Abstract Deadline: 15 April 2026

1.“The Mythmaking of Silk Roads: Reinventing Eurasian Heritage in Japan, 1880-1980”. The Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, and Cluster of Excellence “EurAsia Transformations” (Austrian Academy of Sciences and University of Vienna), are pleased to co-host the Tobunken Seminar: “The Mythmaking of Silk Roads: Reinventing Eurasian Heritage

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ONLINE Webinar “From Hidden Rooms to City Streets: Shia Rituals, Student Activism, and Public Space in Italy” by Minoo Mirshahvalad (University of Copenhagen), NYU-Roma Tre Permanent Global Seminar, 4 March 2026, 18:00 CET

This paper examines how Shia Muslims – particularly Iranian students – navigated and reshaped Italian urban spaces between the early 2010s and 2018. It explores how a marginal religious minority negotiates its right to urban presence through evolving practices of visibility, how students act as cultural mediators, and how Italian urban spaces both limit conventional forms of public religiosity, but also open space for creative and locally adapted modes of ritual expression.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/4hc974ka

1. The Islamic College Monthly Talk: Modern Readings of the Quran through a Gendered Lens Speaker: Professor Asma Afsaruddin Date: 27 February 2026 Time: 6:00-7:30 pm (London time) Location: Online https://islamic-college.ac.uk/afsaruddin-registration/           2. Enroll: Medieval & Early Modern Cartography: An Introduction (June 22-25: Remote) The Summer Skills Seminar,  “Medieval &

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Open ERC postdoc position on the anthropology of Ansarallah/Houthis in Yemen. We are looking for someone passionate about Yemen and the interplay between religious authority, institutions, and everyday lifeworlds under Ansar Allah (Houthis).

Details and application:
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/jobs?jh=ul2vchzotpqsbw7khmbxjxjvga0po8c
Short project overview:
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/isa/forschung/forschungsgebiete-des-isa/naher-osten/ideology-in-context

https://oeawnr.onlyfy.jobs/job/vyzifyx8
https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/408980

Closing date: 31 March, 2026

The Life and Legacy of Ja’far al-Sadiq | At the Nexus of Islam

SEMINAR

TO COMMEMORATE THE MARTYRDOM OF

IMAM ALI (a.s.)

SUNDAY 1st MARCH 2026 – 2:00 PM

VENUE – REGENT’S UNIVERSITY LONDON
TUKE HALL
INNER CIRCLE, REGENT’S PARK, LONDON NW1 4NS

Tube station: Baker Street

Chair: Professor Robert Gleave

Robert Gleave is Professor of Arabic Studies in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK. He researches the history of Shīʿīsm, with a particular interest in Shiite Law. His most recent collaborative publications are (with Kumail Rajani) Shi’ite Legal Theory: Sources and Commentaries (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press / Gibb Memorial Trust, 2023) and (with Omar Anchassi), Islamic Law in Context: A Primary Source Reader (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). He has carried out research into the history of Shiism and the Shiite communities in Iran, Iraq and India. He is currently British Academy Wolfson Professor – and is completing a monograph on the history of Shiite law in the early 19th century CE.

Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi

Nothing but Beauty: Hazrat Zaynab and the Meaning of Bearing Witness

Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi is an author in the fields of Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion; Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies; and Managing Editor of Encyclopaedia Islamica. He studied International Relations and Politics at Sussex and Exeter Universities before obtaining his PhD in Comparative Religion from the University of Kent.

Shaykh Dr Gulamabbas Murtaza Lakha

Interfaith Reflections on the Psalms of Imām ʿAlī (as) and the Old Testament

Shaykh Dr Gulamabbas Murtaza Lakha is a researcher and tutor in Psychology of Religion at the University of Oxford. His first degree in Economics & Econometrics was followed by the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and entrepreneurship, serving as CEO of an investment firm he founded in 2004. Concurrently, he earned four postgraduate degrees in Psychology and Neuroscience (including neuroimaging of dhikr practice for an MSc dissertation), Theology, Islamic Studies, History and Arabic, with an MPhil thesis on commentaries of al-Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya, together with papers on early biographical dictionaries (ṭabaqāt) on Imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (as) and Shaykh al-Kulaynī. He continued at Oxford University for a DPhil in Psychiatry, examining how Islamic concepts and practices can inform psychotherapeutic treatments. Following religious training over two decades, he has lectured widely on contemporary Islam and was accredited as a Shaykh in 2020 by the Hākim al-Sharʿ for Europe of Grand Ayatullah Sistani.

AN OPEN INVITATION
PLEASE BE SEATED BY 2:00 PM
ORGANISER & SPONSOR: THE AHMED FAMILY – C/O MUHAMMADI TRUST (020 8452 1739)

1.Call for Chapters: Evident Tongues, Evident Bodies: Language, Sense, and Proof in the Early Modern World Editors: Dr Mary Katherine Newman and Dr Rana Banna What counted as evidence in the early modern world?  How did language itself – spoken, written, translated, or performed – shape conceptions of proof?  And

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The first lecture of 2026 in our online series, “Material Culture, Art, and Architecture of Pre-Safavid Shīʿism” will take place on Zoom on Wednesday, February 18th at 15:30 CET:

The Emamzadeh Yahya Project: Reflections on an Interdisciplinary and Independent Research Initiative and Online Exhibition

with Keelan Overton

If you would like to attend, please register here: https://universiteitleiden.zoom.us/meeting/register/MGNA8u2HT3Ca1RG5ubxtXA

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information on how to join the meeting.

To stay updated on upcoming events, learn more about our broader project, “Embodied Imamate: Mapping the Development of the Early Shīʿi Community 700–900 CE,” or watch recordings of previous lectures in this series, please visit our YouTube channel (Embodied Imamate) and our website: https://embodiedimamate.hcommons.org/.