Staff Profiles

Introduction

I am a(n) historian of medieval Islamic Iberia (al-Andalus), with particular interests in historiography and social history. I also have a developing interest in representations of the past, especially on film. My teaching ranges across the Islamic world, from the time of the Prophet Muhammad down to the early 17th century.

Qualifications

MA (St Andrews, 2003) - History 

MPhil (Oxford, 2005) - Classical and Medieval Islamic History

DPhil (Oxford, 2009) - 'The Islamic Conquest of Spain: historiographical perspectives, 8th-14th centuries'

Previous Positions 

Teaching Associate, Department of History, Lancaster University, 2011-12

Tutor in Islamic History, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, 2010-11 

Lecturer in Later Medieval Islamic History, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, 2009-10 

Areas of interest

My primary research focus at present is on representations of gender - particularly masculinity - in legal and literary texts from medieval Islamic Iberia (al-Andalus).

I also remain interested in medieval Islamic intellectual life, especially historiography, geography and travel writing in Arabic.

Supervision

I am happy to consider research proposals from students wishing to work on any aspect of the early or medieval history of the Islamic world, with a preference for social, intellectual and political history, or receptions of the medieval Islamic past in the present.

Please note that I do not work on modern Arabic literature, or modern Islamic history. I can therefore only consider proposals in these areas where the project has a pre-modern component, and in the context of collaborative supervision with a suitable specialist.

Undergraduate teaching varies from year year, but usually includes a selection of the following:

HIS1103 History Lab II

HIS1105 What is History For?

HCA1003 Global Middle Ages

HCA1007 Stuff: Living in a Material World

ARA2092 The Medieval World

HIS2240 Greece from Ancient Times to the Present

HIS2301 Culture and Communication in Medieval Eurasia

HIS2308 History and Film: Representing the Past

HIS3000 Reading History

HIS3020 Writing History

HIS3366 Fictional Histories 

Graduate Teaching varies from year year, but usually includes a selection of the following:

HIS8053 Conflict in European History

HIS8061 The Practice of History

HIS8120 Missions, Missionaries and Empires in World History

Office hours

Semester two, 2024-2925: Tues 11-12, Weds 11-12, Thurs 4-5.

• Articles

  • Clarke N. Heirs and Spares: Elite Fathers and Their Sons in the Literary Sources of Umayyad Iberia. Al-Masāq 2016, 28(1), 67-83.
  • Clarke N. ‘They are the most treacherous of people’: religious difference in Arabic accounts of three early medieval Berber revolts. eHumanista 2013, 24, 510-525.
  • Clarke N. Medieval Arabic accounts of the conquest of Cordoba: Creating a narrative for a provincial capital. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 2011, 74(1), 41-57.

• Authored Book

  • Clarke N. The Muslim Conquest of Iberia: Medieval Arabic Narratives. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012.

• Book Chapters

  • Clarke N, Herrán M. Gendered Pasts: women in al-Andalus. In: Govantes-Edwards D, ed. Archaeology, Politics and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe. Sheffield and Bristol: Equinox, 2022, pp.39-52.
  • Clarke N. Re-reading the conquest of Iberia: The dynamism of a medieval tradition. In: Gerli, DM; Giles, R, ed. The Routledge Hispanic Studies Companion to Medieval Iberia. London and New York: Routledge, 2021, pp.137-151.
  • Clarke N. 'He lashed his mawlā with a whip, and shaved his head': masculinity and hierarchy in early Andalusī chronicles. In: Simon Barton and Robert Portass, ed. Beyond the Reconquista: New Directions in the History of Medieval Iberia (711-1085). Leiden: Brill, 2020, pp.232-256.
  • Clarke N. Caliphs and Conquerors: images of the Marwanids and their agents in narratives of the conquest of Iberia. In: George A; Marsham A, ed. Power, Patronage, and Memory in Early Islam. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2018, pp.301-319.
  • Clarke N. al-Andalus (Muslim Iberia). In: John M. MacKenzie, Nigel R. Dalziel, Nicholas Doumanis, Michael W. Charney, ed. The Encyclopedia of Empire. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2016, pp.1-7.