Nabil Matar
Professor
Ph.D. English Literature, University of Cambridge, 1976
330C Lind Hall
612-626-8320
matar010@umn.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Nabil Matar's research and teaching are in the areas of English seventeenth-century religious literature, British-Islamic relations, and Arabic writings on Europe in the early modern period. He started his career by teaching at the University of Jordan (1975-77) and at the American University of Beirut (1978-86). In 1977-78, he received a British Council grant to Clare Hall, Cambridge, and in 1982, a Fulbright grant to Harvard Divinity School. In 1986, he moved to Florida Institute of Technology where he became Professor of English in 1988 and Head of the Department of Humanities and Communication between 1997 and 2007. In Fall 2007, he began his tenure as Professor of English at the University of Minnesota.
He has published on Thomas Traherne and Restoration religious movements, and on Peter Sterry and Interregnum piety and politics (Peter Sterry: Select Writings, 1994). In the early 1990s, he began exploring the archives of Anglo-Islamic history, in England, Tunisia, and Morocco and between 1998 and 2005 completed his trilogy on Britain and the Islamic Mediterranean: Islam in Britain, 1558-1685 (Cambridge UP, 1998); Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery (Columbia UP, 1999); and Britain and Barbary 1589-1689 (UP of Florida, 2005). Meanwhile, he was researching Arabic and European captivity accounts (having been himself held hostage in Beirut in 1986) and in 2001 published an introduction to Piracy, Slavery, and Redemption (Columbia UP, 2001), followed by In the Lands of the Christians: Arabic Travel Writing in the Seventeenth Century (Routledge, 2003). He also published articles in journals, book collections, and encyclopedias, including the Encyclopedia of Travel and the New Oxford National Dictionary of Biography.
His forthcoming publications include Europe through Arab Eyes, 1578-1727 (Columbia UP, 2008) and, with Professor Gerald MacLean of Exeter University, Britain and the Muslim World, 1558-1713 (Oxford UP, 2009).
Department Affiliations
History Department
Areas of Expertise
English 17th-century religious literature; travel writing; mysticism; modern Arabic literature; Arab-Islamic civilization
Selected Publications
For Professor Matar's published books, please see the listing in his bio.
“Political Thought in Early Modern Morocco.” European Political Thought 1450-1700: Religion, Law and Philosophy. Ed. Howell A.Lloyd, Glenn Burgess and Simon Hodson. New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming.
“Ahmad al-Mansur and Queen Elizabeth I.” Journal of Early Modern History (forthcoming).
“Islam in Britain, 1689-1750.” Journal of British Studies (forthcoming).
“England and North Africa in 1607.” The Image of the Other. Ed. Elena Lioubimova. Williamsburg: Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, forthcoming.
“Spain through Arab Eyes, c. 1573-1691.” Europe Observed. Ed. Kumkum Chatterjee and Clement Hawes. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, forthcoming.
“Piracy and Captivity in the Early Modern Mediterranean: The Perspective from Barbary.” Pirates? The Politics of Plunder, 1550-1650. Ed. Claire Jowett. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
“Magharibi in France, 16th to 18th Centuries.” Histoire de l’islam et des musulmans en France. Ed. Mohammed Arkoun. Paris: Albin Michel, 2006.
“Europe through Eighteenth-Century Moroccan Eyes." Alif: Travel Literature of Egypt and the Middle East. 26 (2006).
"Prophetic Traherne: 'A Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Nation'." reprint of a 1982 Journal of English and Germanic Philology article in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. vol. 70. Detroit: Thomson and Gale, 2006.
“'The Temple' and Thomas Traherne," reprint of a 1994 English Language Notes article in Poetry Criticism ed. Michelle Lee. vol. 70. Detroit: Thomson and Gale, 2006.
Graduate Courses
The Metaphysical Poets
English Mysticism: From the Cloud of Unknowing to Thomas Traherne
Britain and the Islamic Mediterranean, 1588-1713
Britain and Empire, from Hakluyt to Pope
Undergraduate Courses
Western Civilization, from the Beginnings to 1500
Introduction to Islamic Civilization
Seventeenth-Century English Religious Literature
Turks, Moors, Jews, and Pagans on the London Stage (1589-1642)
Conversations between Christianity and Islam: Some Primary Texts
The Hero as Traveler: East and West