Abigail Balbale

I am a cultural historian of the early and middle Islamic periods. I focus on questions of the legitimation of power and the concept of the caliphate, and I use sources that range from chronicles and chancery documents to poetry, architecture and objects. I am Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at NYU in New York City, and my classes explore topics ranging from the history and art of al-Andalus to Islamic ornament and how it has been interpreted by western scholars. I am currently at work on a book about a ruler in twelfth-century al-Andalus who fought the Almohads and aligned himself with the Abbasids even as he also served as a vassal to Christian kings.