Dr. Amira Bennison

Biography

Amira K. Bennison became interested in the Middle East and North Africa while studying for a BA Hons in History and Arabic at Cambridge. After graduating, she lived in Cairo for a year before pursuing her Masters at Harvard University and PhD at SOAS. Her PhD, based on a year’s archival research in Morocco, examined the impact of the French conquest of Algiers in 1830 on notions of political legitimacy in neighbouring Morocco. This work explored the significance of jihād as a form of political legitimation in the pre-colonial Maghrib, published as 'Jihād Interpretations in Pre-colonial Morocco.' Subsequently, she worked at the University of Manchester as a Leverhulme research fellow before moving to the University of Cambridge in 1997, where she is currently a Professor of History and Culture of the Maghrib. Her research continues to explore political legitimacy, expanding to include Islamic Spain and the Maghrib while considering urban planning and ceremonial rhetoric alongside jihād. Professor Bennison has appeared in several TV programmes on the history of the Middle East and North Africa, contributing regularly to Radio 4’s ‘In Time’ and the BBC podcast 'You're Dead to Me,' focusing on pre-modern history and culture in the Maghrib and Islamic Iberian Peninsula, as well as Islamic material culture and urbanism in the western Mediterranean.

Research Interests

Experience