The Ena H. Thompson Lectures, 2012

Fred M. Donner (University of Chicago)

Tuesday, February 28, 11:00 am
"The Study of Islam’s Origins: New Approaches, Old Problems."
Rose Hills Theater

Thursday, March 1, 11:00 am
"Nascent Islam as an Ecumenical Movement."
Rose Hills Theater

Fred M. Donner received his PhD in Near Eastern Studies (1975) from Princeton University, studying Arabic in Lebanon (1966-67) and Oriental Philology in Germany (1970-71). He has taught at Yale University (1975-1982) and the University of Chicago (since 1982). An early interest in the relationship between pastoral nomads and the Islamic state resulted in his first book, The Early Islamic Conquests (1981). Work on the early Islamic period for this book raised questions about the sources for that history, leading him to investigate more deeply the early development of Islamic historical writing. This led to his second book, Narratives of Islamic Origins (1997). This study in turn prompted him to ask how early Islam actually coalesced as a religion, which paved the way for his most recent book, Muhammad and the Believers: at the Origins of Islam (2010). He is the author of over forty scholarly articles, numerous encyclopedia entries, and scores of reviews, as well as the translator of one volume of the medieval Arabic chronicle of al-Tabari (1993). He won research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and in 2008 received the Jere L. Bacharach Award for Service to the Profession of Middle Eastern Studies awarded by the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). He is currently President of MESA.