History Personnel
Teaching - Fall/Winter 2020-21
HIS 2607F - History & Civilization of Medieval Islam
HIS 2608G - The History of the Modern Middle East
HIS 3602F - Crusaders and Muslins in the Holy Land
HIS 9601B - The Middle East and the Great Divergence: Historical Roots of Underdevelopment
Supervision
Master's & Doctoral Level supervisory privileges
Related Links
Maya Shatzmiller
- Professor

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Telephone: 519-661-2111 ext. 84994
Email: maya@uwo.ca
Office: Lawson Hall 2229
Office Hours via e-mail: Wednesdays 3:00-5:00pm, or by appointment
Teaching Philosophy
For most incoming students Islamic history is a foreign universe. Therefore my first goal is to introduce students to the general themes of Islamic history, beginning with the rise of Islam in the 7th century A.D. Middle East. Those taking my introductory second year course will engage in reading the primary sources of the medieval and modern periods in translation. I encourage third and fourth year students to move to more focused and in depth study of social, cultural and economic themes in Islamic history. For the more advanced students, on the Master and Doctoral levels, I offer the possibility to specialize in specific fields of interest, through research papers. More specific training in the field includes familiarizing them with the research tools and the study of Arabic. Being a specialist in Islamic social and economic history I welcome particularly students with previous knowledge of economics or Middle Eastern languages to collaborate and participate in my research projects. I aim at training future scholars in the field of Islamic social and economic history; produce original and independent research work, and eventually teach in the field.
Selected Publications
Monographs
(2019) From Berber State to Moroccan Empire: The Glory of Fez Under the Marinids. Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, 2019. Medieval Fez was a main center of education, art, and commerce from the 13th to the 16th centuries after the Berber tribe of the Marinids seized power in Morocco and moved the capital from Marrakesh to Fez. As non-Arabs, they gained legitimacy by founding medresas, religious universities. They also supported the arts and commerce, and expanded their state into an empire. It was the Golden Age of the Fez. Maya Shatzmiller draws a historical panorama of this era, highlighting its mover and shakers in locations from North Africa to the Mediterranean world.
This new edition has a new introduction and chapter on the Moroccan empire during the Marinid period focusing on trade in the Mediterranean reigion.

(2000) The Berbers and the Islamic State: The Marinid Experience in Pre-protectorate Morocco. Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, 2000, 196 pp. This book studies how the Berbers participated in the process of the state's formation in the medieval Maghreb, while at the same time resisting uniformity and conformity to cultural norms and institutions, through which acculturation was enforced.
(1994) Labour in the Medieval Islamic World. Arab History and Civilization: Studies and Texts, 4. E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1994, viii+443 pp.
(1982) L'Historiographie mérinide: Ibn Khaldun et ses contemporains. E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1982, 182 pp. Arabic translation by Muhammad Shaqir and Muhammad Darib, Tawji Maktabat al-Umma, Rabat, 1993
Edited Volumes
(2005) Nationalism and Minority Identities in Islamic Societies . Papers delivered at the conference at the University of Western Ontario, December 2001. Edited by Maya Shatzmiller. Vol. 1 in the Western Series in Ethnic Conflict. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, 2005. 346 pp. Hard cover and paperback editions.
(2002) Islam and Bosnia: Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy in Multi-Ethnic States. Papers delivered at the conference held at the University of Western Ontario, May, 1999. Edited by Maya Shatzmiller. McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal, 2002. 220pp. Hard cover and paperback editions.
(1993) Crusaders and Muslims in 12th Century Syria . Papers delivered at the conference at the University of Western Ontario, November, 1988. Edited by Maya Shatzmiller. Vol.1. In the series: The Medieval Mediterranean Peoples, Economics and Cultures 400-1453. E. J. Brill, Leiden, New-York, Köln, 1993. 236 pp. Hard cover and paperback editions.
Selected Articles
Forthcoming
- “Structural Change and Economic Development in the Islamic Middle East 700-1500: Population Levels and Property Rights” Scottish Journal of Political Economy Special Conference volume.
- “Equity and Equality: The Economics of Female Property Rights in the Islamic Middle East 700-1500.”
Published
- "Equity and Equality: The Economics Behind Women’s Property Rights in Islamic Law”
Lecture, Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School
Podcast, ShariaSource at Harvard Law School, Program in Islamic Law - 1. Keynote Lecture Fourth workshop, Research Initiative on the Economics of the Middle East, Heriot-Watt University, Panmure House, Edinburgh, 14-15 November 2019
- "Recent Trends in Middle East economic history: Cultural factors and structural change in the medieval period 650-1500" History Compass 2018 DOI:10.1111/hic3.12504 (Part One)
- "Recent Trends in Middle East economic history: Cultural factors and structural change in the medieval period 650-1500" History Compass 2018 DOI:10.1111/hic3.12511 (Part Two)
- "The Adoption of Paper in the Middle East, 700-1300 AD" The Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 61/3 (2018)
- "Prices and price formation in the Islamic Middle East: the role of money supply and state policies." In Prezzi delle cose nell'età preindustriale • The Prices of Things in Pre-industrial Times: selezione diricerche = Selection of essays. (Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2017). (Atti delle “Settimane di Studi” e altri Convegni, 48), pp.15-35.
- "Islam and Europe: Revisiting old theories in light of Prices." In Prezzi delle cose nell'età preindustriale • The Prices of Things in Pre-industrial Times : selezione di ricerche = Selection of essays. (Firenze : Firenze University Press, 2017) .(Atti delle “Settimane di Studi” e altri Convegni, 48), pp. 387-391.
- "Industries, Manufacturing and Labour" In ' A Cosmopolitan City: Muslims, Christians and Jews in Old Cairo' edited by Tasha Vorderstrasse and Tanya Treptow, Oriental Institute Museum Publications: University of Chicago Press, (Chicago, 2015), pp. 49-52.
- "El Mediterrani medieval i l’ordre global: Islam, moneda i mercats" In Lluís Cifuentes I Comamla, Roser Salicrú I Liuch, M Mercè Viladrich I Grau eds. Els catalans a la Mediterrània medieval. Noves fonts, recerques I perspectives. Viella, Rome, 2015, pp. 427-55.
- "Plagues, Wages, and Economic Change in the Islamic Middle East, 700-1500," The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 74, N0. 1 (March 2014), pp. 196-229. With S. Pamuk.
- "Human Capital Formation in Medieval Islam". In Workers of the World – International Journal on strikes and social conflict. ISSN: 2182-893. Special issue: Global Labour History" Volume I, number 3, May 2013, pp. 49-71.
- "The role of Money in the Economic Growth of the Early Islamic Period (650–1000)," Sources and Approaches across Disciplines in Near Eastern Studies –Proceedings of the 24th Congress, Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, Leipzig 2008, Ed. Verena Klemm et al. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 215, Peeters Publishers, Leuven- Paris-Walpole, MA, 2013, pp. 271-305.
- "The Female Body in Islamic Law and Medicine: Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Pediatrics," Attending to Early Modern Women. Conflict and Concord. University of Delaware Press, 2013, pp. 121-143.
- "Economic Performance and Economic Growth in the Early Islamic World" Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 54(2011), pp. 132-184.
- "Transcontinental Trade and Economic Growth in the Early Islamic Empire: The Red Sea Corridor in the 8th - 10th centuries" Connected Hinterlands. Proceedings of the Red Sea Project IV held at the University of Southampton, September, 2008. Ed. By Lucy Blue et al. Bar International Series 2052. Society for Arabian Studies, Monographs No. 8. Oxford, 2009, pp. 119-130.
- "A Misconstrued Link: Europe and the Economic History of Islamic Trade," Relazionie conomiche tra Europae mondo Islamico secc. XIII-XVIII, a cura di S. Cavaciocchi, (Firenze 2007), pp. 387-415. Le Monnier / Instituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini,” Atti delle Settimane di Studi e altri convegni, 38.
- "Islamic Institutions and Property Rights: The Case of the 'Public Good' Waqf," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 44/1(2001), pp. 44-74.
- The Encyclopedia of Islam Third Edition “Artisans. Up to 1500” 2012, pp. 29-36.
- "The Economic History of the Medieval Middle East: Strengths, Weaknesses and the Challenges Ahead," International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 44/3(2012), pp. 529-531.
- "Marinid Fez- Global Order and the Quest for Empire," Fez in World History. Selected essays. Al-Akhawayn University Press, Ifrane, Morocco, 2011, pp. 7-40.