1. Hybrid Conference: Health and the Environment in the Preindustrial World: Multidisciplinary Approaches Our upcoming conference “Health and the Environment in the Preindustrial World: Multidisciplinary Approaches” that will take place on 23-24 July 2026 in a Hybrid format, with in-person attendance at Monash University, Caulfield Campus in Victoria, Australia. Registration closes on the 26 June.
Posted in: Academic itemsCall for Papers: The Institutional Embedding of Shiʿi Imams: Kinship, Caliphs, Courts and Companions (700-900)
University of Leiden, 13th-15th January 2027.
This conference (organized by the ERC project Embodied Imamate) seeks to illuminate the embedding of imams (and uncanonised candidates for imamate) as actors within their social, institutional and historical context before the canonization of an unbroken line of Twelve imams (260/874).
It will consist of a conference with traditional presentations, combined with a more workshop-style discussion of sources and approaches aimed at generating solid conversations about the state of the field.
The Imami imams are familiar as scholars and sources of knowledge, but they were, crucially, also elite members of the Islamic empire and as such occupied a pre-eminent place within society, serving as landowners, powerbrokers and community leaders. They also married into the other major families including the dynastic families of the Umayyad and Abbasids. Many of their followers occupied eminent positions within the polities of their day, while several imams (Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, in primis) serve as transmitters of religious knowledge for non-Shiʿi communities. They were, thus, embedded within early Islamic society and played a role in its formation.
A core assumption of this conference will be that the institutions of the Imami Shiʿi imamate came into being in historical time at some point after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, but that it is not clear exactly when or how this occurred: key questions, then, will be to interrogate potential methodologies for tracing different aspects of when and how a distinctive Imami imamate emerged. The conference will not accept papers that are purely doctrinal or intellectual history, without a large component of social or institutional contextualisation.
The organisers welcome papers addressing the following themes (amongst others) for the period 700-900 CE:
Imami vs Caliphal authority: in what sense were the imams, imams?
The household of the imam
Access to the imams
Socio-political studies of the lives of individual imams
The development or role of the “Shi’i” community in specific regions/cities (e.g., Qom, Kufa, Medina, Baghdad)
Inheritance and bequesting practices
Instruments of succession – waṣiyya, naṣṣ vs bayʿa
Estates and property
Kinship ties between the imams and other Arabian elites
The role of companions of imams in the caliphal court
Networks of companions (geographical and social)
Imams at the caliphal court (politics, imprisonment etc.)
Methodologies and sources for writing Shiʿi social and institutional history
Comparisons between the social and institutional positioning, and followers of different candidates and conceptions of imamate: such as Zayd b. ʿAlī, ʿAbd Allāh al-Afṭaḥ, Abū Ḥanīfa, or the caliph al-Manṣūr
Failed imams
Alqāb as indicators of claims to authority
Inscriptions and papyri as sources for the early Shiʿa
Presentations will last 45 minutes. The organisers are open for presenters to choose how they wish to use their time, whether as a traditional presentation (30 minutes talk + 15 minutes Q&A), by pre-circulating primary sources you wish to discuss or other suitable arrangements. The organisers intend to publish contributions from the conference as either an edited volume/special issue and will be in touch with further details and timeline once the speakers have been determined.
Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the organisers.
Please send abstracts to e.p.hayes@hum.leidenuniv.nl and l.f.pecorini.goodall@hum.leidenuniv.nl. Abstracts of no more than 300 words. Deadline: Monday, 20th of June, 2026
Posted in: Field-specific (academic)1. Call for contributions: Workshop: The Theft of Art? Art Theories in Light of Global Art History (University of Strasbourg, 8 January 2027) Building on Jack Goody’s (2007) highly influential thesis of The Theft of History, this workshop aims to address an “institution” that this critique of the Eurocentric historiographical model imposed
Posted in: Academic itemsCall for Papers
‘Shi`i/Sunni Relations in the Persianate World’
The University of Edinburgh
8-10 December, 2026
A research project funded by the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS).
In the wake of the Iranian Revolution and, especially, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, whose toppling of Saddam Hussein resulted in the rise of the dominance of Iraqi politics by Iraqi Shi`i groups, Arab Sunni governments voiced concerns about Shi`i/Iranian expansion across the region. Some of these states, such as Saudi Arabia, were well-known for the active intolerance of their own Shi`i minorities. The supposedly inherent sectarian nature of Islam, a notion further fuelled by such later events as the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’, has been widely echoed in the West.
The present project envisions holding a workshop of 8 to 10 speakers to examine the nature of Shi`i-Sunni relations in the Persianate world, from the early Islamic period to the mid-18th century, to explore the extent to which sectarian hostility was the norm or the exception.
The intent is to discuss all forms of Shi`i/Sunni relations and discourse, the former including the Zaydi, Isma`ili, Twelver Shi`i faiths, in this period. The term ‘Persianate’ encompasses reference to such relations as they could be examined across the region, potentially from the Anatolian plateau and Greater Syria in the West to the Indian Subcontinent, at least, in the East, into the Caucasus and Central Asia to the North, and South at least to the Persian Gulf.
Conference Deadlines:
• Monday, 13 July, 2026: Please RSVP by this date, simply to let us know if you can participate – we are eager to have you attend: anewman@ed.ac.uk
• Monday, 14 September, 2026: Send Abstracts (250–300 words), which should include the title of the proposed paper, a brief introduction to the topic, and a well-developed thesis with objectives and preliminary arguments clearly expressed. Include a biography (up to 100 words).
• Monday, 2 November 2026 Pre-conference draft papers for your talk (approx. 3,000–3,500 words for a 20-25-minute presentation) and PowerPoint slides (if using and ready) to be sent
Practical Details:
The conference will cover meals from dinner on 8 December to lunch on 10 December.
Depending upon final numbers, further, if limited, funding support for travel, accommodation, and other expenses may be available, especially for PhD students, Early Career Researchers (ECRs), and unaffiliated scholars.
Publication Guidelines – Looking Ahead:
Thinking longer term, the following information will be helpful to you:
• Final Paper Submission Deadline: Thursday, 30 July, 2027
• Length: ~7,000–10,000 words (excluding citations)
• Software Format: MS-Word, .docx
• Transliteration and Foreign Languages:
o Transliterate. Do not use Arabic script unless it is necessary for the argument.
o Use ALA-LC Romanization Table for Arabic (which also covers Persian and other Arabic-script characters).
o Use ʿ and ʾ for ʿayn and hamzah
o Passages in foreign languages must also be translated into English.
• Review: All papers will undergo peer review and editorial revision. Please ensure your submissions are review-ready. Papers that do not pass peer review cannot be included in the volume.
Further publishing information will be available closer to the time.
For further information, please contact
a.newman@ed.ac.uk
1. Launching the Journal of Mughal Studies For more information about the aims and scope, editorial board, policies, and ethics of the journal, please see: <https://escholarship.org/uc/journalofmughalstudies/about>. We are hoping to launch the first issue of the journal at the end of 2026. If you or someone you know would like
Posted in: Academic itemsAbstract: My presentation explores the intellectual, social, and political landscape of Sicily under the Arab Fāṭimid rule (909–965) and their Kalbid allies (948–1053). Building on research from my edited volume Muslim Sicily: Encounters and Legacy, it further examines Sicily’s connections with al-Andalus, Qayrawān, and Cairo. The talk highlights the dynamic nature of Christian–Muslim relations within a broader context of interaction among diverse ethnic and religious communities over several centuries. Drawing on recently published Arabic and Coptic texts, it also considers Fāṭimid state policies and Sicily’s role as a key player in the medieval Mediterranean.
Posted in: Field-specific (academic), ItalyPosted in: Field-specific (academic)
1.HYBRID International Workshop “Mapping Preaching and Preachers in & from the Middle East: Circulation and Transnational Networks” by ANR PredicMO, MMSH Aix-en-Provence, 27-28 mai 2026 The workshop aims to foster a critical dialogue on the dynamics of preaching, enriching our under-standing of religious mobilities and cultural, spiritual and moral geographies.
Posted in: Academic items