Tyler Kynn is an Assistant Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University. His research explores the hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca, in the early modern world, examining both narrative and archival material related to questions of Ottoman sovereignty and power in Arabia. He is also one of the co-creators of The Hajj Trail, a classroom tool and digital simulation of the seventeenth-century hajj journey sourced from early modern travel and pilgrimage narratives and recently featured by The Economist. His current research project is entitled A Season for Empire: The Hajj in the Early Modern World. He completed his BA in History at the University of Minnesota, his MA in History at Central European University, and his Ph.D. in History at Yale University. He is interested in the history of early modern empires, sovereignty, mobility, identity formation, and the intersection of digital history and gaming. Tyler also contributes as a Research Team Member at the Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMO) blog and as a Contributor at the Digital Orientalist blog. You can find his tweets @KynnTyler.
- PhD - History, Yale University, 2020
- MA - History, Central European University, 2014
- BA - History, University of Minnesota: Twin Cities, 2012
Ottoman History
Gunpowder Empires (Mughal, Safavid, Ottoman)
Modern Middle East
Digital History
Digital Humanities
History of Mobility
Hajj Pilgrimage
History of Coffee
Global Piracy
Selected Publications
“Pirates and Pilgrims: The Plunder of the Ganj-i Sawai, the Hajj, and a Mughal Captain’s Perspective," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (JEHSO).(March,2021).
Dissertation
"Encounters of Islam and Empire: The Hajj in the Early Modern World." Yale University, 2020.
Selected Recent Presentations:
Invited Presentations
"On the Road to Mecca: Simulating the Ottoman Hajj," at CESTA Seminar Series, Stanford University, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, May 17, 2022.
"Between Empire and Sacred Space: Mecca as a Global Space in the Early Modern World," at the Mecca: The Lived City Symposium, Harvard University, May 3rd 2019.
Conference Presentations
"Rumis of Arabia: The Categorization of Difference and Rumi Identity in the Early Modern Hijaz", European University Institute, Conference: The Making and Unmaking of Identities in the Early Modern Mediterranean, Spring 2022.
"Bringing Banat into the Islamic World: The Romanian Peasant and the Bukharan Sufi" Middle Eastern Studies Association Annual Meeting, Online, December 1st, 2021.Panel: New Perspectives on Early Modern Ottoman History.
"Imagining Space: A Mughal Pilgrim's Encounter with Empire and the Islamic World," at the Narrating the Hajj Conference at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, December 2019.
"The Seasonal Empire: Ottoman Authority in the Early Modern Harameyn," Middle Eastern Studies Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana November 2019. [Co-Organized Panel: Pious Encounters with Empire]
"Producing Subjects, Consuming Empire: Ottoman Patronage and Imperial Stipends in Seventeenth-Century Mecca and Medina," AUK Gulf Studies Symposium, Kuwait City, Kuwait, March 2019.
Forthcoming
"A Digital Hajj: Historical Simulations, Twine, and the Making of the Hajj Trail," Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting, Forthcoming – December 2nd, 2022. Panel: New Trajectories for the Digital Humanities and Ottoman Studies.
Middle Eastern Studies Association
Medieval and Early Modern Orients Blog
Digital Orientalist Blog
The Modern Middle East
The Ottomans: Islam and Empire
Gaming and History
Piracy and Global History
The History of Coffee: Research Methods
The Gunpowder Empires of the Islamic World
Digital History
World History Survey Courses