Terrains of Tension: Mapping Violence in Medieval Islamic Society

Abstract

“Terrains of Tension” analyzes spatial dimensions of urban conflict and contestation in medieval Islamic society, especially in six Islamic contexts—Baghdad, Basra, Kufa, Fustat, Khurasan, and Samarra—from roughly 850 to 950 CE. The dissertation marks a novel and hitherto unexplored course by systematically investigating how urban architecture shaped, and was shaped by, the performance of violence. This period witnessed significant sociopolitical unrest, economic crises, and urban reconstruction. The goal of the dissertation is to investigate how gendered, marginalized communities as well as ruling elites negotiated and participated in violence. A critical analytical assertion is that different forms of urban architecture possess varying degrees and potentials of social power that can be manipulated, channeled, and/or severed by medieval historical actors engaging in forceful behavior. Ultimately, the dissertation reveals that human actors manipulate urban architecture for violence just as urban architecture functions to produce violence and argues that the decision to engage in violence involved a purposeful selection of certain urban domains over others to better obtain, produce, contest, and suppress social power. The conclusions of the dissertation provide us with a deeper understanding of the complex processes of social change in a medieval Islamic society.