Name:
Maria Mavroudi
Address:
University of California, Berkeley
Department of History
3229 Dwinelle Hall
Berkeley CA 94705-2550
E-mail:
[email protected]
Education:
1998 Ph.D. in Byzantine Studies, Harvard University, Committee on Byzantine Studies.
1992 M.A. in Byzantine Literature, Harvard University, Department of the Classics.
1990 B.A. in Philology, University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Research Interests:
Byzantium and the Arabs; bilinguals in the Middle Ages; Byzantine and Islamic science;
the ancient tradition between Byzantium and Islam; Byzantine intellectual history;
survival and transformation of Byzantine culture after 1453.
Academic appointments:
Professor, UC Berkeley (July 2008—)
Professor, Princeton University (July 2006-June 2008)
Associate Professor, UC Berkeley (July 2005-June 2008)
Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley (July 2002-June 2005).
Hanna Seeger Davis Post-doctoral Teaching Fellow in Hellenic Studies, Princeton
University (September 2001-June 2002).
Dumbarton Oaks Fellow (September 2000-May 2001).
Visiting Lecturer, UC Berkeley, Classics Department (Freshman seminar: “Dream
Interpretation Before Freud.” Fall 1998).
Teaching Assistant, Harvard University, Department of the Classics (“Beginning
Classical Greek.” Fall 1992; “Rome in the Age of Augustus.” Spring 1993).
Instructor in Modern Greek, Harvard University Extension School (1991-92).
Books
1. A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation: The Oneirocriticon of Achmet and Its
Arabic Sources (E.J. Brill: Leiden, 2002). 522 pp.
Reviews published in:
International Journal of Middle East Studies 36:2 (2004), pp. 285-286 (by John
Lamoreaux).
Speculum 79:1 (2004), pp. 246-249 (by Steven Oberhelman).
Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 53 (2003), pp. 319-324 (by Bettina
Lienhard).
Oriens christianus 87 (2003), pp. 227-231 (by Franz Tinnefeld).
2. Artemidorou Oneirocritica. Introduction, translation, notes (Histos: Athens, 2002). 325
pp.
3. Co-editor (with Paul Magdalino), The Occult Sciences in Byzantium (Geneva: éditions
de la Pomme d’Or, 2007). 468 pp.
Reviews published in:
Orientalia Christiana Periodica 73:2 (2008), pp. 556–58; by Ivan Biliarsky.
Aestimatio: Critical Reviews in the History of Science 5 (2008), pp. 233–44; by
Joel Walker.
The Medieval Review 08.04.22 (April 2008); by Richard Greenfield.
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/4254/08.04.22.html?seq
uence=1
4. Bilingualism in Greek and Arabic in the Middle Ages: Evidence from the Manuscripts
(in preparation).
Articles
“Licit and Illicit Divination: Empress Zoe and the Icon of Christ Antiphonetes”, in JeanMichel Spieser and Veronique Dasen, eds., Transmission des savoirs antiques de
l’antiquité à la Renaissance in Micrologus Library (Florence). Forthcoming.
“Les actes arabes de Vatopédi”. Actes de Vatopédi III. Archives de l’Athos. Ed. J. Lefort,
K. Smyrlis, E. Kolovos et al. L’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres et l’Académie
d’Athènes. Paris. In press.
“Translators from Greek into Arabic at the Court of Mehmet the Conqueror”.
Proceedings of the Second International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium,
Istanbul, Turkey, June 2010. In press.
“Plethon as a Subversive and His Reception in the Islamic World”. D. Angelov, ed.,
Proceedings of the XLIII Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies: Byzantium behind the
Scenes: Power and Subversion. University of Birmingham, March 2010. UK Society for
the Promotion of Byzantine Studies and Ashgate Publishing. In press.
“Byzantine and Islamic Dream Interpretation: A Comparative Approach to the Problem
of “Reality” vs. “Literary Tradition” in C. Angelidi and G. Calofonos, eds. Dreaming of
Byzantium and Beyond (Ashgate). In press.
“The Naples Dioscorides”; “Two Ostraka” in Helen Evans with Brandie Ratliff, eds.
Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (7th-9th Centuries). Catalogue of the Exhibition at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Yale University Press, 2012), 22–26.
“Learned Women of Byzantium and the Surviving Record” in E. Fisher, S. Papaioannou,
D. Sullivan, eds. Byzantine Religious Culture: Studies in Honor of Alice-Mary Talbot.
The Medieval Mediterranean 92 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2012), 53–84.
“Islamic Divination in the Context of Its “Eastern” and “Western” Counterparts”, in M.
Farhad with S. Bağcı, eds. Falnama: The Book of Omens, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
October 24, 2009—January 24, 2010 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2009),
222–29 + 324–329. [Volume selected as one of the best publications of 2010 by The Art
News Paper].
“Ta‘bīr al-ruyʼā and aḥkām al-nujūm: References to Women in Dream Interpretation and
Astrology Transferred from Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Medieval Islam to Byzantium:
Some Problems and Considerations”, in B. Gruendler and M. Cooperson, eds., Classical
Arabic Humanities in Their Own Terms. Festschrift for Wolfhart Heinrichs on His 65.
Birthday from His Students and Colleagues (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2008), 47–67.
“Arabic Words in Greek Lettrers: The Violet Fragment and More” in Jacques
Grand’Henry and Jerôme Lentin, eds. Proceedings of the First International Symposium
on Middle Arabic and Mixed Arabic throughout History, Louvain-la-Neuve 11-14 May
2004. Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain, Peeters 2008, 321–354.
(with Simon Franklin), “Byzantino-Slavica and Byzantino-Arabica: possibilities and
problems of comparison” Byzantinoslavica 65 (2007), 51–67.
(with Paul Magdalino), Introduction to co-edited volume, The Occult Sciences in
Byzantium (Geneva: éditions de la Pomme d’Or, 2007), 11–37.
“Occult Science and Society in Byzantium: Considerations for Future Research” in P.
Magdalino and M. Mavroudi, eds. The Occult Sciences in Byzantium (Geneva: éditions
de la Pomme d’Or, 2007), pp. 39–95.
“Late Byzantium and Exchange with Arabic Writers”, in S. T. Brooks, ed., Byzantium,
Faith and Power (1261–1557). Perspectives on Late Byzantine Art and Culture. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007),
pp. 62–75.
(with Mary-Lyon Dolezal). “Theodore Hyrtakenos’ Description of the Garden of St.
Anna and the Byzantine Descriptions of Gardens.” A. Littlewood, H. Maguire, J.
Wolschke-Buhlmann, eds. Byzantine Garden Culture (Dumbarton Oaks: Washington,
D.C., 2002), 105–158.
Το λεγόμενο Ονειροκριτικόν του Αχμέτ, ένα βυζαντινό βιβλίο ονειροκριτικής και
οι αραβικές πηγές του. Αρχαιολογία 79 (Ιούνιος 2001).
Encyclopedia articles
“Byzantine Science”; “Astrology, Byzantine”; “Eschatology, Byzantine” for The
Encyclopedia of Ancient History, ed. R. Bagnall, K. Brodersen, C. Champion, A. Erskine
and S. Huebner (Wiley–Blackwell, in press).
“Dream Interpretation” for The Classical Tradition, ed. Anthony Grafton, Glenn Most,
Salvatore Settis (Harvard University Press, 2010), 285–86.
“Artemidorus of Ephesus” for Encyclopedia of Islam, 3rd edition. Edited by: Gudrun
Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas and Everett Rowson. Brill, 2010. Brill Online.
“Achmet”, Kindlers Literatur Lexikon, 3., völlig neu bearbeitete Auflage, hg. von Heinz
Ludwig Arnold. Stuttgart, Weimar 2009.
“Women, Gender and Representation of Sexualities and Gender - Dream Literature” for
the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (E.J. Brill). [General Editor Suad
Joseph . Brill, 2010. Brill Online. Print Version: Volume 5, page 406, column 1]
Book Reviews
Review of Euthymios Nicolaidis, Science and Eastern Orthodoxy: From the Greek
Fathers to the Age of Globalization, translated by Susan Emanuel. The Johns Hopkins
University Press, Baltimore, 2011. Catholic Historical Review (in press).
Review of Irfan Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century. Volume 2, Part 2:
Economic, Social and Cultural History. (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and
Collection, Washington, D.C. 2009). Byzantinische Zeitschrift 104:1 (2011), 220–25.
Review of Nadia-Maria El Cheikh, Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 2004). Byzantinische Zeitschrift 100:1 (2008), 200–204.
Review of Garth Fowden, Quṣayr ‘Amra. Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique
Syria (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004). Journal of
Roman Archeology 19 (2006), pp. 731–39.
Review of Arietta Papaconstantinou, Le culte des saints en Égypte des Byzantins aux
Abbassides. L’apport des inscriptions et des papyrus grecs et coptes. Préface de Jean
Gascou. Collection Le monde byzantin dirigée par Bernard Flusin (Paris: CNRS Éditions,
2001). International Journal of Middle East Studies 36:2 (2004), pp. 289–91.
Translations
Poems selected and translated for the Byzantine section of The Greek Poets: Homer to
the Present, eds. Peter Constantine, Rachel Hadas, Edmund Keeley, Karen Van Dyck;
intro. Robert Hass (W. W. Norton and Company, 2009), 327 and 347.
Niketas Eugeneianos, Iambic Verses to a Beloved Woman
Manuel Philes, On the Well-Run Bathhouse
(with Fr. Justin of Sinai and D. Armstrong), The life and contest of the Holy Great
Martyr, Virgin, and all-wise Catherine. Saint Catherine Monastery, the God-trodden
Mount of Sinai (London; Saint Catherine Foundation, 2004). 51 pp.
Awards
UC President’s Faculty Fellowship (2011-12).
MacArthur Fellowship (2004-09).
Humboldt-Forschungsstipendium, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2007, deferred).
Regents’ Junior Faculty Fellowship (summer 2004).
Hellmann Family Faculty Fund (Spring 2004).
Townsend Center for the Humanities Fellowship (2004-05).
Honors
Inaugural Tousimis Distinguished Lecture, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago,
Chicago, IL, sponsored by the Byzantine Studies Association of North America. October
2011. Title: “Greek Education in the Early Islamic Period”.
Plenary address (quinquennial) to the 22nd International Congress on Byzantine Studies,
Sofia, Bulgaria, sponsored by the Association internationale des études Byzantines.
August 2011. Title: “Byzantium viewed by the others”.
Dumbarton Oaks Public Lecture in Byzantine Studies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington,
D.C. December 2007. Title: “Byzantine Science”.
Roger Pack Lecture in Papyrology, Department of Classical Studies, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor. October 2005. Title: “Ancient Greek Medicine between
Byzantium and Islam.”
Courses offered:
“After the Roman Empire: The East” (lower division undergraduate lecture course).
“Survey of Byzantine History, 324-1453” (upper division undergraduate lecture course).
“The Afterlife of Antiquity in the Greek and Arabic Middle Ages” (upper division
undergraduate seminar).
“How the Classics Became the Classics” (upper division undergraduate seminar).
“Dream Interpretation before Freud” (upper division undergraduate seminar).
“Paleography and Auxiliary Sciences” (graduate seminar).
“Introduction to Byzantine Studies” (graduate seminar).
“Byzantine Sources: Reading Leo the Deacon” (graduate seminar)
“Historical Theory and Methodology” (graduate seminar)
Papers read:
“Licit and illicit divination: empress Zoe and the icon of the Antiphonetes”. 22nd
International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Round table “Magic in Byzantium”, Sofia,
Bulgaria, sponsored by the Association internationale des études byzantines (August,
2011).
“Possible Analogies in Byzantine Political Thinking on the Origin of Government and the
Work of Marsiglio of Padua”. Workshop on the Transmission of Subversive Ideas from
the Islamic World to Europe, ca. 1200-1650. Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ
(April 2011).
“Use of the Vernacular as an Expression of the Self: Parallel Trends in Greek and Arabic
Literature”. Colloquium: “The Self in Byzantium”, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC
(March, 2011).
“Scholars and Intellectuals in the Work of Ihor Sevcenko”. Ihor Sevcenko Memorial
Colloquium, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC (February, 2011).
“Translators from Greek into Arabic at the Court of Mehmet the Conqueror”. Second
International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium, Istanbul, Turkey (June 2010).
“George Gemistos Plethon in the Islamic World”. XLIII Spring Symposium of Byzantine
Studies: Byzantium behind the Scenes: Power and Subversion. University of
Birmingham, UK (March 2010).
“Islamic Divination between East and West”. Seminar series “Mediterranean Studies:
East and West at the Center, 1050-1600,” UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance
Studies (March 2009).
“Greek education under early Islam”. Workshop “Paideia and Scripture: The
Transformation of Religious Knowledge in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
(300-900 CE)”. Institute of Advanced Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (July
2008).
“Female Sexuality in Byzantine and Islamic Dream Interpretation: A Comparative
Approach to the Problem of ‘Reality’ vs. ‘Literary Tradition”. Symposium on Dreams
and Visions in Late Antiquity and Byzantium, National Research Foundation, Athens,
Greece (23 May 2008).
“Byzantine Science” Dumbarton Oaks Public Lecture, January 2008. Text read again for
the Gelsinger Memorial Lecture, San José State University (April 2010).
“Byzantium and the Arabs: A Survey of Past Work and Possibilities for the Future”.
European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop on “Hellenism: Alien or Germane
Wisdom?” Central European University, Center for Hellenic Traditions, Budapest, 22-26
November 2007.
(with Simon Franklin), “Byzantino-slavica and Byzantino-arabica: problems of
comparison”. Panel on Translation and Interpretation, 21st International Congress of
Byzantine Studies, London, 23 August 2006.
“The Byzantine Greek versions of the Karpos attributed to Ptolemy and Its Commentary
by Abū Ja‘far Aḥmad b. Yūsuf b. Ibrahīm b. al-Dāya”. Panel on Byzantine Science, 21st
International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London, 25 August 2006.
“Greek and Arabic Ptolemy in the Paleologan and Early Ottoman Period” Byzantine
Studies Conference, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. Fall 2005.
“Byzantine Women of Erudition: Now you see them, now you don’t.” Berkshire
Conference on the History of Women, Scripps College, Claremont CA , June 2-5, 2005.
“Byzantine and Arabic science and their role in shaping what we label as European
science” Office of the President, University of California. Spring 2005 (content of the
lecture repeated as The Catherine Pelican Memorial Lecture, University of Missouri-St.
Louis in February, 2006).
“Some problems in writing a history of our numerals” Frontiers of Knowledge:
Symposium on the inauguration of Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau. Spring 2005.
“The Textual Tradition of the Vienna Dioscorides.” Panel “Text and Image: Antique
Tradition and Islamic Innovation in the Greco-Arabic Herbal” Middle East Studies
Association Conference, San Francisco, November 20-23, 2004.
“Byzantine Greek and Middle Arabic.” Presented at the Colloquium “Moyen arabe” at
the Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Spring 2004.
“Late Byzantine Scholarship and Exchange with Arabic writers.” Presented at the
Symposium “Byzantium: Faith and Power,” organized for the opening of the
homonymous exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Spring 2004.
“The Social Position of the Apocryphal Scientist in Byzantium.” Presented at
Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on “The Occult Sciences in Byzantium,” Washington, D.C.
Fall 2003.
“The Reflection of Byzantine Women in Texts on Divination.” Harvard University Art
Museums, M. Victor Leventritt Symposium on “Byzantine Women, New Perspectives.”
Spring 2003.
“Byzantine Political Science.” Symposium on the “Greek Strand in Islamic Political
Thought,” Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ. Summer 2003.
“Greek-Arabic Dictionaries of the Middle Ages.” Invited seminar. Institute for Advanced
Study, School of Historical Studies, Princeton. Spring 2002.
“Priests, Doctors, Diviners, and the Recycling of the Ancient Tradition Between
Byzantium and Islam.” Invited Lecture, History Department, Yale University. Spring
2002.
“Greek-Arabic Bilingualism in the Middle Ages as Evidenced in Greek-Arabic
Manuscripts.” Invited lecture. History Department, University of Crete, Rhethymnon.
Fall 2000.
“A Greek-Arabic Lexicon of the 14th century and Greek Learning in Muslim Lands.”
Byzantine Studies Conference. Harvard University. Fall 2000.
“A Greek-Arabic Bilingual Psalter of the 10th Century and the Survival of Greek
Learning in the Middle East After the Arab Conquest.” Annual Conference of Greek and
Cypriot Byzantinists, University of Crete, Rhethymnon. Fall 2000.
“Arabic-Greek Herbal Glossaries and the Appearance of Arabic Medical Terms in Greek
Manuscripts.” Byzantine Studies Conference, University of Maryland, College Park. Fall
1999.
“10th-11th Century Greek Evidence about the Sicilian Arabic Dialect.” Symposium of
the Arabic Linguistics Society, Stanford University. Spring 1999.
“Remarks on the Byzantine Greek Translations from the Arabic.” Byzantine Studies
Conference, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Fall 1997.
“Byzantium and the Slavs.” Association of Greek Employees of the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund, Washington DC. Spring 1995.
“Graeco-Roman Dream Interpretation Recycled: The Reception of Artemidorus in
Byzantium and Islam.” The Third Meeting of the International Society for Classical
Tradition, Boston University. Spring 1995.
“The Contemporary Image of Byzantium: The Cultural Implementation of a Political
Choice.” Fourth Interdisciplinary Conference of Graduate Students and Recent Ph.D.s:
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, The Next Wave. Ohio State University. Fall 1994.
“The Byzantine Oneirocriticon of Achmet and the Islamic Science of Dream
Interpretation.” Byzantine Studies Conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Fall
1994.
“The Oneirocriticon of Achmet: A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation and Its
Arabic Sources.” UCLA Byzantinists’ Colloquium IV. Spring 1994.
Membership in Learned Societies
American Historical Association
American Oriental Society
Byzantine Studies Conference
Medieval Academy of America
Middle East Studies Association
Professional Service
Reviewer of publications and research proposals for Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Byzantine
and Modern Greek Studies, Center for Hellenic Studies (Harvard University), John’s
Hopkins University Press, E. J. Brill, Hackett Publishing Co., Research Council of
Canada (Social Sciences and Humanities), Research Council of Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven.
Member of the Academic Committee of the Martin Buber Society of Fellows, Hebrew
University, Jerusalem.
Member of the Editorial Board of La pomme d’or Publishing, Geneva
(http://www.pommedor.ch/).
Member of the Advisory Board, Center for Hellenic Traditions, Central European
University, Budapest.