Email: jrmorrel@gmail.com

Preferred pronouns: He/Him/His

Major Professor: Kathryne Beebe

Specialty Areas: Byzantine and Islamic history; especially the seventh and eighth centuries.

My interests lie mostly in the interactions between Byzantium and the early Islamic world. The Umayyad empire and the many issues with which their caliphs contended is particularly fascinating. It is unusual for one culture to have to define the boundaries of their development within the spheres of politics, legislation, and religion all at one time; yet they did. This made their leadership remarkably dynamic. They built the groundwork upon which the Abbasid caliphate and later emirates would found their own societies.

My research has spanned everything from interrelations with Christians, to Islamic ideals of leadership, and what I have termed the Islamic "Wild West"- the province of Khurasan, from which the Abbasids would rise. My recent work, guided by Dr Andrew Holt (Florida State College at Jacksonville) will be published in 2021; I wrote several articles detailing important developments and cultural aspects of the Byzantine and Islamic seventh century.