Allen Fromherz (born May 10, 1980) is an American historian specializing in the Middle East and Mediterranean. From 2007 to 2008 he was a professor at Qatar University. He joined the faculty of

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is al ...

in 2008. Since 2015, Fromherz has served as President of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS), a part of the

Council of American Overseas Research Centers The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) founded in 1981, is a private not-for-profit federation of independent overseas research centers that promotes advanced research, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, with a ...

(CAORC).

Early life

Fromherz was born on May 10, 1980, in

Dallas, Oregon Dallas is a city and the county seat of Polk County, Oregon, United States. The population was 16,854 at the 2020 census. Dallas is along Rickreall Creek, about west of Salem, at an elevation of above sea level. It is part of the Salem M ...

. He wrote an undergraduate honors thesis on

Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...

under the direction of Gene Garthwaite at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

, where he graduated summa cum laude in 2002. From 2002-2003 Fromherz was a

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. From 2003-2006 Fromherz studied for his PhD under the supervision of Hugh Kennedy at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. His doctoral dissertation is titled ''The Rise of the Almohads: Islam, Identity and Belief in North Africa''.

Academic career

In 2007, Fromherz joined the faculty of Qatar University as an assistant professor of Middle East history. In 2008, he joined the history department at

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, as a professor of medieval Mediterranean and Middle East history, where he currently teaches and directs the Middle East Studies Center.

Publications

In addition to works on medieval North Africa and a biography of Ibn Khaldun, he published the first full-length history of modern

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

- ''Qatar, A Modern History''. In 2020 he became founding book series editor, with Matt Buehler, of Edinburgh Studies on the Maghreb. The series is dedicated to publishing works on the history, politics, and society of North Africa in English. With Abdulrahman al-Salimi, he edited a book on ''Sultan Qaboos and Modern Oman 1970-2020'' and hosted one of the first conferences dedicated to the history of Oman during the reign of Sultan Qaboos at Georgia State University in 2022.

Honors

In 2015, Fromherz became president of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS). In 2016, he was named as a senior humanities fellow at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). In 2018, he was elected for a second term as president of AIMS and is a board member of the Council of Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). In 2022, he was named a senior Fulbright Scholar to Spain to study the life and times of the Granada polymath and historian

Ibn al-Khatib Lisan ad-Din Ibn al-Khatib (; 16 November 1313 – 1374) was an Arab Andalusi polymath, poet, writer, historian, philosopher, physician and politician from Emirate of Granada. Being one of the most notable poets from Granada, his poems decorate ...

Bibliography

* 2010, The Almohads: The Rise of an Islamic Empire, (IB Tauris, London) * 2010, Ibn Khaldun, Life and Times, (Edinburgh University Press) 2012, Qatar: A Modern History, (Georgetown University Press) * 2016, The Near West, Medieval North Africa, Latin Europe and the Mediterranean in the Second Axial Age, (Edinburgh University Press) * 2017, Qatar, a Modern History, Updated Edition, (Georgetown University Press) * 2018, Editor, The Gulf in World History, Arabia at the Global Crossroads, (Edinburgh University Press) * 2020, Editor, Special Section of Journal of North African Studies (JNAS), The Hafsids and the Axial Western Mediterranean *2021, Editor with Nadav Samin, Knowledge, Authority and Change in Islamic Societies, (Brill) *2022, Editor with Abdulrahman al-Salimi, Sultan Qaboos and Modern Oman 1970-2020, (Edinburgh University press)

References