A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
The UMW Model United Nations invites you to a panel discussion “Crisis in Crimea” on Wednesday, April 2 at 4:30 p.m. in Trinkle Hall, Room 106A. The panel features Nabil S. Al-Tikriti, associate professor of history and American studies, and John M. Kramer, chair and distinguished professor of political science and international affairs.
Nabil Al-Tikriti discussing an FAD topic.
In his capacity as a board member of the United States section of MSF/Doctors Without Borders, Nabil Al-Tikriti, associate professor of history and American studies, participated in the annual Field Associative Debate (FAD) for MSF staff serving throughout Afghanistan, in Kabul on March 10 – 11.
This year’s international FAD topic covered the use of new communications and data collection technologies for field-based medical relief, while the national FAD topic asked where MSF might usefully choose to expand its operations in Afghanistan in the months and years to come. For the latter debate, participants were exposed to three UN maps detailing conflict, needs, and NGO presence in Afghanistan, and were then asked to debate potential regional and operational areas of need. After debating this year’s topics, staff members then presented recommendations and motions for consideration by the MSF International General Assembly. Immediately prior to this year’s FAD, Prof. Al-Tikriti joined several colleagues on a brief field visit to both a mobile clinic and Ahmad Shah Baba hospital in the outskirts of Kabul, a full service maternity, child health, and trauma hospital supplied, supported, and staffed with the assistance of MSF. Upon his return, he co-authored a FAD report, and completed a brief memo on regional operations for internal review.
Shortly after his return, Al-Tikriti made a presentation to the Stafford Rotary Club on March 19 describing his past experiences since 1993 volunteering in field operations with MSF, and his current activities as an MSF USA board member. In the course of this presentation, he discussed his experiences in several international conflicts, MSF’s charter and approach to medical relief, the movement’s global financial challenges, and his recent trip to Kabul.
On Nov. 7, Nabil Al-Tikriti presented a paper entitled “The 1502-1504 Correspondence Between Şehzade Korkud and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem” to the Mediterranean in History Workshop, which took place on Nov. 7-8 in Venice, Italy. The workshop, which brought together some 24 experts in early modern Mediterranean maritime history, primarily from Italy and Turkey, was hosted by Universita Ca’ Foscari’s Department of Asian and North African Studies, the Archivio di Stato di Venezia, and the region of Venice. Co-organizers included Piri Reis Universitesi and the International Association of Maritime Studies (IAMS). Invited by the conference organizers, Prof. Al-Tikriti presented an English translation and analysis of several letters exchanged between the Ottoman prince Korkud and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, then based in Rhodes. Organizers plan to complete an edited volume of conference presentations in the months to come.
Following the workshop, with the additional support of UMW’s Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation, Prof. Al-Tikriti spent Nov. 9-10 visiting sites of historical, cultural, and pedagogical interest in advance of the Cultural Capitals Summer Study Course. This course, which Prof. Al-Tikriti plans to co-lead in the summer of 2015 with Prof. Joseph Romero of the Classics, Philosophy, and Religion Department, will take students to London, Paris, Venice, and Rome. During this three and half week course, students will earn six credits after completing several study projects. In an effort to strengthen course content in the Venice portion of the course, Prof. Al-Tikriti visited numerous sites throughout the city, fostered local contacts, and attained preliminary approval to lead students through certain closed facilities of historical and cultural interest.
Here is Prof. Al-Tikriti’s paper abstract for the workshop:
“Just at the turn of the sixteenth century there broke out a nasty little war between a Vatican-brokered Christian alliance and the Ottomans, which included a major push to siege the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. In the immediate aftermath of this siege, and conclusion of hostilities, the Ottoman prince, Korkud, who had been in command of the province under siege was transferred from his Aegean post of Manisa to the Mediterranean post of Antalya. Although it remains unclear why this transfer happened, or whether it was a promotion or a demotion, it appears likely that the prince was tasked with managing the highly sensitive and dangerous relationship with the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
In this paper, I plan to explore in detail the extended correspondence which Korkud and the Knights subsequently exchanged between August 1502 and July 1504. In the course of these exchanges, the two parties engaged in a series of negotiations attempting to regularize relations between the two hostile parties and complete several highly sensitive prisoner exchanges. Through an exploration of this correspondence, as well as the relevant narrative sources surrounding this relationship during these years, I plan to draw some preliminary conclusions concerning the nature of Ottoman-Knights relations, the protocols of captivity, and the modalities of conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean during this period.”
On Oct. 10 to 13, Professors Ranjit Singh, political science and international affairs, and Nabil Al-Tikriti, history and American studies, attended the 2013 Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Conference in New Orleans, LA. The conference is the primary professional event for Middle East Studies in North America. On Oct. 11, Nabil Al-Tikriti chaired a panel entitled “Empire and Belonging: Ottoman Empire to Modern Turkey,” which brought together four scholars offering papers concerning intellectual luminaries in the late Ottoman Empire and early Republican Turkey. On Oct. 12, Ranjit Singh’s presentation on the “Teacher’s Dilemma” presented by new media was part of the “Media, Media Literacy, and Teaching Middle East Studies” panel sponsored by MESA’s Committee for Undergraduate Middle East Studies (CUMES).
On Sept. 28, Nabil Al-Tikriti offered a presentation entitled “Advocating for Release: The al-Darani Appeal” to the International Symposium on Piri Reis and Turkish Maritime History in Istanbul, Turkey. The conference, which brought together several dozen Ottoman maritime history experts from all over the world, was hosted by the new Prime Minister’s Ottoman Archives. Invited by the conference organizers, Prof. Al-Tikriti presented his analysis of two letters sent by a prisoner of the Knights of St. John, based in Rhodes. Organizers plan to complete an edited volume of conference presentations by the end of the year. This conference was hosted by the Turkish Historical Foundation, the Prime Minister’s Ottoman Archives, and the Ataturk Supreme Council for Culture, Language, and History. Here is a link to the conference program: http://sempozyum.ttk.gov.tr/eng/PiriReis_Program.pdf
Here is Prof. Al-Tikriti’s conference abstract:
“In 1504, in the midst of lengthy prisoner negotiations between Şehzade Korkud (d. 1513) and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, the Ottoman prince demanded the immediate release of fourteen Muslim prisoners. One of those he named was a certain “Hajji Abu Bakr.” It is probable that this individual was Abū Bakr al-Dārānī, who had sent a letter to Korkud appealing for his rescue from these Knights of Rhodes. His letter, probably written at some point in 1502-1503, was transcribed and inserted into Korkud’s 1508 magnum opus, Da‘wat al-nafs al-ṭāliha. Steeped in the rhetorics of ghazā’, al-Dārānī used arguments which combined the imperatives of militant piety, real world enrichment, and political calculation. As this prisoner saw it, the Knights were perfidious infidel pirates who never honor their agreements, pillage throughout the region, enrich themselves at the expense of Muslims, enslave ten Muslims for each one that they release, and oppress the Greeks (Rūm) who populate Rhodes. According to al-Dārānī, their harm to Islamdom was so severe that even if the Ottomans were to capture all of Christendom yet fail to capture Rhodes, they would have accomplished nothing. Al-Dārānī also set out to counter two widely-held beliefs concerning the Knights in Rhodes – that they would be difficult to conquer and that they possessed nothing worthy of the expense. Considering that only 600 Knights resided on the island, the prisoner insisted that the islanders would help the Muslims take the island, and that it would be easy to take. Not only were the Knights vulnerable, but they possessed great wealth, and their wealth was more than sufficient to compensate for any costs incurred by invading the island. Closing with political arguments concerning the dangers the Knights posed to Ottoman sovereignty, al-Dārānī, concluded that the Ottomans should waste no time invading Rhodes. Sources provide no sure indication whether al-Dārānī and the other prisoners listed in Korkud’s 1504 request were ever freed. However, another undated letter by a certain Taḳīyüddīn Dārānī of Ṭrablus-i Şām also urging an invasion of Rhodes provides several hints as to what might have ensued with these prisoners.
In my presentation, I examine these two letters in some depth and elaborate on what they tell us about Ottoman-Knights relations around the turn of the 16th century. I also explore some of the broader implications concerning enslavement, raiding, piracy, and Muslim-Christian conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean during the same period.”
On September 12, Professor Nabil Al-Tikriti joined an evening panel of Fredericksburg area residents to discuss potential U.S. military intervention in Syria. The panel was organized by Fredericksburg Patch and the BBC’s Nuala McGovern, and was broadcast on BBC World Service during a four hour long world news show. In the course of the panel, Al-Tikriti expressed his reservations about a potential U.S. intervention, as both an area studies expert and experienced relief professional. For a posting explaining more about the broadcast, see: http://fredericksburg.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/fredericksburg-residents-respond-to-syrian-conflict.
In his capacity as a board member of MSF / Doctors Without Borders USA, on June 14 Nabil Al-Tikriti co-organized, moderated, and led discussion during a plenary session entitled “Health Care Under Fire” during the 2013 MSF USA General Assembly in New York City. During this session, participants set out to “share some of MSF’s direct field experiences of the risks and dangers associated with healthcare delivery in insecure contexts, and, most importantly, to reflect on the impact such violence has on the disruption of medical services.” The forum served to launch a fresh initiative within the MSF movement entitled “Medical Care Under Fire” designed to engage with this issue globally. The new initiative follows a similar initiative launched by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 2011, and is partially in cooperation with that colleague agency.
Session panelists included: Mark Steinbeck (Medical Advisor and Delegate for ICRC at its Regional Delegation in Washington, DC), Joe Amon (Director, Health and Human Rights Division, Human Rights Watch), Francoise Duroch (Manager, Medical Care Under Fire project, MSF International), and Jason Cone (Director of Communications, MSF USA).
The session description was as follows: “Violence or the threat of violence against patients, health care personnel and health care structures is increasingly recognized as a potential barrier to our ability to deliver quality health care in highly unstable contexts. Our staff or our patients may be the direct victims of these attacks, but the indirect victims are all the people and communities who, as a consequence of these attacks, can no longer access health services. Health care can be suspended, withdrawn, or rendered impossible by violent events. Wounded and sick people can be denied effective health care when hospitals are damaged by explosive weapons or violated by fighters, when ambulances are hijacked and when health-care personnel are threatened, kidnapped, injured or killed…”
For an extended interview on this issue by Francoise Duroch, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyBNafxzF7w&feature=share
Prior to leading this session, Prof. Al-Tikriti served for several weeks this spring as Deputy Head of Mission for MSF France’s Syria relief operations, which entailed three brief visits into the conflict region. At this point, he grappled firsthand with many of the issues intended to be addressed by MSF’s new initiative in this direction.
During the conference, Nabil Al-Tikriti also took the opportunity to explore Cairo, the Sayyida Zaynab religious festival, Upper Egypt.
On June 3-4, Nabil Al-Tikriti offered a presentation entitled “Some Longer Term Effects of the 2003 Anglo-American Invasion on Iraqi Society” to the conference entitled Iraq – 10 Years On: Conflicts, Migrations, Futures in Cairo, Egypt. This conference brought together experts from the fields of Iraqi studies and forced migration to examine some of the lingering effects of the 2003 invasion of the country. Prof. Al-Tikriti presented both his impressions gained from a trip to Baghdad the previous month and his thoughts on the invasion’s legacies throughout a range of sectors. Organizers expect to complete an edited volume of conference presentations within the next few months. This conference was hosted by the American University in Cairo’s Center for Migration and Refugee Studies; and jointly sponsored by the Japan Foundation, Chiba University, Japan Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Here is a link to the conference program: http://iraq10years.info/wp-content/uploads/Cairo_Program2013Ver3.pdf.
Here is Prof. Al-Tikriti’s conference abstract:
“In 2003 the United States and Great Britain led a “coalition of the willing” in an invasion of Iraq which was only the latest in a long string of interventions by the two powers in the region dating back to the nineteenth century. With this contribution, I plan to examine some of the longer term effects of this particular intervention on Iraqi society and the region as a whole, as distinct from all the previous interventions as well as certain other developments endogenous to Iraqi society.
Within Iraq, I concentrate on changes in the cultural and educational spheres, extending and updating research I carried out in the years immediately following the invasion. In the cultural sphere, I ask what has befallen Iraq’s cultural patrimony since the invasion, particularly in terms of manuscript collections and archives. In the educational sphere, I examine changes in higher education and social studies textbook production since 2003.
Outside Iraq, I examine changes both to the region as a whole, as well as to the reach of U.S. foreign policy as a result of the 2003 invasion. As widely publicized at the time, American policymakers hoped to spread democracy throughout the region, transform Iraq into a base for intervention elsewhere, and demonstrate the vibrancy of an unregulated economy. My contribution will conclude with a summary overview of the success, failure, and longer term effects of such policy orientations on both the region and the United States itself.”