Towards a History of Syriac Intellectuals in Abbasid Iraq in the Ninth Century:
Educational Paths, Intellectual Milieu, and Career Prospects
The lecture will take place online via Zoom. It will start at 17:00 and end at 18:30 GMT.
About the lecture
¹ú²úÊÓƵ (IIS) will host an online lecture on 7th October 2026, as part of the Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series (IHTLS). will explore the education of Syriac Christian intellectuals in Abbasid Iraq, and the role they played in carrying Greek science and philosophy into Arabic.
Syriac Christian intellectuals played a crucial role in translating Greek science and philosophy into Arabic between the eighth and 10th centuries. Yet almost nothing is known about the education that enabled them to hold prestigious positions in Abbasid Iraq.
This lecture discusses the possible educational paths taken by Syriac intellectuals. It considers both those who worked for the caliphs and those who held prominent religious and intellectual positions within their own Christian communities.
After setting out the scholastic curriculum taught to Syriac students, the lecture reflects on how some became refined translators, working on translations from Greek into Syriac and Arabic with considerable philosophical skill. It also considers how Syriac intellectuals helped to shape the Abbasid intellectual and cultural milieu.
About the Speaker
Mara Nicosia is a postdoctoral Research Fellow on the ERC project FragArist at the . She was previously a postdoc on the ERC at (2021–2023) and a at (2023–2025). She works on the intellectual history of Syriac speakers in Abbasid Iraq, with a focus on rhetoric and education in Syriac schools. Her interests include the technical terminology of logic and philosophy in Syriac and Arabic, and the reception of Aristotelian philosophy across the late antique and early medieval Mediterranean. She holds a PhD in Semitic philology from the (2020). In February 2026, she was awarded a , which begins in March 2027 at the University of Catania.
Image caption
The embassy of John the Grammarian in 829, between the ByzantineThe late medieval Roman Empire which ruled large parts of Southern Europe and the Middle East from its capital Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), conquered by the Turks in 1453 CE. emperor Theophilos (right) and the Abbasid caliphIn Arabic khalÄ«fa, the head of the Muslim community. See caliphate. Al-Ma’mun, from the Madrid Skylitzes, fol. 47r, detail
Speaker
Dr Mara Nicosia
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Mara Nicosia is a postdoctoral Research Fellow on the ERC project FragArist at the University of Padua. She works on the intellectual history of Syriac speakers in Abbasid Iraq, with a focus on rhetoric and education in Syriac schools. In February 2026, she was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship for the project SEAT (Syriac Education, Abbasid Times), beginning March 2027 at the University of Catania.
Discussant
Dr Salam Rassi
Lecturer in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations
Salam Rassi is Lecturer in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on Christian-Muslim interactions across theology, philosophy, and literature. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at the American University of Beirut and the University of Oxford, and worked as a cataloguer of Syriac and Arabic manuscripts at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library. His first book, Christian Thought in the Medieval Islamicate World, was published by Oxford University Press in 2022.
Moderator
Orkhan Mir-Kasimov
Associate Professor
Dr Orkhan Mir-Kasimov is an Associate Professor at ¹ú²úÊÓƵ. He is Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and his teaching focuses on Islamic history, ShiÊ¿i history and thought, and Islamic mysticism. Find out more on Dr Mir-Kasimov’s research and publications.
