Amira K. Bennison is a professor of the history and culture of the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...

at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies of the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. She is a fellow of

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

Education

Bennison studied history at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, graduating in 1989University of Cambridge. Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. ennison's home page /ref> before switching to Arabic. She then pursued graduate work, with an MA at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

in Middle Eastern Studies in 1992, and her PhD at

SOAS The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

in Moroccan History in 1996.

Career

Bennison began her career as a Leverhulme research fellow at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. She began lecturing at

in 1997, before going on to become a fully

tenure Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...

d member of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. She has made several TV appearances to speak about the history of the Middle East and North Africa, and regularly contributes to

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's ''

In Our Time In Our Time may refer to: * ''In Our Time'' (1944 film), a film starring Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid * ''In Our Time'' (1982 film), a Taiwanese anthology film featuring director Edward Yang; considered the beginning of the "New Taiwan Cinema" * ''In ...

''. She has also appeared on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

''You're Dead to Me'' podcast. Bennison's 2009 book ''The Great Caliphs: the golden age of the ‘Abbasid empire'' was reviewed by

Hugh N. Kennedy Hugh Nigel Kennedy (born 22 October 1947) is a British medievalist and academic. He specialises in the history of the early Islamic Middle East, Muslim Iberia and the Crusades. From 1997 to 2007, he was Professor of Middle Eastern History at th ...

, who said she has "a lively and engaging style", and the book will be "the first port of call for anyone looking for an introduction to the 'golden age of Islam'."Historyextra.com, The official website of BBC History Magazine. The Great Caliphs. Reviewed by Hugh Kennedy
Book Review
/ref> In 2022, Bennison was elected chair of the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

academic committee.

Publications

* Amira K. Bennison. ''The Almoravid and Almohad Empires''. The Edinburgh History of Islamic Empires.

Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...

2016. * Amira K. Bennison. ''The Great Caliphs: the golden age of the ‘Abbasid empire''.

I.B.Tauris I.B. Tauris is an educational publishing house and imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It was an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York City until its purchase in May 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing. It specialises in non- ...

2011. * Amira K. Bennison and Alison L. Gascoigne (editors). ''Cities in The pre-Modern Islamic World: the urban impact of religion, state and society''.

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

2007. * Amira K. Bennison. ''Jihad and Its Interpretation in Pre-colonial Morocco: State-society Relations During the French Conquest of Algeria''. Routledge 2002.

References

External links

* University of Cambridge. Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Dr Amira K Bennison's home page
* Project Muse. An Interview with Amira Benniso

* The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Conferences, Workshops Content. February 2008
Video: Interview with Dr Amira Bennison
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennison, Amira Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of SOAS University of London Historians of the Middle East Alumni of the University of Cambridge Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge Harvard University alumni British women historians British historians of Islam