PhD Candidate in Arabic Studies and archaeology

The Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University invites applications for a fulltime PhD position in Arabic literature and history. The PhD candidate will carry out research within the framework of the VICI research project ‘Land, space, power: Landscapes of the early caliphate,’ funded by the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) and led by PI Petra Sijpesteijn.

The great Arab-Islamic conquests of the 7th century CE set in motion transformations that fundamentally changed the social and cultural fabric of the Middle East, bedding in a package of systems, structures and ideas that continue to characterise the region to this day. What motivated these changes and why were they so enduring? This project aims to answer these questions in an entirely new way, by stepping beyond traditional approaches and looking instead at how the spatial and environmental system in which the Arab-Islamic project was enacted and by which it created a culturally invested landscape that embodied, reflected and perpetuated a specifically Arab-Islamic experience of the environment, even for its non-Arab, non-Muslim inhabitants. Bringing together religious and cultural topography, patterns of land use, and systems of government, LAND, SPACE, POWER traces the processes and narratives that fashioned the landscapes and geographies of the Arab-Islamic empire across political-administrative boundaries in (what are now) Jordan, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia from the Arab-Islamic conquest to the Mamluk takeover (650-1250 CE).

Besides the PI there will be three positions available within the LAND, SPACE, POWER team: two PhD candidates; and a postdoctoral researcher.

PhD project: Graves and Cemeteries

Graves, cemeteries and burial rituals form obvious instruments of place-making, simultaneously cementing physical and metaphysical presences in the landscape. Thus, burials appear frequently in historical texts for their symbolic function of addressing the relation between power, life and death, and as powerful loci of memory. Using archaeological data, grave markers, epitaphs, and textual sources this project compares burial practices and rituals across time and place to examine the spatial distribution of funerary customs and along what networks these spread. Burial rituals, individual graves and their context, and the cemetery as a whole will be studied also as indicators of religious communal practice focusing on distinctive material, textual and ritual features and how spatial distribution related or set apart religious communities taking into account change and continuity in the early Islamic empire.

As part of the PhD research and to understand better how Islamic funerary and burial practices connected to existing (non-Islamic) customs, the PhD candidate will produce a map with all Muslim and non-Muslim – as far as this can be established – burial places and cemeteries, with their built and natural context, including earlier layers of occupation and use. A major achievement of this project will be to locate all known information about burials and cemeteries from the Arab-Islamic period (Muslim and non-Muslim) from the region.

Key responsibilities:

• Write a PhD dissertation
• Present research at international workshops and conferences
• Submit 3 articles for publication (including one co-authored with PI and PD)
• Co-organise a workshop with the PD
• Co-publish proceedings of the workshop
• Supervise and contribute to the production of a visual representation (map) of cemeteries and graves
• Attend regular in-person team meetings
• Assist in event planning and organisation
• Assist in promoting the project’s visibility on project websites

Requirements:

• Excellent (medieval) Arabic reading skills
• Experience with handling and thinking about archaeological and material sources
• A Master’s degree in a related field
• Excellent command of the English language
• Ability to develop original research
• Commitment to working in a team
• A willingness to embrace new approaches, including Geographical Information System (GIS) (no prior experience necessary)

Our Faculty/ Institute

The Faculty of Humanities is an international centre for the study of languages, cultures, arts, and societies worldwide, in their historical contexts from prehistory to the present. We take culture broadly to include religions, philosophies, and worldviews as well as literature, art, and technology. We aim to contribute to knowledge, the sustainable well-being of societies, and the understanding of the cognitive, historical, cultural, artistic, and social aspects of human life. Our faculty is home to more than 7,000 students and 900 staff members. The PhD candidate will hold a position in the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), home to a large group of experts on the Middle East and Asia from prehistory to the present.

Terms and conditions

We offer a fulltime, fixed-term post from 1 February 2025 until 31 January 2029. The appointment will initially be for 12 months and if evaluated positively, with an extension of 3 years and must lead to the completion of a PhD thesis. The salary range for a PhD candidate is from €2,872,- to €3,670,- gross per month (pay-scale PhD candidates in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities), with additional 8% holiday money and 8,3% end-of-year bonus. Candidates from outside the Netherlands may be eligible for a substantial tax break.

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