Events -- 28th April 2022 -- Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series Register to attend this lecture. What is Soul and what is Soul's domain? In many respects these two ideas formed one of the starting points of debates and discussions in the classical and medieval periods of Islamic intellectual history, especially in the works authored by scholars affiliated with the Fāṭimid ...
Events -- 25th March 2022 -- About the event: This event is the closing keynote address of the IIS-Cambridge workshop on the study of Islam at the end of empire. The workshop brings together scholars of Muslim thought in order to reassess and reconsider a critical moment in the making of modern Islam: the transition from orientalism to "Islamic Studies". It foregrounds ...
Events -- 3rd February 2022 -- Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series Sign up to IIS academic news, publications and events alerts. Register to attend this lecture. The prophet has a major metaphysical function. This is a fundamental thesis of Avicenna's prophetology, and one of the main theses that will be explored in this lecture. The Metaphysics of the Kitāb al-Šifā' closes ...
Events -- 16th December 2021 -- Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series Sign up to IIS academic news, publications and events alerts. Register to attend this lecture. The practice of remote ziyāra, whereby a devotee visits an imām's tomb not through physical pilgrimage but by reciting a pilgrimage litany, appears in the earliest Twelver literature on ziyāra. Conversely, the ritual consequences of ...
Events -- 6th December 2021 to 9th December 2021 -- Convenor: Dr Gregory Bilotto. Venue: Online via Zoom. Register to attend. Subscribe to the IIS monthly academic newsletter for conference alerts. Background Historical documentation and archaeological material have revealed that the Fatimids once presided over a diverse, multicultural state composed of Muslims, Christians, Jews and other religious traditions, as well as from ...
Events -- 8th November 2021 -- Join us for the launch of this long-awaited and highly anticipated volume "On Women", the second in An Anthology of Qur'anic Commentaries. Subscribe to monthly updates on academic research, news and publications from The Institute of Ismaili Studies. An Anthology of Qur'anic Commentaries, Volume II: On Women(Oxford University Press and The Institute of Ismaili Studies, November ...
Events -- 10th November 2021 -- Sign up to IIS academic news, publications and events alerts. Join us for this special launch event for Command & Creation: A Shi'i Cosmological Treatise, with author Daryoush Mohammad Poor in lively conversation with Toby Mayer, both Senior Research Associates at The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Among the considerable oeuvre of Muhammad al-Shahrastani (1086-1153), the prominent ...
Events -- 28th October 2021 -- Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series Sign up to IIS academic news, publications and events alerts. The ninth and tenth centuries CE are famous for the series of Ismāʿīlī revolts that broke out across rural areas in Iraq, Syria, North Africa, and elsewhere. Seldom acknowledged is that these revolts occurred around the same time as a ...
Events -- 30th September 2021 -- Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series Sign up to IIS academic news, publications and events alerts. This paper focuses on the Alawi Bohra community in Vadodara, Gujarat, and their khizānat al-kutub, or treasury of books. As Shi'i Isma'ilis, the Alawi Bohras consider themselves heirs of the Fāṭimid Imamate (909-1171). Whereas other Isma'ili communities, such as the ...
Events -- 30th September 2021 -- Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series Sign up to IIS academic news, publications and events alerts. This paper focuses on the Alawi Bohra community in Vadodara, Gujarat, and their khizānat al-kutub, or treasury of books. As Shi'i Isma'ilis, the Alawi Bohras consider themselves heirs of the Fāṭimid Imamate (909-1171). Whereas other Isma'ili communities, such as the ...
Events -- 17th June 2021 -- Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series Sign up to IIS academic news, publications and events alerts. Register for this lecture During the medieval period, theʿulamāʾ had a prominent social status in Islamic dominions and were often closely connected to the sources of political power. Yet, the historiographical sources report cases of Muslim scholars accused of apostasy ...
Events -- 22nd April 2021 -- Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series Sign up to IIS academic news, publications and events alerts. Register for this lecture The traditional account of the early occultation-era Imami Shiʿi community depicts a series of four agents as mediating for the hidden Imam between 874 and 940 CE. Hitherto, scholarship has taken the authority of these agents ...
Events -- 17th March 2021 -- Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series Sign up to IIS academic news, publications and events alerts. The Druze dogma was developed in the 5th / 11th century in Cairo during the reign of the sixth Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim. The founders of this dogma, notably Ḥamza, were Ismaili missionaries who, in their writings known as al-Ḥikma or ...
Events -- 25th November 2020 -- Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series According to the doctrine of early Imami Shi'ism, the authority to interpret the Qur'an belongs exclusively to ʿAlī and his descendants, the Imams. Consequently, mostof the Tafsīrs written in Twelver Imami circles after the Occultation of the twelfth Imam are essentially comprised of traditions attributed to the Imams. Yet, an ...
Events -- 24th February 2021 -- Call for Papers The Institute of Ismaili Studies is delighted to invite proposals for individual papers, or whole panels, for its forthcoming international conference The Central Asian Roots of Islamic Intellectual Traditions. Papers and panels may be proposed by senior and junior scholars. Important Dates Conference Dates: 24 - 26 February 2021 Conference Venue:Aga Khan Centre, ...
Events -- 17th December 2019 to 18th December 2019 -- Download the Esoteric Cultures of Scripture Conference Programme here: The focus of the research and publications of the Qur'anic Studies Unit at The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), London, has hitherto been on scriptural exegesis within Islam, including interpretations which may be termed, for lack of a better word, esoteric. The current ...
Events -- 27th November 2019 -- The Institute of Ismaili Studies is pleased to announce the launch of recruitment for the International Training Programme for Waezeen for the year 2020-2022. For Online Application: Click here Application Deadline: Sunday, 29 December, 2019 More details will be available soon. Eligibility Criteria: The training programme is open to members of the Jamat who are interested ...
Events -- 13th November 2019 -- Islamic law is often said to be very pluralistic due to its interpretational variations. At the level of sources, however, accounts of Islamic law have generally emphasized the reliance on a set of major 'roots' of law, with other lesser sources. This paper discusses on the case of Nizari Ismaili law in historical as well as ...
Events -- 10th October 2019 to 11th October 2019 -- The Institute of Ismaili Studies and Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Oriental Manuscripts host conference in St Petersburg Intellectual traditions of Ismailis and Sufis. In Memory of W.A. Ivanow (1886-1970) St Petersburg, IOM RAS October 10-11, 2019. PROGRAMME OF THE CONFERENCE DAY 1 October 10 (Thursday) 2019 Registration of the conference ...
Events -- 22nd August 2019 -- The rhetoric of pro-life and pro-choice have polarized the public understanding and response to biomedical issues. A much more nuanced approach to understanding is required before any deliberation can be made on these issues. This session will shed light on why and how we need to think about moral approaches to biomedical issues such as abortion ...
Events -- 3rd October 2019 -- 17:00 - 18:00 Book your placehere View Map In this lecture, Dr Gonzalez will present key points from her book "Aesthetic Hybridity in Mughal Painting, 1526-1658" (Ashgate, November 2015). This early Modern material is known for and characterised by its pictorial hybridity that singled it out among the coeval variegated Persianate productions. Although all these productions ...
Events -- 18th June 2019 -- 17:00 - 18:00 Book your place here View Map Scholarship concerning the artistic landscapes of medieval Rūm has made encouraging progress in recent years. Published research to date, however, has not addressed the production of the Islamic arts of the book in this period and, more specifically, the important role played by Sufi artists and patrons. ...
Events -- 28th May 2019 -- 17:00 - 18:00 BST Book your place here View Map The 9th century Arabic work called Kalām fī maḥḍ al-khayr, known as the Liber de causis in its 12th century Latin translation, is often times considered in relation to its major Greek source, The Elements of Theology of the great Neoplatonist Proclus, or in relation to ...
Events -- 13th May 2019 -- 17:00 - 18:30 BST Book your place here View Map It is well-known that as one of the most renowned Ismaili dāʿīs of the Fatimid age, Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī (d. after 411/1020), attempted to create a complex system of thought blending together inherited Ismaili traditions - including gnostic cosmological elements - and philosophical strands, mainly drawn ...
Events -- 13th April 2019 -- Join us for the Secondary Teachers Education Programme (STEP) graduation ceremony which is being broadcast live here. The keynote address will be given by Professor Terence Lovat. ...
Events -- 29th April 2019 -- Paradise Found: ʿAyn al-Quḍāt on Qur'anic Origins ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī (d. 525/1131) was a mystic, philosopher, theologian, and judge who was born in the western Iranian city of Hamadan. He was the student of Aḥmad al-Ghazālī (d. 520/1126), and is best known as a maverick-like figure who was put to death by the Seljuq government at ...
Events -- 3rd October 2018 to 5th October 2018 -- Overview An international conference that examines one of the most intriguing periods in the history of Shi'i Islam and brings together some of the leading scholars in the field. Download Full Programme iis_renaissance_cp.pdf (12.5 MB) Please note that the programme may be subject to change. Introduction The 15th century marked the renaissance ...
Events -- 21st May 2018 -- This talk will highlight two key dynamics within Sufism today that emerged in developing an introductory text to Sufism and then a volume on contemporary Sufism. First, we consider the historically unprecedented contestation surrounding Sufism's place within the Islamic tradition, a contestation that has only grown in recent decades and continues to manifest globally in anti-Sufi ...
Events -- 8th May 2018 -- Event date and time: Tuesday 8 May at 4pm (BST) The Kitāb al-Kashfis one of the oldest Ismaili books to have reached us. This collection of six treatises contains several elements showing the proximity of Shi'i ghulāt circles to the early Ismailis, as it appears when comparing it with both ghulāt literature and Nusayrī texts. However, ...
Events -- 11th December 2017 -- The round table brings together five scholars* of the Qur'an and early Islamic documents on the occasion of the publication of Asma Hilali's The Sanaa Palimpsest. The Transmission of the Qur'an in the first centuries AH (Oxford University Press in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2017). The book provides an introduction to and the ...
Events -- 8th November 2017 -- This lecture focuses on the Arabic adaptation of the influential treatise On the Immortality of the Soul by the Greek Neoplatonism philosopher Plotinus (d. 270) and its impact on Arabic-Islamic Philosophy. This treatise, together with several other writings by Plotinus, was translated into Arabic at an early stage of the Graeco-Arabic translation programme. The Arabic adaptation ...
Events -- 12th October 2017 to 13th October 2017 -- Watch the proceedings of the Symposium on Manuscript Collections Housed at the IIS. Ismaili historiography has often lamented the destruction of renowned libraries developed under the Fatimids in Egypt (10th-12th centuries) and the Nizaris of Alamut times (11th-13th centuries). In many ways, this loss represented the eclipse of an important chapter in ...
Events -- 9th October 2017 -- The Arabic scholarship of Ignazio Lomellini is largely unknown, even to Arabists and historians studying the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). In 1622 this Italian priest produced a translation of the Qur'an with accompanying commentary that has remained unstudied in a Genoan library for almost two centuries. This lecture will introduce this fascinating document, placing Lomellini's work ...
Events -- 15th June 2017 -- Approaches to the plurality of religions vary from exclusivist monism to all-inclusive universalism. Mark Sedgwick will examine these approaches from a historical perspective, starting with classic positions in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He will then turn to perennialism, an approach that has its origins in the Renaissance concept of the prisca theologia, an ancient universal revelation. ...
Events -- 31st May 2017 -- Prof. Taylor will explicate the notion of primary and secondary causality as it appears in various forms in philosophical thinkers of the Greek, Arabic and Latin traditions, including Plotinus, Proclus, the Plotiniana Arabica, the Kalām fī maḥḍ al-khayr (Latin: Liber de causis), al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, Ibn Rushd and Thomas Aquinas. He will then address the following ...
Events -- 15th September 2016 -- Annemarie Schimmel Memorial Lecture Awhad al-Din Kirmani is a controversial figure among the pantheon of great Sufi masters from the medieval period. He occupied perhaps the most prestigious position to which a Sufi could aspire, for the caliph appointed him the shaykh al-shuyukh of the Marzubiyya convent in Baghdad. Yet within a generation, he was vilified ...
