Matanya Gill

Research Interests

Personal Project :Merchants and Ilkhanid Trade according to the Biographical Dictionary of Ibn al-Fuwaṭī (1244-1323)

Kamal al-Din 'Abd al-Razzaq b. Ahmad, known as Ibn al-Fuwaṭī, was a native of Baghdad who was enslaved by the Mongols after the fall of Baghdad in 1258. He later joined the Mongol service and worked as a librarian at the Maragha observatory (1261-1280) and at the Mustansiriya library of Baghdad (1280-1313).

Ibn al-Fuwaṭī was also an historian who traveled between Azerbaijan and Iraq during his life and wrote several works of history and biography. His only surviving work is the "majmaʿ al-ādāb fī muʿjam al-alqāb," an Arabic biographical dictionary that contains 5,291 abbreviated and fragmentary entries about all sort of people of his period.   

This often-neglected work is a unique source that provides Ilkhanid point of view for cultural and economic exchanges in the Mongol Iran, the state of Iraq & Baghdad under Mongol rule and for Ilkhan-Mamluk relations in a time of war.  

My thesis examining trade activities and cultural reciprocity within the context of the Ilkhanate, based on the merchants and their relatives whom Ibn al-Fuwaṭī mentioned in his the biographical entries. Because only a small portion of this masterpiece has survived, this study also includes information gathered from other Persian and Arabic sources.

Languages

Persian, Arabic, English, Hebrew, French.

Education:

• 2015 - Current. PhD studies in the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The title of the dissertation is "Global Economy in the Mongol Era: Commerce in the Ilkhanid State (1260-1335)". The supervisor is Prof. Michal Biran.
• 2012 – 2015. MA studies in the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Title of M.A. Thesis: “Merchants and Ilkhanid Trade according to the biographical dictionary of Ibn al-Fuwaṭī (1244-1323)”, under the supervision of Prof. Michal Biran.
• 2009-2012 – BA studies in the Middle Eastern Studies + Arabic Language and Culture, Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Graduated magna cum laude.

Employment

• 2013 – Current – Researcher in the ERC project group “Mobility, Empire and Cross-Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia”, under the supervision of Prof. Michal Biran (Hebrew University).
• 2013 – Research assistant of Dr. Julia Rubanovich, Iranian Studies Coordinator at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• 2012 – 2013 – Internship at the Mayor's office of Jerusalem, with Dr. David Koren, the Mayor's Consultant for Arab Resident & Eastern Jerusalem Affairs.