Biography
Dr. Bruno De Nicola holds a BA in Medieval History (University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) and a MA in Middle Eastern History (SOAS, University of London). In 2011, he received his PhD in Middle Eastern History (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) with a thesis on the role of Women in the Mongol Empire. The same year he was appointed Persian Manuscripts Project Curator at the British Library (London, United Kingdom) and shortly later as Affiliated Researcher at the University of Cambridge between 2102 and 2015. In 2013, he was hired as Research Fellow in Middle Eastern History to participate in the project ISLAMANATOLIA at the University of St. Andrews (United Kingdom). In 2017, he became permanent Lecturer in the history of the Middle East at Goldsmiths College (University of London). At present, he shares this post with his position as Research Fellow at the Institute for Iranian Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 2019 he was awarded the START Prize by the Austrian Science Fund for a six-year project titled “Nomads’ Manuscripts Landscape” that will be launched in January 2020.
Main Areas of Research
Main Areas of Research
- Medieval History and Historiography of the Persianate World.
- Cultural History of Mongol and Timurid Iran and Central Asia.
- Medieval Persian Manuscripts.
- Digital Humanities applied to the Study of Eurasian History
Current Projects
Current Projects
- Nomads' Manuscripts Landscape (FWF START)
- The Book of Jāmāsp the Sage
- Centre and Periphery in Ilkhanid Iran: The Qutlughkhanids of Kerman (1222-1307).
- Ilkhanid manuscripts, a digital database.
Selected Publications
Selected Publications
Single authored books:
1. Bruno De Nicola. Women in Mongol Iran: The Khatuns, 1206-1335. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017).
Edited Books:
2. De Nicola, Bruno and Charles Melville (eds). The Mongols’ Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran. (Leiden: Brill, 2016).
3. Peacock, Andrew C.S., Bruno De Nicola and Sara N. Yildiz (eds), Islam and Christianity in Medieval Anatolia (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015).
4. De Nicola, Bruno, Mendel, Yonatan. and Hussein Qutbbudin (eds.). Knowledge and Language in Middle Eastern Societies. (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010).
Research articles in academic journals and book chapters:
5. Bruno De Nicola., “The Role of the Domestic Sphere in the Islamisation of the Mongols” in A.C.S Peacock (ed.), Islamisation: Comparative perspectives from History (Edinburg: Edinburg University Press, 2017), pp. 353-376.
6. Bruno De Nicola, “The Queen of the Chaghataids: Orghīna Khātūn and the rule of Central Asia” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 26:1-2 (2016), pp. 107 – 120.
7. Bruno De Nicola, “The Economic role of Mongol women: continuity and transformation from Mongolia to Iran.” In Bruno De Nicola and Charles Melville (eds.), The Mongols and the Transformation of the Middle East (Brill: Leiden, 2016), pp. 79-105.
8. Bruno De Nicola, “The Fusṭāṭ al-ʿadāla: a unique Manuscript on the Religious Landscape of Medieval Anatolia.” In Peacock, A.C.S. and S. N. Yildiz (eds), Literature and Intellectual Life in Islamic Anatolia in the 14th-15th Centuries: Historical, Social and Political Perspectives (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2016), pp. 49-72.
9. Bruno De Nicola, “The ladies of Rūm: A hagiographic view on women in the 13th and 14th century Anatolia” Journal of Sufi Studies 3:2 (2014), pp. 132–156.
10. Bruno De Nicola. “Patrons or murids? Mongol women and shaykhs in Ilkhanid Iran and Anatolia” Iran: Journal of British Institute of Persian Studies 52 (2014), pp. 143-156.
11. Bruno De Nicola. “Ruling from tents: the existence and structure of women’ ordos in Ilkhanid Iran” In Ferdowsi, The Mongols and Iranian History: Art, Literature and Culture from Early Islam to Qajar Persia, edited by R. Hillenbrand, A. Peacock and F. Abdullaeva. (London: IB Tauris, 2013), pp. 116-136.
12. Bruno De Nicola. "Women’s Role and Participation in Warfare in the Mongol Empire." In Soldatinnen. Gewalt und Geschlecht im Krieg vom Mittelalter bis Heute, edited by K. Klaus Latzel, S. Satjukow and F. Maubach. (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2010), pp. 95-112.
13. B. De Nicola. “Las mujeres mongolas en los siglos XII y XIII. Un análisis sobre el rol de la madre y la esposa de Chinggis Khan” Acta Histórica et Arqueológica Medievalia 27/28 (2008), pp. 37-64.