Zhidong Zhang started his PhD studies under the joint-supervision of Professor Michael Shenkar and Professor Michal Biran in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2022. His research topic is the Arab conquests of Central Asia. Although a historical account has been presented by Hamilton Gibb in 1924, Zhang's study aims to understand three critical questions. What are the reasons that the Arabs conquered? Why are the conquests hard-fought and long-lasting? What did the conquerors leave behind? In order to answer these questions, Zhang undertakes extensive comparisons for more thorough analyses of the tribal politics of the Arabs and these conquerors' relations with the conquered. In addition to his own PhD research, Zhang has been working as a research assistant since 2020 in Professor Gideon Shelach-Lavi's ERC program on the medieval wall system in China and Mongolia.
