Biography
Academic Position
Mehdi Berriah is a researcher in Islamic Studies and the history of the Muslim world at the French Institute for the Near East (Ifpo) since September 2023. He previously taught for several years at the Faculty of Religion and Theology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as an Assistant Professor, as well as at Université Grenoble-Alpes and Université Paris 8 Vincennes–Saint-Denis. From 2020 to 2023, he also taught Arabic language at Sciences Po Paris (Reims campus).
Academic Profile and Approach
His academic path lies at the intersection of history, Islamic Studies, and theology, with a central focus on medieval Islamic thought and its contemporary resonances. His research and publications aim to combine rigorous study of the classical tradition with a critical reflection on its reinterpretations, uses, and stakes in modern Muslim societies. Grounded in the analysis of medieval sources, his postdoctoral work draws on the tools of critical Islamic Studies to shed light on present-day debates.
His approach is historical, doctrinal, and contextual, based on close textual analysis, political and intellectual contextualisation, and an inquiry into the dynamics of legitimation, knowledge transmission, and doctrinal adaptation. He pays particular attention to religious authority figures, the formation of scholarly disciplines, and the transformation of normative frameworks.
Fields of Research
His research focuses on classical and modern Islamic thought and theology, intellectual history, jihad ideology, epistemological and paradigmatic shifts in Islamic Studies, as well as political, social, and military history. A significant part of his work is devoted to the corpus of Ibn Taymiyya and to the influence of certain medieval scholars on contemporary Islamic thought.
Academic Collaborations
He has developed an in-depth knowledge of the Arab–Muslim world through multiple extended research stays and academic missions, as well as long-standing collaborations with scholars, universities, and academic institutions in the region (Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait). These collaborations enrich his work and foster a contextual understanding of local religious and intellectual dynamics.
Research Projects
He has led several research projects in Islamic Studies, some of which were funded by the French Ministry of the Interior’s Bureau central des cultes. He has also participated—and continues to participate—as a member of interdisciplinary teams in various international research programmes. He has organised or co-organised around fifteen academic events in Europe, the Near and Middle East, Asia, and the Americas, within a collaborative framework aimed at fostering knowledge exchange.
He also serves on the editorial and advisory boards of several recognised academic journals in the fields of Islamic Studies and the history of the Muslim world.
Publications
He has co-edited several collective volumes, including:
Professional Mobility in Islamic Societies (700–1750): New Concepts and Approaches (Brill, 2021), Jihad and fitna : penser et concevoir la guerre dans le Mašriq médiéval (VIIe–XVIe siècles) (Annales Islamologiques 56, 2022)
Les Mamelouks : les cavaliers de l’Islam (Héritage, 2022)
- The Medieval Jihad: Texts, Theories and Practices (Ifao, 2025).
He is also the author of the monograph L’art de la guerre chez les Mamelouks (1250–1375): stratégies et tactiques (Brill, 2024), which was awarded the Verbruggen Prize (2024 edition) by the De Re Militari Society for Medieval Military History.