A natural hazard with a catastrophic outcome, henceforth called here “natural disaster”, is often a ‎result of interaction and impact of different factors: physical, cultural, social, economic and ‎political — an argument which strongly emphasizes the hybrid character of a disaster. Its ‎examination crosses the boundaries of natural and cultural, nature and society, which makes it ‎equally an object of natural and social sciences. This binary character can be a starting point of an ‎analysis in terms of actor-network theory of Bruno Latour, developed as a criticism on the ‎engineered Modern Era with its ontological separation of ‘subject’ and ‘object’, ‘human’ and ‎‎‘nature’.‎

Our examination intends to start with contributions from the interpretative humanities and social ‎sciences because natural disasters can be best understood when their physical dimensions are ‎interpreted by their cultural meanings. For Arab authors the occurrence of natural disasters was a ‎phenomenon to be dealt with on many different levels which explains the existence of multiple ‎meanings. Therefore, the natural phenomena were often perceived as God’s signs and were ‎embedded in various theological, cosmological and political discourses. However, the most ‎striking feature of the discussions of God’s signs is the mixing of information drawn from ‎astronomy and natural philosophy with a wealth of other non-scientific knowledge — in a way ‎conflating religion, cosmology, myths, politics and ‘science’.‎

Bearing all this in mind, the aim of the current conference is to highlight the type of ‎differentiations (categories, concepts, interpretation models) of natural disasters especially for the ‎area of the Islamic Middle East from Middle Ages to Early Modern Times. Accordingly, the ‎questions guiding the conference include:‎

- What did natural phenomena (e.g. earthquakes, floods, droughts, storms etc.) mean to the ‎Medieval or Pre-modern Arab culture?‎
- What is its context and language used to portray its risks?‎
- Is there an apparent interrelation between a natural disaster and a political system, a ‎likelihood of inter-state conflicts and collapse of social order? To what extent ‎administrations can be held responsible for the good or bad handling of the disaster? ‎

To sum up, the following issues take centre stage: the relation of humans to nature, the role of ‎perception and interpretation patterns in dealing with disasters, the spectrum of concrete reactions ‎of the public and the role of administration and governance especially in controlling water and ‎irrigation systems. Finally, the conference endeavours to bridge these overlapping diverse themes ‎putting cultural as well as historical concerns at its heart.‎