Dictionary & Encyclopaedia Entries by Richard Heffron
Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, ed. Oliver Nicholson, 2018
Online: http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778
Translations by Richard Heffron
Penguin Book of Exorcisms, 2020
Other Publications & Media by Richard Heffron
Hazine, 2019
An Informal Guide to Fuat Sezgin's "Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums": How you can use Sezg... more An Informal Guide to Fuat Sezgin's "Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums": How you can use Sezgin’s GAS to improve your German, learn about your field, and find Arabic manuscripts.
So you want to learn German. Or more likely, you are required to learn German for your degree in Near Eastern Studies, Middle Eastern History, or Islamic Studies. If your graduate program is like mine, you might not receive course credit for taking German courses so you are largely left to acquire reading comprehension on your own. For those of you in this situation, I have put together a strategy for gaining German reading competency that is targeted for students in our field, especially for those focused on early and medieval Islamic history and thought. This strategy is hardly foolproof; rather, it is the result of the numerous mistakes I have made while studying German in graduate school…mistakes that I hope you can benefit from.
Ithaca Times, Sep 21, 2016
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Yi Ping and his wife, Lin Zhou, boarded a bus for Ithaca at the... more On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Yi Ping and his wife, Lin Zhou, boarded a bus for Ithaca at the Port Authority in Manhattan. Ping had recently been selected as the Ithaca City of Asylum's (ICOA) exiled writer-in-residence and was on his way with Zhou to their new home. Yet when their bus reached the Lincoln Tunnel, it was closed due to the attacks on the World Trade Center, and they were returned to the station. Meanwhile Bridget Meeds, who founded ICOA with Anne Berger, was waiting for the couple at Ithaca's bus station just in case they'd made it out of the city. As she was sitting at the terminal, listening to the news unfold on the radio, a thought struck her: "When towns and cities across the world were closing their doors and bridges and airports, Ithaca was standing there with its arms wide open." It was clear that Ithaca was suited to be a city of asylum for exiled writers.
Ithaca Times, Sep 7, 2016
History News Network, Sep 21, 2014
Delaware News Journal, May 15, 2012
Conference Presentations by Richard Heffron
The Abbasid-era chronicles have heavily shaped our understanding of Arab-Islamic historiography. ... more The Abbasid-era chronicles have heavily shaped our understanding of Arab-Islamic historiography. Judging from these chronicles’ sources, Medinese and Iraqi scholars dominated the realm of history writing, as well as the production of knowledge more generally, in the eighth and ninth centuries. In contrast, Syria and the scholars who resided there are almost completely absent from the picture. This absence is compounded by the fact that there are a limited number of extant texts from Abbasid Syria.
Historians have addressed this lacuna by turning to the Arab-Islamic biographical dictionaries. As Wadad al-Qadi noted, this rich corpus provides an alternative history of the Muslim community from the scholars’ perspective. In doing so, biographical dictionaries such as Ibn ʿAsākir’s (d. 571/1176) Taʾrīkh Madīnat Dimashq provide invaluable insight into generations of earlier Syrian scholars and their works. What we are left with, therefore, are questions of methodology. How can historians effectively utilize Arab-Islamic biographical dictionaries to shed light on scholarly activity in Abbasid Syria? And what other texts can orient our investigations into this immense collection of biographical literature?
As a case study, my paper will utilize Abū Zurʿa al-Dimashqī’s (d. 281/894) Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh as a window into the scholarly milieu of Abbasid Syria. In his Taʾrīkh, Abū Zurʿa collected and organized an array of information from earlier generations of Syrian scholars that is otherwise lost or scattered throughout later sources. As such, the text provides us with invaluable insight into Abū Zurʿa’s scholarly predecessors. My paper will analyze the text’s isnads and reports to create a list of Abū Zurʿa’s most frequent sources. By combining this information with the biographical literature available for these scholars, my paper aims to construct a basic prosopography of the scholars involved in the production and transmission of knowledge in Abbasid Syria.
Throughout history the skill of public speaking has been of utmost importance for army commanders... more Throughout history the skill of public speaking has been of utmost importance for army commanders who intend to be successful on the battlefield. In order to recruit an army, commanders have to convince troops to join their forces. In ancient and medieval times, opposing armies typically encamped in close proximity to one another for long periods of time before engaging in battle, thus the commander's ability either to calm or motivate his troops accordingly was essential during the pre-battle stage. For example, the Byzantine Emperor Maurice (d. 615 CE) stressed the importance of public speaking for his army commanders in his handbook on military strategy. In his section on the things generals must consider before battle, he lists the category, “Using Speeches to Encourage Troops,” under which he states that: "Suitable speeches should be given to encourage [the troops], recalling their former victories, promising rewards from the emperor, and recompense for their loyal service to the state." It is therefore evident that fluency and effectiveness in public oration were key elements in the makeup of a competent and successful general,
and that the skill was highly valued by this Byzantine emperor at the beginning of the seventh-century shortly before the advent of the Islamic conquests.
Despite the importance of oration to successful leadership, Western scholars in the field of Arab-Islamic history and literature have given marginal attention to the literary genre of the khuṭba (oration)—while the sub-genre of battle oration
(al-khuṭab al-ḥarbiyya) has been completely neglected—even though the khuṭba is a ubiquitous feature in the early Arab-Islamic historical sources. In order to address this lacuna in Western scholarship, this paper thematically analyzes a
selection of pre-battle orations that were reportedly given by Arab-Muslim military commanders during the conquests of Syria, Iraq, and Persia (634-646 CE). From this analysis, my paper attempts to set up a basic typology for battle khuṭbas that identifies their primary themes and how these themes relate to the Quran conceptualization of fighting and warfare.
Syllabi by Richard Heffron
My syllabus for "Introduction to World Religions," which I taught six times at Ithaca College.
My syllabus for a survey course that I taught on the "History of the Modern Middle East" at the I... more My syllabus for a survey course that I taught on the "History of the Modern Middle East" at the Illinois Institute of Technology in the spring of 2015.
Teaching Documents by Richard Heffron
This is a collection of the notes that I give to my tenth-grade students during our four-week uni... more This is a collection of the notes that I give to my tenth-grade students during our four-week unit on Hinduism.
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Dictionary & Encyclopaedia Entries by Richard Heffron
Translations by Richard Heffron
Other Publications & Media by Richard Heffron
So you want to learn German. Or more likely, you are required to learn German for your degree in Near Eastern Studies, Middle Eastern History, or Islamic Studies. If your graduate program is like mine, you might not receive course credit for taking German courses so you are largely left to acquire reading comprehension on your own. For those of you in this situation, I have put together a strategy for gaining German reading competency that is targeted for students in our field, especially for those focused on early and medieval Islamic history and thought. This strategy is hardly foolproof; rather, it is the result of the numerous mistakes I have made while studying German in graduate school…mistakes that I hope you can benefit from.
Conference Presentations by Richard Heffron
Historians have addressed this lacuna by turning to the Arab-Islamic biographical dictionaries. As Wadad al-Qadi noted, this rich corpus provides an alternative history of the Muslim community from the scholars’ perspective. In doing so, biographical dictionaries such as Ibn ʿAsākir’s (d. 571/1176) Taʾrīkh Madīnat Dimashq provide invaluable insight into generations of earlier Syrian scholars and their works. What we are left with, therefore, are questions of methodology. How can historians effectively utilize Arab-Islamic biographical dictionaries to shed light on scholarly activity in Abbasid Syria? And what other texts can orient our investigations into this immense collection of biographical literature?
As a case study, my paper will utilize Abū Zurʿa al-Dimashqī’s (d. 281/894) Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh as a window into the scholarly milieu of Abbasid Syria. In his Taʾrīkh, Abū Zurʿa collected and organized an array of information from earlier generations of Syrian scholars that is otherwise lost or scattered throughout later sources. As such, the text provides us with invaluable insight into Abū Zurʿa’s scholarly predecessors. My paper will analyze the text’s isnads and reports to create a list of Abū Zurʿa’s most frequent sources. By combining this information with the biographical literature available for these scholars, my paper aims to construct a basic prosopography of the scholars involved in the production and transmission of knowledge in Abbasid Syria.
and that the skill was highly valued by this Byzantine emperor at the beginning of the seventh-century shortly before the advent of the Islamic conquests.
Despite the importance of oration to successful leadership, Western scholars in the field of Arab-Islamic history and literature have given marginal attention to the literary genre of the khuṭba (oration)—while the sub-genre of battle oration
(al-khuṭab al-ḥarbiyya) has been completely neglected—even though the khuṭba is a ubiquitous feature in the early Arab-Islamic historical sources. In order to address this lacuna in Western scholarship, this paper thematically analyzes a
selection of pre-battle orations that were reportedly given by Arab-Muslim military commanders during the conquests of Syria, Iraq, and Persia (634-646 CE). From this analysis, my paper attempts to set up a basic typology for battle khuṭbas that identifies their primary themes and how these themes relate to the Quran conceptualization of fighting and warfare.
Syllabi by Richard Heffron
Teaching Documents by Richard Heffron
So you want to learn German. Or more likely, you are required to learn German for your degree in Near Eastern Studies, Middle Eastern History, or Islamic Studies. If your graduate program is like mine, you might not receive course credit for taking German courses so you are largely left to acquire reading comprehension on your own. For those of you in this situation, I have put together a strategy for gaining German reading competency that is targeted for students in our field, especially for those focused on early and medieval Islamic history and thought. This strategy is hardly foolproof; rather, it is the result of the numerous mistakes I have made while studying German in graduate school…mistakes that I hope you can benefit from.
Historians have addressed this lacuna by turning to the Arab-Islamic biographical dictionaries. As Wadad al-Qadi noted, this rich corpus provides an alternative history of the Muslim community from the scholars’ perspective. In doing so, biographical dictionaries such as Ibn ʿAsākir’s (d. 571/1176) Taʾrīkh Madīnat Dimashq provide invaluable insight into generations of earlier Syrian scholars and their works. What we are left with, therefore, are questions of methodology. How can historians effectively utilize Arab-Islamic biographical dictionaries to shed light on scholarly activity in Abbasid Syria? And what other texts can orient our investigations into this immense collection of biographical literature?
As a case study, my paper will utilize Abū Zurʿa al-Dimashqī’s (d. 281/894) Kitāb al-Taʾrīkh as a window into the scholarly milieu of Abbasid Syria. In his Taʾrīkh, Abū Zurʿa collected and organized an array of information from earlier generations of Syrian scholars that is otherwise lost or scattered throughout later sources. As such, the text provides us with invaluable insight into Abū Zurʿa’s scholarly predecessors. My paper will analyze the text’s isnads and reports to create a list of Abū Zurʿa’s most frequent sources. By combining this information with the biographical literature available for these scholars, my paper aims to construct a basic prosopography of the scholars involved in the production and transmission of knowledge in Abbasid Syria.
and that the skill was highly valued by this Byzantine emperor at the beginning of the seventh-century shortly before the advent of the Islamic conquests.
Despite the importance of oration to successful leadership, Western scholars in the field of Arab-Islamic history and literature have given marginal attention to the literary genre of the khuṭba (oration)—while the sub-genre of battle oration
(al-khuṭab al-ḥarbiyya) has been completely neglected—even though the khuṭba is a ubiquitous feature in the early Arab-Islamic historical sources. In order to address this lacuna in Western scholarship, this paper thematically analyzes a
selection of pre-battle orations that were reportedly given by Arab-Muslim military commanders during the conquests of Syria, Iraq, and Persia (634-646 CE). From this analysis, my paper attempts to set up a basic typology for battle khuṭbas that identifies their primary themes and how these themes relate to the Quran conceptualization of fighting and warfare.