News story -- The graduation ceremony for the ninth cohort of the Institute's Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP) was held on 7 April 2018 at The Ismaili Centre, London. Thirty-six students from Canada, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uganda and the United States of America graduated at the ceremony with a double Master's degree: an MA in Education (Muslim Societies and Civilisations) ...
This lecture by Dr Omar Ali-de- Unzaga gives a glimpse into the multitude of interpretations of the Qur'an that exist. Dr Ali-de-Unzaga points out that while each interpretation may invariably claim to be the true one to the exclusion of others, it is remarkable that many of these interpretations have been in coexistence for more than a thousand years. At the ...
News story -- Why is the shari'a -- the mention of which stirs up problematic images in many parts of the world -- understood in the ways that it is today? For Muslims and non-Muslims alike, much is read into this term, often with scant regard for its historical, cultural or theological underpinnings. The Shari'a: History, Ethics and Law explores many of ...
This video presents highlights from the lectures delivered on the occasion of IIS' 40th anniversary under the themes of heritage, knowledge, people and the future. ...
News story -- Third-year students of the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities (GPISH) presented their field research projects to staff and students at the IIS. These annual presentations provide students with an opportunity to share their experiences and findings as well as exchange ideas and receive feedback. The field research project - which is a mandatory requirement for GPISH - ...
The IIS holds one of the most significant repositories in the world of materials related to Ismaili communities, comprising nearly 3,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Indic languages. In addition, IIS also holds several hundred volumes of rare books, periodicals and journals, off-prints, and important coins from the Fatimid and Alamut periods of Ismaili history. ...
News story -- The Ismaili Special Collections Unit (ISCU) organised a first of its kind symposium entitled Before the Printed Word: Texts, Scribes and Transmissions on the manuscripts housed at The Institute of Ismaili Studies. The symposium attracted over twenty scholars from around the world. Many of the papers presented at the symposium were the result of ongoing endeavours by the IIS ...
News story -- The IIS is delighted to announce the release of the first book in the World of Islam series - in print, e-book and audiobook formats. This new series has been created for a general, non-academic, audience in order to provide engaging introductions to historical, cultural, social and religious topics that explore the rich diversity of Islam. Aimed at Muslim ...
The 22 minute video interview with Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi on his book, "Spiritual Quest: Reflections on Qur'anic prayer according to the teachings of Imam Ali" features his aspirations for writing the book. In his interview, Dr Shah-Kazemi shares his reflections on how the teachings of Imam Ali could inspire an intellectual and rationale engagement with the Qu'ran, leading to a fuller ...
News story -- The Institute of Ismaili Studies participated in the Annual Conference of the Middle Eastern Studies Association of North America (MESA), a leading international academic organisation promoting research on the Muslim world. Held in Washington, USA, from 18th to 21st November 2017, the conference brought together over 3000 international scholars, educators and those interested in the study of the history, ...
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 ...
News story -- On 25 November 1977, His Highness the Aga Khan officially inaugurated The Institute of Ismaili Studies. To mark this momentous anniversary, the Board of Governors hosted a celebration for staff, visiting faculty and students on Friday 24 November, with Prince Rahim Aga Khan in attendance. The event celebrated the role of the people who have contributed to developing an ...
News story -- November 2017 sees the 40th anniversary of the formal inauguration of The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. To mark this important milestone, which falls during His Highness the Aga Khan's Diamond Jubilee year, the Institute hosted a commemorative lecture at the Ismaili Centre, London, UK. Four short talks explored themes integral to the Institute's work: heritage, knowledge, peopleand 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 ...
Nasir-i Khusraw was a renowned poet, philosopher, and Ismaili missionary of the eleventh CE century. Among his many accomplishments, he is credited for having introduced the people of the mountainous Central Asian province of Badakhshan to the Ismaili Muslim tradition and is still widely revered among the Ismaili communities of Central Asia. However, there is also another aspect to the legacy ...
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 ...
News story -- "We have made from water every living thing." (Holy Qur'an 21:30) For the first time, this year's North American Chapter Group (NACG) meeting was held at an international location - Al-Akhawayn University's campus nestled in the Middle Atlas Mountains in Ifrane, Morocco. The meeting coincided with the World Sacred Music Festival in Fez, which had Water and the Sacred ...
News story -- The Asian Chapter Group (ACG) of the IIS Alumni Association held its annual meeting on the theme of 'Arts and Architecture in South East Asia' in Kuala Lumpur from 11th to 14th May 2017. Seeking inspiration from the rich historical discourse of arts and architecture in Muslim societies, the meeting aimed to create empathy towards, and foster better understanding ...
News story -- On 8-9 June, the University of Oxford in partnership with the Aga Khan Foundation and the Global Centre for Pluralism, held the Oxford Symposium for Comparative and International Education, entitled, Re-Examining the Mission of Education and the Meaning of Learning in an Uncertain World. Delegates from 150 countries were invited to debate and respond to some of the challenges ...
News story -- In May 2017, the Institute underwent a one-day monitoring review visit by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). The purpose of the QAA is to safeguard standards for all Higher Education institutions in the UK, which includes Alternative Providers such as the IIS. The monitoring visit assesses the Institute's continuing management of academic standards and the quality of its provision, ...
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. ...
News story -- 5 June 2017 marked a symbolic milestone in the construction of our new academic building in King's Cross, as the final piece was laid to the outer structure of the building in a 'topping out' ceremony. 'Topping out' is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. ...
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 ...
News story -- The graduation ceremony for the eighth cohort of the Institute's Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP) was held on 1 April 2017 at The Ismaili Centre, London. Sixteen students from Canada, India, Pakistan, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States of America graduated at the ceremony with a double Master's degree: an MA in Education (Muslim Societies and Civilisations) ...
The international conference, Intellectual Interactions in the Islamic World: The Ismaili Thread, brought together a team of over thirty leading scholars to reflect upon intellectual currents that flowed between Ismailis and other groups and movements. Through the study of interactions between Ismailis and broader Shi'i and Sunni currents of thought, the conference aimed at situating Ismaili thought within the broader context ...
News story -- The North American Chapter Group of the IIS Alumni Association held its three-day annual general meeting in San Diego, California, from 19-22 December 2016. The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss topics that are particularly relevant in the current national as well as global climate. It was also a space for alumni to come together to discuss activities they ...
This 22 min video features a brief introduction to the competing Muslim powers on either side of the western Mediterranean in the 10th century CE: The Shiʿi Ismaili caliphate of the Fatimids (r. AH 297-567/909-1171 CE) and the Sunni Maliki caliphate of the Umayyads of al-Andalus, also known as the 'Umayyads of Spain' (r. AH 317-422/929-1031 CE). In AH 297/909 the ...
News story -- Video Highlights of the conference Video discussions with Scholars The Intellectual Interactions in the Islamic World: The Ismaili Thread conference brought together an international team of over thirty leading scholars who presented to an audience of researchers, professionals, and students. Through the study of interactions between Ismailis and non-Ismaili Shi'i and Sunni currents, the conference situated Ismaili thought within ...
News story -- On 23rd-25th September 2016, the Institute hosted a conference entitled Fatimids and Umayyads: Competing Caliphates, in association with five European academic institutions.* Fatimids and Umayyads: Competing Caliphates is a pioneering collaborative initiative bringing together text-based scholars and object-based scholars to carry out cross-caliphal comparative research. Scholars, who usually work on only one of the two dynasties, were invited to ...
News story -- Between 3rd and 7th September, the Asian Chapter Group of the IIS Alumni Association convened at the Ismaili Centre, Dubai, for their annual reunion, and a lively exploration of the poetry of the Persian Ismaili poet-philosopher, Nasir-i Khusraw. A highlight of the seminar was the presence of Dr Alice Hunsberger, an expert on Persian literature and author of Nasir-i ...
News story -- The IIS recently welcomed new students onto the Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP) and the Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities (GPISH). Arriving from across the globe, twenty-six students joined STEP from Canada, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Tanzania and the USA, whilst twelve students from India, Norway, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and the USA began GPISH. Dr Laila Halani, Head ...
News story -- The IIS is pleased to announce the publication of The Spirit and the Letter: Approaches to the Esoteric Interpretation of the Qur'an, edited by Annabel Keeler and Sajjad Rizvi. This publication is the fifteenth volume in the Qur'anic Studies Series. This volume is the first to focus specifically on esoteric interpretation as a phenomenon in the field of Qur'anic ...
News story -- Dr Al-Karim Datoo presented a paper entitled Self-identity and Communal Identity in a Diaspora at the 8th Global Meeting of the Diasporas Research Stream, held at Mansfield College, University of Oxford. The conference aimed to explore and understand the contemporary experiences of communities living outside of their home land, how they have evolved over time, and the impact on ...
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 ...
