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The 20th Annual Meeting of the European Association of ArchaeologistsIstanbul, Turkey on September 10-14, 2014Theme 1 - Connecting Seas – Across the BordersPanel on ‘Ports and Forts in the Islamic World. Coastal military architecturefrom the Arab Conquest to the Ottoman Period’Islam was always associated with merchants and trade. This session seeks tounderstand the development of cities and fortifications related to portareas as places of exchange, but also as places of conflict. Coastalfortifications were often related to port facilities, to protect them or tocontrol them. Understanding the relationship between port functions anddefensive structures requires an in depth examination of archaeologicalremains and written sources, to distinguish what is mere desire to defendthe territory against threats coming from the sea, the desire to control theflow of goods and passengers, or just to isolate the port from thesurrounding area. What sort of transformation and evolution can we observein the fortified port sites from the first Arab conquests to the OttomanPeriod? Can we determine different strategies of port organisation in theMediterranean Sea or in the Indian Ocean? The presentation and study of thecoastal military architecture will help us to understand this "Muslim MareNostrum", from the Mediterranean Islamic West to the Indian Ocean.Unfortunately, this panel is organised without any funding. The participantswill have to pay a registration fee and also their own travel andaccommodation costs.The opening call for paper proposals starts the 16 December, 2013.Proposed papers (title and abstract of 250-300 words approx.) should be sentbefore 27 January, 2014 to the following:Dr. Stéphane Pradines (stephane.pradines@aku.edu) Associate Professor, AgaKhan University, ISMC, LondonDr. Eric Vallet (Eric.Vallet@univ-paris1.fr) Lecturer, Sorbonne University,Paris I, ParisAccepted papers will be selected by the scientific committee of theinternational round table.Authors will be informed in February 2014.Languages of the round table: Arabic, English, French &#38; Turkish For furtherinformation on the conference please visit the following website: https://www.eaa2014istanbul.org/site