In coordination with the Institut Francais du Proche Orient (IFPO), the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) hosted a workshop entitled Exercising Power in the Age of the Sultanates: Age of the Sultanates in Bilad al-Sham and Iran on May 14. Exercising Power in the Age of the Sultanates is a three-year international project jointly sponsored by the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) and L'Institut Francais d'Archeologie de l'Orient (IFAO) in Cairo and supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). It was formally launched in Cairo in February 2004 with a meeting of the Steering Committee consisting of representatives of the American and French institutes in Cairo, Amman, Tunis, Istanbul, and Sanaa.

The purpose of the project is to elaborate a new periodization of the Islamic world derived from its own sources, working on the hypothesis that between the epoch of the caliphates and the emergence of modern states, there exists a period denoted as the "Age of the Sultanates". The project aims to study it not from the point of view of governing institutions or abstract claims to legitimacy, but rather through the practices of ruling power, and its perceptions within various societies.

The workshop included presentations in English and French by six scholars including Mr. Cedric Devais, Institut Francais du Proche Orient; Dr. Andrew Petersen, Cardiff University; Mr. Benjamin Michaudel, Institut Francais du Proche Orient; Dr. Denise Aigle, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes; Dr. Bethany Walker, Grand Valley State University, and Dr. Adel Manna, Vanleer Jerusalem Institute. The research presented at the workshop will be published by the Institut Francais du Proche Orient. Not only did the workshop make an important contribution to Ottoman and Mamluk studies, but it increased cooperation and cultural interaction between American, French, and Palestinian scholars.