Prof. Miriam[Miri] Shefer Mossensohn

Department of Middle Eastern and African History

חוג להיסטוריה של המזרח התיכון ואפריקה סגל אקדמי בכיר

Email: shefer@tauex.tau.ac.il

Phone: 03-6407060

Another phone: 03-6409450

My CRIS profile

academia.edu

Office: Gilman-humanities, 427

Something about myself...

I am a Full Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern & African History at Tel Aviv University. Until November 2023, I had the privilege of serving as the Head of the Zvi Yazetz School of Historical Studies.

My research is at the juncture of three fields of historical research: the early modern Ottoman Empire; Islamic medicine, health and illness; and Muslim environmental history. My final goal is to unravel social and cultural realities in the Turkish and Arabic speaking worlds. Supported by grants from the Israel Science Foundation, the German-Israeli Foundation, and the Dan David Prize scholarship, my projects aim to unravel social and cultural realities in the Turkish and Arabic-speaking worlds.

My current research delves into the management, organization, and supervision of medicine in the early modern Ottoman Empire. I inquire into the concepts and application of safe and efficient medical care and scrutinize the key contributors to establishing and upholding medical standards. Tracking the evolution of bureaucratic patterns alongside the burgeoning state machinery, I explore how these dynamics integrate with the perceptions and practices of non-experts, such as patients and their families. Their influence remains a crucial factor in shaping the consensus within the medical profession.

Beyond my research, I am committed to fostering an enriching and supportive environment for faculty and students, aiding them in navigating intellectual challenges and social experiences at TAU. As the former Head of the School, my goal was to advance historical research and thinking at both TAU and in Israel, while also championing the teaching of history in Israeli academia. I see our role as public historians as pivotal in contributing to a more nuanced, humane, and humanistic understanding of our realities.

On a personal note, I take immense pride in being the mother of two princesses, Ella and Daphna. Together with my husband, we share a deep appreciation for kebap meat, Turkish music, and an extensive collection of books.

The Academic Story

In the early 1990s, I commenced my B.A. studies in the Disciplinary Program for Outstanding Students at TAU, focusing initially on Arab studies with a keen interest in contemporary realities in the Middle East. However, my academic journey took a captivating turn after completing a mandatory course in Ottoman history. Enthralled by the intricacies of court intrigues, I decided to delve deeper into Ottoman studies. Consequently, I expanded my linguistic repertoire to include Turkish and Ottoman Turkish (Osmanlı). This "conversion" became definitive, leading me to complete my B.A. as a committed Ottomanist. A transformative experience during my studies at Boğaziçi Üniversitesi in Istanbul in 1995 solidified not only my academic focus but also my passion for Turkish cuisine.

For my Ph.D. dissertation on Ottoman hospitals in the early modern period (awarded in 2001), I conducted extensive research in Turkey, specifically in Ankara and Istanbul. Support for my research came from the Rothschild Foundation, the Rottenschtreich Scholarship for oustanding doctoral students in the Humanities (Council for Higher Education, Israel), and the Turkish Education Ministry. Additionally, I had the privilege of being affiliated with the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London. Following research fellowships at the Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies in Cambridge and the Princeton University Library, I joined the Department of Middle Eastern & African History at TAU as an Alon Fellow.

Since 2001, I have held various academic and administrative roles, including serving as the Head of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History. I also coordinated the International M.A. Program in Middle Eastern Studies (MAMES) and the Executive M.A. Track in Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies. From 2019 to 2023, I had the honour of leading the Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies. Currently, I am the co-editor, alongside Professors Gadi Algazi and Gadi Sagiv, of the academic journal Zmanim.

Research Students

I look forward to mentor both master's and doctoral research students with a focus on topics aligned with my expertise: 1) Ottoman history, and 2) health, medicine, well-being, and environment in Islamic contexts. If you are enthusiastic about developing projects within these frameworks, please feel free to reach out to me.

My doctoral students to date are: * Dr. Tsameret Levi-Dafni graduated in 2016 with a PhD on material culture, social networks and political elites in 18^th century Diyarbakir (south-east Anatolia). Tsameret is the Director of the Forum for Contemporary Turkish Studies at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. * Dr. Irena Fliter received her degree in 2017, with a dissertation on Ottoman diplomacy in Central Europe and cultural ties between Ottomans and German-speaking Europeans around 1800. Today Irena is a DFG post-doc fellow at Göttingen University. * In the beginning of 2019 a Ph.D. degree was conferred to Dr. Ido Ben-Ami based on his doctoral dissertation on animals and human emotions in the Ottoman urban society in the early modern period. His dissertation won the Best Doctoral Dissertation for 2019 by the Middle East & Islamic Studies Association of Israel (MEISAI).

Currently, I supervise three doctoral students. Galit Cohen (Archaeology, co-supervised with Dr. Hila May from the School of Medicine, and Prof. Yuval Gadot, Archaeology) employs archaeological and anthropological methods to reconstruct the health of the Muslim population in Israel during the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. Yorgos Karatasios (History), who comes to us from Greece, is researching Ottoman administration on the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea against the backdrop of 19th-century Ottoman reforms. Additionally, Dov Tamarkin (History) is investigating the connection between mathematical knowledge, architecture, aesthetics, and identity in the early Islamic centuries. Alongside them, I am supervising the M.A. thesis of Myriam Darmoni Charbit (Environmental Studies, co-supervised with Prof. Dafna Goldman, Environmental Studies, Beit Berl), focusing on the role of Islamic values and traditions in effective environmental education in the Arab sector in Israel, and Maya Raanan (History, co-supervised with Prof. Gadi Algazi, History) on kinship and social survival of families of Mamluk religious scholars in the 14th century on the background of the plague pandemic.

Publications

As a scholar of Ottoman science and medicine, I have published Ottoman Medicine: Healing and Medical Institutions 1500-1700 (State University of New York Press, 2009). The Turkish edition was published by Kitap in Istanbul in 2014. In another book I explain how Ottomans "did" science: Science among the Ottomans: The Cultural Creation and Exchange of Knowledge (the University of Texas Press, 2015). I am pleased that this book too was translated into Turkish (Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2018), and am especially gratified there is an Arabic edition, published in Beirut and Algiers.

Alongside these academic publishing projects, I also address the general Israeli audience. Islam: A Brief Introduction (Tel Aviv University, The Publishing House and Mapa Publishing House, 2006) sketches the 1400-plus years of Islamic religious history for Hebrew readers. Another book in Hebrew, Knowledge, Science and Technology in the Ottoman Empire was written for the Open University course "The Ottoman Empire: Selected Topics" (2015). In the spring of 2013, a series of lectures on medicine, health and death in Muslim societies was boradcasted on "Broadcast University" of the Israeli Army Radio (Galei Tzahal).

In recent years I have started to be active academically in digital media. I recently completed the development of "Arab-Islamic History: From Tribes to Empire," a MOOC (a Massive Open Online Course) on the history of the Middle East, 7th - 15th centuries. I teamed with TAU Online – Learning Innovation Center to create these contents for the edX platform (Harvard and MIT). The process of development was a fascinating process of integrating content and innovative teaching forms. Teaching a course to thousands of people worldwide (we are almost 25,000 people...) is an exciting experience; The interaction with hundreds of learners from all over the Muslim world in especially enriching and contributes to my classes at TAU.