The American University in Cairo
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Sheikh Hassan Abbas Sharbatly Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations
Annual History Seminar
Friday 27 and Saturday 28 March, 2026
Oriental Hall, AUC Tahrir Square Campus
Call For Papers
Trading Patterns in Middle East History, 700-1900:
Impacts, Ruptures and Continuities
The Middle East, and Egypt with its central strategic position within it, has long served as a pivotal hub for regional and global trade, even while agriculture remained a primary resource. The Annual History Seminar 2026 invites papers that study and explore ruptures and continuities in trade and its patterns at important junctures and turning points in the region’s history with the aim of reaching better understandings of the different role that trade played in its economies and how this interacted and intersected with different institutions in state and society at various historical periods.
Possible themes and questions include:
Commercialization as a Process: How, when and why did certain institutions or practices become commercialized or move from a state- or legal-centered pattern to a commercial one? What contradictions or tensions developed with such changes? How did commercialization, as a system and philosophy, expand at times into various areas of state and society? What did it touch?
Institutions and Law: The relationship between trade and legal institutions (whether jurisprudential or judicial) and commercial institutions (such as guilds or trade councils or embassies) was dynamic and complex. How did these change and what tensions and conflicts erupted in times of transformation? How did the organization of institutions affect commerce and trade dynamics and alternatively how were they shaped by them? How did multiple patterns co-exist at times?
Trade and State: The state could encourage or could curtail the work of merchants. How was commerce impacted by state policies? How can we examine the many-sided relationship between political and commercial authorities? What kind of facilities did the state offer merchants, or the other way round, how did political authorities benefit from merchants?
Documenting Trade Practices: What can we learn about trading practices from merchant archives, commercial treaties between different nations? How do some trade agreements and diplomatic treaties help us understand both commercial and political realities at a given point in time?
Commerce and Material Culture: What impact did trade have on the urban landscape? What urban facilities favored and served merchant activity?
Submission Details
Abstracts of up to 300 words (in English or Arabic) should clearly define the topic, methods, and analytical framework of the proposed presentation. Submissions from early career researchers and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. Please send abstracts and a recent CV to [email protected] no later than 1 November, 2025.
For enquiries please contact: Professor Nelly Hanna ([email protected]) or Dr Amina Elbendary ([email protected])
Deadline for abstract and CV submissions: 1 November, 2025 via email to [email protected]
Sheikh Hassan Abbas Sharbatly Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations
The American University in Cairo
AUC Avenue, New Cairo
P.O. Box 74
Cairo 11835, Egypt
Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Hall, Room 2167
tel 20.2.2615.1783/1786
fax 2615.7565
[email protected]