News story -- Dr Dagikhudo Dagiev is the author of the IIS's most recent book--and first Open Access title--Central Asian Ismailis. In this interview, he reveals how he hopes the book will open up new ground in the study of the Ismailis of Central Asia. What can readers expect from the book? The book is one of the first comprehensive studies of ...
News story -- Fariza Sheralieva is a second-year student on the Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP). Here she talks about learning what it means to be a teacher and discovering her full potential through the programme. Being part of the IIS family and STEP programme for the second year has helped me to discover myself not only as a teacher but as ...
News story -- On World Poetry Day, Dr Karim Javan, Research Associate, and Naureen Ali, Cataloguer and Adlib Officer in the IIS's Ismaili Special Collections Unit, discover poetry in the walls at the AKC, in the manuscripts housed at the IIS, and in today's Nawruz celebrations. Today marks World Poetry Day, introduced by UNESCO to celebrate linguistic diversity through poetic expression, honour ...
News story -- Ismaili Festivals: Stories of Celebration by Dr Shiraz Kabani, the first title in the IIS's Living Ismaili Traditions series, has launched in recent weeks at a series of popular events. The first launch, hosted by the IIS and ITREB UK, took place at the Ismaili Centre, London, on February 10th and was streamed live by The Ismaili TV. It ...
News story -- To mark International Women's Day, we have created a list of five essential resources surrounding our recently published book An Anthology of Qur'anic Commentaries, Volume II: On Women, edited by Dr Karen Bauer and Dr Feras Hamza. The Book: On Women On Women comprises extensive introductory material, annotated translations of Qurʾanic commentaries spanning 12 centuries, interviews of contemporary Muslim ...
News story -- For International Women's Day, seven women from across the IIS spoke to us about the joys and challenges of their jobs, their paths to the Institute, and the women who inspired them along the way. Interviewees: Remi Adebiyi (Human Resources Advisor); Shola Ajilore (Project Manager, Department of Curriculum Studies); Rosa Barugh (Academic Support Programmes Manager, Department of Graduate Studies); ...
News story -- Rehana Hafeez is a second-year Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP) student. In a blog written for International Women's Day, she explores the ways in which STEP has allowed her to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher while being a mother, and her desire to "ignite the spark of motivation and confidence in young girls who want to pursue ...
News story -- To celebrate World Book Day, Naureen Ali, Cataloguer and Adlib Officer in the Ismaili Special Collections Unit, showcases some of the unique and beautiful manuscripts and printed material housed at the IIS. Featured below is a selection including manuscripts, a rare book and a bookmark, ranging from the 14th to the 20th century, which gives a taste of the ...
News story -- Mizhgona Okhonniyozova is a second-year Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP) student. Here she reflects on what's she's learned from her IIS experience and the reality of living her dream. "It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting." The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho STEP is far beyond what I was expecting before starting the programme. For ...
News story -- The IIS is pleased to announce that applications for the Doctoral Scholarship are now open. The deadline for applications is 31 March 2022. The IIS awards Doctoral Scholarships each year to suitable candidates who are interested in pursuing research at PhD level on a topic related to any of the Institute's core research areas. The most relevant to the ...
News story -- Anum Hossain is a third-year student on the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities (GPISH). In our first Student Voices blog of 2022, she shares a poem inspired by hearing the stories of her diverse cohort, "Show Me Your Hometown". One of the aspects of the GPISH programme that I have truly loved is being able to interact ...
News story -- Ismaili Festivals: Stories of Celebration by Dr Shiraz Kabani is the first title in the IIS's new Living Ismaili Traditions (LIT) series. The book is a unique and personal account of festivals and traditions from the author's own lived experience as an Ismaili. Here Dr Kabani--who heads the IIS's Department of Community Relations--reflects on the aims of the series, ...
News story -- "Wladimir Ivanow and Modern Ismaili Studies" is currently running at the Aga Khan Centre Gallery. In this personal piece, Russell Harris, who helped to plan the exhibition, reflects on the challenges and joys of bringing the scholar (1886-1970) and his work back to life. Planning an exhibition of images related to a book is tantamount to preparing a truncated ...
News story -- The Ismaili Special Collections Unit (ISCU) has launched an online catalogue of special collections housed at the IIS. Featuring information on a significant number of items, including photographs, artefacts, coins and medals, rare books, manuscripts, archival items and periodicals, the catalogue will enable a wide range of audiences, including researchers and students, to explore heritage materials relating to Ismaili ...
News story -- Six oil paintings by the renowned Pakistani artist Ismail Gulgee (1926-2007), a gift from former governor Dr Mohamed M Keshavjee, have been hung on the 9th floor at the Aga Khan Centre (AKC) on both sides of the naturally lit passage outside the Garden of Light. Dr Keshavjee's gift of the six paintings has been made in memory of ...
News story -- On 11 November Professor Carmela Baffioni, IIS Senior Research Fellow, was appointed Membro Nazionale of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Class 1. "Philology and Linguistics" of the Moral, Historical and Philological Sciences. The Accademia dei Lincei (anglicised as "the Lincean Academy"), founded in 1603 by Federico Cesi, is the most ancient scientific academy in the world. It was ...
News story -- We are excited to announce that, as part of its long-term digital strategy, the IIS's Department of Curriculum Studies has started a phased roll-out of the IIS Digital Curriculum (IISDC) e-book platform. The IISDC aims to make the curriculum materials published by the IIS available as e-books to pre-school, Ta'lim and Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP) teachers, and to ...
News story -- The presentations, on 22 and 26November, were made in person at the AKC, after going online during the pandemic. Students on the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities (GPISH) conceptualise, design and conduct research on a range of interesting topics in locations around the world during the summer of their second year. It is now an annual tradition ...
News story -- Wladimir Ivanow and Modern Ismaili Studieswill open at the Aga Khan Centre Gallery on December 1. The exhibition follows the pioneering Russian scholar of Islam, Wladimir Ivanow (1886-1970), across the Muslim world. His life and work traced the contours of a transformative and decisive period in modern history - encompassing revolution and the struggle against European empires, as well ...
News story -- Fatimid Cosmopolitanism: History, Material Culture, Politics, and Religion will run online on 6-9December 2021. Here Russell Harris, editor in the IIS's Department of Academic Research and Publications, gives an insight into what attendees can expect. We have to thank the Fatimids! Not only did they rule over an empire that stretched across Ifrīqiya and beyond from 909-1171 CE, but ...
News story -- An Anthology of Qur'anic Commentaries, Vol. 2: On Women is a landmark new book on a topic of significant social relevance, which draws on a selection of Qur'anic verses and their interpretations. We sat down with its authors, Dr Karen Bauer and Dr Feras Hamza, to find out how the tradition of Qur'anic commentary viewed women in the Qur'an, ...
News story -- We are very pleased to announce the publication of a groundbreaking anthology that explores a critical and contentious theme: women in the Qur'an and Qur'anic interpretation. An Anthology of Qur'anic Commentaries, Volume 2: On Women, edited by Dr Karen Bauer and Dr Feras Hamza, represents a unique new resource for all scholars and students of the Qur'an and its ...
News story -- Anusha Hudda (USA) is a second-year student on the IIS's Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP). Here she shares her experience of living with her peers from around the world in Victoria Hall. STEP is a two-year programme where we earn a master's in Muslim Societies and Civilisations and a PGDip in Teaching and Reflective Practice from SOAS and UCL, ...
News story -- We have made exciting additions to our special collections in the form of a photo album from Soviet Tajikistan and three rare coins, including a (Nizari) copper coin possibly struck at Alamut. The development and study of primary sources that illuminate the heritage of Ismaili communities in different parts of the world has been an integral part of the ...
News story -- GPISH (2018) alumna Semina Halani received a scholarship from Harvard University to attend a four-week Institute of World Literature Summer Programme in July. The programme, which took place online this year owing to the pandemic, included a total of ten seminars taught by leading professors and researchers in world literature, together with outstanding guest lectures and the opportunity for ...
News story -- WTEP (1994) alumna Nazneen Lakhani attended the G7 Summit as a Hindi Interpreter in June. Here she gives an insight into her experience, which included working with India's prime minister, Narendra Modi. "I had the privilege of working at the G7 Summit with my colleague, Amina Saif, to interpret simultaneously in Hindi for the prime minister of India, Narendra ...
News story -- Professor Ali Asani, who teaches on the IIS's GPISH programme and is a member of the Institute's Board of Governors, has been awarded the Harvard University 2021 Alpha Iota Prize for Excellence in Teaching. He has also been appointed to the Chancellor's Commission of Aga Khan University (AKU). The Alpha Iota Prize is voted on by Harvard's chapter of ...
News story -- GPISH alumna Professor Nacim Pak-Shiraz has been appointed as a governor on the board of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS). Nacim, who was appointed alongside five other leading figures in arts, business and culture, also serves on the IIS's Board of Governors. The RCS is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production and film in Glasgow, Scotland. In ...
News story -- Zulfiqar Khimani has recently been promoted to Manager for Educational Programmes in the Department of Community Relations. He also undertakes academic work and teaches on the GPISH programme. Here he talks about his new role, his plans for the unit and what he values most about working at the IIS. What does your role entail and what are your ...
News story -- The IIS Student Recognition Awards were held at the Aga Khan Centre on July 29th. Students, faculty and staff attended the in-person event, the first of its kind in over a year. In an upbeat atmosphere, the ceremony recognised those students who had made outstanding contributions over the past academic year. Two awards were given: one for service to ...
News story -- Nabila Walji is a second-year student on the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities (GPISH) and has recently opened her first exhibition--UnBelonging in my Fatherland--with Calgary's Arts Commons. Here she talks about her combined academic-artistic photographic and writing practice, which explores identity, culture, discrimination and community, with a focus on her partly East African heritage. Please could you ...
News story -- Dr Otambek Mastibekov, Manuscript Researcher and Cataloguer in the Ismaili Special Collections Unit, set up Maktab-i Madḥiya-khānī in Tajikistan in 2011. On July 2nd I gave a talk called "Restoring the Values of the Past: Creating a School of Music in Tajikistan", which was part of The Silk Road: A Living History exhibition, presented by the Aga Khan Foundation ...
News story -- It is with deep sadness that the IIS announces the untimely loss of Dr Janis Esots, colleague and esteemed scholar. Born in Jaunpiebalgas, Latvia, in 1966, Janis received his first degree in 1991 from the prestigious Moscow Institute of Literature (Department of Translation, Persian language group) and obtained his doctorate in 2007 from Tallinn University, Estonia, with the thesis: ...
News story -- Created specifically for the Jamat, Living Ismaili Traditions (LIT) is the IIS's first in-house series and is set to launch on September 2nd with Ismaili Festivals: Stories of Celebration by Dr Shiraz Kabani. This innovative series will spotlight Ismaili histories and cultures, and through author reflections will explore what it means to be an Ismaili and part of the ...
News story -- Making Paradise: Exploring the Concept of Eden through Art and Islamic Garden Design is the latest exhibition at the Aga Khan Centre Gallery. In this interview, its curator Esen Salma Kaya gives an insight into the multi-sensory show. How did the Making Paradise exhibition come to be? Could you tell us a bit about its concept and themes? I ...
News story -- The Islamic Gardens at King's Cross were one of 15 across the UK capital chosen to feature in London Open Gardens' virtual event. A short film of the roof gardens, terraces and courtyards in the Aga Khan Centre (AKC) on a sunny day was screened as part of the 90-minute broadcast on June 12th. Students from The Institute of ...
News story -- We are delighted to announce that Professor Farid Panjwani and Dr Arif Jamal have been appointed to senior management positions in two renowned academic institutions. Their career paths started with GPISH, and both now also sit on the IIS Board of Governors. Farid Panjwani, one of IIS's first GPISH graduates, made Dean Professor Farid Panjwani, a graduate from the ...
News story -- The IIS has continued its engagement with the Aquinas and "the Arabs" International Working Group Meeting this year, which runs online in May-June 2021. On May 19th, the Institute sponsored the panel "Ismaili Thought: Between Neoplatonism and Aquinas" at the conference, which this year has the title "Philosophy in the Abrahamic Traditions: Structures of Being, World and Mind". The ...
News story -- Audiobooks have seen a steady rise in popularity over the past few years and this trend has only intensified since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Not only are they convenient (available at the press of a button and accessible while doing other activities like cooking or exercising), but the experience of being read to can be ...
News story -- Paradise is referenced over 130 times in the verses of the Qur'an, indicating the importance of this theme to the Islamic faith. It is also the subject of myriad works of spiritual literature and poetry, where it appears as an expanse of luxuriant, verdant gardens, irrigated by rivers, ponds and fountains. At Making Paradise's online opening on April 29th, ...
