News story -- Over the course of six decades, his innovative and prolific output and teaching have touched the lives of many, besides being the motive force behind a surge in the number of historians specialising in Islamic art, particularly in the United States. Prof. Azim Nanji, former director of the IIS and currently Senior Associate Director of the Abbasi Program in ...
News story -- A Dissertation Writing Scholarship is awarded annually by the IIS to doctoral students reaching completion of their studies. This year's recipient is Fârès Gillon who is completing his doctoral studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, a Graduate school created in 1868, associated with the University of Paris.Mr. Gillon's doctoral project investigates one of the oldest available Ismaili ...
News story -- Following on from the pre-conference workshop at the American Academy of Religion's Annual Meeting in October, the Qur'anic Studies Lecture Series, entitled The Meaning of the Word Lexicology and Tafsir, has been launched at the IIS. This series of lectures organised by Dr Stephen Burge, aims to explore the relationships between Qur'anic tafsir and lexicology, which is the study ...
News story -- Three scholars from the IIS, Dr Shainool Jiwa, Nacim Pak-Shiraz and Dr Fahmida Suleman gave papers at the conference, which the latter also organised. Dr Farhad Daftary chaired a session on Fatimid contexts. The conference aimed to answer two key questions: Who are the Shi'a and whether we can distinguish art and material culture as being inherently Shi'i? Papers ...
News story -- In Granada, the students visited the quarter of Albaycin, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994. This was followed by a visit to the historic Alhambra Palace, built in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Sultans of the Nasrid dynasty, the last Muslim rulers of Al-Andalus. Commenting on the trip, Parisa Sheralieva (GPISH 2010) ...
News story -- The panel was chaired by Dr Farhad Daftary, co-director of the IIS and organised by Dr Paul E Walker who was the 2001 recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship to study the life and times of Imam-Caliph al-Hakim. He is currently Deputy Director for Academic Programs at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago. When the Fatimids moved ...
News story -- Referring to the 12th century CE, Professor Schmidtke argued that, as a result of the unification of the Caspian Zaydiyya and the Zaydis in Yemen during the imamate of Abu Talib al-akhir(d. 1126 CE), a massive transfer of knowledge from Iran to Yemen began. This gradually increased throughout the 12th century CE, until the death of their Imam al-Mansur ...
The video is a 40 minute lecture by Professor Paul Walker that took place at The Institute of Ismaili Studies on 21 September 2010.Lecture AbstractThe Fatimids were famous for the remarkable variety of celebrations of feasts and festivals. In this talk, Paul Walker, drawing upon a range of historians - many of whom provided eye witnesses accounts - describes several celebrations such ...
Publication: The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistle 22Editors and Translators:Professor Lenn Goodman and Dr Richard McGregor This video will take a few seconds to load. Get Flash to see this video.Questions addressed in the interview:1. What drew you to devote 7 years to translating The Case ...
News story -- At the three-day workshop, scholars presented papers on various aspects of theories and methods in Qur'anic tafsir, covering areas such as esoteric and exoteric exegesis, hadiths in tafsir and early exegesis. Though great strides have been made in the secondary literature on the genre of Qur'anic commentary, a gap exists in descriptions of overall theories and methods used by ...
News story -- Held from 3-6 December, 2008, the conference was organised under the patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Sicilian Region, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, and Fondazione Universitaria Italo-Libica (Italian-Libyan University Foundation). Dr Daftary delivered introductory remarks in the opening session and presided over the first session. During the next session, Dr Shainool Jiwa delivered a paper ...
News story -- The series of articles in this publication were first presented by European scholars at an international conference and workshop on the subject which took place in 2006 and 2007. The articles explore both the history and contemporary representations of narratives about Islam and Muslims, as reflected in European school textbooks. In this context, Muslims have often taken the role ...
Publication: Living in Historic Cairo: Past and Present in an Islamic CityEditors:Professor Azim Nanji , Dr Farhad Daftary and Professor Elizabeth FerneaQuestions addressed in the interview:1. Living in Historic Cairo is perhaps the first publication that covers not only the history of the ancient city of Cairo but also examines how the metropolitan population occupies this built environment. What provided the impetus ...
News story -- Dr Newman argued that the khilaf (debate or polemical) literature isa vast corpus of work which chronicles internal Shi'i debates. The al-Dhari'a ila asanif al-Shi'a, the great bibliographical dictionary of Agha Buzurg al-Tihrani (d. 1970 CE), lists titles in the khilaf genre scattered across a number of volumes. A preliminary count turns up more than 1000 titles which may ...
News story -- In his talk, Professor Esack explored two dominant paradigms of political power that exist in Muslim thinking: the Meccan paradigm and the Medinan paradigm. He described the Meccan paradigm as one where Muslims were the persecuted victims with others exercising power over them. In comparison, in the Medinan paradigm, Muslims were the dominant and dominating group, exercising power over ...
News story -- Mr Mohamed Keshavjee, a member of the Institute's Board of Governors, commenced the programme with an overview of IIS' contributions to the promotion of scholarship and learning of Muslim cultures and societies through the production of publications and other academic resources. Mr Keshavjee also shared the rationale behind each of the publications being launched. Introducing the first of these ...
Publication: Keys to the Arcana: Shahrastani's Esoteric Commentary on the Qur'anTranslator: Dr Toby MayerAvailable as MP3 format (24.6 MB, 26 minutes)Questions addressed in the interview:1. What is the significance to scholarship of presenting Shahrastani's Keys to the Arcana?2. Who was Shahrastani?3. What was the historical and intellectual context of his Qur'an commentary?4. Is Keys to the Arcana distinguished by any specific interpretative ...
News story -- Dr Cancian completed his PhD in anthropology from the University of Siena, with a work on the Shi'i theological colleges (hawza 'ilmiyyas) in Syria. Previously, he obtained an MA in History at Ca' Foscari University, Venice, concentrating on religious history and literature of Iran and Persianate Cultures, Shi'ism, Sufism and Zoroastrianism between Iran and South Asia. He also obtained ...
News story -- Burge's paper, entitled 'Angels and Sacred Space in Islam', looked at ways in which angels are used to create, denote and give authority to sacred spaces, as described in the hadith of Prophet Muhammad. The paper's main theme is that angels are used in Islamic tradition to blur the boundaries between heaven and earth, drawing the divine world into ...
News story -- Laila Kadiwal (GPISH Class of 2009) will study towards a PhD in Sociology in the Department of Sociology, University of Sussex. She will work on her thesis entitled International Teacher Education: An exploration of student's learning experiences in light of their diversity (Case study: Secondary Teacher Education Programme of The Institute of Ismaili Studies) under the supervision of Professor ...
News story -- In her presentation, Dr Hilali proposed a method for the study of Islamic religious texts focusing on their textual and contextual components. She used the San'a Qur'an palimpsest, dated between seventh and mid-ninth century CE, as the principal example. A palimpsest is a manuscript, often made of parchment, which has been scraped off, cleaned and used again. This usually ...
The video is an 40 minute lecture by Professor Farid Esack hosted by the Department of Community Relations, which took place at The Institute of Ismaili Studies on 5th March 2010.AbstractThere are only two dominant paradigms in Muslim thinking in relation to political power. In the Meccan paradigm, we are the persecuted victims with others exercising power over us and in the ...
News story -- Ms. Swanborough completed her Master of Science in Business Administration from Canterbury Christ Church University in 2000. Her Masters degree focused on service quality and project management. Ms. Swanborough has previously worked for an independent college affiliated with Swansea University where her role included working with international students enrolled in pre-Masters and Foundation Courses. As Senior Manager of Student ...
The video shows the entire 40 minute lecture, which took place at The Institute of Ismaili Studies on 18 March 2010.Lecture AbstractFatimah al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, wife of the first Shi'i Imam 'Ali, and mother to two sons, Hasan and Husayn, is revered as one of the most holy of Muslim women - sinless, spiritually perfected, and most commonly ...
News story -- Dr. Kazemi's paper "Beyond Polemics and Pluralism: The Universal Message of the Qur'an" was deemed to be particularly relevant for any attempt by Arab Muslims to "dialogue with the West". Dr. Shah-Kazemi noted that dialogue is inconceivable when Muslims are their own victims of, what he described as, "the spiritual sterility of polemics and the logical absurdity of religious ...
News story -- The book launch took place at the Institute's new premises in Euston and was attended by scholars from across the United Kingdom. Speakers at the event included the editors of the volume, Feras Hamza, Sajjad Rizvi and Farhana Mayer, as well as the Academic Co-ordinator of Qur'anic Studies at the IIS, Omar Ali-de-Unzaga. The editors discussed the inspiration for ...
News story -- In his lecture, Professor Madelung explored the work of Al-Hasan ibn Musa al-Nawbakhti (died ca. 920 CE). A Twelver Shi'i author and member of an eminent family of astronomers and astrologers, al-Nawbakhti has been chiefly known for his book on the early Shi'a communities down to the Occultation of the Twelfth Imam of the Shi'a Ithna'asharis. Early on, Al-Nawbakhti ...
News story -- Titled 'After Modernity', the session began with a discussion of the centrality of the autonomous individual as a basic assertion of the project of modernity. Dr. El-Affendi argued that the foundation of human worth and ethical responsibility that lay in personal autonomy was threatened by the growth of technology at large and biotechnology in particular. Genetic tools, such as ...
News story -- Nuha Al-Sha'ar is an IIS Alumna, having joined the IIS' Graduate Programmes in Islamic Studies and Humanities (GPISH) in 2002. She went on to study for an MPhil in Education Research from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, which she received in 2004. Ms Al-Sha'ar stayed at Fitzwilliam College to study for a PhD on Islamic ethics and political thought. Her dissertation ...
News story -- The first book, entitled Master of the Age: An Islamic Treatise on the Necessity of the Imamate, is a critical edition and translation by Professor Paul E. Walker, Research Associate, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, of an original work by the 11th-century Ismaili thinker and da'i, Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani. The Arabic treatise ...
News story -- Dr El-Bizri's talk, entitled Architecture and Culture, aimed at investigating the principal philosophical presuppositions that underlie the fundamental theoretical reflections on the intercultural roles of architecture. His line of inquiry focused on some of the salient interconnections that this question has with contemporary debates in ontology, epistemology, and theories of value. He argued that the contemplation of the architectural ...
News story -- Contextualising the khutbas, the first two chapters of the book present the history of the Fatimid khutbas along with an insightful examination of their themes and rhetorical strategies. The Friday sermons in the medieval period of Muslim history usually indicated the political allegiance of the people. It was customary to mention in the khutbas the name of the ruling ...
News story -- Khorog, capital of the remote, mountainous Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province (GBAO) of Tajikistan, was chosen to host the conference as the region is the most linguistically diverse in Central Asia; and is designated a 'Museum of Languages' by many scholars engaged in the study of Pamiri languages, such as Drs Joy Edelman and Dodikhudo Karamshoev. The 2009 FEL conference investigated ...
News story -- Muslim Modernities is about how heritages of Islam have shaped identity and citizenship, piety and protest, music and modes of dress, not only in Muslim societies but also in the diaspora. Such expressions of the 'civil imagination' are not about alternatives to modernity or about a clash of civilisations. Rather, it is the overlapping nature of indigenous modernities, no ...
News story -- In his introductory remarks, Dr Najam Abbas, an IIS Research Fellow in the Central Asian Studies Unit, spoke of the desire to clarify the enormous information flow about Central Asian Islam in order to promote better understanding of Muslims in that region of the world. The conceptual challenges for the study of post-Soviet Islam are intrinsically linked to the ...
News story -- The students were accompanied on this trip by Dr Elizabeth Lambourn, GPISH Lecturer, Dr Miriam Ali de Unzaga, Independent Researcher and GPISH alumna and Dr Farouk Mitha, STEP Course Director. The group began their journey in Granada and took part in a walking tour of the historic district of Albaycin, located on a hill opposite the Alhambra. Since 1994, ...
News story -- Dr Jiwa's paper, entitled 'The Aman Document: Instituting Fatimid authority in Egypt', analysed this crucial document, which guaranteed the security and safe-conduct of the Egyptians by the victorious Fatimid general, Jawhar al-Siqqili. It delineated the principles upon which Fatimid policies in Egypt were instituted for their subsequent two hundred year reign. Among the particular features of interest were: the ...
News story -- Beginning with an overview of the fractured state of the contemporary global landscape, with its economic and social winners on the one hand and extreme poverty and marginalisation on the other, Dr Serageldin inquired into its impact on public cultures. He defined culture as 'a complex whole of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterise a society ...
News story -- Zamira Dildorbekova (GPISH class of 2008) completed a two year MPhil in Development Studies at the University of Sussex as part of the GPISH course. She will now undertake a doctorate in Arab and Islamic Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. She will be working on "The Dynamics of Islam and 'Modernity' in ...
News story -- The IIS is pleased to announce the paperback edition ofAn Anthology of Qur'anic Commentaries: Volume I - On the Nature of the Divine.Edited by Feras Hamza, Sajjad Rizvi and Farhana Mayer, theAnthology analyses the works of Sunni, Shi'i, Ibadi, Mu'tazili and Sufi commentators on six Qur'anic verses, revealing varied approaches to the scripture and its meaning. Contextual introductions and ...
