Edith.Chen@utah.edu

Curriculum Vitae

801/581-4489

CTIHB 215

About

I am a historian of the premodern Islamic world and the Mongol Empire, specifically of the polity known as the Ilkhanate. My interests include Islamic history, legal history, and the transmission of people and ideas across Eurasia. I am interested in those moments in history where different peoples were brought into interaction with one another and the consequences of such encounters. While focusing on the Middle East and the Persianate world, I also apply a global perspective to medieval history and when investigating the connections between different parts of Eurasia – specifically between the Islamic world, the Central Asian steppes, and East Asia, and how these connections affected societies, law, and culture. I draw on local histories written in Arabic, Persian, and Chinese.

My book project, “The Formation of the Mongol Empire: The Mongols and Their Local Allies in the Islamic World”, looks at the process by which Muslim and Christian local dynasties around Persia were integrated into the Mongol polity in the 13th century. It explores the role diplomacy played in the rise of the Mongol Empire, and challenges the notion that empires emerge mainly from war and conquest. I also have a few smaller projects on the impact of Mongol rule on Persian culture and society and Islamic law.

---

Education

I completed my doctoral studies at Princeton’s Department of Near Eastern Studies in 2021, and was the Bennett Boskey Fellow of Global History at Exeter College, Oxford from 2021-2024.

---

Research Focus

Islamic history, legal history, and the transmission of people and ideas across Eurasia.

---

Key Publications

• An Infidel Can Rule Dar al-Islam: Hanafi Law in the Wake of the Mongol Invasion, Islamic Law and Society, 2023
• Oil, Ideology, and Regime Adaptation in the Rentier Republics: A Com- parison of Algeria and Libya, Harvard Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy, 2013
• Help or Hindrance? Religion’s Effect on Social Development in Jordan, Al-Noor: Boston College Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 2011

---

Teaching

HIST 4410: Islamic History (500-1500 CE)
HIST 4200: The Mongols
HIST 1500: World History

---

Awards

• 2022: Princeton University, T. Cuyler Young Award for Best Dissertation in Iranian Studies
• 2019-2020: Israeli Council of Higher Education Ph.D. Sandwich Scholarship
• 2019-2020: Fulbright Study/Research Award, Israel
• 2019: American Institute of Iranian Studies Conference Travel Fellowship
• 2018: Princeton Dean’s Fund for Scholarly Travel
• 2017: Critical Language Scholarship, Tajikistan (Persian)
• 2013-2014: Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) (Arabic)
• 2013 Summer: Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) (Arabic)
• 2012-2013: Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) (Arabic)
• 2011: Summer Arabic Language and Media Scholarship at Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center