Louise Marlow
Professor of Religion
Louise Marlow is Professor of Religion and former Director of Middle Eastern Studies. She received her undergraduate degree from Cambridge University, where she studied Persian and Arabic, and her doctoral degree from Princeton University.
In much of her research, she has concentrated on the pre-modern Arabic and Persian literatures of political advice, often referred to as ‘mirrors for princes’. She is the author of Counsel for Kings: Wisdom and Politics in Tenth-Century Iran (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016), and Hierarchy and Egalitarianism in Islamic Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). She is currently completing Medieval Muslim Mirrors for Princes: An Anthology of Arabic, Persian and Turkish Political Advice. She is the editor of The Rhetoric of Biography: Narrating lives in Persianate societies (Boston: Ilex Foundation and Washington, D. C.: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2011), Dreaming across Boundaries: The interpretation of dreams in Islamic lands (Boston: Ilex Foundation and Washington, D. C.: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2008), and, with Beatrice Gruendler, Writers and Rulers: Perspectives on their relationships from Abbasid to Safavid times (Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2004). In her recent research, she has explored examples of Arabic and Persian bilingualism and translation between Arabic and Persian.
She teaches courses in Islamic cultural studies and Muslim ethics, as well as occasional courses in Classical Arabic literature and translation. Her courses include studies of the intellectual and cultural histories of Iran and Egypt, as well as seminars in travel literature, law, urban forms, and the study and representation of Islam and Muslims. In all her teaching she concentrates on historical contexts and the diversity across and within Muslim cultures.
Education
- B.A., Cambridge University
- M.A., Princeton University
- Ph.D., Princeton University
Currently teaching
Cities in the Islamic World
REL365
An exploration of urban forms and culture in Muslim societies from Islamic late antiquity to the present. The course examines and critiques concepts of 'the Arab city' and ‘the Islamic city' while focusing on elements of continuity and change in particular cities, such as Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Istanbul, Isfahan, Samarqand, Lucknow and Lahore. Topics include migration, settlement, and the construction of new cities; conversion; the emergence of ‘holy cities' as centres for pilgrimage, religious education and Islamic legal scholarship; sacred space and architecture; religious diversity in urban environments; the impact of colonialism; post-colonial developments; modern and contemporary environmental issues; renewal and preservation.
(MES 365 and REL 365 are cross-listed courses.)-
Cities in the Islamic World
REL261
An exploration of urban forms and culture in Muslim societies from Islamic late antiquity to the present. The course examines and critiques concepts of 'the Arab city' and ‘the Islamic city' while focusing on elements of continuity and change in particular cities, such as Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Istanbul, Isfahan, Samarqand, Lucknow and Lahore. Topics include migration, settlement, and the construction of new cities; conversion; the emergence of ‘holy cities' as centres for pilgrimage, religious education and Islamic legal scholarship; sacred space and architecture; religious diversity in urban environments; the impact of colonialism; post-colonial developments; modern and contemporary environmental issues; renewal and preservation. (MES 261 and REL 261 are cross-listed courses.) -
Seminar: Muslim Travelers
REL367
An exploration of the experiences and writings of Muslim travelers from the Middle Ages to the present in West, South, East, and Central Asia, North Africa, Europe, and America. Focus on the wide range of cultural encounters facilitated by journeys for purposes of pilgrimage, study, diplomacy, exploration, migration, and tourism, and on the varied descriptions of such encounters in forms of literary expression associated with travel, including poetry, pilgrimage manuals, narrative accounts, letters, memoirs, and graffiti. Authors include al-Biruni, Ibn Jubayr, Ibn Battuta, Evliya Çelebi, al-Tahtawi, Farahani, Abu Talib Khan, Asayesh. (MES 367 and REL 367 are cross-listed courses.)