Archive for 2015
Shii News – MESA Programme 2015
Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA)
Preliminary Program
49th Annual Meeting
November 21-24
Denver, Colorado
Papers of potential interest to those on this list include those below. Full, on-line programme available at: http://mesana.org/annual-meeting/program.html
(4170) Shiʿi (Trans)nationalism
in Comparative Perspective
Organized by Robert J. Riggs and
Zackery Heern
Chair/Discussant: Juan Cole, U Michigan
Zackery Heern, Idaho State U–Modern
Usuli Shiʿism as a Transnational
Movement
Mina Yazdani, Eastern Kentucky U–
Shiʿi Nationalism in the Twentieth
Century Iran
Najam Haider, Barnard Col/Columbia
U–The Houthi Revolt: The Revival of
Traditional Zaydism in Republican
Yemen (1962-2015)
Robert J. Riggs, U Bridgeport–Al-
Sadr’s Indigenization Strategies and the
Emergence of Iraqi Arab Shiʿism
(4110) Rethinking Muharram:
Shiʼi Muslim Minorities
and the Politics of Ashura
Performances
Organized by Mara Leichtman
Chair: Toby Matthiesen, Cambridge U
Discussant: Chiara Formichi, Cornell U
Samer El-Karanshawy, Qatar Faculty
of Islamic Studies–Texts, Interpretation
and Commemorating Imām Husayn
Babak Rahimi, UC San Diego–The Green
Ashura: Urban Space, Ritual, and Post-
Election Iran
Mara Leichtman, Michigan State U–The
‘Africanization’ of Ashura in Senegal
Kathryn Spellman Poots, Aga Khan
U–Muharram Rituals and the Making of
British Shiʼism
(4231) Understanding the
Iraqi State: Sectarianism and
Authoritarianism
Chair: Timothy Schorn, U South Dakota
Dr. Nassima Neggaz, National U
Singapore–Sunnis, Shiʿa, and the State
in Iraq since 2003: The Construction of a
Sectarian-Authoritarian State
Tim Jacoby, U Manchester–(Mis)
Representing the Sunni Uprising in Iraq:
Culture Talk and the “Islamic State”
Yaniv Voller, U Edinburgh–The
Socio-Political Aspect of the Baʿth
Government-Sponsored Militias in
Northern Iraq: New Archival Findings
(4044) The Shiʿah of Lebanon:
Inter-Confessional Discourse
and Relations
Organized by Lynda Clarke and Farah
Kawtharani
Chair: Max Weiss, Princeton U
Discussant: Sabrina Mervin, CNRS
Farah Kawtharani, U Michigan
Dearborn–Shiʿis Responding to
Lebanon’s Sectarian State: Hizbullah and
Jurist Shams al-Din
Pascal Abidor, McGill U–The Anti-
Sectarian Politics of Ahmad ‘Arif al-Zayn
and His Majallat al-‘Irfan
Linda Sayed, New York U–Asserting
Roots: Muhammad Jabir al-Safa and His
Writing of a Shiʿa History
Lynda Clarke, Concordia U, Montreal–A
Shīʿite Clerical View of the Lebanese
State: Muḥammad Jawād Maghnīyah
(1904-1979)
(4159) Pro- and Anti-Safavid
Propaganda, 1480-1580
Organized by Matthew Melvin-Koushki
Chair/Discussant: Sara Nur Yildiz, St
Andrews U/Orient-Institut Istanbul
Christopher Markiewicz, U Chicago–
The Evolving Rhetorical Response to
Shah Ismail: Idris Bidlisi and Ottoman
Anti-Safavid Sentiment, 1501-1513
Matthew Melvin-Koushki, U South
Carolina–The Unpatriotic Persian: Fazl
Allah Khunji as Pioneer of Anti-Safavid
Propaganda
Colin Mitchell, Dalhousie U–F Is for
Fath: Qazi Mir Husain Maybudi and His
Model Victory Letter
Ayse Baltacioglu-Brammer, Ohio State
U–Turning Kızılbaş, Turning Safavid:
Pro-Safavid Propaganda in Anatolia
during the 15th and 16th Centuries
(4207) Negotiating Authority in
Contemporary Shiʿism
Organized by David Thurfjell
Chair: David Thurfjell, Sodertorn U,
Sweden
Johan Gärde, Ersta Sköndal U
Col, Sweden–Marginalization and
Disappointment? The Socio-economic
Conditions of Shiʿite Populations in the
Middle East
David Thurfjell, Sodertorn U, Sweden–A
Charismatic Challenge: The Heyyati-
Movement in Contemporary Iran
Dominance: The ‘Otherʼ Islamic
Powers of the Medieval Islamic
World
Organized by Christine Baker and Eric
J. Hanne
Chair: Jere L. Bacharach, U Washington
Christine Baker, Indiana U
Pennsylvania–Remembering the
‘Shiʿi Century’: The Fatimids, Buyids,
ʿAbbasids, and Local Reactions to Tenth-
Century ‘Sectarianism’
Robert Haug, U Cincinnati–I will Give
the Kharaj to al-Mu`tasim, Not `Abdallah
b. Tahir: Local Authority vs. Regional
Authority vs. Imperial Authority in
Tahirid Khurasan
Eric J. Hanne, Florida Atlantic U–The
Contested History of the Early Mazyadid
Amirate and Its Role in the Fourth-Fifth/
Tenth-Eleventh Century Political Arena
(4267) Making and Breaking
Boundaries in the Ottoman,
Safavid, and Mughul Empires
Chair: Amy Singer, Tel Aviv U
Ferenc P. Csirkes, U Chicago–A
“Panther-Like Poet”: Sadiqi Beg’s Fall
from the Persian Literary Canon
Conklin Tyler, Yale U–The Boundaries
of Loyalty: Self-Fashioning and the
Kurds in the Seventeenth-Century
Eastern Anatolian Ottoman Borderlands
Gregory Aldous, U Pittsburgh
Greensburg–Turk and Persian in the
Early Safavid Court: The Case of the
Khurasan Campaign of 1512
Ayelet Zoran-Rosen, New York U–The
Gazi of the Sixteenth-Century: Frontier
Warriors in Bosnia and the Imagined
Past of the Ottoman Empire
(4072) Beyond Orthodoxy
and Confessionalization: New
Perspectives on Ottoman
Sunnism
Organized by Vefa Erginbas
Chair: Jane Hathaway, Ohio State U
Yasir Yilmaz, Purdue U–Contextualizing
Confessionalism: An Historiographical
Inquiry into Confessionalization
Paradigm’s Applicability to Ottoman
Sunnism
Selim Güng.rürler, Georgetown U–
Sunnism, Qizilbashism and Shiʿism
in the Context of Ottoman-Safavid
Confrontation
Vefa Erginbas, Providence Col–Many
Faces of Ottoman Sunnism: Approaches
Toward Yazid b. Muawiyah in Ottoman
Literary and Historical Writing
Aslihan Gurbuzel, Harvard U–How
“Orthodox” Were the Ottoman ʿulamaʾ?:
Approaches to Defining the Islamic
Community in the Early Modern Age
Malissa Taylor, U Louisville–A
Sultanic Sunnism, a Hanifized Kanun:
The Expansion of the Sultan’s Legal
Prerogatives (16th and 17th Centuries)
(4082) Making History: From
Tabari to Tahrir
Organized by Heather N. Keaney
Chair/Discussant: R. Stephen
Humphreys, UC Santa Barbara
Amr Osman, Qatar U–The Lesser of Two
Evils: Sunni Scholars and Egypt’s 2013
Coup
Brian Wright, McGill U–Khawarij vs.
Pharoah: Using Faith to Define Politics
Heather N. Keaney, Westmont Col–
Shiʿism in the Eyes of al-Azhar
Aaron Hagler, Troy U–Sunnifying
ʿAlī: Historiography and Notions of
Legitimacy in Ibn Kathīr’s Kitāb al-
Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya
(4078) Medieval Ismaili Muslim
Thought: Methodology,
Hermeneutics and Cosmology
Organized by Khalil Andani
Chair: Daniel Beben, Nazarbayev U
Aaron Viengkhou, Harvard Divinity
School–The World as Discourse:
Hermeneutics, Cosmology, and Natural
Science in the Jābirian Corpus and Early
Ismāʿīlism
Khalil Andani, Harvard U–The Ismā‘īlī
Influence on al-Ghazālī: A Reassessment
Paul Anderson, Harvard U–Ties of
Blood and Water: The Ritualization of
Knowledge and the Legitimization of the
Dāʿī Muṭlaq in Ṭayyibī Shiʿism
- November 18, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- November 18, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- November 17, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Bahrain Update
The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer
The Shii dimensions of this story (the Hubail brothers are both Shii) are detailed in a 2011 Yahoo News story, cited herein, and available at: https://news.yahoo.com/bahrain-footballers-pay-price-protesting-090600012.html
- November 14, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – CfP: 2nd International Conference on Shi’i Studies
Call for Papers – 2nd International Conference on Shi’i Studies
7-8 May 2016
London, UK
The Journal of Shi’a Islamic Studies in conjunction with The Islamic College and the Institute of Islamic Studies would like to invite abstracts to be submitted for the 2016 conference. This conference will provide a broad platform for scholars in Shi’i studies to present their latest research. Papers are welcome on any aspect of Shi’i studies. Suggested topics include:
* Theology
* Philosophy and mysticism
* Law and jurisprudence
* History
* Qur’an and Hadith studies
* Anthropological studies
* Shi’i minorities
* Inter-religious, cross-disciplinary, or comparative studies
* Shi’ism and Orientalism
* Authority in Shi’i thought
* Shi’ism in the hawzah and/or the university
Accepted papers will be published in the Journal of Shi’a Islamic Studies (subject to passing peer review), an internationally recognized, academic, peer-reviewed journal focusing on studies of Shi’ism, which will enter its ninth year in 2016.
** Travel funding is available on a limited basis. **
Abstract submission deadline: 31 December 2015
Deadline for completed papers: 1 April 2016
E-mail abstracts to: editor@islamic-college.ac.uk
For more information, see http://www.islamic-college.ac.uk/shiistudies
- November 13, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- November 13, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Qom: Second 12-Day Course on Shia Studies
The University of Religions and Denominations (Qom, Iran) will hold the second 12-Day course on Shia Studies in March 2016. This course entails an introduction to Shia History, Principles, Futurology, Rituals and Practices in contemporary world. The focus will be on the Twelver Shia, the numerically largest and most influential denomination in Shiism; however, participants in this course will also learn about other main Shia traditions. All university professors, lecturers, researchers, and Ph.D. students in related fields are invited to apply. More information about this course is available at
http://shiacourse.urd.ac.ir
Or http://urd.ac.ir/en/index
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely
Ahmad Moghri
Program Coordinator,
University of Religions and Denominations (Qom, Iran)
shiacourse@urd.ac.ir
- November 13, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- November 12, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1.The European University Institute* is now accepting applications *for its Doctoral Programme <http://www.eui.eu/ServicesAndAdmin/AcademicService/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>.
Our fully funded four-year Ph.D. programme is an excellent opportunity
for master students and other young scholars interested in pursuing
doctoral studies in economics, law, history and the social sciences, and
I hope you will share this information with your students.
The European University Institute:
* Offers one of the *largest and most prestigious doctoral and
postdoctoral programmes* in the social sciences in Europe.
* Has been*fully focused on postgraduate studies *for more than*40
years*.
* Hosts an intellectual community of more than *900 scholars* *from
over 60 countries*.
* Has an *excellent record in job placement*: 69% of EUI Alumni are
employed in academic positions, 19% in the private sector or in national
governments, 12% in international organisations and EU institutions.
* *Offers 150 grants for a fully funded Ph.D. programme *for the next
academic year.
* *Is located*in beautiful historic buildings in the scenic hills of
*Florence, Italy*.
The four departments offer a clearly structured doctoral programme with
close academic supervision. Researchers get access to high-level
research, and their independent research is supported by excellent
on-site facilities, missions and exchange programmes. Academic life at
the EUI is deeply international, dynamic and inter-disciplinary, and the
research networks formed by our members are enduring and of global
scope. Most of our graduates go on to become faculty members in
universities, both in their country of origin and around the world.
Placing your students in the EUI’s prestigious doctoral programme will
reflect well on you as an academic teacher and your institution.
I thank you in advance for forwarding this information about our
Doctoral Programme
<http://www.eui.eu/ServicesAndAdmin/AcademicService/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>
to your students and hope that you will also share it among your colleagues.
The call for applications for the academic year 2016/2017 will close on
*31 January 2016.*
For information on research themes, application requirements, grants and
eligibility:
* http://www.eui.eu/Phd
<http://www.eui.eu/ServicesAndAdmin/AcademicService/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>
* applyres@eui.eu <mailto:applyres@eui.eu>
* +39 055 4685 373
Sincerely yours,
Rainer Bauböck
Dean of Graduate Studies
European University Institute
<http://www.eui.eu/?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016>
San Domenico di Fiesole, Florence – Italy
2. The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University invites applications for a postdoctoral position in the contemporary politics, economics or diplomacy of natural resource extraction in Iran and the Gulf region, or a closely related subject of research, starting in September 2016. This twelve month position may be renewed for up to three years, subject to satisfactory performance. The Center pursues a comprehensively interdisciplinary approach to advancing understanding of Iran and the Persian Gulf, with special attention to the region’s role and significance in the contemporary world. The goal of the program is to support outstanding scholars of Iran and the wider Iranian world at an early stage of their careers and thus to strengthen the field of Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies in the United States and abroad.
Candidates are required to apply online at https://jobs.princeton.edu (Requisition#1500901) and submit the following documents: (1) cover letter with title and summary (200 words) of proposed research project; (2) research proposal (max. 1600 words), including description of project, bibliography, timetable, explicit goals, and the reason it is proposed to be pursued at Princeton; (3) curriculum vitae and list of publications; (4) sample chapter (in English) of dissertation or other recent work; (5) contact information for three references.
DEADLINE: All materials, including letters, must be received by January 31st, 2016 for full consideration. Applications will continue to be reviewed until the position is filled. Preferred start date is September 1, 2016. This position is subject to the University’s background check policy.
The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University invites applications for a postdoctoral position in the medieval history of Iran in the period ca. 100-1000 CE, preferably with a focus on the history, sources and language(s) of the Sasanian period, starting in September 2016. This twelve month position may be renewed for up to three years, subject to satisfactory performance. The Center pursues a comprehensively interdisciplinary approach to advancing understanding of Iran and the Persian Gulf, with special attention to the region’s role and significance in the contemporary world, but with a keen awareness of the importance of the history of the region. The goal of the program is to support outstanding scholars of Iran and the wider Iranian world at an early stage of their careers and thus to strengthen the field of Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies in the United States and abroad.
Candidates are required to apply online at https://jobs.princeton.edu (Requisition #1500905) and submit the following documents: (1) cover letter with title and summary (200 words) of proposed research project; (2) research proposal (max. 1600 words), including description of project, bibliography, timetable, explicit goals, and the reason it is proposed to be pursued at Princeton; (3) curriculum vitae and list of publications; (4) sample chapter (in English) of dissertation or other recent work; (5) contact information for three references.
DEADLINE: All materials, including letters, must be received by January 31st, 2016 for full consideration. Applications will continue to be reviewed until the position is filled. Preferred start date is September 1, 2016. This position is subject to the University’s background check policy.
3. CALL FOR PAPERS | THE ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT ASSOCIATION
SUFISM AND ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT CULTURE – THE ELEVENTH ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT CONFERENCE
Hosted by the University of Cambridge, UK, 13–15 September 2016
***CFP Deadline: 23 November 2015***
Sufis have written litanies, panegyrics, didactic works in verse and prose, hagiographies, discourses, exegetical works, and metaphysical treatises made into manuscripts both humble and lavish. Sufi lodges have housed libraries and manuscript ateliers, and Sufi networks have disseminated manuscripts across the Muslim World. This conference seeks to present current international research trends on the relationship between Sufism and Islamic manuscript culture and generate discussion and study in this field. Possible topics for papers include but are not limited to:
- Apotropaic uses of Sufi and non-Sufi manuscripts by Sufis
- The arts of the book and Sufi artists and patrons
- Bibliophilia and bibliophobia in Sufism
- Cataloguing manuscripts on Sufism
- Collection care programmes for collections of Sufi manuscripts
- Conservation treatments on Sufi manuscripts
- Diagrams and illustrations in manuscripts on Sufism
- Digital humanities and the study of manuscripts on Sufism
- The effects of recent conflicts in the Muslim World on collections of Sufi manuscripts
- The history of Sufi libraries
- Paratexts in manuscripts on Sufism
- Preparing printed and digital editions of manuscripts on Sufism
- The production of manuscripts by Sufi lodge ateliers
- Publication programmes or series of editions or facsimiles of manuscripts on Sufism
- Dissemination of texts and manuscripts through Sufi networks
- The use of manuscripts in Sufi rituals
SUBMISSIONS
This call for papers is open to members and non-members of the Association. The languages of the Conference will be Arabic and English, and submissions will be accepted in both languages. The duration of each conference paper will be 20 minutes, followed by ten minutes of questions and answers. The Association will pay for round-trip economy-class travel to Cambridge, accommodation, and meals for individuals whose papers are accepted. All abstracts will be peer-reviewed.
The deadline for submission of abstracts is 10.00 GMT on Monday, 23 November 2015. For further guidance, see our website.
MORE INFORMATION
The Islamic Manuscript Association is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to protecting Islamic manuscript collections and supporting those who work with them. Our conferences have been held at the University of Cambridge every summer since 2005 and themes have included topics as diverse as ‘Manuscripts and Conflict’ (2014), ‘The Science of Manuscripts’ (2012), ‘Central Asian Islamic Manuscripts’ (2010), ‘West African Islamic Manuscripts’ (2008), and ‘Conservation, Cataloguing, Accessibility, Copyright and Digitisation’ (2005).
For the call for papers in full, see our website: http://www.islamicmanuscript.org/biennialconference/2016conference.aspx
SPONSORS
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation and the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge.
——
Armin Yavari
Assistant Director
The Islamic Manuscript Association
℅ 33 Trumpington Street
Cambridge CB2 1QY
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)1223 303 177
F: +44 (0)1223 302 218
E: armin@islamicmanuscript.org
W: www.islamicmanuscript.org
4. The Bodleian Libraries Visiting Fellows Programme 2016-2017
Bahari Visiting Fellowships in the Persian Arts of the Book
Applications are invited for Fellowships of up to 6 months in duration, for research into the Persian Arts of the Book. Research areas may include but are not limited to studies in Art History, Codicology, Calligraphy, Miniature Painting, the History of Islamic Book Production and Scribal Practices, Manuscript Cataloguing, and the Editing and Translation of Texts.
Academics or university staff of at least post-doctoral level or equivalent, with a current institutional affiliation, are welcome to apply. The main focus of any research proposal should be on an aspect or aspects of the Bodleian’s Persian and Islamic Collections. Applications should include details of the Collections to be consulted and of the larger project that the research visit will support, including planned outcomes.
The Bodleian’s Persian collections date back to the very beginning of the 17th century and consist of around 2,500 manuscript codices containing about 5,000 works in all classical disciplines. Particularly well represented are Histories, Biographies, and Classical Persian Poetry. The collection of illustrated manuscripts containing miniatures is world class.
For information on how to apply, please click here
For a glimpse into the collections based on a previous exhibition, please visit: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/whats-on/online/love-and-devotion.
Basic records of a large part of the Bodleian’s Islamic Manuscript Collections may also be found here: www.fihrist.org.uk.
5. American Research Institute in Turkey
The American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) is pleased to announce
2016-2017 fellowship programs for U.S.-based students and scholars:
ARIT / National Endowment for the Humanities Advanced Fellowships for
Research in Turkey cover all fields of the humanities, including
prehistory, history, art, archaeology, literature, and linguistics as
well as interdisciplinary aspects of cultural history for applicants who
have completed their academic training. The fellowships may be held for
terms ranging from four months to a full year. Stipend per month is $4,200.
ARIT Fellowships for Research in Turkeyare offered for research in
ancient, medieval, or modern times, in any field of the humanities and
social sciences. Post-doctoral and advanced doctoral fellowships may be
held for various terms, for terms from one month up to one academic
year. Stipends range from $2,500 to $15,500.
Applications for ARIT fellowships must be submitted to ARIT by November
1, 2015. The fellowship committee will notify applicants by late
January, 2016.
ARIT Summer Fellowships for Intensive Advanced Turkish Language at
Bogazici University, Istanbul, summer 2016. The program supports
intensive study of advanced Turkish language at Bogazici University in
Istanbul, Turkey, including air fare, tuition, and stipend. The
application deadline is February 5.
For further information please see the ARIT webpage
at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/ARIT/FellowshipPrograms.html
6. Call for papers- Open session on Islamic Art at MAHS, Chicago, April 7-9
The annual conference of the Midwest Art History Society (MAHS) will be held in Chicago, April 7-9, 2016. Paper proposals are requested for an open session on Islamic art and architecture that I will be chairing. Please send an abstract and a two-page CV to bilha.moor@northwestern.edu by December 1.
For additional information on the MAHS conference please see:
http://files.ctctcdn.com/8bc01baa001/ed6c3a64-9d4f-4cb9-8622-21dbe5fc0872.pdf
Bilha Moor
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral fellow of Islamic art and architecture
Department of Art History
Northwestern University
7. Two Research Officers at the Middle East Centre and Department of Media & Communications, London School of Economics
a) Applications are invited from outstanding candidates in the fields of Media and Communications, Sociology, Middle East Studies or Cultural Studies. Candidates will join a multi-country LSE Media and Communications and Middle East Centre collaboration project with the American University of Sharjah, and at field sites in Morocco, Jordan, UAE and Tunisia.
b) The Centre seeks a Research Officer to contribute to research activities on the historical sociology of the Middle East and to produce independent research.
Deadline for application: 30 November 2015. Information: www.lse.ac.uk/middleEastCentre/vacancies/home.aspx
c) Academic Coordinator II – Vice Chair – Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley; https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/apply/JPF00885
d) Visiting Professorship in Contemporary Middle East Studies, University of Pittsburgh; www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/visitingprofessor
8. 150 Ph.D. Scholarships at the European University Institute (near Florence in Italy) for the 2016-17 Academic Year
The European University Institute offers one of the largest and most prestigious doctoral and postdoctoral programmes in the social sciences in Europe.
Application deadline: 31 January 2016. Information: www.eui.eu/ServicesAndAdmin/AcademicService/DoctoralProgramme/Index.aspx?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=phd2016
9. Spring School: “Environmental Methods in Mamluk and Islamic Studies”, Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg, Bonn, 14-18 March 2016
In this year’s Spring School, we are interested in the physical environmental in all of its forms – climate, landscape, agriculture and pasturelands, water systems, natural resources, urban green spaces, and food and feeding the people. The course will combine seminars (readings of Arabic texts) with “hands-on” work in a lab-like environment.
Deadline for registration; 21 December 2015. Information: www.mamluk.uni-bonn.de/mamluk-events
10. CFP – Muslims in Africa and African Muslims in the Diaspora (Acta Islamica)
by Siendou Konate
ACTA ISLAMICA : REVUE D’ETUDES ISLAMIQUES/ ISLAMIC STUDIES REVIEW
Late Ali Mazrui stated a while back that the African continent inherited three religious traditions; namely African Traditional Religion (ATR), Christianity and Islam. The last two made substantial inroads into the heartlands of Africa. During the first encounters between Africa’s peoples and Arab merchants as well as slave traders that were associated with the Western imperial and colonial powers, these traditions gradually became part of the African identity along with ATR.
As a result of these developments, Africa’s diverse societies across the continent demonstrate their religious allegiance to each of these religious traditions. Apart from Christianity, social scientists have commented upon Islam’s status as a fast growing religion after Christianity. According to available statistics, more than 50 % of Africa’s inhabitants claim Islam as their religion. Whilst this is the case, it does not necessarily mean that all of them practice Islam in the same way. Since Africa’s Muslims are socio-linguistically and culturally diverse, they were/are kept together by their beliefs and practices. Interestingly, the huge diversity that characterizes these societies awaits social scientists and others to analyze them; they do so in order to comprehend the ways in which African communities’ values, norms and cultures have been shaped through their interaction and socialization with Muslims. Thus, this inaugural issue of Acta Islamica : Revue d’études islamiques/ Islamic Studies Review based at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny University in West Africa’s Côte d’Ivoire aims to understand the socio-historical and current processes of Islam’s establishment as a religious tradition on and beyond Africa’s continent. It essentially hopes to assess the consequences thereof.
Below are suggestions for this thematic focus; its focus includes but is not limited to the following:
- “Islam africain” (Muslim Africa or Africa’s Muslims)
- Effects of the global age on Islam
- Internet and Islam among Africa’s Muslim diaspora
- Non-Muslim media coverage of Islam in Africa
- Interactions between African Muslim communities and those who hail from other parts of the world
- African Muslim minorities in the West
- The role of Islam in African politics
- Citizenship in African states and Islam.
8000-word submissions will normally be in English or French. All submissions should include a cover sheet, not attached to the paper that includes the author’s name, title of paper, contact and institutional information, and a brief (50 words or less) biographical statement. We expect abstracts from interested contributors by November 20, 2015 and finalized contributions by December 20, 2015 to actaislamica@gmail.com and/or siendouk@gmail.com.
11.Theoretical linguistics and language resources
The case of Iranian Languages
International Workshop
“Mondes iranien et indien” (CNRS, Sorbonne nouvelle, EPHE, Inalco)
&
Labex “Empirical Foundations of Linguistics”
25 November 2015
Les Salons de l’Inalco
2, rue de Lille
75007 – Paris
Program
9:30-10:00 Languages resources and theoretical linguistics: the case of Persian Complex Predicates
Pollet Samvelian and Pegah Faghiri, Sorbonne nouvelle & “Mondes iranien et indien” (France)
10:00-10:35 A Descriptive and Theoretical Analysis of Complex predicates in Iranian languages: Outline of the project
Simin Karimi, Mohsen Mahdavi and Ryan Smith, University of Arizona (USA)
10:35-11:05 Compound verbs and light verb constructions in Pashto
Matteo De Chiara (Inalco & Mondes iranien et indien)
11:05-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-12:05 Complex Predicates again: Asymmetry as origin of light verb distribution Agnes Korn, CNRS , “Mondes iranien et indien” (France)
12:05-12:40 T.B.A.
12:40-14:30 Lunch break
14:30-15:05 An Innovative Annotation Style in Treebanking Persian
Mojgan Seraji, Uppsala Universitet (Sweden)
15:05-15:40 An Overview of the Development of the Persian Dependency Treebank
Manouchehr Kouhestani, Tarbiat Modarres University (Iran)
15:40-16:15 FarsNet: the combination of Persian WordNet and VerbNet
Mehrnoush Shamsfard, Shahid Beheshti University (Iran)
16:15-16:45 Coffee break
16:45-17:20 Academy of Persian Language and Literature, its activities in term formation and using compound verbs
Nasrin Parvizi, Academy of Persian Language and Literature (Iran) & Université Sorbonne nouvelle (France)
17:30-18:30 Introducing PersPred Website
Welcome speech: Christian Puech, Sorbonne nouvelle, Chair of the Labex EFL
Website demo: Pollet Samvelian and Pegah Faghiri
18:30 – Cocktail
Abstracts
Compound verbs and light verb constructions in Pashto
- Di Chiara
The Pashto verbal system distinguishes between simple verbs (ex. likə́l ‘to write’) and compound verbs (ex. xabərawə́l ‘to inform’ and xabəredə́l ‘to be informed’), but only few simple verbs are really used. To these two classes we can add a third category: the light verb constructions (ex. pux̌tə́na kawə́l ‘to ask’ and lā́mbo wahə́l ‘to swim’). In this manner, contrariwise to the other Iranian languages, where generally only two kinds of verbs can be identified, i.e. simple verbs and light verb constructions, in Pashto, verbs belong to three classes. An analysis of these as well as a general presentation of the Pashto verbal system will allow us to show some particularities of Pashto verbal morphology, between archaism and innovation.
A Descriptive and Theoretical Analysis of Complex predicates in Iranian languages: Outline of the project
Simin Karimi, Mohsen Mahdavi and Ryan Smith
This project will develop an extensive investigation and classification of complex predicates in twenty Iranian languages and dialects. The classification of the complex predicate constructions in these languages will be a descriptive as well as theoretical project, with the goal of illuminating the specific contributions of each component of the complex construction to the predicate.
One of our major research questions concerns the nature of complex predicates in human language. Are they formed in the lexicon since they are word-like? Or are they composed in syntax since each component reveals independent properties? Furthermore, issues related to various syntactic constructions involving complex predicates, such as scrambling, passive, ellipsis, and resultative constructions, among others, will be investigated for the better understanding of these complex elements. This study will be the first to investigate the microparametric variations in complex predicates across Iranian languages and dialects. Our hope is that such microparametric comparison will break new ground in our understanding of the underpinnings of complex predicate formation in human language.
The data will be collected in two ways: by interviewing native speaker consultants and by asking linguists who are native speakers of one of these languages to provide detailed answers to extensive questionnaires. The collected data will be transcribed, catalogued and entered into a database. All the interlinear textual material that forms the basis for the descriptive analysis and pedagogical material will be stored in an accessible format, and will be made publicly available for further study. For each language, a short description of the major properties of that language, in addition to relevant geographical and cultural information, will be provided. Finally, we will use the collected data to develop content for Wikipedia pages on each language, accessible to all interested parties. In this presentation, we will briefly expand on all issues mentioned above.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation in the States.
(Project team: S. Karimi, A. Carnie, H. Harley, M. Mahdavi, R. Smith, R. Nabors)
Complex Predicates again: Asymmetry as origin of light verb distribution
Agnes Korn
In many contemporary Ir. languages, complex predicates come in pairs, with one member functioning as active or transitive member (in Persian with kardan, zadan, etc.), the other one as its passive or intransitive counterpart (with šodan, xwordan, etc.). While many studies have looked at the matter from a theoretical perspective, studies of its historical development are rare. This paper thus proposes at possible origins and logics of the distribution of light verbs.
An Overview of the Development of the Persian Dependency Treebank
Manouchehr Kouhestani and Amirsaid Moloodi
This talk will be an overview of how the Persian Dependency Treebank evolved. The speaker(s) will begin with an introduction to the ideas and needs leading to the conception of the Treebank. Afterwards, the Syntactic Valency Lexicon for Persian Verbs, a by-product of the project, will be introduced with a brief discussion of its specifications. The next part of the talk will deal with a few linguistic properties of the Persian language noticed during the development of the Treebank as an advantage of corpus-driven linguistic research. At the end of the talk, a demo of the Syntactic Valency Lexicon for Persian Verbs and Dadegan website hosting an online version of the Treebank will be provided.
The Persian Academy, its activities in term formation and using compound verbs
Nasrin Parvizi
Reconstructing Persian as a scientific language is one of the aims of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature (APLL). This talk provides a short history of the Academies of Persian language during the past decades in Iran, focusing on APLL, in particular, its Terminology department. The main task of the latter is to select and coin equivalents for foreign term. The talk will discuss difficulties encountered by the team through this process. Compound verb formation is an important issue in Persian term-formation. For decades, the number of compound verbs has been increasing, while simplex verbs are not construed except for in some special areas. When coining equivalents to foreign terms in Persian, several points must be taken into account: the length of coined word, its structure (i.e. simplex, compound or multiword expression).
There are difficulties with compound verbs in coining the terms. We cannot use the complete form of the verb, so we assume the nominal element or the lexical identity as a present stem in order to construct derivations from it. We are also doing a research in which we have extracted all the compound verbs and phrasal verbs and also all the simple verbs and we have semantically categorized them to help us in term formation. The project is explained in brief in this paper.
Languages resources and theoretical linguistics: the case of Persian Complex Predicates
Pollet Samvelian and Pegah Faghiri
The purpose of this talk is twofold: 1) to discuss the way the theoretical view of Persian complex predicates developed in recent research by Samvelian (2012) has contributed to the design of a language resource, namely the PersPred database. 2) to show how in return the latter can be used not only as a lexical tool for various applications, but also as a robust collection of data which can be used to elaborate new hypotheses or to test existing approaches on complex predicate formation in Persian.
An Innovative Annotation Style in Treebanking Persian
Mojgan Seraji
During the past years, various types of language resources have been developed for different languages including syntactically annotated corpora, treebanks. Treebanks play an important role in developing applications involving natural language parsing as well as in empirical linguistic studies.
In this talk I present a treebank for Persian, which is a syntactically annotated corpus of contemporary Persian based on dependency structure using the Stanford Typed Dependencies scheme. The treebank was released in 2013 and consists of 6,000 annotated and validated sentences and 151,671 tokens. My goal in creating the treebank was to develop a dependency parser for Persian. More specifically, I wanted to automatically model the dependency structure of the language by training a data-driven dependency parser on the syntactically annotated data set. Therefore, I made sure that the annotated corpus serves the needs of practical language technology when applied to user-generated texts, given the lack of a common standard for Persian orthography. This means that I had to adapt the Persian grammar to fit the needs of automatic text analysis. In pursuing this goal, I employed an innovative annotation style for handling the language-specific challenges in Persian facing automatic processing. The result of this effort is the development of the Uppsala Persian Dependency Treebank (UPDT).
FarsNet: the combination of Persian WordNet and VerbNet
Mehrnoush Shamsfard
FarsNet2.0 is a combination of WordNet and VerbNet for Persian. It is developed semi-automatically and is used in many NLP applications as an important lexico-semantic resource for Persian language. FarsNet 2.0 includes more than 30,000 lexical entries arranged in about 20,000 synsets with about 18000 mappings to Princeton WordNet synsets. There are about 43000 relations between synsets and senses in FarsNet 2.0. It includes verb frames in two levels (syntactic and thematic) for about 200 simple Persian verbs. This talk introduces FarsNet, its features and its development process.
12. Dear Colleagues,
You are invited to access a new resource on the website of The International Society for Iranian Studies. The ISIS Academy http://www.iranianstudies.com/academy is intended as a repository for articles and videos which members have published but are not readily available to colleagues. While only ISIS members will be able to download their academic papers and lecture videos, these materials can be viewed by anyone who accesses the page. We sincerely hope this depository will benefit students and young scholars as well as members of our society and all those interested in the field of Iranian Studies.
Touraj Atabaki
13. VCUQatar Art History Lectures
Dr. Lisa Golombek, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
“China’s Challenge to the Safavid Potter: Imitate or Innovate”
18 November 2015, 18:00hrs VCUQatar Atrium
Ever since the 9th century the Persian potter looked to China for inspiration, but only for the standout features, such as the white body. With the expansion of global trade around 1600, particularly when the English and Dutch East Indies Companies took over, Iran’s ceramic industry had counter the influx of the highly sought after Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. Could the local potters compete? The results of fifteen years of multi-disciplinary research by a team from the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, will be used to illustrate how the potters met this challenge (the research was published in 2014 by Brill and the ROM). This work continues the approach used in the Timurid Ceramics Project, combining traditional art historical methodology, historical research, and scientific analysis to come up with new attributions to workshops and a new chronology .
Lisa Golombek received her B.A. in Middle East Studies from Barnard College in 1962, and her PhD in Islamic Art from the University of Michigan in 1968. Her dissertation on the architecture of shrines took her to Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia. She joined the curatorial staff of the Royal Ontario Museum in 1967 and retired as a Curator Emeritus in 2005. At the ROM she installed new galleries, expanded the collection, and carried out research projects on the textiles and ceramics collections. At the University of Toronto as a cross-appointed Full Professor, she taught both undergraduates and graduates. Her publications in both academic and popular journals cover a wide range of fields: Islamic architecture, gardens, urban history, painting, ceramics, and calligraphy. She has published five books and over 60 journal articles, mostly on Iranian art and architecture. Her book on Persian architecture was been published by Princeton University Press (1988) and is the chief reference work for the architecture of the Timurid period (15th c.). Lisa has returned to Iran several times during the past two decades to research the topic of her new book. It takes up where her previous book, “Tamerlane’s Tableware,” left off. That book, written in collaboration with Rob Mason and Gauvin Bailey dealt with Persian pottery of the 15th century. The new book brings us to the pre-modern age, the 16th and 17th centuries.
14. Lecture – Christiane Gruber, ‘Muhammad Among the Great Men of the World: Enlightenment, Nationhood, & Early 20th-Century Iranian Carpets’ (Cambridge, UK, 19 Nov)
Cambridge Lectures in Islamic Art:
‘Muhammad Among the Great Men of the World: Enlightenment, Nationhood, and Early 20th-Century Iranian Carpets’
Professor Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan)
Thursday, 19 November 2015, 5.30 pm
Nihon Room, Pembroke College, Cambridge
- November 12, 2015
- by Andrew Newman
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