Seminar

2025: The History of the Middle East – Empires of Faith

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Any attempt to deepen our knowledge of the Middle East had to begin by defining the region. Paradoxically, the name we used for our oldest civilisational cradle was a modern one, coined in the early 20th century. The area considered and discussed stretched from Morocco in the West to Iran in the East, from Turkey in the north to Sudan in the south. Yet many still disagreed on where to draw the lines.

For most of us reading the news, the real story of the Middle East—from the Persian kingdoms, the conquests of Alexander the Great, the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the dawn of Christianity and Islam, the Arab conquests, the rise of influential empires such as those of the Egyptian Mamluks and Ottomans, to the Saudi–Wahhabi pact of the 18th century—often remained untold.

Understanding the rich tapestry of peoples, faiths, and cultures that made up these lands was no easy task. How had the forces of religion, civilisation, and imperial ambition shaped this region? What made this geopolitical area the flashpoint of so many struggles, both sacred and profane, over millennia?

The Middle East had always been a crossroads of continents, trade, and conquest. Its centrality and diversity brought material wealth, cultural treasures, and an extraordinary exchange of knowledge. At the same time, it sparked conflicts, leading to instability and long, bitter wars. There was also a wide spectrum of mutually beneficial alliances between European and Middle Eastern powers. In coming to terms with the present and future complexities of the Middle East, an understanding of its history was essential.

The Engelsberg Seminar 2025 aimed to shed light on the history of the Middle East, highlighting its boundary-transcending importance as the birthplace of many world religions and the empires of faith that followed, grew, and evolved. The times demanded comprehensive knowledge of its history, religious and cultural turning points, in order to better understand its current turmoil.

Contributors

Early Empires of Faith

Mark Ronan

Honorary Professor of Mathematics at University College London

Ali M. Ansari

Professor of Iranian History and founding Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews

Amber Gartrell

Lecturer in Roman History at the Department of History at University College London

Martin Goodman

Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford and Fellow of the British Academy

Shaping Faith and Empire from Byzantium to the Crusades

Peter Sarris

Professor of Late Antique, Medieval and Byzantine Studies at the University of Cambridge

Hugh Kennedy

Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

General Sir Simon Mayall

Former soldier in the British Army

Special Address

Stephen Kotkin

Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the Birkelund Professor Emeritus of History and International Affairs at the former Woodrow Wilson School for International and Public Affairs, Princeton University

Lingering Shadows/Long Present

Peter Frankopan

Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford

Yossef Rapoport

Professor of Islamic History at Queen Mary University, London

Halil M. Karaveli

Senior Fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center and Editor of the Turkey Analyst

The Long Cultural Exchange

Selena Wisnom

Lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East, University of Leicester

Stefanie Rudolf

Postdoctoral Scholar, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Berlin

Gabriel Martinez-Gros

Professor of Medieval History at the University of Paris-Nanterre

Andrew S. Gilmour

Scholar-in- Residence at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship at the Catholic University of America

Nation-Building

Hugh Kennedy

Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Nathan Shachar

Journalist and Author

Chaim Gans

Professor Emeritus of Law at the Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University

James Barr

Author and Journalist

Regional Dynamics Explored: Case Studies

Sir John Jenkins

Associate fellow of Chatham House, the Strand Leader for the Middle East and North Africa at Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics, Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and Adviser to the Conservative Middle East Council

Rania Abouzeid

Journalist, Author and Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations

Nelly Lahoud

Professor of Security Studies in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the US Army War College

Towards a New Middle East: Religion, Power and Geopolitical Realignments

Jon B. Alterman

Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington D.C.

Dmitry Adamsky

Head of the Honors Track in Strategic Studies at the School of Government, Reichman University and Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford

Elisabeth Kendall

Mistress [President] of Girton College at the University of Cambridge

Walter Russell Mead

Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship, Hudson Institute

Ali Fathollah-Nejad

Founder and Director of the Center for Middle East and Global Order, Fellow with the University of Bonn’s Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies

Emile Hokayem

Director of Regional Security and Senior Fellow for Middle East Security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London

Brendan Simms

Professor of the History of European International Relations and Director of the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge