Maaike van Berkel

Radboud University Nijmegen, History, Faculty Member

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I am a social and cultural historian of the Middle East, with a particular interest in literacy, court culture, bureaucracy and urban organization. I hold the chair of Medieval History at the Radboud University Nijmegen.

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List of Publications by Maaike van Berkel

List of Publications Maaike van Berkel May 2018.docx

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Books by Maaike van Berkel

Prince, Pen and Sword. Eurasian Perspectives, with Jeroen Duindam (Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2018). http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/books/9789004315716

Legal Documents as Sources for the History of Muslim Societies. Studies in Honour of Ruud Peters, with Léon Buskens and Petra Sijpesteijn (forthcoming, Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2017)

Crisis and Continuity at the ‘Abbāsid Court. Formal and Informal Politics in the Caliphate of al-Muqtadir (295-320/908-932) (Brill: Leiden, 2013) 262 pp.

by Maaike van Berkel and Letizia Osti

The reign of al-Muqtadir (295-320/908-32) is a crucial and controversial epoch in the history of ... more The reign of al-Muqtadir (295-320/908-32) is a crucial and controversial epoch in the history of the Abbasid empire. Al-Muqtadir’s regime has traditionally been depicted as one of decline, when the political power of the caliphate and the lustre of its capital began to crumble. This book not only offers a substantial investigation of the idea and reality of decline, but also provides new interpretations of the inner workings of the court and the empire. The authors, four specialists of Abbasid history, explore the formal and informal power relationships that shaped politics at the court, involving bureaucrats, military, harem, courtiers and of course al-Muqtadir himself. A study of the topography of Baghdad completes this vivid picture of the court and its capital.

Zenobia, Khadîja en Dolle Amina’s. Gender en macht in de islamitische geschiedenis. Jaarboek voor vrouwengeschiedenis 29 (Aksant: Amsterdam, 2009).

Ibn Khaldun en zijn wereld, with Rudi Kunzel (Bulaaq: Amsterdam, 2008).

Accountants and Men of Letters. Status and Position of Civil Servants in Early Tenth Century Baghdad, PhD dissertation (University of Amsterdam, 2003).

Articles by Maaike van Berkel

‘Fighting Corruption between Theory and Practice: The Land of the Euphrates and the Tigris in Transition (9-11th c.), in: R. Kroeze et al., Anticorruption in History. From Antiquity to the Modern Era (Oxford: OUP, 2018) 65-76.

http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198809975.001.0001/oso-9780198809975-chapte... more

‘The People of the Pen. Self-Perceptions of Status and Role in the Administration of Empires and Polities’, in: M. van Berkel and J. Duindam( eds.), Prince, Pen and Sword. Eurasian Perspectives (Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2018) 384-451.

http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/books/b9789004315716_006

‘Communication between Centre and Periphery in the Early-Tenth-Century Abbasid Empire’, in: W. Pohl (ed.), Shadows of Empire. Imperial Peripheries in Early Medieval Eurasia (forthcoming, Cambridge: CUP, 2018) 11 pp.

Introduction | Legal Documents as Sources for the History of Muslim Societies

by Petra Sijpesteijn and Maaike van Berkel

This volume is a tribute to the work of legal and social historian and Arabist Rudolph Peters (Un... more This volume is a tribute to the work of legal and social historian and Arabist Rudolph Peters (University of Amsterdam). Presenting case studies from different periods and areas of the Muslim world, the book examines the use of legal documents for the study of the history of Muslim societies. From examinations of the conceptual status of legal documents to comparative studies of the development of legal formulae and the socio-economic or political historical information documents contain, the aim is to approach legal documents as specialised texts belonging to a specific social domain, while simultaneously connecting them to other historical sources. It discusses the daily functioning of legal institutions, the reflections of regime changes on legal documentation, daily life, and the materiality of legal documents.

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‘Waqf Documents on the Provision of Water in Mamluk Egypt’, in: M. van Berkel, L. Buskens and P.M. Sijpesteijn (eds.), Legal Documents as Sources for the History of Muslim Societies (forthcoming, Brill: Leiden and Boston, 2017) 217-232.