The Levantini Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, Abigail Krasner Balbale discusses her book The Wolf King: Ibn Mardanish and the Construction of Power in Al Andalus. The Wolf King explores how political power was conceptualized, constructed, and wielded in twelfth-century al-Andalus, focusing on the reign of Muhammad ibn Sad ibn Ahmad ibn Mardanīsh also known as The Wolf King.  Abigail is an Assistant Professor of...

Dr. Shamam Waldman discusses a recent paper she co-authored with her colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that was published in the journal Cell. The study was an effort to sequence the DNA from the remains of Ashkenazi Jews in medieval Europe and focused on a DNA analysis that was done on the extracted teeth of individuals who were buried in a Jewish cemetery in Erfurt, Germany around...

Professor Gary Rendsburg comes back on the podcast to discuss his book How The Bible Is Written. The book examines the literary aspects of the Hebrew biblical text and highlights the artistry and skill of the biblical authors. How The Bible Is Written is available in a number of stores, including in-person at Barnes & Noble and online at the links below: - Barnes & Noble - Book Depository...

Hannah-Lena Hagemann is based in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Hamburg University, where she leads a research group on rebellion in early Islam. She is the author of The Kharijites in Early Islamic Historical Tradition which is the first comprehensive literary analysis of the Kharijites’ history as depicted in early Islamic historiography. The book provides a new perspective on early K...

Professor Yosef Garfinkel is a Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Yigael Yadin Chair in Archaeology of Israel. In 2021 he was one of the authors of a study published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology which examines how the Assyrian army laid siege to the town of Lachish in Judah in 701 BC. Specifically, the study examines how the Assyrian army constructed an...

Professor Benjamin Sommer is an American biblical scholar and Jewish theologian. He’s a Professor of Bible at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America and a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Professor Sommer is the author of the book Revelation & Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition, which examines how the biblical authors conceived of the revelation at Sinai as bo...

Andrea Berlin is the James R. Wiseman Chair in Classical Archaeology and a Professor of Archaeology and Religion at Boston University. Her research focuses on the archaeology and history of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and Roman East, Ceramic Studies, Second-Temple Judaism, and the archaeology of Israel. In this episode, we discuss the book The Middle Maccabees of which she is a co-editor and a co...

Professor Boaz Zissu is an archaeologist and a member of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. He has authored and collaborated on numerous studies of the Bar Kokhba Revolt including co-authoring the book The Bar Kokhba Revolt: The Archaeological Evidence. We discuss the background to the revolt, its scale and administration, and its ultima...

Khalil Andani is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Augustana College and holds a Ph. D. In Islamic Studies from Harvard University.  Professor Andani’s dissertation “Revelation in Islam: Qur’anic, Sunni, and Shi‘i Ismaili Perspectives” won the 2020 Best PhD Dissertation of the Year Award from the Foundation for Iranian Studies. In this episode of the podcast, we discuss his dissertation, which...

Gideon Bohak is a Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University. He is a specialist in Jewish magic, especially in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and in the study of the Cairo Genizah. Professor Bohak came back on the show to discuss a paper he co-authored titled Divorcing Lilith: From the Babylonian Incantation Bowls to the Cairo Genizah. We talked about the t...

Matthew Chalmers is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Religious Studies and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Northwestern University’s Department of Religious Studies.  He is a scholar and theorist of religion, working with texts and traditions of the late antique eastern Mediterranean in Greek, Coptic, Aramaic, and Hebrew. In his current book project, The Samaritan Other: Representation, Hist...

Daniel Fuks is a Newton International Fellow of the British Academy at the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. As a PhD candidate in the Archaeobotany Lab at Bar-Ilan University, he was the leading author of the research study that examined the rise and fall of the Byzantine Negev viticulture. You can find a link to the study here .  Additionally, the Medi...

Sarit Kattan-Gribbetz is an Associate Professor of Theology at Fordham University and the author of Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism, which can be purchased on Amazon . The book explores the rhythms of time that animated the rabbinic world of late antiquity, revealing how rabbis conceptualized time as a way of constructing difference between themselves and imperial Rome, Jews and Christians...

Playaling is a language learning platform founded by Jordan Gerstler-Holton, a former Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) fellow and long-time student of Arabic. Playaling is composed of a dedicated team of language professionals making engaging real-world Arabic content available to teachers and students across the globe with a heavy focus on Arabic dialect instruction. Lena Krause, an Arabic t...

Carolina Lopez-Ruiz is a Professor at Ohio State University in the Classics Department and her research focuses on understanding Greek culture in its broader ancient Mediterranean context. She has authored a number of books on the Phoenician civilization and in this episode we discussed her book When The Gods Were Born - Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East, which examines the links between ancient...

Professors Aaron D. Rubin and Lily Kahn came back on the show to discuss their new book Jewish Languages From A to Z . The book is a comprehensive survey of Jewish languages, covering more than 50 different languages and language varieties and sheds light on the rich variety of languages spoken and written by Jews over the past three thousand years. The book also features a number of photographs o...

Michael Philip Penn is a professor of religious studies at Stanford University and the author of Envisioning Islam: Syriac Christians and the Early Muslim World as well as the book When Christians First Met Muslims . Professor Penn’s book and research examine Syriac sources to better understand how Christians in the Middle East perceived the early Muslims and in doing so challenge some widespread...

Sue Frumin is a post-doctoral researcher at Bar Ilan University and archaeobotanist. Sue works in the archaebotany lab run by Professor Ehud Weiss at the university. She is one of the co-authors of a 2015 paper that examined the impact of the Philistine migration on biodiversity in the Southern Levant. You can check out the paper here Send us Fan Mail

Gideon Bohak is a Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University. He is a specialist in Jewish magic, especially in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and in the study of the Cairo Genizah. In this episode of the podcast, we spoke about Jewish magical practices of late antiquity and the use of Jewish amulets, incantation bowls, and manuals in Aramaic and Hebrew. You...

Professor David Ilan has come back to discuss the Chalcolithic age in the Southern Levant (4500 - 3700 BC) and specifically theories concerning religious beliefs about death and reincarnation. Professor Ilan serves as the Director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and the Director of the Tel Dan excavations. You can read a paper that he co...

Roni-Henkin is an Associate Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. We spoke about the contact between Palestinian Arabic and Israeli Hebrew and how the two languages have interacted with one another for over a century. One item we did not get around to discussing, but is still important, is the major phenomenon of codeswitching among young Palestinians, and the sociolinguistic implicatio...

Lily Kahn is a Professor of Hebrew and Jewish languages at University College London. Professor Kahn is also a scholar of the Yiddish language and published the book Colloquial Yiddish, which can be purchased on Amazon . In our talk, we examined the history of Yiddish, its rise, fall, and resurgence, and also how the language continues to change and develop. Send us Fan Mail

Professor David Ilan serves as the Director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and the Director of the Tel Dan excavations. Our discussion focused on Professor Ilan’s new theory surrounding the emergence of Israelite settlements in the hill country of Canaan. Send us Fan Mail

Eric Cline is a Professor of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology and the Director of the GWU Capitol Archaeological Institute. He's also the author of the book 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed, which covers the Bronze Age collapse, its causes, and what we can learn from it. You can purchase the book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble . Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Nesrin Amin, the founder, and host of the Bilmasri blog and podcast. Bilmasri is a blog & podcast dedicated to the Egyptian dialect, its sounds, structures, vocabulary, and the culture behind it. You can download episodes of the Podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and others and check out the blog at Bilmasri.com  Send us Fan Mail