Mediterranean minds meet at Exeter

Taking place at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, the conference will run from July 9-12.

Entitled ‘Merchants, Mercenaries and Missionaries: the Society and Culture of the Medieval Mediterranean, c. 500-1500’, the meeting brings together academics from history, maritime history, archaeology and theology, and also geography, music and the evolution of languages and literature. In addition to attracting 80 delegates from around the world, the conference will have three keynote speakers. Principle keynote speaker Peregrine Horden, a Professor of Medieval History at Royal Holloway, is to be accompanied by Jerrilynn Dodds and Amnon Shiloah, from the United States and Israel respectively. Horden’s address is entitled: 'The Mediterranean and the Origins of the European Economy 600-900', covering a period within the timescale that the conference is exploring.

Professor Dionisius A. Agius, Chair in Arabic and Islamic Material Culture at the University of Exeter and the conference’s co-organiser says: “The conference aims to bring the east and west closer together, and it aims to give a more profound understanding of the Mediterranean world during this period when cultures and ideologies clashed and converged. It offers the potential of original insight and exploration.”

The conference has been supported by the Society of the Medieval Mediterranean, the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, the Centre for Medieval Studies, the Centre for Mediterranean Studies and the Centre for Maritime Studies at the University.