Christian Mauder (PhD 2017, University of Göttingen) is an intellectual, cultural, religious, and social historian of the Islamic world, with a focus on 10th to 16th centuries. Before joining Freie Universität Berlin in 2023, he served as associate professor at the University of Bergen, where he also functioned as leader of the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Prior to his position in Bergen, he completed postdoctoral appointments at Yale University, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New York University Abu Dhabi, and the University of Bonn.

Christian Mauder’s most recent monograph In the Sultan’s Salon: Learning, Religion and Rulership at the Mamluk Court of Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 1501–1516) (Brill, 2021) constitutes the first in-depth analysis of an Egyptian court as a transregional center of intellectual, religious, and political culture at the turn from the late middle to the early modern period. The dissertation on which this monograph is based won the 2018 Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award (Humanities) of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and the 2018 Christian Gottlob Heyne Award of the University of Göttingen. 

Mauder’s current research examines the role of the concept of the “renewer” (mujaddid) in Islamic religious and political history of the late middle period. By applying the theoretical framework of transregional historical semantics, the present project analyzes how the notion of the renewer became one of the central concepts Muslims throughout the Islamic world used to discuss questions of political power, religious authority, and scholarly status. The project thus examines one of the most understudied key concepts of Islamic political and religious thought, demonstrates the value of the approach of transregional historical semantics to the study of the premodern Islamic world, and highlights the transregional interconnectedness of premodern Muslim communities.

Mauder has published several studies on the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517) in Egypt and Syria, including his first monograph Gelehrte Krieger: Die Mamluken als Träger arabischsprachiger Bildung nach al-Ṣafadī, al-Maqrīzī und weiteren Quellen (Olms, 2012). Mauder also does research on the history of interactions between the Islamic world and Europe and Christian-Muslim relations with a focus on the Protestant missionary project of the Moravian Brethren in Egypt during the late 18th century. He published the co-edited volume Die arabischen Briefe aus der Zeit der Herrnhuter Präsenz in Ägypten 1770–1783 (Ergon, 2012, together with co-editors Martin Tamcke and Arthur Manukyan) on this subject. He is furthermore involved in studying the history of the reception and translation of the Quran, on which topic he co-edited the volume Koran in Franken: Überlegungen und Beispiele für Koranrezeption in fremden Kontexten (Ergon, 2016, together with co-editors Thomas Würtz and Stefan Zinsmeister). His research interests also include Islamic eschatological thought. He contributed as assistant editor to the publication of Roads to Paradise: Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam (Brill, 2017, together with editors Sebastian Günther and Todd Lawson).

Mauder studied Arabic and Islamic Studies, Religious Studies, Sociology, Persian Studies, and Economics in Göttingen, Cairo, Marburg (as guest auditor), and Yale. He worked and taught at the University of Göttingen in various capacities, including as research associate and lecturer at the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies. From 2015 to 2018, he was a member of the Holberg Seminar on Islamic History, Princeton University. Currently, he is a member of the Balzan Seminar on the Formation, Maintenance, and Failure of States in the Muslim World before 1800, also based at Princeton University.

Winter Term 2023/24

14305 Propheten und Prophetentum in der islamischen religiösen Literatur (AS)

14306 Propheten und Prophetentum in der islamischen religiösen Literatur (RC)

14309 The Mamluk Sultanate in Its Global Context (IC)

14310 The Mamluk Sultanate in Its Global Context (PS)

Monographs

• In the Sultan’s Salon: Learning, Religion and Rulership at the Mamluk Court of Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 1501-1516). Islamic History and Civilization 169. 2 vols., Leiden: Brill, 2021.

• Gelehrte Krieger: Die Mamluken als Träger arabischsprachiger Bildung nach al-Ṣafadī, al-Maqrīzī und weiteren Quellen. Arabistische Texte und Studien 18. Hildesheim: Olms, 2012.

Collective Volumes and Special Issues

• The Production and Transmission of Knowledge in Islamicate Courts of the Middle and Early Modern Periods. Guest-edited special issue of Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 11.1 (2023).

• Roads to Paradise: Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam. Islamic History and Civilization 136. 2 vols., Leiden: Brill, 2017 (edited as assistant editor together with Sebastian Günther and Todd Lawson).

• Koran in Franken: Überlegungen und Beispiele für Koranrezeption in fremden Kontexten. Bamberger Interreligiöse Studien 15. Würzburg: Ergon, 2016 (edited together with Thomas Würtz and Stefan Zinsmeister).

Editions and Translations

• Die arabischen Briefe aus der Zeit der Herrnhuter Präsenz in Ägypten 1770–1783. Orthodoxie, Orient und Europa 5. Würzburg: Ergon, 2012 (edition of Arabic texts and German translation together with Martin Tamcke and Arthur Manukyan).

Articles and Book Chapters (Selection)

• “Does a Mamluk Sultan Hold Religious Authority? Quranic Exegesis and Hadith Studies in Late Mamluk Courtly majālis.” Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 11.1 (2023): 80–111.

• “The Production and Transmission of Knowledge in Islamicate Courts of the Middle and Early Modern Periods.” Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 11.1 (2023): 1–23.

• “Ottomanization before the Conquest? Mamluk-Ottoman Religious and Cultural Entanglements in the Courtly Salons of Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī and Post-Conquest Gatherings.” In The Mamluk-Ottoman Transition: Continuity and Change in Egypt and Bilād al-Shām in the Sixteenth Century II. Edited by Stephan Conermann and Gül Şen, 409–453. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2022.

• “Between Religious Pluralism and Confessional Identity: The Ethical Writings of Miskawayh’s Teacher Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī.” In Islamic Ethics as Educational Discourse: Thought and Impact of the Classical Muslim Thinker Miskawayh (d. 1030). Edited by Sebastian Günther and Yassir El Jamouhi, 161–177. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021.

• “‘And They Read in That Night Books of History’: Consuming, Discussing, and Producing Texts about the Past in al-Ghawrī’s Majālis as Social Practices.” In New Readings in Arabic Historiography from Late Medieval Egypt and Syria: Proceedings of the Themed Day of the Fifth Conference of Mamluk Studies. Edited by Jo van Steenbergen and Maya Termonia, 401–428. Leiden: Brill, 2021.

• “Education and Learning among Members of the Mamluk Army: Results of a Quantitative Analysis of Mamluk Biographies.” In History and Society during the Mamluk Period (1250–1517): Studies of the Annemarie Schimmel Institute for Advanced Study III. Edited by Bethany Walker and Abdelkader Al Ghouz, 61–88. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021.

• “A Severed Head, a Poetry Slam, and a Shiʿī Visiting al-Shāfiʿī’s Tomb: Symbolic and Literary Communication in Mamluk-Safawid Diplomatic Encounters.” In Studies on the History and Culture of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). Edited by Stephan Conermann and Toru Miura, 139–161. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021.

• “Being Persian in Late Mamluk Egypt: The Construction and Significance of Persian Ethnic Identity in the Salons of Sultan Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 906–922/1501–1516).” Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists 28 (2020): 376–408.

• “The Development of Arabo-Islamic Education among Members of the Mamluk Military.” In Knowledge and Education in Classical Islam: Religious Learning between Continuity and Change. Edited by Sebastian Günther, 963–983. Leiden: Brill, 2020.

• “Der Sultan, sein geschwätziger Barbier und die Sufis: Ibn Iyās über den Fall des Kamāl ad-Dīn b. Šams im Kairo des 16. Jahrhunderts.” In Macht bei Hofe: Narrative Darstellungen in ausgewählten Quellen: Ein interdisziplinärer Reader. Edited by Stephan Conermann and Anna Kollatz, 79–98. Schenefeld: EB-Verlag, 2020.

• “Childless Rule and the Sultan’s Son: Muḥammad ibn al-Ghawrī and the Mamluk System of Succession in Early 16th Century Egypt.” In Norm, Normabweichung und Praxis des Herrschaftsübergangs in transkultureller Perspektive. Edited by Tilmann Trausch, 161–185. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019.

• “Georg Pilder’s Arabisches Lexicon of 1772: The Oldest Known Comprehensive Arabic-German Dictionary Rediscovered.” Der Islam: Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East 95.2 (2018): 524–548.

• “Nur hinter verschlossenen Türen? Das Amt des muḥtasib und die Öffentlichkeit von Astrologie, Wahrsagerei, Zauberei und Amulettgebrauch.” In Die Geheimnisse der oberen und der unteren Welt: Magie im Islam zwischen Glaube und Wissenschaft. Edited by Sebastian Günther and Dorothee Pielow, 319–343. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

• “Dialog in der Krise: Zum Diskurs über wirtschaftliche Probleme und Tod in der Korrespondenz zwischen Herrnhutern und Kopten.” In Imaginiert und real, erschaut und erdacht: Christen in Ägypten und literarische Werke von und zu ihnen. Edited by Heike Behlmer and Martin Tamcke, 69–78. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017.

• “A New Source on the Social Gatherings (majālis) of the Mamluk Sultan Qānṣawh al-Ghawrī.” Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists 24 (2016): 145–148 (together with Christopher Markiewicz).

• “al-Suyūṭī’s Stance toward Worldly Power: A Reexamination Based on Unpublished and Understudied Sources.” In Al-Suyūṭī, a Polymath of the Mamlūk Period. Edited by Antonella Ghersetti, 81–97. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

• “Einführung: Koran in Franken.” In Koran in Franken: Überlegungen und Beispiele für Koranrezeption in fremden Kontexten. Edited by Christian Mauder, Thomas Würtz, and Stefan Zinsmeister, 11–15. Würzburg: Ergon, 2016 (together with Thomas Würtz and Stefan Zinsmeister).

• “Herrschaftsbegründung durch Handlung: ʿAbd al-Bāsiṭ al-Malaṭīs (st. 1514 in Kairo) ‚al-Maǧmūʿ al-bustān an-nawrī‘ (‚Die erblühende Gartensammlung‘).” Das Mittelalter: Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung 20.1 (2015): 29–46.

• “‘You pursue Mahumet’s teachings and I the teachings of Christ, so let us be silent on this and talk about something else.’ Christian-Muslim Encounters in 18th-century Egypt as Reflected in Moravian Writings.” In Christsein in der islamischen Welt: Festschrift für Martin Tamcke zum 60. Geburtstag. Edited by Sidney H. Griffith and Sven Grebenstein, 401–422. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2015.

• “‘Teaching the Way of the Truth to Coptic Firstlings.’ The Arabic Correspondence between Moravians and Copts in Ottoman Egypt as an Example of Intercultural Communication.” Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 65 (2013): 49–66.

• “The Arabic Correspondence of the Moravian Brethren in Cairo.” Orientwissenschaftliche Hefte 32 (2013): 75–95.

• “Der arabische Briefwechsel zwischen den Herrnhutern in Kairo und den Kopten in Behnesse in den Jahren 1770–1783.” In Kulturbegegnung zwischen Imagination und Realität. Edited by Martin Tamcke and Arthur Manukyan, 61–76. Würzburg: Ergon, 2010.

Book Reviews

• Review [in English] of The Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo, 1261–1517: Out of the Shadows, by Mustafa Banister. Journal of Islamic Studies 34.2 (2023), 264–268.

• Review [in English] of Warum es kein islamisches Mittelalter gab: Das Erbe der Antike und der Orient, by Thomas Bauer. Al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists 28 (2020), 465–170.

• Review [in English] of Al-Maqrīzī’s al-Ḫabar ʿan al-bašar, Vol. V, Section 4: Persia and Its Kings, Part I, by Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 82.1(2019), 164–165.

• Review [in German] of Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth Century: Scholarly Currents in the Ottoman Empire and the Maghreb, by Khaled El-Rouayheb.Hikma 8 (2017), 295–298.

• Review [in English] of Islamische Theologie im 14. Jahrhundert: Auferstehungslehre, Handlungstheorie und Schöpfungsvorstellungen im Werk von Saʿd ad-Dīn at-Taftāzānī, by Thomas Würtz. Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists 25 (2017): 219–224.

• Review [in English] of Legatio Babylonica, by Petrus Martyr Anglerius,ed. and trans. Hans Heinrich Todt. Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists 24 (2016): 203–207.

• Review [in English] of The Rise and Fall of a Muslim Regiment: The Manṣūriyya in the First Mamluk Sultanate, by Amir Mazor. Sehepunkte 16.7 (2016), URL: http://www.sehepunkte.de/ 2016/07/29155.html.

• Review [in English] of al-Wizāra wa-l-wuzarāʾ fī Miṣr fī ʿaṣr al-ṣalāṭīn al-mamālīk, by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Ashqar. Sehepunkte 14.9 (2014), URL: http://www.sehepunkte.de/ 2014/09/26070.html.

• Review [in English] of Muʾarrikhū Miṣr al-Islāmiyya wa-maṣādir al-tārīkh al-Miṣrī, by Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh ʿInān. Sehepunkte 14.9 (2014), URL: http://www.sehepunkte.de/2014/09/26071.html.

• Review [in German] of Die Nestorianer und der frühe Islam: Wechselwirkungen zwischen den ostsyrischen Christen und ihren arabischen Nachbarn, by Marijke Metselaar. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 162 (2012): 218–221.