On Wednesday, February 12th, 2025, Dr. James Wilson, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Konstanz, delivered a fantastic lecture at Fordham University on the under-researched world of Medieval Arabic historiography, a key category of sources for Crusade historians.
Dr. Wilson obtained his PhD from Queen Mary, University of London in 2020, with a focus on Islamic perspectives on the Crusades in the Near East. Dr. Wilson specializes in Medieval Syria, and its political culture at the time of the Crusades. His most recent book Medieval Syria and the Onset of the Crusades. The Political World of Bilad al-Sham 1050-1128 was published via Edinburgh University Press’ flagship imprint to rave reviews.
Dr. Wilson’s postdoctoral research at the University of Konstanz examines the nineteenth-century orientalist project which produced the editions and French translations of the Medieval Arabic chronicles widely used by Crusade scholars today. In particular he focuses on the Recueil Des Historiens Des Croisades Historiens Orientaux. In his presentation, Dr. Wilson problematized these texts while simultaneously acknowledging the deep intellectual debt owed to the philologists of yesteryear. His ongoing study focuses on three areas of inquiry: (i) exploring whether and how the individuals involved in the editorial process were connected to colonial networks; (ii) examining how European manuscripts were collected and selected, paying close attention to why certain texts or sections were included or left out; and (iii) analyzing editorial choices and linguistic decisions by comparing the translations with the original manuscripts. Dr. Wilson’s research revealed quantitative deficits in the Orientalists’ work but has also shown that in some cases they were remarkably accurate. He makes a case study of the most translated Arabic chronicle of the nineteenth-century, Ibn al-ʿAdim’s (d. 1262) Zubda al-halab min taʾrikh halab (“The Cream of the Milk of the History of Aleppo”). He showed how the nineteenth-century Orientalists worked from only five of some twenty extant manuscripts, and omitted vast swathes of text which were unrelated to the Crusades.
After Dr. Wilson finished his talk, he stuck around to field questions and lead stimulating discussions on nineteenth-century historiography. A common refrain was both great frustration with and deep reliance on these nineteenth-century sources, among medievalists from disparate areas of study.
