講演会 “Gender and Power in a Turco-Persianate Epic Romance: An Exploration of the Agency and Representation of Warrior Princess Characters in the Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya Cycle”
2026.01.27
人間文化研究機構グローバル地中海地域研究アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所拠点では、このたび来日されたSacha Alsancakli博士をお迎えして、下記の要領で、講演会 “Gender and Power in a Turco-Persianate Epic Romance: An Exploration of the Agency and Representation of Warrior Princess Characters in the Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya Cycle”を開催いたします。Alsancakli博士は近世・近代イラン史・オスマン史・クルド史で優れた業績のある新進気鋭の研究者です。コメンテーターは、山中由里子氏（国立民族学博物館）が務めます。
| 日時 | 2025年9月26日（金）15:30–17:00（開場：15:15） |
|---|---|
| 場所 | 東京外国語大学本郷サテライト3階セミナー室 ＋ オンライン会議室 ※会場（〒113-0033 東京都文京区本郷2-14-10）までのアクセスについてはこちらをご参照ください。 |
| 参加方法 | 要事前登録 参加を希望される方は、2025年9月24日（水）22:00（日本時間）までに、こちらのフォームよりお申込みをお願いいたします。 |
| 参加費 | 無料 |
| 使用言語 | 英語（通訳なし） |
| 主催 | 人間文化研究機構グローバル地中海地域研究アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所拠点 |
| 問い合わせ | kanda[at]aa.tufs.ac.jp [at]を@に変えてください。 |
プログラム
Chair: Yui Kanda (ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
| 15:30–15:35 | Introduction |
| 15:35–16:15 | Sacha Alsancakli (ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) Gender and Power in a Turco-Persianate Epic Romance: An Exploration of the Agency and Representation of Warrior Princess Characters in the Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya Cycle |
| 16:15–16:25 | Yuriko Yamanaka (National Museum of Ethnology) Comments |
| 16:25–17:00 | General Discussion |
Abstract:
Gender and Power in a Turco-Persianate Epic Romance: An Exploration of the Agency and Representation of Warrior Princess Characters in the Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya Cycle
Sacha Alsancakli
This presentation explores a cycle of folk epics centered on Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya (d. 701), a key figure in early Islam and the son of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya appears as the hero of popular epics circulated in a wide range of Iranian, Turkish, and other languages across regions including Anatolia, Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia—though most of these works remain largely unstudied.
More specifically, I will focus on the role of women as a particularly compelling dimension of the Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya stories. The central part of this investigation will examine three characters—Mīne, Ẕī Funūn, and an unnamed princess—who appear as counterparts to the hero in three different stories. These women share a common archetype: all are princesses and daughters of infidel kings who eventually fall in love with Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya and convert to Islam. However, they are much more than mere love interests; they are also warriors in their own right and, in some versions, serve as his active partners in battle. That said, the degree of agency they possess varies across the narratives.
Bio:
Sacha Alsancakli received a PhD in Oriental Languages and Civilizations from Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, in 2018, with a doctoral dissertation on the Sharafnāma by Sharaf Khān Bidlīsī (c. 1597). As a cultural historian of the early-modern Turco-Iranian world, he researches historiography, popular literature, and the history of the book through the actors and processes involved in the production and circulation of manuscript texts. He has worked as a lecturer at Sorbonne Nouvelle University (2019–21) and at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Inalco, Paris, 2021—25), and has co-edited a collective volume on Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age (2023) and published book chapters and articles in various journals including Eurasian Studies, Kurdish Studies Journal, Diyâr, and Die Welt des Islams. From October 2025, he will be appointed as an ILCAA Fellow and will conduct research on “Turco-Persianate Materialities and Subalternities in a Multilingual Space: The Epic Cycle of Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya and Its Transregional Circulation”.