Academic Article -- Download PDF version of article (310 KB) Table of contentsPower, Reality and KnowledgeConstructing Islam as a ReligionIs a Religion a Worldview?The Dynamics of History Power, Reality and Knowledge Let me begin with the phrase "language and reality" in the title of my presentation. Occidental thinking prides itself on objectivity expressed through a penchant for facts. Nominalism is the assumption ...
Academic Article -- Download PDF version of article (86.6 KB) Key Words Muslim, ethics, law, secularism, pluralism, morality, modernity, liberalism, civil society, din, dunya, Weltanschauung, umma, 'adl (justice), siyasa shari'a, Orientalism, Gellner, Keane, human rights, ijtihad, public sphere, democracy, Qur'an, dawla, akhlaq. Table of ContentsIntroductionIn Search of the Public SquareFinding the Public SquareLocating Muslim Social EthicsGrounding a Culture of NonviolenceConclusion Introduction Rarely ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (33 KB)Keywords Chinese wares, "fritware", lustre-painted ceramics, Seljuk,mina'i, Shahnama, Misr, glazed ceramics, khazaf, fakhkhar, ghadar, sini, slip-painted pottery, Islamic glazed ware, Iraqi potters, Iznik wares. Around the year 1135 CE, a merchant from Aden wrote the following letter to his counterpart in Egypt: "Please buy me six painted platters, made in Misr [Old Cairo]. ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Name of a mountain fortress in northern Iran. Situated about forty-five kilometres northeast of the city of Qazwin, Alamut was built on the summit of an inaccessible rock in the central Alborz mountains. According to legend, an eagle indicated the site to a Daylami ruler, whence its name in the Daylami dialect, derived from aloh (eagle) and amukht (taught). ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article (32 KB)After the defeat of the Iranian Sasanian dynasty in 637-638 CE, the conquering Muslim army occupied Iraq and established on the banks of the Euphrates a garrison town called Kufa. The new province would henceforth be ruled from this newly founded settlement. In time, it grew into a major administrative capital that had ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of the article (121 KB) Hamdan Qarmat b. al-As'at (d. 321 AH / 933 CE), was an Ismaili da'iand founder of the Ismaili movement in Iraq. He came from a village in the tassuj of Badaqla, east of Kufa, and is described as working as a carter when he was converted by the Ismaili da'i Husayn ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) was established in 1977 with the objective of promoting scholarship and learning on Muslim cultures and societies, historical as well as contemporary, and encouraging a better understanding of their relationship with other societies and faiths. The Institute's founding aim was defined by a basic and continuingre-assessment of existing scholarly endeavours in this ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download PDF version of article (72 KB)Key Words Pluralism, Tolerance, Constitution of Medina, People of the Book, Rasa'il Ikhwan al -Safa', Andalucia, multiculturalism, Attar, The Conference of the Birds. Table of ContentsIntroductionTolerance and Intolerance: Lessons from British HistoryTolerance and Intolerance: Lessons from Muslim History Prophet Muhammad at MedinaCulture of Learning: Contributions of Different FaithsPlurality and the Architectural HeritageMulticulturalism ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download PDF version of article (113 KB) Ladies and Gentlemen, Universities are great places for generating new ideas and today, I address you in that spirit, in response to the kind invitation that has been extended to me by Professor Tom Woodhouse. I would like to compliment the Bradford Department of Peace Studies for its innovative programme, which, ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download PDF version of article (46 KB) Table of contentsThe Ismaili Community in International PerspectiveIslam and PluralismSocial Conscience in IslamSocial Conscience and the Imamat in Shi'i IslamThe Institution of Imamat and Contemporary SocietyThe Development of an Ismaili ConstitutionSocial Conscience and Institutional ActionThe Ismaili Community in Modern HistoryThe Expansion of the AKDNThe AKDN and Interfaith DialogueThe Ismaili Community in ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Keywords global, vision, harmony Download PDF version of article (24 KB) Table of contentsDramatic Movements in world historyChanging Values at HomeUnity in DiversityA Meeting Ground You were not here very long, perhaps no longer than four to five years. However, in that time, you and Stanford University have created and shared both individual and common space. It is ...
Speech -- This video shows 17 minutes of His Highness' address at the 25th Anniversary Graduation Ceremony of The Institute of Ismaili Studies.At this graduation ceremony which took place at Le Meridien Grosvenor House Hotel in London on the afternoon of October 19, 2003, fifteen Members of the Class of 2004 and 180 alumni of the Institute's varied programmes were honoured. In ...
Academic Article -- Al-ḥamdu li'llāhi fātiri'l-samāwāti wa'l-arḍi jā'ili'l-malā'ikati rusulan ūlā ajniḥatin Mathnā wa-thulātha wa-rubā'a yazīdu fī'l-khalqi mā yashā'u inna'llāha 'alā kulli shay'in qadīr. Q. 35:1 Praise belongs to God, Originator of the heavens and the earth, who appointed the angels to be messengers, having wings two, three and four, increasing creation as He wills. Surely God is powerful.[1] The opening of Q. ...
Academic Article -- Download the article in PDF format Table of Contents:Sama' in Islamic theologySama' and the Sacred: Preconditions of Sufi musici. "Right time"ii. "Right place"iii. "Right company"Poetry and Sama'Prophetic versus Poetic AuditionThe Fruits of Auditioni. Ecstasyii. DanceConclusionThe Message of Sama'AcknowledgementsFootnotes Sama' in Islamic theology The great historian of Islamic music H.G. Farmer (1942, intro.:1) once described the "interminable debate between Muslim ...
Academic Article -- KeywordsPersian literature, Indian literature, Mahabharata, Atharvaveda, Muslim poetry, folkloric punthi literature, devotional literature, unity, qasida, ghazal,mathnawi, madh, na't, marthiya, naziras,diwan, dhikr, virahini, ginan, qawwali, hadith, ulama,pir, Qur'an, Shi'a, sama, Shah Wali Allah, Sayyid Amah Khan, Mirza Ghalib, Aligarh, Sir Muhammad Iqbal.Download PDF version of article (131 KB)Table of contentsLiteratures of the Turko-Persian CultureLiteratures in the Vernacular (Indic) LanguagesLiteratures of ...
Academic Article -- Download PDF version of the article (100KB)Key wordsAsh'ari, Batin, Fatimids, Ibn Sina, Ikhwan al-Safa', Ismailis, Mu'tazila, Neoplatonism , al-Sijistani, ZahirThe Ismailis appeared first on the stage of the history of Islam in the second half of the third century AH /ninth century CE and spread with astonishing rapidity. Centred originally in Khuzistan in south-western Iran, its missionaries carried its ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Keywords Ethics, Sunnah, Reason, Mutazila, Sunni, Shia, Sufism, Muslim Philosophers Download PDF version of article (55 KB) Table of contentsIntroductionBeginnings and development: Foundational ValuesFoundational Sources of Islamic BeliefQur'an and the SunnahThe interaction between relevation and reasonWhat is Taqwa?Islam as a way of lifeIndividual duties in a Muslim polityLegal and moral expressionsTheological and traditionalist approachesMutazila Approach Sunni ApproachPhilosophical approachesShia and ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of article Key Words Piety, fear of God, godliness, abstinence, iman, hadith, Sufism, Qu'ran,sura, heart, sirr, wara', khawf, muhasaba, 'spiritual stations', makamat, muttakiyan, fana, Kubrawi. Table of ContentsEtymology and Range of MeaningsTaqwa in the Qur'an and HadithTaqwa and ImanThe Mystical Theology of TaqwaTaqwa as abstinenceTaqwa as heart-abstinence Taqwa in the Spiritual Stations of SufismTaqwa's Apophasis in ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Aga Khan is the title inherited by the modern imams of the Shi'a Nizari Ismaili Muslims. The title was first granted by the Iranian ruler Fath 'Ali Shah to Imam Hasan 'Ali Shah (1804 -1881), who also served as governor of Qum, Mahallat, and Kirman. Forced to leave Iran, he settled eventually in British-ruled India. His son, Imam Shah ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Medieval Nizari Ismaili missionary in Syria. He reorganized the Nizari community in Syria and played a prominent role in the regional politics of his time, entering into shifting alliances with Salah al-Din (Saladin), the Crusaders, and others to safeguard the independence of his community. Sinan was the original 'Old Man of the Mountain' of the Crusaders, who made the ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- pluralism_-_beyond_ethnic_and_sectarian_identities_-_amyn_sajoo.pdf (353.6 كيلوبايت) By Dr. Amyn B. Sajoo "At the heart of a democratic ethic is a commitment to genuine dialogue ... a readiness to give and take, to listen, to bridge the empathy gaps as well as the ignorance gaps that have so often impeded human progress. It implies a pluralistic readiness to welcome diversity and to ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download article in PDF format (130 KB) Introduction The last in the line of the Abrahamic family of revealed traditions, Islam emerged in the early decades of the seventh century. Its message, addressed in perpetuity, calls upon people to seek in their daily life, in the very diversity of humankind, signs that point to the Creator and Sustainer ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download PDF of article (83 KB)Keywords: Culture, Education, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, Heritage, Illiteracy, Ibn Tufayl, Tradition, Socialisation. "And we are here as on a darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight where ignorant armies clash by night" Mathew Arnold leaves us with these grim thoughts, in ending thus his poem 'Dover Beach'. When he penned ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Key Words Islamic Art, Islam, Muslim, artists, phenomenology, experience, context, civilisation, culture, religious, secular, art, pluralism, artistic civil society, style, ethics, values. Download PDF version of article (150 KB) The Language of Art A picture, it is often claimed, can speak a thousand words. By that logic, objets d'art should be very talkative indeed. Yet time after time ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Keywords State, Individual, Citizen, Human Rights, Secularism, civil society, democracy, modernity, al-Haqq, Rights, Umma, Enlightenment, Ideology Download PDF version of article (140 KB) Table of ContentsIntroductionThe emergence of the modern Nation-StateReactions to historical discontinuityReappraisal of scholarship on politics in Muslim countriesDirections for intellectual analysisThe contemporary global contextNeed for a political philosophyThe future of the State, the individual and ...
Academic Article -- The founding of the Fatimid state in North Africa in 297 AH / 910 CE led to the establishment of a Shi'i Ismaili caliphate on the shores of the Mediterranean. From 297-361 AH / 910-972 CE, the Fatimid state was centred in the North African province of Ifriqiya (present day Tunisia and Algeria), its borders extending from the shores ...
Academic Article -- Download PDF version of article (158 KB) Key words: Mongol, Isma'ilis, Alamut, ta'limiyya, Juwayni, Gilan, Mazandaran, Saljuqs, Hulagu, Maymundiz, Khwarshah, Tarkiya, Kiya Sayf al-Din, Qazwin, Mar'ashi, Ilkhanids,mulhid, wajibat,da'wa,Ginan, Nizaris, Hasan Sabbah, Nusayris, Nasai'ih-i Shah-Rukhi, Uljaytu. Table of Contents:A Corrective to 'Ata-Malik Juwayni's Narrative In the Shadow of the Ilkhanids and Beyond Testimony of the Nasa'ih Shah-RukhiTestimony of the Da'wa ...
Academic Article -- Download PDF version of article (52 KB)Key words:da'wa, Fatimid, Qarmati, batin, Haqa'iq, ta'wil, wasi, adwar, samit, asas, mutimm, mahdi, dawr al-kashf, al Nasafi, kitab al-islah, al Sijistani, dawr al-fitra, yawm al-qiyama, cosmology, satr, Nizaris, ta'lim, taqiyya.The basic framework of an Ismaili system of religious thought was, however, already laid down during the pre-Fatimid phase of Ismaili history. In fact, ...
Academic Article -- Download PDF version of article (46.8 KB) Table of contentsWhy Study Islam?Conceptualising TraditionTradition and ModernityRecasting the TraditionalThe Pluralism of Classical IslamModern Muslim SocietiesThe Idea of TraditionProblematising "Islamic"Resuming the DialogueRepositioning "Islamic Studies"Islam as Civilisation Why Study Islam? What purpose might the study of Islam serve in the midst of the uncertainty which pervades the field of education today? This question ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Hasan II, 'Ala Dhikrihi'l Salam,NizariIsma'iliImam and the fourth ruler of Alamut (557-61 AH/1162-66 CE). Born in 520AH /1126 CE, Imam Hasan II, whom the Nizaris address as 'ala Dhikrihi'l Salam (on his mention be peace), succeeded to the leadership of the Nizari Isma'ili da'wa and state on the death of the third ruler of Alamut, Muhammad b. Buzurg-Umid on ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- The Ismailis consist of two main branches - the Nizari Ismailis and the Musta'lian Tayyibi Ismailis. Both have their roots in the Fatimid period of Ismaili history and differ primarily over their respective belief in the Imamat, that is, spiritual leadership of the community. The Nizari branch believes in a living, physically present Imam. Their present and forty-ninth Imam ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of the article Khayrkhah Harati, Muhammad Reza b. Sultan Husayn Ghuriani, Nizari Ismaili da'i, author, and poet. He was born into a prominent Nizari Ismaili family in Ghurian near Harat, in present day western Afghanistan, in the final decades of the 15th century CE and died not long after 960 AH/1553 CE, the latest date cited ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Key words:Guregen, Samarqand, Chagatai, Chingiz Khan, Khurasan, Transoxania, Persia, zayl, Majma', Zubdat al-Tawarikh, Muzzafarids, Mamluk, Ottoman, Shah Rukh, Ulugh Beg.Download PDF version of article (72 KB) The Timurids were a dynasty of Central Asian nomadic origin that dominated the Middle East and Central Asia in the 8th AH (14th CE) and 9th AH (15th CE) centuries. The founder, Timur ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- One of the goals of the Institute's website is to facilitate access to secondary literature on Islamic and related fields for the benefit of a non-specialist readership. This section of the website carries a number of articles by the Institute's academic staff, which suit the needs and interests of a non-academic readership. As with all such publications, they ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download PDF version of article (56 KB)KeywordsIslam, Renaissance, Sufism, Orientalist myths, misrepresentation, diversity, pluralism, Indonesia, congregational spaces, cultural expressions, cultural influence, cultural exchange, literature, readable gesture.Table of ContentsImagining IslamBeyond ArabiaDomes and Minarets Only?A Hundred Different NotesWorlds of WordsPluralism and DiversityConclusionImagining Islam Of late, particularly since 9/11, the Muslim world has attracted much attention in the West. While such ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download PDF version of article (36 KB)Key WordsReform, Reformist, Abduh, al-Afghani, EuropeanEnlightenment, Salafi, Fundamentalism, traditionalists, Soroush, Taha, Ijtihad, traditionTable of contentsIntroductionEarly ReformistsParadox of the Influence of Early ReformistsContemporary Reform MovementsConclusion Introduction The "clash of civilizations" supposedly underway between the West and the Muslim world, which many see as manifested in Iraq, as well as in Saudi Arabia's growing ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download PDF version of article (46.6 KB) Table of contentsIntroducing the Huntington ThesisRecasting Civilisation, Revisiting the Role of IslamIslam and Local CulturesIslam and the Colonial EncounterThe Collapse of the Soviet UnionMoving Beyond The Clash of CivilizationsRevisioning Political ArrangementsAnchoring CivilisationThe Allegory of the Conference of the Birds Introducing the Huntington ThesisWe are moving into an age when different civilisations ...
Reading Lists -- Abou El Fadl, Khaled. The Search for Beauty in Islam: A Conference of Books. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Abou El Fadl, Khaled. The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists. New York, NY: Harper San Francisco, 2005. Arkoun, Mohammed. Rethinking Islam: Common Questions Uncommon Answers. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994. Armstrong, Karen. Islam: A Short History. New York: ...
