Joel Blecher Wins NEH and ACLS Fellowships

Congratulations to Prof. Blecher! He has been awarded year-long fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and American Learned Societies to conduct research for his new book project, Profit and Prophecy: Islam and the Spice Trade from Venice to India. Profit and Prophecy retells the story of the spice trade through the eyes of medieval Muslim scholars, merchants, and scholar-merchants who mixed religion and business along pilgrimage routes and port cities that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. The study has the potential to teach us a great deal about the history of globalization and the complex relationship between religion, religious networks, and economics. Professor Blecher has also published a piece on the evolution of Hadith commentary for The Atlantic.