For most incoming students Islamic history is a foreign universe. Therefore my first goal is to introduce students to the general themes of Islamic history, beginning with the rise of Islam in the 7th century A.D. Middle East. Those taking my introductory second year course will engage in reading the primary sources of the medieval and modern periods in translation. I encourage third and fourth year students to move to more focused and in depth study of social, cultural and economic themes in Islamic history. For the more advanced students, on the Master and Doctoral levels, I offer the possibility to specialize in specific fields of interest, through research papers. More specific training in the field includes familiarizing them with the research tools and the study of Arabic. Being a specialist in Islamic social and economic history I welcome particularly students with previous knowledge of economics or Middle Eastern languages to collaborate and participate in my research projects. I aim at training future scholars in the field of Islamic social and economic history; produce original and independent research work, and eventually teach in the field.