Dissertation thoughts…

As September is drawing near I’m thinking more and more about what to write for my dissertation. The past two years of study have thrown up numerous possibilities, but this summer I realized that rather than write about a topic that would make sense professionally (but could potentially be quite dull), I’d rather spend the year writing about a topic that I feel inspired and passionate about! The Islamic illumination course that I took this summer inspired me in many ways, and I began to think about literature in Medieval Cairo. After some research, I discovered a text written in the 16th century by a fascinating character called Ibn Zunbul. It is a romantic account of the final years of the Mamluk empire and the Mamluk Sultan’s battles with the encroaching Ottomans, and Harvard has a copy (alhamdulillah). I picked it up last week and love it. At the moment I’m considering translating part of it for my dissertation, and complementing the translation with a commentary on the problems of translating Medieval Arabic, insha’Allah.

Advertisement