What is HIMME?

The Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East is a reference work to expand both scholarly and educated public understanding of a critical period of human history. HIMME provides search and browse interfaces for accessing tens of thousands of entries about medieval Middle Eastern people, places, and cultural practices (such as Qur’an recitation, funerals, or taxation).

Sample Entries

The sample entries below represent a range of periods and interests in the medieval Middle East. They also represent a range of complexity of the entries, spanning from persons or places found in every language (e.g. ʿAlī, or Mosul) to some that are found in only one source (e.g Khātūn). They show the range of types of entries published in HIMME.

Persons:

• Heraclius (Roman Emperor of the early 7th century)
• ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (Muḥammad’s cousin, the fourth caliph, the first Imam)
• Fāṭima (the daughter of Muḥammad and wife of ʿAlī)
• Shīrīn bt. Rustam al-Iṣpahbadh (a basic entry)
• al-Barāmika (a group entry for the famous Barmakid family of Abbasid viziers)
• Yaḥyā b. Aktham (a qāḍī at the court of al-Maʾmūn)
• Khātūn (a female Turkic Muslim ruler, mentioned in a Syriac source)
• Osman I (progenitor of the Ottoman dynasty)
• Wazīra bt. ʿUmar b. al-Munajjā (a religious scholar)

Places:

• Dābiq (A village near Aleppo)
• Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar (A city on the Tigris upriver from Mosul)
• Mosul (A city in northern Iraq)
• Samarqand (A Central Asian city, capital of Soghdia, and later of Timur-i Lang)
• al-Sharja (A port town in Yemen)

Practices:

• Ramaḍān (the month of fasting in the Islamic calendar)
• sipāhī (a type of cavalry soldier used by Turkic rulers)
• al-ʿUzzā (a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess)
• al-Mahdī (a key figure in Islamic eschatology)

Want to Learn More?

Read about this project. Questions can be directed to the Principal Investigator, Thomas A. Carlson.

Support

  

This project has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or of Oklahoma State University.