camel in Bedouin poetry’

Moneera al-Ghadeer, Senior Advisor at the Ministry of Culture, Riyadh

‘Attachment and loss: Animal rithāʾ in Arabic poetry’

Iman Darwish, Harvard University

15.30-15.45: Break

15.45 – 17.15: Desert animals

‘“A Specifically Libyan mask”: Exploring metamorphosis in the Libyan novel’

Charis Olszok, University of Cambridge

‘Beyond the noble savage: Munif, Koni, and the grace of the animal world’

Suja Sawafta, University of Miami

‘Oneness and the Waddān: Blurring human-animal boundaries in Ibrahim al-Kūnī’s Nazīf al- Ḥajar (The Bleeding of the Stone, 2002)’

Kholoud Hussein, Cornell University

Thursday 16 December

9.00 – 10.30: Animals in the arts of Armenia

‘Mediators between worlds and cultures: Sirens in the medieval Armenian and Islamic art of the 10th–14th centuries’

Lilit Mikayelyan, Yerevan State University

“Master of the Garden”: The image of a bear in early medieval art of Armenia and neighboring countries

Zaruhi Hakobyan, Yerevan State University

‘The depiction of animals and royal hunt in Cilician miniature painting (Gospel no. 9422 of Matenadaran)’

Satenik Chookaszian, Yerevan State University

10.30 -10.45: Break

10.45-12.15: Animals, film, and popular culture

‘The puppet animal as a social and political narrative body in the performing arts in Iran’

Yassaman Khajehi, Clermont Auvergne, France

‘Dealing with the stray: Film and cartoon portrayals of homeless dogs and the human-dog interactions in the modern Middle East

Gwyneth Talley, American University in Cairo

‘At the zoo in Palestine’

Hannah Boast, University College, Dublin

12.15 – 13.00: Lunch

13.00 – 14.45: Horses and horse hybrids

‘Marked on the arse of the asb: the symbol and symbolism of horse brands in Persianate arts circa 1500—1850’

Jaimee K. Comstock-Skipp, Leiden University

‘Banāt al-rīḥ: Mythical horse hybrids in early Islamic literature’

Hylke Hettema, Leiden University

‘The monstrous body of Jewish converts in the Spanish al-Buraq’

Ana L. Méndez-Oliver, Syracuse University

14.45 – 15.00: Break

15.00 – 16.30: Animals in modern Persian literature

‘The representation of animals and animal rights in Sadegh Hedayat’s “The Benefits of vegetarianism”’

Gabrielle van den Berg, Leiden University

‘Sâdeq Chubak: Through a reversed gaze’

Julie Duvigneau, INALCO, Paris

‘A literary encounter across time: Two Persian stories, two animals, and two contrasting worldviews’

Kamran Talattof, The University of Arizona

16.30 – 17.30: Keynote

‘Modern hadith debates and the nonhuman other’

Sarra Tlili, University of Florida

Friday 17 December

12.30 – 14.00: Celestial birds and stray dogs: Animal symbols and beyond

‘From sacred animal to the symbol of adultery: Dogs in the Armenian tradition’

David Zakarian, University of Oxford

‘The wild, the domestic and the stray: dogs in the Arabic literary imaginary’

Wen-chin Ouyang, SOAS, University of London

‘Birds’ society of Neyshabur: animal myth, allegory, and symbol in Persian literature’

Nasrollah Zirak, Islamic Azad University, Iran

14.00 – 15.00: Lunch break

15.00-16.30: Animals and war in the twentieth century

‘Creaturely Wars: HumAnimals in Lebanese wartime fiction’

Yasmine Khayyat, Rutgers University

‘Taming the Dogs of War: Animals and Iran-Iraq war in Arabic and Persian fiction’

Amir Moosavi, Rutgers University

‘Flying Above Partition: Literary representations of doves (and other birds) in modern Cypriot poetry’

Daniele Nunziata, University of Oxford

16.30 – 18.00: Animals between India and the Middle East

‘The hunt of love and justice’

Ebba Koch, University of Vienna

‘Extreme ethics: Animal-human generosity in Indian qissahs’

Pasha M. Khan, McGill University

‘Topographical wonders: Elephantine jinns and al-Hazari’s elephant clock translated in early modern India’

Vivek Gupta, University of Cambridge

18.00 – 18.30: Closing Remarks