Two
prestigious projects
James Wilson (Postdoctoral Fellow / History and Sociology) is one of the winners of the 2024 Messmer Foundation Research Award conferred by the “Werner and Erika Messmer Foundation”. He also presented his first monograph this year.
James Wilson has won a 2024 Messmer Foundation Research Award for his project “Colonialism, the ‘Counter-Crusade’ and the early development of Crusader studies”.
His project focuses on 19th-century European translations of Arabic historical texts, which were written during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries when crusading armies from Europe travelled to modern Syria, Jordan, Syria and Palestine and conquered a number of cities along the Eastern Mediterranean coastline – including, most notably, Jerusalem.
According to James, the project is important for two reasons: “Firstly, the crusades remain a popular and influential historical episode for those studying and thinking about Christian-Muslim relations, and these chronicles provide the most detailed insight into Arabic-Islamic perspectives of this medieval phenomenon. Secondly, non-Arabists still rely on these translations to write the history of the crusades, so this collection has influenced how generations of historians have engaged with these sources since the late 19th century,” he summarises.
His project is highly topical: “In light of recent events affecting relations between Europe and the Arab sphere, and ongoing discourses surrounding migration and right-wing populism, the epistemological legacies of Orientalist scholarship have taken on a new resonance. It is hoped that by applying a clear methodology to an influential case study the results can help to objectify politicised debates on the relevance and legacy of scientific projects produced in the heyday of Orientalist and colonialist thought.”
Each Messmer Foundation Research Award is worth €10,000. Its purpose is to support awardees in their further scientific work. The selection was made in a multi-stage procedure by the foundation and the Rectorate of the University of Konstanz, in consultation with the three sections at the university.
The award ceremony took place during the Dies academicus at the University of Konstanz on 4 July 2024.
First monograph published
In 2023, James Wilson also published his first monograph entitled “Medieval Syria and the Onset of the Crusades”, which he presented in a public Jour fixe on 18 June 2024. The book was recently shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society’s Gladstone Prize, which is awarded on a yearly basis to graduates from UK universities for books on non-European history.
“The book proposes a new model for understanding the political dynasties of this period and questions the significance ascribed to the establishment of the Crusader States by modern historians. It provides a unique reinterpretation of the political situation in bilad al-sham (Greater Syria) during one of the most important periods in Middle Eastern history.” (Edinburgh University Press)
About the book
Between 1050 and 1128 the nomadic Seljuq Turks and European Crusaders subjected northern Syria to a series of invasions from the east and west. The migration of militant peoples from the Eurasian Steppe and Western Europe inserted a new set of political elites into a complex frontier zone already beset by numerous conflicts fought along several ethno-cultural and religious contours. Surveying this turbulent chapter of Syrian history from multiple perspectives, this book recalibrates the underlying power dynamics of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Through this regional focus, it reassesses both the impact that the establishment of Turkish and Crusader lordships had upon bilad al-sham (Greater Syria) and the reactions of Syria’s established ruling elite to this unprecedented sequence of events.
