Historian, Specialist in Islamic Studies and Lecturer
Mehdi Berriah, an Islamologist and historian at the Ifpo, is a specialist in medieval and contemporary Islam, Islamic theology, and religious authority.Mehdi Berriah, islamologue et historien à l’Ifpo, est spécialiste de l’islam médiéval et contemporain, de la théologie islamique et de l’autorité religieuse.
Mehdi Berriah
Historian, specialist in Islamic studies and lecturer, Mehdi Berriah is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Religion and Theology of the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He also teaches Arabic at University Sciences Po Paris.
He previously taught at the universities of Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis and Grenoble-Alpes. In addition to his university teaching positions, Mehdi Berriah is a member of the Center for Islamic Theology (CIT) (affiliated with the Vrije Univeristeit Amsterdam), a research associate of the UMR 81 67 Orient & Méditerranée, team “Medieval Islam” as well as of the Cefrepa (The French Research Centre of the Arabian Peninsula) based in Kuwait.
Academic Career
Since September 2023 — Researcher in Islamic Studies and the History of the Muslim World at the French Institute for the Near East (Ifpo), within the Department of Medieval and Modern Arab Studies. Regional coordinator and lead for the research division on Islamic studies (Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq).
Lecturer
Books
Mehdi Berriah et Mohamad El-Merheb (eds.), Professional Mobility in Islamic Societies (700-1750): New Concepts and Approaches, Brill, Leyde, 2021, 260 p.
Mehdi Berriah et Arjan Post (eds.), Ibn Taymiyya’s Thought: Corpus, Reception and Legacy, KU Leuven University Press, 2026, 300 p.
Mehdi Berriah, L’art de la guerre chez les Mamelouks (1250-1375) : stratégies et tactiques, Leyde, Brill (Series Islamic History and Civilization, volume 214), 2024, 744 p. + XXVII
Mehdi Berriah, Les Mamelouks : les cavaliers de l’Islam. Études sur l’art de la guerre chez les Mamelouks, Paris, Héritage, 2021, 217 p.
Academic Education
Diploma of Arabic language
Cairo