Dr. Kristof D'hulster
Address: Jozef Plateaustraat 22, B-9000 GHENT (Belgium)
E T ++32 (0)9 264 35 59
F ++32 (0)9 264 42 71
Research
Kristof D’hulster studied Eastern Languages & Cultures (Arabic & Hindi) and Arabic and Islamic Studies (Arabic, Persian & Turkish) at the universities of Ghent and Leuven.
Following a master dissertation on 19th-century Belgian-Persian relations (“The sojourn of Nasir ed-Din Shah Qajar in Belgium in 1873: Faits Divers or Milestone in Persian-Belgian relations?”), in 2010 he defended his PhD on Turkic contact linguistics, (“Writing Norms, Code Interferences and Textual Dynamics. A Study of 18th- and 19th-Century Chaghatay Texts”).
Next to Turkic (socio-, contact- and historical) linguistics, his main interest lies in processes of cultural exchange and interaction between the Medieval Turkic, Persian and Arab world. Currently engaged in Mamluk studies, he focuses on issues of language, ethnicity and identity (approaching these as social constructs, within a combined linguistic, semiotic and sociological framework), state formation, literary studies, and the Mamluk-Ottoman transition period.
He gave talks at various conferences, such as the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC), the European Society for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS), the Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (UEAI), and the Colloquium for the History of Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras (CHESFAME). His last talks were at the international round table Repenser l’histoire de la famille dans l’Islam medieval (Montpellier, May 2012), and the International Medieval Conference (IMC, July 2012).
His most recent publications are “Caught Between Aspiration and Anxiety, Praise and Exhortation: An Arabic Literary Offering to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I” (Journal of Arabic Literature, 2013, forthcoming), “Fixed Rules to a Changing Game? Sultan Mehmed II’s Realignment of Ottoman-Mamluk Diplomatic Conventions with the International Power Constellation” (proceedings of the conference Mamluk Cairo: A Crossroad for Embassies, Liège, September 2012, forthcoming), and, in collaboration with Jo Van Steenbergen, “Family Matters: The “Family-In-Law Impulse” in Mamluk Marriage Policy (Annales Islamologiques, 2013, forthcoming).