“Say: Travel through the Earth and deeply observe how God did originate the creation; then God produces the next creation; surely God has power over all things” (Qur’an 29:19-20)
Welcome and May the peace and blessings of God be upon you.
Source: AboutHistory
“I like to think studying history, whether it is the study of the Islamic past or other religions, societies or empires, can be very rewarding for a Muslim who wants to serve humanity and one's faith community”
dr. Nahyan fancy
What do you do in your job?
"I am a Professor of History. The one part of a professor's job that I think most people know is that we teach, advise and mentor students. I teach courses on the History of the Middle East, and History of Science, both general surveys as well as more topical courses such as: Gender and Sexuality in the Middle East, Plague in the Islamic World, Partition & Memory, or a course on Sunnis, Shi‘as and Mystics. However, most people don't recognize that professors, even history professors, have active research agendas in which we unearth new materials, or provide new interpretations or understandings of the past. In my case, I have uncovered new materials about the developments in medical theory and practice in Islamic societies during the period between 1200 and 1520 CE, as well as provided new understandings about the relationship between religion and medicine, and how medical knowledge was taught and transmitted. Believe it or not, that book from 1930, or 1950 or 1990 or even 2000 that claims that science and medicine declined after a so-called Golden Age due to religious opposition or the exclusion of science and philosophy from madrasas is wrong. Historians of Islamic science have been arguing against the decline thesis for over four decades.
The final part of my job is serving my department, institution and profession. Universities ideally adhere to a system of shared governance wherein faculty committees and faculty votes are needed to implement policies. Faculty have to actively participate in these university-wide communities in addition to departmental duties such as serving on search committees, award committees, personnel committees to assess the progress of colleagues towards tenure and/or promotion, etc. Finally, we serve the profession by peer reviewing articles and books before they are published, or reviewing grant applications and national fellowship competitions to determine which projects are worthy of funding. We also serve on various committees and boards for national organizations, journals and university presses. Almost all of this service work is unpaid. And I haven't even mentioned the unofficial service work, whose burdens tend to be disproportionately heavier for faculty who belong to groups that have been traditionally marginalized in academia due to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and/or religion (e.g. the anti-racist work of Black faculty to dismantle institutionalized racism, or Latinx faculty providing support to students affected by immigration policies or ICE activities across the nation, and so forth).”
What do you love about your job?
“I love working closely with students and seeing them progress and develop. It is the reason I always wanted to teach at a liberal arts college after studying at one. I also love doing research, as frustrating as it can be at times. The thrill of uncovering new material or insights is exhilarating that can brighten even the most difficult of times. For example, over the past year's pandemic, a true highlight was to co-author a piece with Monica Green on a plague outbreak in 1258 in Syria after the Mongol conquest of Baghdad--just about a century before the Black Death. We uncovered how the outbreak was reported by contemporary witnesses, and how this new experience with the disease led to a revised understanding of the symptoms of plague. However, reports about this 1258 plague outbreak were systematically erased from memory by later 14th and 15th century Muslim historians such that this plague outbreak was never even recorded in history books dealing with the Mongol sack of Baghdad until very recently. (The article appeared in Medical History in April, 2021). Some of my other work has uncovered a full tradition of systematically investigating, critiquing and transforming Greek medical theory in the Arabic commentaries on the Canon of Medicine. In an article that came out in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences at the end of 2020, I provide some examples of the method employed in these systematic investigations which included philosophical argumentation, empirical observations and even rigorous experiments (look for a neat, controlled, rigorous experiment to assess the qualities of snowy water from Ibn al-Nafīs’s Commentary on the Canon of Medicine which was written around 1242 CE)! I also love mentoring students and junior faculty, and engaging in intellectual exchanges with colleagues (junior, peer or senior).”
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” (Marcus Garvey)
What do you like least about your job?
“Days when I walk into class and find out that students are goofing off and not putting in the time to learn. It really saddens me to see them waste precious money and time by not even putting minimal effort into their education by reading for classes or paying attention in class. Also, grading can be tedious but I recognize the value of giving detailed feedback to students on their written and oral assignments to help them grow.”
“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think” (Socrates)
Did faith play a role in choosing your career? Do you see any relationship between faith and your career?
“I was pre-med and majored in Mathematics and Biochemistry. When I decided not to pursue medicine because I felt more attracted to the life of the mind at a small liberal arts college, faith was not at the forefront. However, when I decided to pursue a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science as opposed to Math or Biochemistry, and that too with a focus on pre-modern Islamic science and medicine, I was certainly guided by my faith. Much of what I was reading in the standard secondary literature on the decline of science in Islamic societies due to religious oppression, or even on the conflict between science and religion, did not jive with my own experiences and understanding of my faith (as limited as it was then, and remains even now). I thus wanted to dive into this material to see for myself whether or not what I was reading in standard Eurocentric narratives was accurate. And as I discovered the works of A. I. Sabra, Roshdi Rashed, George Saliba, J.L Berrgren, Ahmad Dallal, Sonja Brentjes, Emilie Savage-Smith and others--works that challenged the standard decline narrative--I felt called to contribute whatever I could to this revisionist scholarship, and to do my part in disseminating this scholarship and correcting the older narratives through my own teaching and advocacy.”
Source: LeadershipByVirtue
Are there parts of your job that make you a better Muslim?
“I think learning about the vast oceans of knowledge produced in pre-modern Islamic societies, and how the standard historical narratives told by either traditional Muslim scholars or secular academics are based on only a tiny fraction of the surviving textual corpus is a very humbling experience. And humility is perhaps one of the most, if not the most, important value a Muslim should cultivate. So, in that sense, being a professor of history can help inculcate that value. At the same time, expectations of being "the expert" in a room, or the fact that people look up to you (either as students or even colleagues) can also massage the ego and make one arrogant. So the challenge for perhaps any academic or scholar is to feed one's humility by continuously reading and learning about all the stuff one doesn't know, while asserting oneself where one can legitimately contribute to the understanding of a topic without letting one's ego grow to satanic proportions.”
What do you want people, especially Muslims, to know about your career?
“Muslims will of course recall the hadith, "Seek knowledge even if you have to go as far as China." It is not a sahih (sound) hadith (most likely fabricated) but people recognize that the sentiment expressed in that hadith agrees with much of what the Qur'an says. Moreover, the Qur'an directly asks people (on numerous occasions) to travel the world and learn about the fate of previous societies, many of which were more powerful than "you", i.e. the Meccan and Medinan Arabs. However, we could also read the "you" as referring to us--people reading the Qur'an in the twenty-first century. The latter reading can introduce some humility in how we think about the values, morality and power of our own societies. I like to think studying history, whether it is the study of the Islamic past or other religions, societies or empires, can be very rewarding for a Muslim who wants to serve humanity and one's faith community. I would want young Muslims, and especially their parents, to recognize that goodness, virtue, closeness to religion and even serving the needs of a community can be accomplished by almost any profession just as long as one orients oneself properly.”
What resources do you recommend for people who want to learn more about your career?
“For college students who are reading this piece, go talk to your professors. If you are interested in knowing what professional historical scholarship looks like, check out some open access articles in journals like the American Historical Review, Medical History, Isis: The Journal of the History of Science Society, and the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (this journal also publishes articles in related fields such as Anthropology, Sociology, Literature and Political Science). You can also check out my personal webpage to learn more about my work (all my published articles and book chapters can be accessed through the webpage, as can some videos of my presentations).”
“And We have already sent [messengers] to nations before you, [O Muhammad]; then We seized them with poverty and hardship that perhaps they might humble themselves” (Quran 6:42)
“The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are” (Maya Angelou)
For more information:
Dr. Nahyan Fancy: Personal Webpage
“Plague and the Fall of Baghdad”
Nagamia Institute of Islamic Medicine and Science: https://www.niims.org
1001 Inventions: the Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization: http://www.1001inventions.com