Jonathan e brockopp biography channel

September - December 2024

Research Project: Manuscripts and Trade Routes to Kairouan

My project focuses on the Kairouan collection of Arabic manuscripts, an unusually old collection, largely produced during the heyday of this city, from 800 to 1057, when Kairouan helped shape the politics, economics, and intellectual history of the central Mediterranean.

Like their counterparts in the rest of the Islamic Empire, Kairouani scholars travelled in search of knowledge, and students from both Andalusia and Egypt (also Syria and Iraq) came to Kairouan. The manuscripts hold clues to these travels, including examples of imported paper and student notes in the margins.

I will compare analysis of this material and paratextual evidence with historical accounts to better understand the economic, material, and political contexts that made this city such a successful example of Islamication.

My broader goal for this research is to write a history of the Kairouan m