The Bruce D. Craig Prize, carrying a cash award of $1,000, is given annually by Mamluk Studies Review for the best dissertation on a topic related to the Mamluk Sultanate submitted to an American or Canadian university during the preceding calendar year. In the event no dissertations are submitted, or none is deemed to merit the prize, no prize will be awarded. To be considered for the 2006 Prize, dissertations must be defended by December 31, 2006, and submitted to the Prize Committee by January 31, 2007. Submissions should be sent to:

Chair, Prize Committee
Mamluk Studies Review
Pick Hall 201
5828 S. University Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637

The Prize Committee is pleased to announce that Zayde G. Antrim (Ph.D., Harvard University) has been named the recipient of the 2005 Bruce D. Craig Prize for Mamluk Studies for her dissertation: "Place and Belonging in Medieval Syria, 6th/12th to 8th/14th Centuries"

The Committee was impressed by Antrim's exhaustive use of various genres of sources to study the formation of a medieval Syrian "sense of place." She broke new ground in developing a paradigm in Mamluk studies for an indigenous and contemporary understanding of "place" and, specifically, the creation of a Syrian identity. The Committee believes that her work will find a place not only in Mamluk studies but also world systems theory/globalization studies and a variety of other disciplines such as political/social/intellectual history, art and architectural history, geography, and archaeology.

The Prize Committee for 2005 consisted of Marlis J. Saleh (University of Chicago); Li Guo (University of Notre Dame); and Bethany J. Walker (Grand Valley State University).

Previous recipients:
2004: Tamar el-Leithy (Ph.D., Princeton University) "Coptic Culture and Conversion in Medieval Cairo: 1293-1524"