Andrew Bielecki

Andrew J. Bielecki (he/him) is from Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Andrew graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with Dual Degree B.A.s in History and Anthropology, minors in Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science, and Certificates in Religious Studies and Medieval Studies. He also studied abroad at Keble College, Oxford University studying art history and international law. For his undergraduate thesis, he focused on the historical and theological development of different strains of Sunnī Islamic eschatology during the age of the Prophet Muḥammad and the Rashidūn Caliphate, the medieval Ottoman Empire, and the rise of the Islamic State. 

His current research focuses on the development of Islamic thought in medieval and other pre-modern Islamic societies, particularly that of the Ottoman Empire and its contemporaries from around 1300-1600 CE. He is interested in Ottoman and other Eastern Mediterranean eschatological traditions, messianic movements, and other visionary and experiential approaches to geopolitical, cultural, and environmental crises. He intends to further study the role of İstanbul and the Marmara Sea region as a nexus for Ottoman eschatological thought, especially during and after the 1509 CE earthquake, the Kıyamet-i Suğra, the later Şahkulu Rebellion of 1511 CE, and incursions into Ottoman territories by the Ṣafavids and their Kızılbaş allies.