Josef Ženka

Josef Ženka, PhD is an assistant professor of Islamic history. Currently, he works on a book project that focuses on the idea of religious leadership in the late Andalusī society through an examination of the life and work of chief judge Abū ‛Amr Ibn Manẓūr (ca 1400-1483). Since 2013, he has traced Granadan/Andalusī manuscripts in libraries across Europe, North Africa and the United States in order to create a virtual library of Nasrid manuscript heritage. In 2013, he carried out a research project on an American orientalist A. R. Nykl and conducted considerable research in the United States. Since 2016, he belongs to a research group at University of Granada Ciudades Andaluzas Bajo el Islam.

In 2017-2018, he was a fellow at the Annemarie-Schimmel-Kolleg “History and Society during the Mamluk Era (1250-1517)” at University of Bonn.

Contact information: josef.zenka@ff.cuni.cz

Research Interests

  • Islamic world in the formative and middle period
  • al-Andalus and Maghreb (13th to 16th century)
  • Andalusī/Granadan manuscripts (13th to 16th century)
  • Alois Richard Nykl and the history of orientalism

Publications

„Across the Borders: Relationship between Islamic Granada and the Contemporary World”, in: Bárbara Boloix Gallardo (ed.), A Companion to Medieval and Early Modern Granada, Leiden and Boston: Brill (forthcoming).

“A Manuscript of the Last Sultan of al-Andalus and the Fate of the Royal Library of the Nasrid Sultans at the Alhambra,” Journal of Islamic Manuscripts IX/2-3 (2018): 341-376.

„Las notas manuscritas como fuente sobre la Granada del siglo XV: La gran inundación del año 1478 en un manuscrito Escurialense”, Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos 66 (2017), pp. 285-298.

„Ibn Quzmān between Ribera, Nykl and Asín and the newly created Escuela de Estudios Árabes of Madrid”, Annals of the Náprstek Museum 37 (2016), no. 2, pp. 33-48.

„The Great Ruling Family of the 14th century: Muṣāhara in the Age of Ibn al-Khaṭīb”, Medieval Encounters 20 (2014), no. 4-5, pp. 306-339.

„Las terceras taifas en un nuevo manuscrito del A‛māl/I‛māl al-a‛lām de Ibn al-Jaṭīb”, in:  Francisco Vidal Castro – Mustafa Ammadi – Maria Jesús Viguera Molins, Manuscritos para comunicar culturas: 6 Primavera del Manuscrito Andalusí. Rabat: Bouregreg, 2013, pp. 181-190.

Research Projects

“La Granada  nazarí  en  el  siglo  XV: Una  entidad  islámica en Occidente” (ref. FFI2016-79252-P)“,  Ministerio  de  Economía y Competitividad de España, 2017-2020 (Principal researcher Ana María Carballeira Debasa, Escuela de Estudios Árabes, CSIC, Granada, Spain).

“La mujer narazí y meriní en las sociedades islámicas del Mediterráneo medieval (siglos XIII-XV). Poder, identidad y dinámicas sociales” (ref. HAR2017-88117-P; PI Bárbara Boloix Gallardo), Ministerio  de  Economía y Competitividad de España, 2018-2020.

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