yusufumrethwala's profile picture. Grad Student, Researcher, and Writer @jamea_saifiyah @ColumbiaMEI @GenizaLab

Yusuf Umrethwala

@yusufumrethwala

Grad Student, Researcher, and Writer @jamea_saifiyah @ColumbiaMEI @GenizaLab

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It was a pleasure working on the upcoming exhibit on Islamic manuscripts and objects @columbialib Coming out soon! Details and registration link - events.columbia.edu/cal/event/even…

yusufumrethwala's tweet image. It was a pleasure working on the upcoming exhibit on Islamic manuscripts and objects @columbialib Coming out soon! Details and registration link - events.columbia.edu/cal/event/even…
yusufumrethwala's tweet image. It was a pleasure working on the upcoming exhibit on Islamic manuscripts and objects @columbialib Coming out soon! Details and registration link - events.columbia.edu/cal/event/even…

Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

Back here to say that my first monograph "Before World Literature" will be released by UPenn Press in March 2026. I hope it will be of interest to folks in comparative literature, Islamic studies, and classical Arabic literature. pennpress.org/9781512828870/…

Lit_as_Adab's tweet image. Back here to say that my first monograph "Before World Literature" will be released by UPenn Press in March 2026. I hope it will be of interest to folks in comparative literature, Islamic studies, and classical Arabic literature. 

pennpress.org/9781512828870/…

Saddened to hear about the passing of my former Professor, Brinkley Messick. An extremely kind and humble intellectual. May his memory always be a blessing.

yusufumrethwala's tweet image. Saddened to hear about the passing of my former Professor, Brinkley Messick. An extremely kind and humble intellectual. May his memory always be a blessing.
yusufumrethwala's tweet image. Saddened to hear about the passing of my former Professor, Brinkley Messick. An extremely kind and humble intellectual. May his memory always be a blessing.

Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

Serendipitous Translations: A Sourcebook on Sri Lanka in the Islamic Indian Ocean Edited by Nile Green Forthcoming January 2026

yakabikaj's tweet image. Serendipitous Translations: A Sourcebook on Sri Lanka in the Islamic Indian Ocean
Edited by Nile Green
Forthcoming January 2026

Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

Do you work on Arabic history writing, any period, region, form? Propose a paper to the annual Arabic Pasts workshop, this year, 9-10 October, in person, London, at the Aga Khan Centre, w/Queen Mary. Call for papers proposal deadline: 16 May. kitab-project.org/Call-For-Paper…


This is such a marvelous effort in putting all previously unedited marriage and divorce documents (including several unidentified Geniza documents) in a single volume. This book surely opens several new avenues of research for studying the social history of the medieval Mideast.

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Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

A thrilling recent find: a copper box with 9 golden Fatimid dinars from ~11th century Egypt, found during rainwater pit excavation in Ponmala, Kerala. onmanorama.com/news/kerala/20… 👉

GenizaLab's tweet image. A thrilling recent find: a copper box with 9 golden Fatimid dinars from ~11th century Egypt, found during rainwater pit excavation in Ponmala, Kerala.

onmanorama.com/news/kerala/20…

👉

Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

Our digital corpus is now live. Please check it out using the link. bit.ly/3YF4qBy


Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

Download Arabic texts and see much information about them with KITAB's new web application. We will get you started! KITAB/Centre for Digital Humanities online Open House When: Tuesday 23 July at 2:30 pm UK eventbrite.co.uk/e/aku-ismcs-ce…

sarahsavant1's tweet image. Download Arabic texts and see much information about them with KITAB's new web application.  We will get you started!
KITAB/Centre for Digital Humanities online Open House
When: Tuesday 23 July at 2:30 pm UK
eventbrite.co.uk/e/aku-ismcs-ce…

Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

In case you missed it! KITAB's text reuse data set, funded by the ERC, is now available online and can be accessed through a web application built by the project team. Also, mark aclendars for an Open House July 23 at 2:30 BST. See: tinyurl.com/2s38s8pr. @ERC_Research

sarahsavant1's tweet image. In case you missed it! KITAB's text reuse data set, funded by the ERC, is now available online and can be accessed through a web application built by the project team.  Also, mark aclendars for an Open House July 23 at 2:30 BST. See: tinyurl.com/2s38s8pr. @ERC_Research

Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

An exciting new Fragment of the Month by the Geniza Lab's own @yusufumrethwala, who recognized a small fragment of four lines as a significant source for Buyid-Fatimid diplomacy in the 1040s CE 🥳 lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/de…

GenizaLab's tweet image. An exciting new Fragment of the Month by the Geniza Lab's own @yusufumrethwala, who recognized a small fragment of four lines as a significant source for Buyid-Fatimid diplomacy in the 1040s CE 🥳

lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/de…
GenizaLab's tweet image. An exciting new Fragment of the Month by the Geniza Lab's own @yusufumrethwala, who recognized a small fragment of four lines as a significant source for Buyid-Fatimid diplomacy in the 1040s CE 🥳

lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/de…

This is such great news!

30 years in the making! Don't miss Geoffrey Khan's long-awaited book on Arabic documents from medieval Nubia, published today open-access. openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647…



Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

Geniza Startroopers! May the 4th be with you!👽🛸

yusufumrethwala's tweet image. Geniza Startroopers! May the 4th be with you!👽🛸
yusufumrethwala's tweet image. Geniza Startroopers! May the 4th be with you!👽🛸

This is interesting - Arabo-Tamil, Indian Ocean trade, and sacred trash!

If you'd like to learn about Arabu-Tamil & Arabic-Malayalam, pls read this. I don't agree with some details (like dating Arwi to the 8th century), but BBC's reach is truly remarkable; many people from all over the world wrote to me after reading this. bbc.com/travel/article…



I have a thesis deadline in less than two weeks but I just got my hands on Chris Wickham’s new book and can’t stop reading it. Highly recommend!

yusufumrethwala's tweet image. I have a thesis deadline in less than two weeks but I just got my hands on Chris Wickham’s new book and can’t stop reading it. Highly recommend!

Does anyone speak cat? 🐱

yusufumrethwala's tweet image. Does anyone speak cat? 🐱

Does anyone from the academic community know a good online resource that generates a map which plots towns/cities one seeks to highlight?


Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

Our special issue Commercial Capitalism and Global History is out and available for download in open access (yes, you heard right, open): viella.it/toc/6786 Six authors discuss Jairus Banaji's A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism, with a response from the author - enjoy!

BondioliLorenzo's tweet image. Our special issue Commercial Capitalism and Global History is out and available for download in open access (yes, you heard right, open): viella.it/toc/6786
Six authors discuss Jairus Banaji's A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism, with a response from the author - enjoy!

Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

I found out today that this manuscript is now fully digitised and freely available via the @bodleianlibs . You can find the illuminations from folio 114a onwards! digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/12fcf5…

Stumbled on this amazing 16th century copy of the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa' in Oxford Bodleian today (MS Laud Or 260). The epistle on animals in this copy contains dozens of sumptuous illustrations. I haven't seen anything like it any of the other copies of the text I've consulted.

gowaart's tweet image. Stumbled on this amazing 16th century copy of the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa' in Oxford Bodleian today (MS Laud Or 260). The epistle on animals in this copy contains dozens of sumptuous illustrations. I haven't seen anything like it any of the other copies of the text I've consulted.


Yusuf Umrethwala reposted

1/Going through the old #Genizah Instagram posts (for a secret project) and noticed something. This is the 'Memorandum for Opticians', a book on eye health written in the 11th century by ʿAlī ibn Īsā. There is a note attached that dates this copy to 1142. #arabic #manuscript

NPosegay's tweet image. 1/Going through the old #Genizah Instagram posts (for a secret project) and noticed something. This is the 'Memorandum for Opticians', a book on eye health written in the 11th century by ʿAlī ibn Īsā. There is a note attached that dates this copy to 1142. #arabic #manuscript

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