Ties of Kinship and the Early Islamic Empire
- Date
- Monday 6 December 2021 - Wednesday 8 December 2021
- Location
- witte Singel
Leiden - Room
- information will follow later

Conference
In this conference we will explore how and when the language of kinship was implemented as a persuasive device, an operative category, and a problem-solving mechanism in premodern Islamic(ate) societies. When did the writers of our sources deploy kinship to describe or create group solidarity? What alternatives to kinship were used, instead, as a basis for expressing social cohesion? When was kinship construed for making claims? When was kinship invoked, and when was it deliberately omitted?
The conference will revolve around three major themes:
- dynastic rule: presentations centered on caliphal and other ruling dynasties, sultanates, imamates, royal households, dynastic claims, and marriage politics;
- family ties: presentations centered on kinship as part of family relations, households, consanguinity, adoption, property rights, and family law;
- kinship outside the family: presentations centered on kinship as part of non-familial relations, tribal affiliation, spiritual kinship, slavery, clientship, and patronage.
See our website for more information on participation and the call for papers.