Yossef Rapoport

Yossef Rapoport, a medieval Islamic historian at Queen Mary University of London and author of Becoming Arab, explores how Arab identity emerged in rural Egypt and the Levant between the 11th and 15th centuries. He discusses how clan genealogies, taxation, land tenure, epic storytelling, the 1245 Fayyum survey, and debates like Ibn Taymiyyah’s shaped villages into Arab identities over time.

Yossef Rapoport, historian of the medieval Arabic-speaking Middle East and professor at Queen Mary University London, explains how rural peasants, land rights, taxation, religion, and clan networks reshaped identity across the region. He traces linguistic, social, and political shifts, the role of peasant revolts, and how Arabness was claimed, performed, and contested over centuries.

Yossef Rapoport, a medieval historian at Queen Mary University London, explores how Arab identity formed in the Middle Ages. He challenges migration-focused stories. He spotlights peasants, shifts in landholding and taxation, peasant rebellions, conversion to Islam, and cultural markers like dialect, dress, and epics.