1.MSc in Advanced Arabic
Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh is proud to announce the re-launch of its MSc in Advanced Arabic, which is now open for applications for the 2016-17 academic year. I was hoping that colleagues might be interested in knowing about the programme, with a view to mentioning it to any of your students who might be considering taking their studies in Arabic further.
The programme is intended for students who have an undergraduate degree in Arabic or skills in the language at a similar level, but who wish to build on these to the point where they can function with confidence and fluency in all professional and academic settings. Taught using communicative methods and including a wide range of literary, media and real-world materials, it is particularly aimed at students wishing to work in translation, interpreting, academia, Arabic teaching, business and government or NGO roles.
Teaching staff on the MSc include world leaders in developing pedagogical methods for Arabic teaching, as well as specialised researchers in various aspects of Arabic literature, language and culture. Students also benefit from hands-on workshops with visiting academics and professionals.
Full information on the Advanced Arabic MSc is available on the Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies website:
and online applications, along with information on funding opportunities and scholarships, can be found at:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees/index.php?r=site/view&id=813
The Advanced Arabic MSc is a one-year programme which, alongside two semesters in Edinburgh, includes a period of study and research in Cairo or Amman. Edinburgh itself is famous for its history and culture, and at the University we pride ourselves on our ability to deliver access to a global top 30 institution at a very competitive cost compared to North American colleges.
Overall, we believe that the Advanced Arabic MSc is a rare – if not unique – opportunity for students to enhance their existing Arabic language skills for use in a range of professional and academic settings, and in an attractive and cost-effective environment.
If you would like to know more about the Advanced Arabic MSc, or about any of our other postgraduate programmes in Arabic, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Jonathan Featherstone, Senior Teaching Fellow, on jonathan.featherstone@ed.ac.uk, or Dr Anthony Gorman, Programme Director, on anthony.gorman@ed.ac.uk.
2. On behalf of the Editor and the editorial team, I am delighted to announce publication of the first issue of
ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies
and to invite you all to join us for the
Journal Launch and Panel Discussion
Date: 2nd December 2015
Time: 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Venue: Room B102, Brunei Gallery,
SOAS, University of London
Speakers
S.Sayyid, University of Leeds, Editor of ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies
Samia Bano, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Rob Gleave, Director of the Islamic Reformulations Project, University of Exeter
Ruth Mas, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies,
Brian Klug, St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford
ReOrient is a new peer reviewed, international and interdisciplinary journal. It is a platform for a sustained collective thought experiment that seeks to explore the consequences of producing knowledge that is no longer organized around the axis of West and non-West.
ReOrient is published by Pluto Journals and distributed internationally by JSTOR. For more information please go to http://www.jstor.org/journal/reorient
Kindly RSVP: By 30 November 2015
Email: reorient@leeds.ac.uk
ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies
First Issue Autumn 2015
Contents
ReOrient: A Forum for Critical Muslim Studies 5
read here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/reorient.1.issue-1
The Editorial Board
Articles
The Other Siege of Vienna and the Ottoman Threat: An Essay in Counter-Factual History 11
Richard W. Bulliet
Exchanges: With Gil Anidjar 23
The Forgetting of Christianity 27
Gil Anidjar
The “Problem” of Religion, Christianity, and the Capacity of Community 37
Ananda Abeysekara
Christianity’s Forgetting 43
Sîan Melvill Hawthorne
The Red Thread of Christianity 51
Ruth Mas
Fawlty Logic: The Cracks in Cameron’s 2011 Munich Speech 61
Brian Klug
Muhammad Iqbal on Muslim Orthodoxy and Transgression: A Response to Nehru 78
Teena Purohit
Book Reviews
Colonial Wars, Postcolonial States: A Debate on the War on Terror 93
Warren Chin
Mayanthi L. Fernando’s The Republic Unsettled 108
Roshan A. Jahangeer
Kecia Ali’s The Lives of Muhammad 112
Kamran Bashir
Mohammad Siddique Seddon’s The Last of the Lascars 116
Shamim Miah
Abstracts: http://www.plutojournals.com/reorient-contents-and-abstracts/
3. Séminaire ‘Sociétés, politiques et cultures
du monde iranien’
Séance du 3 decembre 2015, 17h-18h30
Alessandra Fiorentini, doctorante, EHESS, Paris
Le « folklore en tant que vision du monde » : l’exemple d’un rituel féminin en Iran, Tadjikistan et Afghanistan
Le sujet de cette intervention concerne l’étude d’un rituel votif féminin appelé sofreh dans la région historique du « Grand Khorasan » qui s’étends sur différents pays limitrophes dont l’Iran, le Tadjikistan et l’Afghanistan, lieux privilégiés de ma recherche de terrain. Le rituel du sofreh est un rituel féminin collectif. Il consiste en des réunions réservées exclusivement et strictement aux femmes qui demandent secours à un être surnaturel, la « Bîbî-Seshanbeh » et « Bîbî Moshkilkosha » (en darî Dame du Mardi, La dame qui résout les problèmes). En effet, la phase la plus importante du rituel est la narration de l’histoire mythique de l’être surnaturel. C’est cette performance de récitation qui donne validité au rituel. Mon étude se fonde à la fois sur un travail ethnographique et sur le recueil de sources écrites des différentes versions du récit mythique.
Tout d’abord à travers une analyse de la littérature existante, je questionne le vocabulaire analytique, conceptuel et politique à travers lequel on a souvent analysé le rapport entre genre et religion comme les notions clés telles que la dichotomie « religion/magie », « orthodoxie/pratique populaire», et une tentative de redéfinir la notion de « agency ». À travers une analyse anthropologique et historique du rituel et de son récit, cette recherche veut démontrer l’importance d’utiliser le genre comme catégorie d’analyse pour élucider, au travers de l’étude des activités rituelles féminines, des processus socioculturels et politiques plus larges. Il examine comment les femmes construisent quotidiennement leur genre à travers les pratiques du rituel en conformité avec les réalités sociales et politiques dans lesquelles elles vivent. Cela pour expliquer que le genre est un produit de l’activité rituelle plutôt que sa cause.
Par ailleurs, l’analyse des sources écrites primaires et la réalisation de différentes enquêtes de terrain, montrent que le rituel du sofreh est présent dans plusieurs pays, notamment en Afghanistan, au Tadjikistan, en Iran, en Ouzbékistan, mais aussi auprès des communautés en diaspora à Londres et en Israël. Ce rituel est en outre pratiqué par des communautés religieuses différentes telles que la communauté juive, zoroastrienne et musulmane. Le caractère transnational et transculturel de la pratique rituelle m’a porté à réfléchir sur la question de l’autorité féminine et sur l’hypothèse de l’existence de réseaux de solidarité entre femmes (sororité), dont certains aboutissent aussi à des revendications politiques se réclamant du féminisme.
Lieu : Université Sorbonne nouvelle – Paris 3, centre Censier, 13 rue de Santeuil, salle D21, bâtiment D (le bâtiment D est situé sur le parvis du Campus Censier, 2e étage), 75005, Paris.
Organisateurs :
Matteo De Chiara (INaLCO), Denis Hermann (CNRS), Fabrizio Speziale (Paris 3), Julien Thorez (CNRS).
4. http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/518770.html
The Faculty of Humanities at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen invites applications for a level W3 professorship for Iranian Studies, starting 01.04.2016.
The successful applicant for the professorship in Iranian Studies should represent this field in the broadest sense possible. He/She should cover teaching and research in the fields of Iranian religions, cultural history, literatures and media while taking aspects of the pre-Islamic era as well as issues of modern times into account. The applicant is expected to document proficiency in modern and classical Persian. The new professor will be involved in the initiative of interdisciplinary religious studies at the Göttingen Research Campus and cooperate in the field of transregional studies.
The ideal applicant will exhibit an interdisciplinary orientation and should reveal a profound knowledge of theories and methodology. The successful applicant should participate actively in the research clusters of the Philosophical Faculty and in inter-faculty research activities and clusters. The new professor is responsible for the study programs of Iranian Studies. It is expected that he/she will make efforts to increase the Iranian studies program’s attraction by teaching cooperation within the Göttingen Research Campus and/or by inter-university initiatives. The active participation in administration tasks is required.
Further information can be found under http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/518770.html
The formal requirements for an appointment are in accordance with the legislation of the State of Lower Saxony (§§ 25 Niedersächsisches Hochschulgesetz). Please contact us for further details.
Applications of disabled persons will be given preferential treatment over other candidates with equal qualifications.
The University of Göttingen is an equal opportunity employer. Women are strongly encouraged to apply and will receive preferential treatment when having equal qualifications.
We explicitly welcome applications from abroad. Part-time employment is negotiable.
Applications should be submitted within six weeks after the publication of this advertisement and should be accompanied by a curriculum vitae, a list of publications and courses taught, and should be addressed to the
Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Göttingen University, Humboldtallee 17, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
Please send your application as PDF via e-mail to marina.glemnitz@zvw.uni-goettingen.de
5. Seventh Annual Graduate Student Conference in Translation Studies
Call for Papers: Translation and the Arts
The graduate students of the School of Translation at Glendon College, York University, are pleased to announce the Seventh Annual Graduate Student Conference in Translation Studies to be held on Saturday, March 5, 2016 at Glendon College in Toronto, Canada.
Translation is a site for creative activity that operates within dynamic fields of linguistic and cultural contact. This site opens roads into inquiries on how translation operates within the arts and how the arts operate within translation. Translators and interpreters can be viewed as playing the role of artists, while artists themselves embody many of the singularities that characterize the translator’s task. Within the shifting multimedia landscape of the digital age and an era of highly globalized cultural production it is of value to question the interplay between the human imagination and our diverse forms of cultural expression.
We invite students, scholars, translators, artists and critics to join us in sharing ideas that explore the interdependence of translation and the arts; how this relationship has manifested itself throughout history; and how it is developing in an age of rapid globalization, technological innovation and values that celebrate cultural diversity. The questions we put forward to spark this discussion include the following: how are forms of artistic expression, ranging from the literary, musical, visual, and performance influenced and shaped by translation? How does translation figure in the creative process and within the mediums of artistic productions? In what capacities do translators engage with art and do artists engage with translation? Where do critical theories from both domains intersect and how can they serve one another?
Topics for papers and posters can include, but are not limited to the following:
These and other related issues will be addressed at this one-day multilingual event, which will include a series of individual presentations (20 minutes each) and other related activities. Interested persons are invited to submit proposals of 250-300 words in English, French or Spanish by Monday, January 4, 2016 to transconf@glendon.yorku.ca. Please ensure that you include the title of your submission, your name, affiliation if appropriate, email address and any tech requests. Selected papers will be considered for publication. We may be able to provide simultaneous interpretation to and from Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish at the conference.
6. Latest News from Islamic Reformulations:
Islam, Law and the State: Workshop and Public Lecture by Professor Mohammad Fadel, 7th January 2016, University of Exeter. How have Muslims conceived of “law” and how has law framed Islam and Muslims? This interdisciplinary workshop will examine this two sides of the relationship between Islam and the law from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The workshop will end with a lecture by Mohammad Fadel (Toronto) entitled “Islamic Constitutionalism as an Alternative Approach to Islamic Legal Reform”. A programme will be posted here in early December.
Reformulation and Hermeneutics: Researching the History of Islamic Legal Theory, Istanbul, 21st-24th February 2016. This conference, a collaboration of the Islamic Reformulations project (University of Exeter) and the Faculty of Theology (Istanbul University) will examine the intellectual history of Islamic legal interpretation, with a focus on legal theory.
Publications news: Robert Gleave and Istvan Kristo-Nagy (formerly the LIVIT Research Fellow) both have contributions to the recently published volume Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A diachronic perspective on takfīr (Leiden, 2015), edited by C. Adang, H. Ansari, M. Fierro and S. Schmidtke. Rob’s contribution is titled “Abandoning Prayer and the Declaration of Unbelief in Imāmī Jurispdudence” (pp.244-272); and Istvan’s is “Denouncing the Damned Zindīq! Struggle and Interaction between Monotheism and Dualism” (pp.56-81
Conference news: Robert Gleave spoke on “Securitising Area Studies: Recent Developments in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies” at the Area Studies in the 21st Century conference, 9th November, at University College London. Mustafa Baig, formerly our Research Fellow (now Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Cardiff), spoke at the inaugural event of the GW4 URL” Religion and Law project, giving a paper entitled “The Anti-Sharia Movement in the Light of Islamic Jurisprudence”, 10th November at the University of Bath.
7. The University of Oslo, Norway, is pleased to announce its new
2-year interdisciplinary MA in Middle East Studies
The programme, which is taught in English, offers students the opportunity to expand their overall competence in contemporary Middle East studies while developing a more specific research focus within the fields of politics, social, religious and cultural affairs, anthropology, history, language and literature. The programme emphasises comparative and theory-oriented approaches as well as the active use of written and oral sources in the main languages of the region (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew/Semitic).
For more information and how to apply, see
http://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/research/center/islamic-and-middle-east-studies/studies/
Ongoing research projects:
http://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/research/center/islamic-and-middle-east-studies/projects/
Teachers involved with the programme:
http://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/research/center/islamic-and-middle-east-studies/researchers/
NB: Please note the following deadlines:
1 Dec 2015: for applicants from outside the European Union / European Economic Area
1 Mar 2016: for EU/EEA/Swiss citizens
15 Apr 2016: for Nordic citizens or those with renewable residence permit in Norway
8. School of Politics, International Studies & Philosophy
Queens University Belfast
Funded PhD Studentships Commencing Sept. 2016
The School of Politics, International Studies & Philosophy at Queen’s University Belfast is pleased to announce a number of funding opportunities for PhD students beginning September 2016. We welcome student proposals in a wide range of scholarly areas, with particular emphasis on the following:
| · Security, Borders and Migration
· Terrorism & Conflict · EU Governance · Comparative Politics / Political Behaviour and Parties |
· Middle Eastern Politics & Islam
· Ethics & Public Policy · Political Economy of Risk · Contemporary Irish History and Politics
|
We have the following funding opportunities for prospective PhD students:
DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND LEARNING (DEL) AWARDS:
The Faculty Of Arts, Humanities & Social Science invites applications for PhD Studentship Awards, funded by Northern Ireland’s Department of Employment and Learning (DEL), available for full-time PhD research commencing in autumn 2016. A total of 36 PhD studentships are available and they will be awarded on a competitive basis to outstanding applicants who have: an excellent undergraduate degree; a Master’s degree in a relevant subject completed, or are due to complete by September 2016; an original and exciting research proposal that will contribute to the further enhancement of areas of research strength in the Faculty. The studentships are available to UK and other EU and EEA nationals, however specific eligibility criteria apply. For example, for UK Based students, each award will cover approved tuition fees and maintenance payments for three years, whereas EU and EEA students are eligible for fees only. Those wishing to be considered for a DEL PhD studentship should complete the online postgraduate application here, registering your application against the home School of your proposed primary supervisor. Please note that the deadline for these applications is 29th January, 2016.
AHRC NORTHERN BRIDGE DOCTORAL AWARDS:
As part of the Northern Bridge Consortium which includes Newcastle University and Durham University, Queen’s is part of a programme of funding that will offer up to 50 fully funded PhD positions across these three institutions. These are specific opportunities for ‘Humanities Facing’ subject areas within the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy which include, but are not limited to, Philosophy, Political Theory, Political History, Diplomatic History, Cultural Studies and Aesthetics and Politics. Further Information on this funding scheme can be found here Northern Bridge Scholarships: Please note that the deadline for this competition is 11th January 2016
OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
Queen’s has a number of other relevant schemes for PhD funding including awards from specific national governments (e.g. China Council Studentships), the British Council, and other specific regions (e.g. Commonwealth Scholarships). Eligibility and deadlines vary for each of these studentships. For further information on other possible funding opportunities, please click here.
Further information on all these funding opportunities can be found on our webpages here.
Likewise, you can contact Dr. Debbie Lisle for more information: D.Lisle@qub.ac.uk
9. University of Arizona – Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
of the Middle East and North Africa
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=52130
11. CfP: Borders and beyond in the Middle Eastsince 1914: legacies, changes, continuities.
venue: York St John University, York, UK date : 17-18 June 2016
(associated social and cultural events on 16th and 19th June)
Keynote Speakers: include Priya Satia (Stanford University): more to be confirmed.
This international interdisciplinary conference will examine the effects of World War 1 and the post-war settlement in the Middle East, especially those which are still felt today e.g. state borders, migrations, secular and religious ideologies and movements, and struggles over power.
The centenary of the 1916 “Sykes-Picot agreement”, which fed into the post-1918 politics of the region, provides a prompt to reflect on these themes, but does not limit the range of topics for discussion.
With its associated exhibitions and cultural events, the conference will provide a timely opportunity to re-examine the history of this period from many different perspectives and consider the extent of its consequences for the present, and implications for the future. It will also be an opportunity for scholarly work on the Middle East over the last century to be heard and discussed by a wider audience, and for participants to share non-academic as well as academic perspectives on past, present and future in the Middle East.
The conference will encourage the exploration of:-
* issues such as gender politics, oil, imperialism, borders, mandates and state formation, local, national, and international elites, and local, national and communal histories of the region
* the impact of early twentieth century developments on subsequent histories and perceptions of ethnic, religious, social and communal diversity in the region
* cultural, political, and ideological aspects of these topics within and beyond the Middle East.
* histories and/or contemporary experiences of York/Yorkshire connections with the Middle East
Potential contributions to the conference may thus come from many disciplines: these might include geography, cartography, ethnography/anthropology, political science, war and peace studies, international relations, archaeology, science and/or engineering, religious and philosophical studies, the arts, cultural, media, and literary studies, statistics.
The conference will include both plenary sessions and panels: all sessions will be designed to give ample time to discuss presentations with a common theme. Proposals for papers or other forms of presentation are invited from all disciplines and areas. Selected papers will be considered for inclusion in an edited volume of conference proceedings.
Paper proposals should be for presentations of no more than 15 minutes; we are happy to consider proposals for contributions in other formats. Panel proposals should be for 2/3papers dealing with common themes.
Proposals, which should provide [1] a title, [2] an abstract of no more than 250 words, [3] the proposer’s name and contact details, should be sent to i.horwood@yorksj.ac.uk by Friday 23 January at latest: proposers will be informed of decisions about their proposal by early March .
Further details about the conference, including registration fees, concessions, etc. will be available shortly.
organising committee: John Bibby, Joanna de Groot, Ian Horwood
sponsors: York St John University; Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past, History Department, University of York: also associated with the York Festival of Ideas
12. Perso-Indica Workshop
Female Characters in Śukasaptatī and its Persian Versions
December 14th 2015, 16.00-18.30
Place: Salle des Placques, INALCO, 2 Rue de Lille, 75007, Paris.
Organisation and contact: Pegah Shahbaz, pegah.shahbaz@univ-paris3.fr
Program
16.00: Fabrizio Speziale, Introduction
16.15: Iran Farkhonde, « “As long as You Know the Answer”- Women Characters in the Śukasaptatī: Their Wits and Behaviours »
16.35: Discussion
16.45: Pegah Shahbaz, « Women Characters and Their Roles in Jawāhir al-asmār »
17.05: Discussion
17.15: Coffee-break
17.30: Syed Akhtar Hussain, « Thus Spake the Tuti »
17.50 Discussion
18.00: Conclusion
Iran Farkhonde (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Mondes iranien et indien), « “As long as you know the answer”- Women characters in the Śukasaptatī: their wits and behaviours »
To introduce the Śukasaptatī, we will first give a sketch of the frame story. We will present in the main lines the elements of Indian civilization that are necessary to understand the whys and therefores of women’s behaviors in the Sanskrit text. We will suggest a typology of women’s characters in the book. Finally we will try to delineate the aims of the author. Is he of the opinion that, as long as a woman has the wits to get herself out of trouble, she could behave according to her wishes?
Pegah Shahbaz (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Mondes iranien et indien), «Women Characters and Their Roles in Jawāhir al-asmār »
Jawāhir al-asmār (Jewels of Stories) is the earliest Persian translation, known thus far, of Śukasaptatī (Seventy tales of the parrot) realized in 713-715 H. /1313-1315 A.D. by a secretary named ‘Imād ibn Muḥammad Ṯaġarī at the court of ‘Alā al-Dīn Ḫaljī (r. 1290-1316). Jawāhir al-asmār could be the same Persian verbose rendering that Ẓiyā’ al-Dīn Naḫšabī (d. around 751/1350-51) mentions in the introduction to his popular Ṭūṭī-nāma, as the most prominent source he used for preparing his Persian version of the tales of the parrot. This presentation will focus on female characters in Ṯaġarī’s translation. Women’s inherent role in tales and their noteworthy strategies for overcoming the norms of male-dominated societies will be studied in detail. By means of concrete examples, we’ll discover how the use/misuse of imaginary by women could appear as a defensive tool for and against them in narratives.
Syed Akhtar Hussain (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), « Thus Spake the Tūtī »
Since the translation of Kalīla wa Dimna into Pahlavi, Arabic and Persian, Indian Classics began to impact literature in the Middle East. Sanskrit texts namely the Panchatantra and Śhukasaptatī enriched Persian literature both in form and contents. The Ṭūṭī-Nāma, among others, is not only a translation of Śhukasaptatī but also a gem of Perso-Indic literature. Its translator Zia Naḫšabī presents the wisdom of India in a more impressive and elegant manner than it appears in the Sanskrit text. The Ṭūṭī-Nāma develops“Katha” into pure Persian literature and swells more in size and gives a full size picture of the Perso-Indic world wherein Prabhavati and Madan Vinod transform into Ḫujaste and Maymūn. Śhukasaptatī’s narratives reproduced with a twist here and a turn there in the Ṭūṭī-Nāma but however it transpires that the Indian threads are deftly woven in the Persian tapestry of the Ṭūṭī-Nāma.
Pegah SHAHBAZ
Post-doctorante ANR
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
Sorbonne Paris Cité
13 rue Santeuil
75231 Paris Cedex 05
Monde iranien et indien (UMR 7528)
CNRS – Sorbonne Nouvelle – INALCO – EPHE
27, rue Paul Bert
94204, Ivry – sur – Seine
13. The “Early Islamic Empire at Work” project team based at the University of Hamburg are delighted to announce the establishment of the Early Islamic Empire Working Paper Series. The first paper, “ʿAbbāsid Administrative Legacy in the Seljuq World” by Prof. Dr Jürgen Paul, is now available for download from our website: https://www.islamic-empire.uni-hamburg.de/en/publications-tools/publications/working-paper-series.html
Working papers will be published on an irregular schedule. For further information about our project as well as forthcoming events and publications, see our website at https://www.islamic-empire.uni-hamburg.de/en.html
With best wishes,
The Early Islamic Empire team
