HIMME: Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East

FAIN: PW-264040-19

Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK 74078-1016)
Thomas Andrew Carlson (Project Director: July 2018 to present)

Expansion of the Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East (MIMME), a reference resource identifying primary historical sources on medieval Middle Eastern history (600-1500 CE), containing up to 50,000 entries about medieval Middle Eastern people, places, events, and cultural practices.

The Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East (HIMME) will expand our understanding of a critical period of human history. The medieval Middle East (600-1500) continues to be significant for current events, yet public understanding and scholarly arguments about this history have been limited by the difficulty of accessing all the relevant primary sources in their various languages. HIMME will make diversity and commonality visible by providing an index to an extensible collection of primary sources in the full range of medieval Middle Eastern languages, noting where translations are available. An expressive temporal model will enable scholars to refine queries based on transmission. Freely available online and indexed by search engines, HIMME will document for scholarly and public audiences the unexpected linguistic, ethnic, and religious diversity of a region which is popularly conceptualized as linguistically, ethnically, and religiously monolithic (Arabic, Arab, and Islamic).

Associated Products

Questions Beget Questions: An Example of Digital History Research (Blog Post)
Title: Questions Beget Questions: An Example of Digital History Research
Author: Thomas A. Carlson
Abstract: In working on the Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East (HIMME), questions often arise of the form whether something or someone mentioned in one source is the same place or person as mentioned with the same name in a different source. I call this mini-research: usually all it requires is looking up the passage in each source and comparing what it says. But sometimes it requires more, as I experienced today when I was led on a chase through four medieval sources in three different languages (five if you count modern translations!) by my attempt to determine whether a “chapel of St. John” mentioned by a thirteenth-century Latin pilgrim might be the same as a “church of St. John” mentioned by a twelfth-century Syriac historian-patriarch.
Date: 05/13/2020
Primary URL: https://mafqudwamawjud.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/questions-beget-questions-an-example-of-digital-history-research/
Primary URL Description: Blog post
Blog Title: Mafqud wa-Mawjud
Website: Mafqud wa-Mawjud

Graduate Workshop on Diversity in the Medieval Middle East (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Graduate Workshop on Diversity in the Medieval Middle East
Author: Margaret Gaida
Author: Thomas A. Carlson
Abstract: The medieval Middle East was the most ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse literate society in the premodern world, yet it has too often been studied through the lens of a single literary tradition. This workshop invites early graduate students (considering their options for research topics) to discuss the place of diversity in the region and consider topics which cross the communal and linguistic boundaries imposed on premodern history by most graduate education today. The goal is to expose graduate students to the region’s diversity early in their academic trajectory to allow them to acquire the skills necessary to pursue wide-ranging research. The workshop will invite graduate students to discuss their potential research projects, while introducing participants to scholarly resources and evidence for exploring diversity in the medieval Middle East. The workshop will also introduce participants to the Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East (HIMME), an NEH-sponsored digital history project to make the linguistic diversity of medieval Middle Eastern textual sources visible. HIMME is scheduled for publication in summer 2021, so this workshop provides an exclusive opportunity for graduate students to utilize the collected data for their research.
Date Range: 05/18-22/2020
Location: Zoom

Graduate Workshop on Diversity in the Medieval Middle East (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Graduate Workshop on Diversity in the Medieval Middle East
Author: Jessica S. Mutter
Author: Thomas A. Carlson
Abstract: Presentation of the HIMME project to graduate students
Date Range: May 17-18
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://medievalmideast.org/

(Not) the End of the World: The Rise of Islam and the Medieval Middle East (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: (Not) the End of the World: The Rise of Islam and the Medieval Middle East
Abstract: A lecture introducing the public to the early Islamic period, the HIMME project, and the value of apocalyptic literature for understanding history.
Author: Jessica S. Mutter
Date: 2/2/2021
Location: Online

Introducing HIMME (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Introducing HIMME
Author: Jessica S. Mutter
Author: Thomas A. Carlson
Abstract: A series of seminars introducing scholars of various subfields (Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Syriac and Armenian Studies, Crusader Studies) to the Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East.
Date Range: July 16-29, 2021
Location: Online
Primary URL: https://medievalmideast.org

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