Writing Social and Intellectual History in Light of the Experience of the Training and Research Unit on the Economic and Soc

This article is a diagnosis of the development of Moroccan social and intellectual historiography over the past two decades, in light of the experience of the Training and Research Unit on the Social and Economic History of the Islamic West. It seeks to examine the contributions that new researchers belonging to this unit have made to Moroccan social and intellectual history and the history of ideas: in terms of seminal works, methodology, or by filling gaps in the field. The paper is divided into two sections: the first an analysis of the Unit’s historiographical research strategy, the second an overview of the novel themes it has contributed to social and intellectual history. The results introduce the Training and Research Unit and shed light on its academic experience and the strategy it has adopted to reinvigorate Moroccan historiography: namely, by selecting unaddressed topics in such a way as to be open to the present while engaging with the history of the margins, the marginalized, the outcasts, and other issues unspoken of in the tomes of history. This has led to new contributions to the social and intellectual history of the Islamic West, especially in terms of behavioural structures, representations, and mythological thought grounded in reality.

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This article is a diagnosis of the development of Moroccan social and intellectual historiography over the past two decades, in light of the experience of the Training and Research Unit on the Social and Economic History of the Islamic West. It seeks to examine the contributions that new researchers belonging to this unit have made to Moroccan social and intellectual history and the history of ideas: in terms of seminal works, methodology, or by filling gaps in the field. The paper is divided into two sections: the first an analysis of the Unit’s historiographical research strategy, the second an overview of the novel themes it has contributed to social and intellectual history. The results introduce the Training and Research Unit and shed light on its academic experience and the strategy it has adopted to reinvigorate Moroccan historiography: namely, by selecting unaddressed topics in such a way as to be open to the present while engaging with the history of the margins, the marginalized, the outcasts, and other issues unspoken of in the tomes of history. This has led to new contributions to the social and intellectual history of the Islamic West, especially in terms of behavioural structures, representations, and mythological thought grounded in reality.

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