The power of stories is a point of discussion in all areas of knowledge, both at policy level and in academia. Lawyers lament the fossilization of “big case” stories to the detriment of using real-life, contemporary stories and cases. Fiction writers emphasize the importance of stories as instruments of truth. Historians argue that “narratives have changed history and influenced the mindsets of generations.”
The aim of this workshop is to bring this critical engagement with the role of stories in history into the current discourse amongst scholars of the Islamicate world. Some critical questions that will be tackled in this workshop are: To what extent do stories on historical characters and events circulate across literary, historical and artistic genres? What is their message? And to whom are they addressed? How are the stories transmitted across genres? When and why are they forgotten or retold? How powerful are stories about the past today? How well do scholars tackle the nexus between “stories” and “fact,” “fact” and “fiction”?

Workshop Programme
Introduction: Julia Bray, Hugh Kennedy, Arezou Azad

SESSION 1: AT THE INTERSECTION OF LITERATURE AND HISTORY I
9:30 Hugh Kennedy (SOAS-London): Tabari on the Barmakids.
9:55 Arezou Azad (Oxford/Inalco-Paris): Persian stories on the Barmakids in Bodleian manuscript Ouseley 217: the Barmakids as models for Islamicate adminisitration?
10:20 Julia Bray (Oxford): Hārūn and the Barmakids in Kitāb al-Aghānī and al-Faraj baʿd al shidda: the beginnings of a legend?

SESSION 2: AT THE INTERSECTION OF LITERATURE AND HISTORY II
11:30 Enass Khansa (Beirut): Adaptations of Alf layla’s “Qiṣṣat Sayf al-Mulūk” in an Anonymous Escorial Manuscript.
11:55 Simon Berger (Paris, CNRS): Stories in the Tabaqat-i Nasiri TBC

SESSION 3: ART AND THE STORY
14:00 Robert Hillenbrand (Oxford): Rashid al-Din manuscript and images.
14:25 Michael Shenkar (Hebrew University): Narrative Paintings and Epic Stories in Sogdian Art.
15:35 Guy Ron-Gilboa (Bar-Ilan University: Turning the Tables on the Captors: Wonder and Moral Critique in KitābʿAjāʾib al-Hind.
16:00: Isabel Toral  (Freie Universität Berlin): “Tell me a parable about kings and their assistants”. Political Allegories and Statecraft in Kalīla wa-Dimna.

Abstract: The collection of fables known as Kalīla wa-Dimna, which originated in India and was translated into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa in the 8th century, is regarded as an early exemplar of the Arabic "mirror of princes." The text employs allegories and animal fables to critique courtly life and governance, offering insights into leadership, justice, and the exercise of power. The stories subtly address the complexities of practical political maneuvering and ethical statecraft. This paper aims to elucidate this political dimension by analyzing selected fables and investigating how the stories were accommodated in different versions to varying political sensitivities.