Visiting researchers

Abdelkrim Ben-Nas Derrij

Universidad de Alicante

2023-2025

El sufismo en la península ibérica. Al-Šuštarī (610/1212-668/1269) piedra angular en la historia del sufismo
The Sufi poet from Granada, Abū l-Ḥasan al-Šuštarī (Guadix 610/1212–Egypt 668/1269), a favourite disciple of ‛Abd al-Ḥaqq Ibn Sab‛īn, the Murcian, is the most famous composer of Sufi céjeles poetry of all time. We understand how his poetry has been widely studied even though his prose works have remained overlooked. His al-Risāla l-‛alamiyya consists of a retort to the criticisms of the behaviours, actions and life styles of the Sufi fakirs. 

Biographic note
A graduate in Islamic Sciences (Uṣūl al-Dīn) from the al-Qarawiyyīn University (Fez), Faculty of Uṣūl al-Dīn (Islamic Sciences) of Tétouan, (Morocco) and with a Master’s Degree in Learning and Teaching Spanish in Multilingual and International Contexts, Dr. Abdelkrim Ben-Nas Derrij received his doctoral degree from the University of Alicante for his thesis “Al-Ināla l-‘ilmiyya de Ibn Luyūn, resumen de al-Risāla l-šuštariyya, epístola de al-Šuštarī en defensa de las prácticas de los sufíes. Estudio, edición crítica árabe y traducción española”. 

E-mail
oroibriz@yahoo.com
abdelkrim.ben@um.es

Gonzalo Escudero Manzano

Joan Beltran Todolí

Affiliation
Universidad de Salamanca, Spain

Joan Beltran Todolí is a pre-doctoral fellow at the University of Salamanca associated with the People & Writing – ERC StG Research Project (2020-2025). His research field centres on the History of Written Culture, Written Communication, Palaeography and Diplomatics in the Late Middle Ages. At present, he conducts research on the chancery of the Crown of Aragon, as well as the political and social significance of writing during the Middle Ages.

Previously, he earned a BA degree in History from the University of València. During his undergraduate degree, he spent a year at the University of Leicester in the UK as an Erasmus+ student. He later attained a Master’s degree in History of the Making of the Western World at the University of València, for which he received a special award. During this period, he also acquired a collaboration grant with the Department of Medieval History and Historiography Sciences and Techniques.

E-mail
joanbeltran@usal.es

Kevin Rodríguez Wittmann

A construcción visual del Atlántico en la Baja Edad Media (siglos XIII-XV). Un acercamiento interdisciplinar 

The Atlantic Ocean has been one of the key environments shaping the history of humanity. Throughout a large proportion of history, this stood as the final frontier of the known world while its importance in the development of this world, its diverse cultures and its role in the historical, social, economic and cultural interconnections between Europe and the Americas has been fundamental. However, in the centuries prior to such empirical knowledge and confirmation of its navigability, a specific image of ocean had built up and cannot be ignored in studying the historical and cultural realities. 

In this project, I will study the importance of the Atlantic Ocean from the perspective of the imaginary prevailing as the Middle Ages ended from a transversal point of view and adopting as objects of study the cartographic, literary, historical and artistic sources in order to put forward a new perspective on how medieval Europe understood the Atlantic, the mental relationship with the ocean and how this relationship was fundamental to the gradual emergence of the empirical knowledge. 

Biographic note
Graduated in the History of Art at the University of La Laguna. A Master’s Degree in Medieval Europa Identity from the University of Lérida and Doctoral Degree from the University of La Laguna for the thesis ” El imaginario oceánico. Las islas del Atlántico meridional en los mappaemundi medievales (siglos IX-XIV)”.  His core research lines are the history of cartography from the cultural history perspective and cultural history and the changes in paradigm between the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance approached through late medieval medical treatises. 

He had also worked on the restoration of medieval manuscripts in poor states of conservation through multispectral imaging. And had presented the results of his research at various conferences and in national and international publications, both in Europe and in the United States. 

E-mail
krodrigw@ull.edu.es