Education
Ph.D., University of Chicago | 2014

M.A., University of Chicago | 2006

B.A., University of Chicago | 2001
Research Interests
Dr. Hemmat is a historian specializing in the premodern Islamic world. His research focuses on how premodern Islamicate culture envisioned East Asia, and the role played by images of Asia, Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa in premodern Islamic political thought. He teaches courses in history, global studies, and interdisciplinary seminars on culture and history.
Selected Publications
“Citations of ʿAttār and the Kanz al-Haqāyeq in Khatayi’s Book of China: A Sufi Path of Bureaucracy” Iranian Studies 51:5 2018.

“Korea and the Ming Tribute System in Khatayi’s Book of China,” Acta Koreana 21:1 2018.

“Children of Cain in the Land of Error: a Central Asian Merchant’s Account of Governance and Society in Ming China,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 30:3 2010.

“Qurrat al-Ayn,” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, vol. 1, ed. Bonnie G. Smith. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 544-545.

Selected Presentations
“The Geography of Kingship in Persian Epics, 1000 – 1400,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting, (New Orleans, 17th November 2019)

“Climes of the Soul: Race, Geography, and Interiority in Persian Epics,” Great Lakes Adiban Society Workshop (Indiana University, 28th September 2019)

“Imaginative Geography of the Persian Epic Tradition: 1000-1300 (China in Alexander Romances and the Epic of Kush),” for the round-table discussion “East Meets West: Revisiting the Medieval Dichotomy of Place and Space in Asia,” International Congress of Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, MI, 9th May 2019)

“Towards a Paradigm and Periodization of East Asian-Islamic World Contact,” Association of Iranian Studies Biennial Conference (Irvine, CA, 15th August 2018)

“Landscapes and Cultural Geography in the Kushnameh,” International Congress on Korea and the Muslim World: Historical and Cultural Encounters, IRCICA (Istanbul, 24th April 2018)

“Towards an Analytical Framework and Periodization of East Asian-Islamicate Contact,” International Conference on Korean Studies in the Middle East at Hanyang University (Ansan, South Korea, 20-21st May 2017)

“Tolerance, Islamization, and China’s Connection to 16th-Century Global Millenarian Currents,” Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting, (Seattle, 31st March-3rd April 2016)