Rana Mikati

Associate Professor

Rana Mikati received her Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from The University of Chicago. She also trained as an archaeologist at the American University of Beirut and at the University of Chicago with a special emphasis on Islamic Archaeology.

Her research interests include the cultural and intellectual history of the eastern Mediterranean in the early medieval period, the history of early Islamic frontiers, warfare, and Islamic archaeology. She has written on women and warfare in the early Islamic period, ritual cursing, and Syrian saints.

Dr. Mikati is currently working on a book project on the transformation of Beirut into an early Islamic frontier town.

Education

Research Interests

Publications

Creating an Islamic City: Beirut, Jihad, and the Sacred (Brill: Leiden, 2024).

“Female Warriors in Early Islam: Women’s Jihad,” Medieval Warfare Magazine 11.2 (2021): 23-26.

“Missives from the Frontier (130-152/747-769): al-Awzā‘ī and the Abbasids.” Journal of Abbasid Studies 7.1 (2020): 1-32.

 “Fighting for the Faith: Early Muslim Women at War.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 78.2 (October 2019): 201-213.

“Cross My Heart and Swear to Die: A Diachronic Examination of the Mutual Self-Curse (Mubāhala) in Islam.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 139. 2 (2019): 317-332.

“On the Identity of the Syrian abdāl.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 80.1 (2017): 21-43.