Elias Muhanna, assistant professor of comparative literature, has been named the recipient of the 2012 Bruce D. Craig Prize for Mamluk Studies for his dissertation, Encyclopaedism in the Mamluk Period: The Composition of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Nuwayrī’s (d. 1333) Nihāyat al-Arab fī Funūn al-Adab. According to the 2012 Prize committee: “Muhanna’s dissertation offers a detailed examination of one of the most important Mamluk encyclopaedias and addresses a crucial theme of the Mamluk period, the rise of encyclopaedism. ... This is a well-written, superbly competent, and original study, which makes a major contribution to the study of Mamluk cultural production and the field of Mamluk history at large. The author is to be commended for his close reading of the text. This allows him to offer a much nuanced discussion of the text’s genesis, structure, and function. Encyclopaedism of the Mamluk Period is the work of an engaged and energetic scholar.” The Bruce D. Craig Prize is given annually by Mamlūk Studies Review for the best dissertation on a topic related to the Mamluk Sultanate submitted to an American or Canadian university during the preceding calendar year. Muhanna earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2012.