Dr Niall Christie

Contact Details

Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies
The University of British Columbia
BUCH C227-1866 Main Mall
Vancouver
BC, V6T 1Z1
CANADA
Tel: +1 (604) 827-4384, Fax: +1 (604) 822-9431

E-mail: niallchristie@yahoo.com

Background

When and where did you initially develop an interest in the history of the crusades and/or the Latin East?

Who or what sparked your enthusiasm for the subject?

N/C

Education

Please provide details of your Higher Education, including dates, institution(s) and the name(s) of your research supervisors.

University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife

1996-1999 PhD in Islamic History (Awarded 1999, graduated 2000)
Thesis on Levantine Attitudes towards the Franks during the Early Crusades (490/1096-564/1169), supervised by Hugh Kennedy.

1995-1996 MLitt in Islamic History (Distinction, awarded 1996, graduated 1997)
Including a dissertation on The Presentation of the Franks in Selected Muslim Sources from the Crusades of the 12th Century, supervised by Hugh Kennedy.

1994-1995 MA Hons Arabic (1st Class, awarded and graduated 1995)
Including Language, Literature, History and Islamic Law.

1993-1994 Junior Honours MA Arabic
Including 4 months study in Cairo, Egypt, where excellent grades in both Spoken Egyptian and Modern Standard Arabic were gained.

1992-1993 2nd Year
1st Arts Arabic Culture (Distinction), 2nd Arts French (Merit) and 2nd Arts Arabic (Merit).
1991-1992 1st Year

1st Arts Arabic (Distinction), 1st Arts French (Merit) and 1st Arts Politics and International Relations (Merit).

Career History

Please provide details of your academic career history, including confirmation of your current institutional affiliation and contact details.

2007-2008 Sessional Lecturer - University of British Columbia
Teaching courses on Near Eastern Myths, Legends and Scriptures and Islamic Art and Architecture.

2006-2007 Instructor - Corpus Christi College
Teaching courses on Classical, Early Modern and Modern Islamic Civilisation and Islamic Art and Architecture.

2006-2007 Sessional Lecturer - University of British Columbia
Teaching courses on Near Eastern Myths, Legends and Scriptures and Islamic History, Religion, Literature, Art and Architecture.

2005-2006 Admissions Officer - St Mark's College
Managing admissions, registrations and related concerns at a graduate theological college.

2005-2006 Instructor - Corpus Christi College
Teaching courses on Classical Islamic Civilisation, Islamic Art and Architecture and Greek and Roman Civilisation.

2003-2005 Sessional Lecturer - University of British Columbia
Taught in Arts One, an interdisciplinary programme providing undergraduates with a broad grounding in History, Philosophy and English.

2003 Sessional Lecturer - Simon Fraser University
Taught a course on Classical Islamic Civilisation

2002-2003 Sessional Lecturer - University of British Columbia
Taught courses on Near Eastern Myths, Legends and Scriptures and Islamic Art and Architecture.

2002-2003 Instructor - Langara College
Taught courses on the Early and Later Mediaeval History of Europe.

2001-2002 Lecturer/Visiting Scholar - Cornell University
Designed and taught Fear and Loathing? Christians, Muslims and the Crusades, a first-year writing seminar. Conducted research on Holy War Preaching in Europe and the Levant.

1999-2001 Post-doctoral Fellow - University of Toronto
Worked in collaboration with Professor Linda S Northrup on Fanadiq (trade hostelries) in Mamluk Land Tenure Documents, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

2000 Instructor - University of Toronto
Designed a graduate course on the Islamic Response to the Crusades (1095-1291), which was offered in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations.

1995-1996 Teaching Assistant - University of St Andrews
Included teaching 3rd and 4th year undergraduate courses on Mediaeval Arabic Literature, writing and grading assessments and final examinations.

Influences and Methodologies

What ideas and/or methodologies have informed your approach to your research?

N/C

Research Outlook

What do you consider to be the most important avenues for future research in the field of crusader studies?

N/C

Research Output

Please provide details of your research output, including publications and other media as appropriate.

Books

Under contract Preaching Holy War: Crusade and Jihad, 1095-1105, with Deborah Gerish (Ashgate Press)

Noble Ideals and Bloody Realities: Warfare in the Middle Ages, edited with Maya Yazigi, History of Warfare, vol 37 (Leiden: EJ Brill, 2006. Table of Contents and Introduction available on the Internet at: <http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/articles/nobleideas.htm>)

Proceedings of the Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations Graduate Students' Annual Symposia 1998-2000, edited with Caroline Rocheleau et al (Toronto: Benben Publications, 2001)

Refereed Articles in Journals and Edited Volumes

  • "Jerusalem in the Kitab al-Jihad of 'Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami (d 1106)," Medieval Encounters, vol 13 (2007), No 2, pp 209-21
  • "Religious Campaign or War of Conquest? Muslim Views of the Motives of the First Crusade," Noble Ideals and Bloody Realities: Warfare in the Middle Ages, ed Niall Christie and Maya Yazigi, History of Warfare, vol 37 (Leiden: EJ Brill, 2006), pp 57-72
  • "Just a Bunch of Dirty Stories? Women in the 'Memoirs' of Usamah ibn Munqidh," Eastward Bound: Travel and Travellers, 1050-1550, ed Rosamund Allen (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), pp 71-87
  • "Reconstructing Life in Mediaeval Alexandria from an 8th/14th Century Waqf Document," Mamluk Studies Review, vol 8 (2004), No 2, pp 163-90
  • "Parallel Preachings: Urban II and al-Sulami," with Deborah Gerish, Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, vol 15 (2003), No 2, pp 139-48
  • "The Origins of Suffixed Invocations of God's Curse on the Franks in Muslim Sources for the Crusades," Arabica, vol 48 (2001), No 2, pp 254-66
  • Accepted "A Rental Document from 8th/14th Century Egypt," Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt
  • Accepted "Motivating Listeners in the Kitab al-Jihad of 'Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami (d 1106)," Crusades

Submitted for publication:

"Military Organisation and Warfare," The Islamic World, ed Andrew Rippin (Routledge)

"Cosmopolitan Trade Centre or Bone of Contention? Alexandria and the Crusades, 1095-1453," Proceedings of the Symposium on Cosmopolitan Alexandria, ed Deborah Starr (Syracuse University Press)

Articles in Encyclopaedias

The Crusades: An Encyclopedia, ed Alan V. Murray (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2006)

  • Abbasids (Vol 1, pp 1-3)
  • Arabic Sources (Vol 1, pp 81-84)
  • Caliphate (Vol 1, pp 201-2)
  • Al-Hakim (985-1021) (Vol 2, pp 554-55)
  • Homs (Vol 2, pp 596-97)
  • Ibn al-Qalanisi (d 1160) (Vol 2, p 626)
  • Ibn Shaddad (1145-1234) (Vol 2, pp 626-27)
  • Ibn Wasil (1208-1298) (Vol 2, p 627)
  • Al-Isfahani (1125-1201) (Vol 2, pp 644-45)
  • Kamal al-Din (1192-1262) (Vol 3, p 703)
  • Nur al-Din (1118-1174) (Vol 3, pp 892-94)
  • Shi'ites (Vol 4, pp 1095-96)
  • Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (1185/1186-1256) (Vol 4, pp 1103-4)
  • Al-Sulami (1039-1106) (Vol 4, p 1124)
  • Sunni Islam (Vol 4, p 1125)
  • Zangi (d 1146) (Vol 4, pp 1293-95)

Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, ed Josef Meri (New York: Routledge, 2006)

The Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, ed Suad Joseph et al. (Leiden: EJ Brill, 2003)

  • Crusade Literature (Vol 1, pp 16-21)

Articles on the Internet

"The Presentation of the Franks in Selected Muslim Sources from the Crusades of the 12th Century" (MLitt dissertation), De Re Militari web site, 8th March 2002: <http://www.deremilitari.org/RESOURCES/ARTICLES/christie.htm>

Reviews

  • The Barons' Crusade: A Call to Arms and Its Consequences, by Michael Lower, International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol 38 (2006), No 4, pp 587-88
  • Views from the Edge: Essays in Honor of Richard W. Bulliet, ed Neguin Yavari, Lawrence G Potter and Jean-Marc Ran Oppenheim, Journal of Islamic Studies, vol 17 (2006), No 2, pp 225-227
  • Governing the Holy City: The Interaction of Social Groups in Jerusalem between the Fatimid and the Ottoman Period, ed Johannes Pahlitzsch and Lorenz Korn, Mamluk Studies Review, vol 10 (2006), No 1, pp 219-21
  • Al-Hurub al-Salibiyah al-Muta'akhkhirah: Hamlat Butrus al-Awwal Lusinyan 'ala al-Iskandariyah, 747 AH/1365 AD, by Suhayr Muhammad Ibrahim Nu'ayni', Mamluk Studies Review, vol 10 (2006), No 1, pp 199-201
  • Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs, by Nadia Maria El Cheikh, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol 125 (2005), No 1, pp 107-9
  • Al-Ta'rikh wa-al-Mu'arrikhun fi Bilad al-Sham fi 'Asr al-Hurub al-Salibiyah (521-660 AH), by Jamal Fawzi Muhammad 'Ammar, Mamluk Studies Review, vol 9 (2005), No 2, pp 230-1
  • Francs et Orientaux dans le monde des croisades, by Jean Richard, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, vol 38 (2004), No 1, pp 91-3
  • The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin, by DS Richards, Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, vol 15, No 2, pp 216-7
  • Ghunyat al-Rami wa-Ghayat al-Marami fi 'Ilm al-Ramy 'an al-Qaws, by Tabiq al-Ashrafi al-Baklamishi, Mamluk Studies Review, vol 7 (2003), pp 263-4
  • Riyadat al-Sayd fi 'Asr Salatin al-Mamalik, by Nabil Muhammad 'Abd al-'Aziz, Mamluk Studies Review, vol 7 (2003), pp 254-5
  • Crusaders, Condottieri and Cannon: Medieval Warfare in Societies around the Mediterranean, ed LJ Andrew Villalon and Donald J Kagay, De Re Militari web site, 1st August 2003: <http://www.deremilitari.org/REVIEWS/review29.htm>
  • La Principaute Ayyoubide d'Alep (579/1183-658/1260), by Anne-Marie Edde, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, vol 36 (2002), No 2, pp 82-3
  • Al-Malik al-'Alim Abu al-Fida': Malik Hamah, by Ahmad Qadri al-Kilani, Mamluk Studies Review, vol 6 (2002), pp 224-6
  • Al-Sharqiyah fi 'Asray Salatin al-Ayyubiyin wa-al-Mamalik, by Muhammad Fathi al-Sha'ir, Mamluk Studies Review, vol 6 (2002), pp 210-1
  • The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives, by Carole Hillenbrand, Times Literary Supplement, 26th January 2001, p 27
  • God of Battles: Holy Wars of Christianity and Islam, by Peter Partner, Religious Studies Review, vol 6 (2000), p 290

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