This is a website created by the students of the “Islamic Empires” class (HIST 314)–Jon Geyer, Collin Ward, and Mortimer Shiflett– taught by Dr. Betül Başaran in 2024. It is devoted to the critical study of three objects, each of which speaks to some notable aspect of Islamic history. 

For his part of the project, Jon wrote about the significance of the Seyahâtnâme, and its unique and arguably unrivaled value as a primary source for historians studying the 17th century. Its value can be derived both from the exhaustive detail provided by the author, Evliya Çelebi, and from the vitality and very human qualities of the narrative itself. It is for these reasons that the work has continued its prominence from the nobles of the 17th century Ottoman empire through to the present day. The Seyahâtnâme stands as one of the great works of Ottoman literature.

Jon Geyer (pictured above) is a senior at St Mary’s College of Maryland, majoring in Anthropology and Asian Studies, with a minor in Chinese. In the immediate future, he intends to pursue study of the Chinese language via a Fulbright scholarship to Taiwan in the summer of 2024 at National Tsinghua University in Hsinchu. Beyond that, he hopes to pursue a career in anthropology or the foreign service. 

Collin Ward, a senior student at St Mary’s College of Maryland majoring in anthropology and minor history in his project looks at the artifact known as the Birka ring. The Birka ring and finger ring with glass top with the inscription of “il-la lah” in Kufic Arabic. What makes this ring unique is where it was discovered, in a gravesite at a Viking archeological site on a Swedish island. Collin in his article explores the significance of the archaeological site known as Birka along with its connection to the east including the Islamic world. Collin explores how the ring was proved to be legitimate along with explaining how the ring could have possibly made it to Sweden by using the stories of Muslim-Viking interactions from Muslim writers of the 8th-11th centuries including the famous account of Ibn Fadlan.