Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Dr. Allen Fromherz is a Professor of Mediterranean and Middle East History at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Dartmouth College in 2002 and received his PhD from St. Andrews University in Scotland in Medieval Islamic History in 2006. His first two books, The Almohads: the Rise of an Islamic Empire (IB Tauris) and Ibn Khaldun, Life and Times (Edinburgh University Press) examine the rise of empire in medieval North Africa and Iberia. Dr. Fromherz's book The Near West: North Africa and Europe (Edinburgh – 2016), examines the history of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish interactions across the Western Mediterranean, especially in Iberia, Morocco, Tunisia, and Italy. He is a Senior Fulbright Grantee to Spain (Fall 2022) and is completing a book on the life and times of Ibn al-Khatib (d. 1375 CE), a polymath and minister who wrote poetry for the Alhambra in Granada.  Before the Fulbright to Spain, Dr. Fromherz held several international fellowships from Gerda Henkel Stiftung, the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, and a senior humanities grant from NYU Abu Dhabi. He is also Co-Founder and Co-Editor of the Edinburgh Book Series on the Maghreb (North Africa). Dr. Fromherz leads studies abroad for his students at GSU, including the popular Marvels of Medieval Spain: the Culture and History of Muslims, Jews, and Christians and a Study Abroad to Italy. His regular classes on the Middle East, North Africa, Medieval Italy, Medieval Spain and the Mediterranean focus on encounters between Muslims, Jews, and Christians.