Amira Bennison


Amira K. Bennison is a historian of the Middle East, currently Reader in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in the University of Cambridge and fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Education

Bennison studied history at Cambridge, graduating in 1989 before switching to Arabic. She then pursued graduate work, with an MA at Harvard in Middle Eastern Studies in 1992, and her PhD at SOAS in Moroccan History in 1996. She was a Leverhulme research fellow at the University of Manchester. She became a lecturer at Cambridge in 1997.

Career

Bennison's book The Great Caliphs: the golden age of the ‘Abbasid empire was reviewed by Hugh N. Kennedy, who said she has "a lively and engaging style", and the book will be "the first port of call for anyone looking for an introduction to the 'golden age of Islam'."

Publications