Lifelong Learning Articles -- Key words Islamic arts, aesthetics, ethics, values, culture, revelation Abstract The arts rise above the limitations of language and texts to offer a window onto other cultures. Artistic beauty and aesthetics can travel across time and place, and transcend cultural and ethnic boundaries. But at the same time, the arts can reflect values and ideals of a particular ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Key wordsCitizenship, citizen, Colonialism, diaspora, ummah.Download PDF version of article (107 KB) Present-day ideas about citizenship date from the 18th century, although political theorists have been writing about the concept for over two thousand years. The contemporary idea of the citizen developed in relationship with that of the modern state as it developed in Europe and was spread ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Abstract The Ismailis of the Badkahshan region of Tajikistan and Afghanitan constitute an important part of the Shi'a Ismaili Muslim community today, with a distinctive socio-cultural heritage of their own. This heritage, shaped by both history and geography, has preserved their faith for more than a thousand years. Nasir Khusraw, the famous Ismaili da'i, theologian, philosopher and poet ...
Reading Lists -- General Works Baker, Patricia L. Islam and the Religious Arts. New York: Continuum, 2004. Blair, Sheila S. and Jonathan M. Bloom. The Art and Architecture of Islam: 1250 - 1800. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995. ________. Islamic Arts. London: Phaidon, 1997. Clark, Emma. The Art of the Islamic Garden. Marlborough: Crowood Press, 2004. Ettinghausen, Richard, Oleg ...
Academic Article -- Abstract The historical formation of the worldwide Muslim community or Umma, as it is known in Arabic, has resulted in a great deal of diversity that reflects a rich intellectual, spiritual, and institutional pluralism. In seeking to express a response to the primal message of Islam, Muslims have developed distinct perspectives that have led various groups to coalesce around ...
Academic Article -- Download PDF version of the article (120 KB)Key words: Islamic thought, modernity, Islamic schools,fiqh, Mamluk, ulama, Sufi tariqas, modern Islamist, Shi'i Iran, Khumayni, Qur'an, Sunna,tawhid, khilafa, diversity, Orientalism, globalisation. Table of Contents:IntroductionTowards a General FrameworkThis Volume Introduction The question that perhaps poses itself at the outset in relation to this volume is why such a study of Islamic thought ...
Academic Article -- Keywords da'i, da'wa, Fatimid, Imamate, Ismailis, Shi'a, Abbasids, Mustali, Nizari, Hafizi, Tayyibi, Al-Kirmani, Al-Sijistani, Al-Nu'man, Al-Shirazi, Hasan Sabbah, Nasir Khusraw Download PDF version of article (303 KB) Table of contentsBackgroundAim of the da'wa systemIsmaili DoctrineEstablishment of an Ismaili State Inauguration of the Fatimid caliphateLaying Ideological FoundationsConsolidating AuthorityContinuation of the da'wa and Codification of Ismaili LawKey Tenets of Ismaili LawReligious ...
Academic Article -- Download PDF version of the article (56 KB)Key Words:Al-Azhar Park, Aziz Al-Azmeh, Charles Baudelaire, cosmopolitianism, Durkheim, everyday pluralism, Jafar Panahi, Kevin McDonald, modernity, post-secular, tradition.Table of Contents:Picturing the ModernWhat Identity, Which Tradition?The Ethics of CosmopolitianismMuslim Modernity in PracticeFrom births, weddings and funerals, to rules on who inherits property and where you park your car: these everyday practices come together ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- In common with all major Shi'a groups, the Ismailis believe that the Imamate is a divinely sanctioned and guided institution, through whose agency Muslims are enabled to contextualise the practice of their faith and to understand fully the exoteric and esoteric dimensions of the Qur'an. The Imamate exists to complement prophethood and to ensure that the divine purpose is ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Akhlaq, the plural form of khuluq, refers to innate disposition or character and, by extension in Muslim thought, to ethics. In the Qur'an the term is used to refer to Prophet Muhammad's exemplary ethical character (68:4). The Qur'an also emphasises the significance of ethically guided action as the underpinning for a committed Muslim life. Qur'anic ethics emphasise in particular ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Language group within the family of Pamir languages, which belong to the Modern Eastern Iranian languages. Languages of the Shughni-Rushani group are spoken in the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, particularly in the autonomous region of Badakhshan; in the Afghan province of Badakhshan; and in Xinjiang in China. The Shughni-Rushani language group consists of five languages: Shughni, with the ...
Encyclopaedia Articles -- Download PDF version of this article Satr, "concealment", a term used in a variety of senses, particularly by the Isma'iliyya. The Isma'ilis originally used it in reference to a period in their early history, called dawr al-satr, stretching from soon after the death of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq in 148/765 CE to the establishment of the Fatimid state in 297/909 ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download PDF version of this articleNasir al-Din al-Tusi was born in February 1201 and died in Baghdad in June 1274. His lifetime witnessed the existence of such luminaries as Roger Bacon, Ibn 'Arabi, Moses Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas, Ibn Taymiyya, Gregory Chioniades and Levi ben Gerson. Tusi acquired the honorific title of Khwaja (distinguished scholar and teacher) in his ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- muslim_spaces_of_piety_and_worship-karim_jiwani_ed_zl_rh-_november_2017.pdf (182 KB) This is an edited version of an article published by in The Ismaili-UK in March 2006. "(This light is found) in houses which Allah has allowed to be raised so that His name is remembered there, where He is glorified in the mornings and in the evenings." (Qur'an, 24:36) Introduction Differentiating space and attributing it ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download PDF version of article (37 KB)IntroductionThe Fatimidcaliphate was established in 297/909 in North Africa, and soon extended into Sicily, Egypt, Palestine and Syria, reaching the peak of its power during the long reign of the eighth Fatimid imam-caliph al-Mustansir bi'llah (d. 487/1094).1 This period of almost two centuries is often referred to as a 'golden age' in ...
Lifelong Learning Articles -- Download PDF version of article (27.6 KB) Table of contentsThe Religious LegacyThe Death of Religion?Religion and Inner PeaceExternalising Spiritual CommitmentReligion, Humanism and DignityThe Necessity for Religious CollaborationThe Religious LegacyMuch has been said, written and recorded in history about the role of 'religion' in laying the foundations for civilised life. A great deal has also been said, written and ...
Reading Lists -- Abu Zahra, Nadia. The Pure and Powerful: Studies in Contemporary Muslim Society. Reading: Ithaca, 1997. Aghaie, Kamran Scott. The Martyrs of Karbala: Shi'i Symbols and Ritual in Modern Iran. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004. ____. The Women of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shi'i Islam. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2005. Ahmad, Imtiaz. Ritual ...
News story -- Class of 2002 students, who recently returned from their pre-programme coursework at the University of Edinburgh, were introduced to the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities and welcomed to the Institute of Ismaili Studies during Orientation Week at the end of September. ...
News story -- Samples of Tajik songs Project Tajikistan at the IIS, in association with the Ismaili Council and ITREB USA, presented this multi-dimensional programme in seven American cities. The programme, inaugurated in Atlanta in February 1999, travelled to Dallas, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Thousands of visitors viewed the exhibition and performances ...
