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Craig Perry

@caperry.bsky.social

980 followers 910 following 100 posts

Teacher-scholar at the intersection of World History, Jewish Studies, and Islamic Civilizations Studies. New book in 2026: https://bit.ly/PerrySlavery. Co-editor: The Cambridge World History of Slavery vol. 2: https://bit.ly/CWHS2

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Craig Perry

@caperry.bsky.social

Maps! From my forthcoming book and created by @greenleejw.bsky.social. I highly recommend JW Greenlee and especially appreciated his collaborative and iterative process of design. These maps capture the geography implicated in the slave trade that I study in the book. There is ... 1/3

Map 1. From Iberia to India, ca. 1000–1250. Map created by John Wyatt Greenlee of Surprised Eel Mapping.

Map 2. Egypt and Northeast Africa, ca. 1000–1250. Map created by John Wyatt Greenlee of Surprised Eel Mapping.

November 21, 2025 at 2:41 PM

Craig Perry

@caperry.bsky.social

For those who will be at MESA this weekend and next week. I am on a panel about slavery in the medieval Middle East on Sunday at 11am. Abstracts in images and alt text below. Please come join us!

"Perspectives on Slavery in the Medieval Middle East": The study of slavery in the field of early and medieval Islamic history has long lay in the shadows. In recent years, however, its pace has accelerated with the appearance of several key monographs and a series of research articles, notably those that rely on letters and other documents, mainly from second/eighth and third/ninth-century Egypt but also Palestine and Khurasan. This suggests at least an important departure from what appears to have been a long-standing taboo in the field. That same taboo has held up close and detailed study of what was, after all, a significant example in global history of reliance upon slave trading, a slaving economy, and the labor of enslaved and freed persons, particularly in urban settings. Historians of slavery in other fields (eg. medieval Europe and Byzantium) have long acknowledged the significant role of slave trading, for example, in the history of Mediterranean and North-South relations across medieval history. The proposed panel – “Perspectives on Slavery in the Medieval Middle East” – seeks to advance the study of Middle Eastern and Islamic-era slavery while also underscoring the point that the topic is long overdue for sustained scholarship. It is composed of four papers on disparate sub-topics of the history of slavery. The four papers are joined, firstly, by their exploration of underutilized sources, whether written texts that have been largely neglected by modern scholarship; documentary material that offers immediate, on-the-ground insights into characteristics of slave practice in Middle Eastern society; or physical objects (eg. ceramics, coins) that depict enslaved and freed persons in a variety of settings. The papers are also joined by significant questions of how slavery – be it the slave trade, the treatment of enslaved bodies, or the question of social mobility on the part of enslaved and freed persons – have been addressed to the present day...

Abstracts for Matthew Gordon's paper "The Tulunid Household and its Unfree Members" and Craig Perry's paper "Modern Memory and the Violence of Medieval Slavery: a View from Nubia."

Abstracts for Kristina Richardson's paper "Identifying the Medieval Swahili Slaving Port Town of Qanbalu" and Lamia Balafrej's paper "On Jawari's Mediation: Enslavement, Gender, and the Image in Medieval Islam."

November 19, 2025 at 6:06 PM

Craig Perry

@caperry.bsky.social

You can now read and download the Introduction to my new book Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt - to be published in January. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

September 22, 2025 at 2:28 PM

Craig Perry

@caperry.bsky.social

Excited to announce my book that is forthcoming in January. I’m looking forward to sharing more soon. Let me know if your faculty, students, or community would be interested in a talk or class.
Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt | Princeton University Press. Description at: bit.ly/PerrySlavery

This is the front cover for the book Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt.

September 7, 2025 at 12:54 PM

Craig Perry

@caperry.bsky.social

Music stats. True…

December 6, 2024 at 11:26 PM

Craig Perry

@caperry.bsky.social

Giving a talk today at Northwestern based on my book that’s coming in Fall 2025. The talk is “A Jewish History of Slavery and African Diaspora in the Medieval Middle East.” 4pm Harris Hall. Thanks to NU Jewish Studies and Prof. Brackmeyer for hosting me.