Archive for 2016

1.Séminaire ‘Sociétés, politiques et cultures du monde iranien’

Séance du 1 décembre 2016, 17h-19h

Satoshi Ogura, University of Kyoto – University of Halle

The making of Persian Sufi-Rishi narratives: the cases of ‘Alī Hamadānī and Nūr al-Dīn Rīshī

It is commonly believed not only in academic discoursebut also in today’s Muslim society in Kashmir that a Kubrawi Sufi Sayyid ‘Alī Hamadānī (1314-1385) and a Kashmiri mystic Nūr al-Dīn Rīshī (d. 1438) made a significant contribution to the making of Muslim society in Kashmir in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. With regard to the degree of their historical roles and impacts on Kashmiri society, two scholars of Kashmir native, Abdul Qayyum Rafiqi and Mohammad Ishaq Khan had aroused controversy. The point of issue is the reliability of the sources which record their activities in Kashmir. The contemporary Sanskrit sources keep silent on ‘Alī Hamadānī and Nūr al-Dīn Rīshī; they are referred to in the Persian sources composed after the late sixteenth century. Some scholars, as well as Khan, claim that they were handed down in folkloric style, and the later Persian sources are reliable since they recorded the oral traditions faithfully. However, a careful analysis of their narratives reveals that they are often contradictory with other contemporary sources and less reliable than Khan evaluated. Moreover, even if the later Persian sources actually record the Sufi-Rishi folklores made in the fourteenth and fifteenth century, we need to investigate the reason why the oral traditions were transmitted to the written texts in the late sixteenth century. In this presentation, I describe a different story on the making of the Sufi-Rishi narratives in the sixteenth century Kashmir, paying attention to the political and sectarian factionalisms in that period which seem to stimulate the textual crystallization. In particular, I explore the possibility that the spread of the Nūrbakhshiyya and Mīrzā Ḥaydar (1499/1500-1551)’s ten-years-occupation of Kashmir caused the recording of the Sufi-Rishi narratives.

 

Naveen Kanalu, University of California, Los Angeles

The Images of Aurangzeb ‘Ālamgīr: Epistolary Discourse and the Practices of Sovereignty in Early Modern Persian Political Culture

The nature of Mughal political sovereignty has been widely analysed in the symbolic practices and rituals elaborated by the Mughal emperors Akbar and Jahangir and the discourses of Adab or “political ethics” that were foundational to the intellectual training of princes. However, the discourses and expressions of sovereignty remain relatively little explored in the way epistolary, that is, the writing of letters played a formidable role in literary transmission of sovereignty as a structure of a hierarchical relation. In the proposed paper, I will examine the manner in which the epistles of the Mughal Sultan, Aurangzeb ‘Ālamgīr’s (r. 1658–1707), collected and known as the Ādāb-i ‘ālamgīrī represent instances and articulations of the inherited Chenghizid and Timurid customs of the Mughals, namely, yāsā. More often, the reign and the methods of governance under Aurangzeb have been understood in the historiography as one of Islamic conservatism and thereby leading to a decline in the use and practice of Timurid customs such as yāsā. Rather than privilege the nature of sovereignty as a performance of ritual, I examine epistolary discourse as a site that animates Aurangzeb’s position within the imperial household. What forms of rhetorical and allegorical devices are deployed by Aurangzeb in his obedience to his father and Sultan, Shāh Jahān, and how does he later transmit values of sovereign dispositions to his princes from his royal position? By a critical philological approach, I hope to reassess the importance of epistolarity in practicing and conveying meanings of hierarchical sovereignty in the early modern political culture of South Asia.

Lieu : Université Sorbonne nouvelle – Paris 3, centre Censier, 13 rue de Santeuil, salle 410 (4^e étage), 75005, Paris.

Organisateurs :

Matteo De Chiara (INaLCO), Denis Hermann (CNRS), Fabrizio Speziale (Paris 3), Julien Thorez (CNRS).

 

 

 

2. In conjunction with The Art of the Qur’an exhibition, Freer and Sackler is organizing a symposium, The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qur’anic Manuscripts, on December 1, 2 and 3, 2016 in Washington, DC.

The symposium focuses on luxury copies of the Qur’an made between the eighth and the seventeenth centuries from Herat to Istanbul and investigates their materiality, from the use of costly paper, special scripts, intricate illumination, to finely tooled bindings. These characteristics lend the Qur’ans their unique visual characteristics and set them apart from other copies. The speakers will examine the volumes in their historical, cultural, and artistic contexts and discuss their use as potent symbols of piety, political, and religious authority.  As Qur’ans changed ownership, they also acquired a complex and layered after-life, which has further enriched their identity well into the present.

For the symposium program, abstracts and speaker bios, please visit:  http://www.asia.si.edu/research/symposia/art-of-the-quran/default.php

For more information on the exhibition, please visit: http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/art-of-the-quran/default.php

 

 

3. Al-Qasimi Chair (Professor/Associate Professor) in Gulf Studies and
Director of the Centre for Gulf Studies, IAIS, University of Exeter, UK

The University of Exeter is seeking to recruit a Chair
(Professor/Associate Professor) in Gulf Studies.The post holder will be
a leading international figure in Gulf studies,especially in the areas
of social sciences and contemporary history and cultural studies.S/he is
also expected to assume the directorship of the Centre for Gulf Studies,
which gathers the world’s largest concentration of researchers in
humanities and social sciences interested in the Gulf region.

Salary:Competitive salary reflecting qualification and experience (for
appointment at Professor level). If appointment is made at Associate
Professor level, salary will be in the range £54,637-£68,836.

Application deadline: *5January2017*.

All information and details are available here:
<http://bit.ly/1rU1fTJ>http://bit.ly/2gdooP9

 

 

 

Al-Qasimi Chair (Professor/Associate Professor) in Islamic Studies, IAIS, University of Exeter, UK

The post holder will be a leading international figure with the ability to attract high quality researchers at doctoral and postdoctoral level to the Islamic Studies research group. Any area of Islamic Studies is an appropriate specialism including (but not limited to) history, theology, philosophy, literature, mysticism, law, jurisprudence, art and architecture, art history, anthropology and sociology, digital humanities, and any period of the study of Islam.

Deadline for application: 5 January 2017. Information: http://bit.ly/2gcr802
 

 

4. THE GENIUS LOCI IN ISLAMIC ART: HISTORICAL EXPLORATIONS IN TOPOLOGICAL AESTHETICS
Workshop at the University of Vienna’s Department of Art History, Nov. 25/26, 2016.

Convened by Maximilian Hartmuth in the context of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project P 26406: “Centre and Periphery? Islamic Architecture in Ottoman Macedonia, 1383-1520.” For more information about this project and the workshop’s concept, see https://kunstgeschichte.univie.ac.at/forschungsprojekte. Contact: maximilian.hartmuth@univie.ac.at. The workshop will take place in seminar room 3.

 

 

 

5. CFP – Asia Minor: An international and multidisciplinary Journal of ancient and medieval Anatolia

For more information, see: https://networks.h-net.org/node/7636/discussions/152904/cfp-asia-minor-international-and-multidisciplinary-journal-ancient

 

 

 

6. MANUSCRIPTS in the MAKING: Art and Science
An International Conference organised by the Fitzwilliam Museum in association with the Departments of Chemistry and History of Art, University of Cambridge, with support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections

8th-10th December 2016

VENUE: Department of Chemistry, Lensfield Rd, Cambridge CB2 1EW

Session 3, on Islamic Manuscripts:

8 December, 4.15-6.00pm. SESSION 3, Bristol Myers Squibb Lecture Theatre

4.15-4.50 Marcus Fraser, independent scholar
Origins and Modifications in the Blue Qur’an and other early Islamic
manuscripts
4.50-5.25 Prof. Robert Hillenbrand, Edinburgh University
The many uses of colour in the Great Mongol Shahnama
5.25-6.00 Dr Sonya Quintanilla, Cleveland Museum of Art
Drama in Repetition: Narrative Strategies in Serial Paintings from Sultanate
and Early Mughal Manuscripts of India

Conference details, registration, programme:

Conference programme:
http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/events/MANUSCRIPTS%20IN%20THE%20MAKING…

 

 

 

 

7. The fourth Perso-Indica Conference

Translation and the languages of Islam:

Indo-Persian tarjuma in a comparative perspective

Convenors:

Corinne Lefèvre (CNRS) & Fabrizio Speziale (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3)

Venue: December 8-9, 2016

CEIAS (190 avenue de France, 75013 Paris)

Rooms 638-641

http://www.perso-indica.net/events-news/28

 

 

 

8. https://history.ceu.edu/junior-research-fellowship

Job opportunity: Junior Research Fellowship in Early Modern History

Application deadline: 2 December 2016

Starting date: September 2017

Duration of the Fellowship: 2 years

The new platform for Early Modern Studies (EMS) at the Departments of Medieval Studies and History at Central European University Budapest is offering a twenty-four months Junior Research Fellowship for research on a subject related to the historical period between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries. This postdoctoral position forms part of CEU’s Humanities Initiative and is an exciting opportunity to join a collegial and vibrant environment for the study of early modernity, with the freedom and facilities to develop your research and strengthen your position in the academic job market. The specific disciplinary and thematic focus on the early modern period is open, but preference will be given to candidates whose projects speak to the broader research foci of the two Departments, and their related research centers, and complement the existing expertise of the resident faculty (for more information, please visit history.ceu.edu and medievalstudies.ceu.edu).

 

 

 

9. The Ottoman Turkish Zenanname (ʻBook of Womenʼ)

British Library Or.7094 is an illustrated copy of the late Ottoman Turkish poetic work, Fazıl Enderunlu’s Zenanname (ʻBook of Womenʼ), which describes the positive and negative qualities of the women of the world along with satirical and moralistic parts at the end. The text is a poem in mesnevi form that was completed in 1793. I became interested in this work because typologies of women began to appear in Mughal and Safavid poetry and painting in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and there was the possibility of doing comparative scholarship across Persianate cultures.

Read more at:

http://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2016/11/the-ottoman-turkish-zenanname-book-of-women.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asian-and-african+%28Asia+and+Africa%29

 

 

 

10. Following the highly successful Historians of Islamic Art Association biennial symposium, Regionality: looking for the local in the arts of Islam, held at the Courtauld Institute, London on October 20-22, the organizers would like to draw your attention to two keynote addresses that are now available online.

They are: Jeremy Johns, University of Oxford: 
‘Fings ain’t wot they oughto be’: making things & the art history of early & medieval Islamic societies, and Talinn Grigor, University of California Davis: Modernism as (a)politics: religious minorities and the discourse on architecture in Pahlavi Iran.

The links on YouTube are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ5nfS9nH_M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpsXGqCMdhA&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

 

11. The Department of Arabic at Middlebury College announces an opening for a three-year position in Arabic at the Visiting Assistant Professor rank beginning the Fall semester of 2017. Superior language proficiency in both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and English is required, as is native or native-like proficiency in at least one Arabic dialect. The area of specialization for the position is open, with preference given to candidates doing research on the Arab world in the field of linguistics or the social sciences.

Review of applications will begin immediately, and will continue until the position is filled.

To apply, please see the following link for the full job posting and position details: https://apply.interfolio.com/39172

 

 

 

12. Lecturer of Arabic Studies #F0451W
The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the College of William and Mary invites  applications for a non-tenure track position in the Arabic  Studies program that will begin August 10, 2017. We seek a professional, skilled  instructor who can teach at all levels of the curriculum, both Arabic  language and Arabic/Middle-Eastern cultures courses. The former require implementation of innovative pedagogical techniques. The latter  require a strong theoretical background to teach cultural studies courses. This instructor should also be able to function well in the WM classroom environment where students expect a high level of give and take, and interactive, organized learning. Applicants should have native  or near native fluency in MSA, one Arabic dialect and clearly speak  and understand English.  The successful candidate will be expected to be an effective teacher and will have a 3-3 teaching load. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and teaching experience.

Required: A Master’s degree in Arabic  language, literature or culture is required, in addition to a successful proficiency-based teaching record.

Preferred: Ph.D. or ABD is preferred at the time of appointment August 10, 2017 in addition to having a successful teaching record in an American University.

Candidate must apply online  at http://jobs.wm.edu/postings/26323. Submit curriculum vitae, a cover letter that includes a statement of research and teaching interests, a sample syllabus for a course  you would like to teach, and three  letters  of reference electronically via the College of William  and Mary job web site. You will be prompted to submit online the names and email addresses of three  references who will be contacted by us with instructions on how to submit a letter of reference (at least one of which  must speak directly to teaching ability).

For full consideration, submit application materials by the review date, January 6, 2017. Applications received after the review date will be considered only if needed.

Information on the Arabic  Studies program in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the College of William  & Mary may be found at http://www.wm.edu/as/modernlanguages/arabic/index.php.

 

 

13, Conference: “Gender and Generation in the Aftermath of the Uprisings. Political Visions, Desires, Movements in the Middle East and North Africa Today”, SOAS, University of London, 9-10 December 2016

The conference will explore the predicament of young women and men in and from the MENA region in contemporary times. It brings together scholars and activists with the aim to analyse the visions, desires and projects emerging in the post-uprisings contexts among youth individuals, affective communities, social and political movements and social non-movements. Admission free. Pre-registration required.

Information: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/09dec2016-gender-and-generation-in-the-aftermath-of-the-uprisings-political-visions-desires-movement.html
 

 

14. Full-time Faculty Position in “Islamic Thought and Culture”, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore

The position will begin 1 August 2017. The emphasis is on the lived complexities of Islam. Disciplinary approach and geographic specialization are open.

Deadline for application: 20 December 2016. Information: www.micahr.slideroom.com

The Legacy of Muhammad Sorour, Key Figure in Rise of Sunni Extremism – Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington

See his website.
His wikipedia entry is here.

MESA 2016 Program

Papers of potential interest to the list set for delivery at the annual Middle East Studies Association meeting in Boston 17 – 20 November, 2016, include:

4321 Networked Texts: New Ways of
Seeing the Arabic Textual Tradition
(750-1500)

Organizers: Maxim Romanov, Sarah
Bowen Savant
Chair: Matthew S. Gordon, Miami U
Maxim Romanov, U Leipzig-Of a
network and a node: “The History of Islam”
of Al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) and its place in the
premodern Arabic textual tradition
Sarah Bowen Savant, Aga Khan
U-Khurasan and its literary networks in the
late 10th-early 11th centuries: Arabic letters
at the rise of Persian literature
Najam Haider, Barnard Col/Columbia
U-The myth of margins: mapping Shi’i
historiography
Majied Robinson, U Edinburgh-Text
reuse and nasab: outlining by genre

4364 Ismaili Thought Through the
Medieval and Modern Periods:
Gender, Exegesis and Metaphysics

Organizer: Khalil Andani
Khalil Andani, Harvard-The monorealism
of Aga Khan III: echoes of Ismāʿīlī
neoplatonism and Akbarī ontology
Shahrad Shahvand, Harvard-Ismailism
under the influence of Ibn ʿArabī: some
metaphysical views of  qā Khān Maḥallātī
(d. 1881)
Paul Anderson, Harvard-Projections:
gendering the spiritual in Ismāʿīlī cosmology
Aaron Viengkhou, Harvard-The true
path (satpanth): narrative hermeneutics
(taʾ wī l) in the Ismāʿ ī lī Ginā ns

4657 Arab-Iranian Intellectual
Exchanges and Political Encounters

Chair: James F. Goode, Grand Valley State
Arash Reisinezhad, Florida
International-Pre-revolutionary Iran and
Shia Lebanese 1958-1979
Gholam R. Vatandoust, American U
Kuwait-Pan-Iranism, pan-Arabism and
pan-Islamism: the dispute between the Shah
of Iran and Gamel Abdul Nasser of Egypt
Amirhossein Teimouri, Illinois Urbana-
Champaign-Round-the-clock revolution
of 1979: divergent perceptions of the Arab
revolts in Iran
Yusuf Unal, Emory-Sayyid Qutb in Iran:
translating the Islamist ideologue in the
Islamic Republic

4358 “Orthodoxy” and “Heterodoxy”
in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

Organizer: Jane Hathaway
Chair/Discussant: Gottfried Hagen,
Michigan Ann Arbor
Vefa Erginbas, Providence Col-
Reappraising religiosity in the reign of
Murad III: Mustafa Darir’s Siretun Nebi and
its unspoken content
Ayse Baltacioglu-Brammer,
Binghamton-One word, many implications:
the term “Kızılbaş” in the early modern
Ottoman context
John Curry, UNLV-Formation of a Sunni
orthodoxy or an ongoing negotiation?:
making sense of the works of Cemal El-
Halveti (d. 1499) and Karabaş `Ali Veli (d.
1686)
Jane Hathaway, Ohio State-El-Hajj Beshir
Agha and Ottoman attitudes toward Sufism
and Shi’ism

4545 Ghazali and His Interlocutors

Organizer: John Walbridge
Discussant: Elizabeth R. Alexandrin, U
Manitoba
Seyed Asghari, Indiana U-The
Maktab-i Tafkīk and its opponents in the
contemporary Shī’a seminary in Iran
John Walbridge, Indiana U
Bloomington-Is God really light?
Eiyad Al-kutubi, Indiana U-Al-Fayḍ Al-
Kāshānī and Al-Ghazālī: reclamation of the
“Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm Al-Dīn”
Yasin Basaran, Indiana U-Taking
Avicenna seriously: reevaluation of Al-
Ghazali’s objections on creation

4523 Nasir-i Khusraw and His
Associations: Shifting Biographies
and Affiliations in the Appropriations
of the Persian Poet, Philosopher and
Fatimid Da`i (Summoner)

Organizer: Shiraz Hajiani
Daniel Beben, Nazarbayev U-A tale of two
masters: the uses and reuses of discipleship
narratives in the legendary biographies of
Nasir-i Khusraw
Shiraz Hajiani, U Chicago-Second fiddle:
an examination of the constructions of
master and protégé relationship between
Nāṣir-i Khusraw and Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ and
its later inversions in the legitimations of
authority in Nizari Ismailism
Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev,
Inst of Ismaili Studies-The place
and significance of Nasir-i Khusraw in
Badakhshan

4590 Diplomatics, Law and Language
Politics in the Early Modern Turco-
Persianate World

Organizer: Ferenc P. Csirkes
Chair: Sholeh A. Quinn, UC Merced
Zahit Atcil, Istanbul Medeniyet
U-Background of the first Ottoman-Safavid
treaty in 1555
Abdurrahman Atcil, Istanbul Şehir
U-Three Ottoman jurists’ opinions about the
Safavids and the Qizilbash from the first half
of the sixteenth century
Colin Mitchell, Dalhousie U-Mir Husain
Maybudi and the emergence of the Safavids
Ferenc P. Csirkes, Tuebingen U-Sadiqi
Beg and language ideologies in Safavid
Persia

4506 Inventions and Reinventions in
Modern Twelver Shi`i Islam

Organizer: Omid Ghaemmaghami
Discussant: Roy Mottahedeh, Harvard
Mina Yazdani, Eastern Kentucky
U-Clerical cooperation and Islamic
radicalism in 1940s Iran
Omid Ghaemmaghami, Binghamton-
The messianic turn in modern Twelver Shi`i
Islam: notes on Ali-Akbar Nahavandi’s Fine
Wonders of Beauty
Babak Rahimi, UC San Diego-Internet
Mahdism in the (re)shaping of Shi‘i Iran
Reza Masoudi Nejad, SOAS London-The
political geography of Shi’i pilgrimage in the
Middle East

4373 The ‘Alawis and the Origins of
Political Confessionalism in Syria,
1908-1963

Organizer: Stefan Winter
Chair/Discussant: Ussama Makdisi, Rice U
Fabrice Balanche, Lyon 2 U-The Alawites
of Syria: from the mountain refuge to the
city
Stefan Winter, U Quebec Montreal-
Between confessional differentiation and
radical assimilation: the ʿAlawis of Syria and
Southern Anatolia between Abdülhamid and
the Turkish War of Liberation
Max Weiss, Princeton-Imagining the
ʿAlawis between history and literature

4375 The Shi’a of Lebanon: New
Approaches to History, Politics, and
Religion

Organizers: Mara Leichtman, Michigan
State, Rola El-Husseini, Graduate
Center, CUNY
Chair: Nadim Shehadi, Tufts
Discussant: Augustus Richard Norton,
Boston U
Nabil Hage Ali, Georgetown-
Reconceptualizing Islam in 1970s Shī`ī
Lebanon: the “men of mosques”
Moulouk Berry, American U Dubai-
Divorce in Lebanese Muslim Shi`i
jurisprudence: a reform law?
Linda Sayed, Michigan State-Narrating
history: Hizbullah’s efforts to inscribe time
and place for the Shi`a of Lebanon
Bashir Saade, U Edinburgh-Hizbullah’s
Ashura: identity, ethics, and the problem of
the past
Eric Lob, Florida International-The
export of Iran’s development model to
Lebanon: the case of Jihād Al-Bināʾ

4516 E.G. Browne and His Iranian
Interlocutors: Knowledge Production
Beyond Orientalism

Organizer: Assef Ashraf
Chair/Discussant: Sholeh A. Quinn, UC
Merced
Assef Ashraf, Yale-Portrait of a young
scholar: the diaries of E.G. Browne
Dominic Parviz Brookshaw, Oxford-
In defence of Qajar poets: the personal
dimensions to E.G. Browne’s appreciation of
early nineteenth-century Persian poetry
Farzin Vejdani, Ryerson U-Iran’s “Lord
Byron”: commemorating and contesting E.G.
Browne in early twentieth-century Iran

4687 Texts, Acts, and Interpretations
in Medieval Islam

Chair: Andrew Magnusson, U Central
Oklahoma
Alison Marie Vacca, U Tennessee-
Connectivity and power in Caliphal Armenia
and Albania
Nassima Neggaz, Oxford-The Baghdadi
neighborhoods of Bab Al-Basra and
Al-Karkh: a micro history of Sunni-Shi‘i
episodes of violence in medieval Baghdad
(945-1258 AD)
Christian Mauder, U Göttingen-The
birth and early life of the Mamluk Sultan
Qānṣawh Al-Ghawrī (r. 1501-1516): literary
and historical analysis of an unpublished
late Mamluk manuscript

4517 Liminal Spaces from Sacred to
Urban: The Friday Mosque and the City

Organizer: Suzan Yalman
Discussant: Suzan Yalman, Koç U
Farshid Emami, Harvard-The city and
its dual Friday mosques: the sacred and the
urban in Safavid Isfahan
Fadi Ragheb, U Toronto-The city
as liminal space: holy sites and Islamic
pilgrimage to Jerusalem during the Mamlūk
period (648-922/1250-1517)
Abbey Stockstill, Harvard-Directionality
in the ceremony and urban project of
Almohad Marrakesh
Ayse Hilal Ugurlu, İstanbul Technical
U-Changing spatial and political relations
between “the city” and “the mosque” in the
nineteenth century Ottoman Empire

The full programme can be accessed at: http://mesana.org/annual-meeting/program.html

Bahrain Charges Ebrahim Sharif for AP Interview After Prince Charles Visit – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain

For the full text of Newsletter 182, click here.
On continuing harrassment of Sh Isa Qassim, click here.

Online Program Book | PAPERS

Papers of potential interest to the list set for delivery at the annual American Acdemy of Religion meeting, 17 – 22 November, 2016, in San Antonia, Texas include:

 

A20-323

Islamic Mysticism Group

Theme: Devotion to the Family of the Prophet in Muslim

Hagiographical Traditions

Sunday, 5:00 PM–6:30 PM

Convention Center-210B (2nd Level – West)

Sophia Arjana, Boulder, CO, Presiding

 

Aun Ali, McGill University

Understanding the Maqtal of al Husayn as Devotional and Mystical

Literature

 

Rubina Salikuddin, Harvard University

Imamophilism and Timurid Pilgrimage Narratives

 

Afsar Mohammad, University of Texas

Fatima is Our Goddess: Devotion to ‘Ali and Fatima in Oral Poetry

 

Rose Aslan, California Lutheran University

The Day ‘Ali Reversed the Sun: Embodied Miracles and the Sanctity

of Place

 

 

Responding:

Ali S. Asani, Harvard University

 

 

A21-322 (#islamaar)

Study of Islam Section and Islamic Mysticism Group

Theme: The Occult Challenge to Islamic Mysticism

Monday, 4:00 PM–6:30 PM

Convention Center-301A (3rd Level)

Torang Asadi, Duke University, Presiding

 

Mushegh Asatryan, University of Calgary

Magic and Apologetic Miracles in 11th Century Baghdad: Al-

Baqillānī’s Refutation of Magic and Its Broader Context

 

Patrick D’Silva, University of North Carolina

Do Sufi Occultists Dream of Electric Sheep? Magical Constructions of

Muslim Authenticity in a 19th CE Persian Manuscript

 

Matthew Melvin-Koushki, University of South Carolina

Islamic Philosophy as Occult Practice: The Case of Safavid Iran

On list

 

Hunter Bandy, Duke University

Imam ‘Ali as Master Magician: Occultism in the Twilight of the

Deccan Sultanates

 

Responding:

Maria Massi Dakake, George Mason University

1. Azfar Moin, University of Texas

 

 

A22-119 (#islamaar)

Study of Islam Section

Theme: Questioning Categories

Tuesday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM

Convention Center-207B (2nd Level – West)

Elliott Bazzano, Le Moyne College, Presiding

 

Nora Jacobsen Ben Hammed, University of Chicago

Paths to Eternal Felicity: Sufism and Rationalism in Fakhr al-Dīn

al-Rāzī

 

Amir Syed, University of Michigan

The Pen and the Unseen: Islamic Esoteric Sciences of Writing in the

Library of al-Hajj ‘Umar Tal

 

Reyhan Erdogdu Basaran, Rice University

The Sectarian Inquiry: The Position of Alevi Islam within the Sunni-

Shi’ite Split

 

Abby Kulisz, Indiana University

What Others Suffer, We Behold: Public Pain and Traumatization in

the Shi’ite Ashura Ritual

Siti Sarah Muwahidah, Emory University

For the Love of Ahl-Bayt: Transcending Sunni-Shī’i Sectarian

Allegiance

 

 

The full programme is available at: https://papers.aarweb.org/program_book

 

1. Following BRAIS’s successful conferences in Edinburgh (April 2014) and London (April 2015 and April 2016), the organisers invite proposals for whole panels or individual papers on any aspect or sub-discipline of Islamic Studies, for the Fourth Annual Conference of BRAIS. Islamic Studies is broadly understood to include both Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority contexts as well as historical, textual, and contemporary anthropological and sociological approaches.

Keynotes will be delivered by Bryan S. Turner and Gudrun Krämer among others.

For submitting an abstract, see the following link: http://www.brais.ac.uk/conferences/2017/brais-2017-call-for-papers

 

 

2. Lebanese American University – Visiting faculty, Islamic Art &

Architecture

http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=53872

 

Occidental College – ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN THE HISTORY OF ART OF ASIA

http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=53766

 

University of California – Riverside – Assistant Professor in Art and

Material Culture of the Islamic World

http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=54054

 

Swarthmore College – Assistant Professor of Architectural History

http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=53811

 

 

 

3. The South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnershipis pleased to announce that it will be offering up to 56 PhD studentships in the Arts and Humanities for entry in September 2017. The universitieswithin the DTP have a particular research strength in the study of the culture, history, literature and archaeology of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, including the later Roman empire and its successor states, early Islam, and contacts between these territories and the wider world. We are therefore keen to encourage excellent applicants whose research interests fall within, or range across, a variety of academic disciplines, including Classics and Ancient History, Archaeology, Theology and Religion, Medieval History, Arab and Islamic Studies, and Celtic Studies.

Eligible students from the UK/EU will be required to identify two potential supervisors from different universities within the consortium. A list of academics and their research interests is provided at the end of this email and applicants are encouraged to approach possible supervisors a.s.a.p. to find out whether they would be willing/able to take on the project, as well as for advice on shaping and refining PhD proposals. The DTP will also be holding an Information Day at the National Museum of Wales on Monday 28th November (although attendance is not compulsory for applicants). Those wishing to attend should register by Sunday 13th November. Applications for studentships will open on Tuesday 29th November and close on Thursday 12th January.

For further information, see:

http://www.sww-ahdtp.ac.uk

Potential supervisors

Dr Nic Baker-Brian (Cardiff) Religion and society in Late Antiquity; Greek and Latin Patristic Literature; Gnostic and Manichaean Literature
Dr Fanny Bessard (Bristol) early Islam, especially economic history; the Caucasus in Late Antiquity

 

Professor Siam Bhayro (Exeter) Early Jewish studies; Syriac language and literature; medical history; Jewish and Christian magic

 

Professor Barbara Borg (Exeter) Greek and Roman art and iconography; Topography of Rome; Roman tombs and burial customs; art and text; Roman Egypt; relationship between Christians and non-Christians in Late Antiquity

 

Dr Filippo Carlà-Uhink (Exeter) Social and economic history of ancient Rome; numismatics; cultural history of the ancient World; Late Antiquity

 

Dr John P. Cooper (Exeter) Islamic archaeology; maritime archaeology; Islamic material culture and history of the medieval Arab world

 

Dr Ken Dark (Reading) Late Antiquity; the Byzantine world; early Christianity; Celtic Studies; social and economic organization and dynamics; archaeology; history

 

Professor Max Deeg (Cardiff) Buddhist history; religious interactions in Asia in Late Antiquity
Dr Richard Flower (Exeter) Roman and late Roman history; religious identity; late-antique and Christian ‘patristic’ literature, especially panegyric, invective and heresiology; authority in its many forms

 

Dr Alison Gascoigne (Southampton) Islamic archaeology; ceramics; cultural change; urban archaeology; household archaeology

 

Dr Christa Gray (Reading) Jerome of Stridon; Latin hagiography; Latin linguistics

 

Dr Peter Guest (Cardiff) Archaeology of Roman Britain and the Roman army; numismatics; the later Roman world; funerary archaeology

Professor Timothy Insoll (Exeter) Later African archaeology (Iron Age) and Global Islamic archaeology; ceramic and bead studies

 

Dr István Kristó-Nagy (Exeter) Late Antiquity and early Islam; ‘Abbasid culture; social and intellectual history; art history; literature; political thought (mirrors for princes and advice literature); comparative studies between the early and classical Islam and other civilisations; Zandaqa (Manicheism and other forms of dualist thought)

 

Dr Dan Levene (Southampton) Jewish Aramaic and Hebrew dialects in antiquity; Jewish magic; late antique Jewish and Christian Mesopotamia; Ethiopian popular beliefs

 

Professor Emma Loosley (Exeter) Oriental Christianity; Middle Eastern Christianity; inter-religious and cultural exchange; Eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus in Late Antiquity; material culture of Late Antiquity and Early Islam; special interest in Syrian Christianity

 

Professor Josef Lössl (Cardiff) Early Christianity; Greek and Latin Patristics; History of biblical and philosophical exegesis and commentaries; intellectual history; Augustine of Hippo; Jerome of Stridon

 

Professor Morwenna Ludlow (Exeter) Patristic theology, especially Gregory of Nyssa and the ‘Cappdocians’; rhetoric in late antique Christianity

 

Dr Arietta Papaconstantinou (Reading) Late Antiquity; early Islam; Byzantium; economy and society; ethnic identity; ancient multilingualism; Egypt; papyrology; Greek epigraphy

 

Professor Karla Pollmann (Reading) Classical literature and culture; late antique, early Christian, and partistic literature, especially early Christian poetry, Augustine; reception of classical and early Christian thought in later periods; intermediality; ancient exegesis and hermeneutics.

 

Dr Alan Ross (Southampton) Late antique ‘pagan’ literature, particularly historiography and panegyric; the sons of Constantine and Julian the Apostate.

 

Dr Bella Sandwell (Bristol) Late antique religion; early Christianity; preaching

Dr Emily Selove (Exeter) Medieval Arabic banquet and comic literature; sexuality; medicine; magic; and the influence of ancient Greek and Roman literature on these traditions

 

Dr Helen Spurling (Southampton) Religion in Late Antiquity; Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations; Midrash and Rabbinics; apocalyptic literature; reception history of the Bible

 

Dr Gabor Thomas (Reading) Early medieval settlements and rural landscapes; the archaeology of early medieval monasticism and Christian conversion; material culture and identity in Anglo-Saxon England and the Viking west.

 

Dr Shaun Tougher (Cardiff) Late antique and Byzantine politics and culture; Julian the Apostate; gender

 

 

 

 

4. Conference: “Peace in Islam; Islam in Peace”,  Islamic Peace Studies Initiative, Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Dearborn, 16-18 March 2017

This inaugural academic conference will explore themes of peace in the Islamic tradition, considering topics such as scripture and theology, the role of Muslim women, pacifist social movements, and the centrality of conflict resolution to the tradition. The third day is a public presentation and forum at the Arab-American National Museum.

Information: www.ii.umich.edu/cmenas/islamic-peace-studies.html

 

5. Postgraduate Conference: “Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of the Middle East and North Africa”, University of Sussex, 27-28 April 2017

The conference is designed as a broad forum that brings together UK-based PhD students working on the MENA region from any perspective.

Deadline for abstracts: 31 December 2016. Information: www.sussex.ac.uk/menacs/events/conferences

 

 

6. International Conference: “City and the Process of Transition – from Early Modern Times to the Present”, Historical Institute, University of Wroclaw, 8-10 June 2017

PhD students and early career scholars are invited to participate in this conference. The intention of the organizers is to challenge questions concerning the behavior of the city dwellers who faced the lack of stability, resulting primarily from the progressive urbanization and globalization since the early modern era.

Deadline for proposals: 17 January 2017. Information: https://cityandtheprocessoftransitionconference.wordpress.com/call-for-papers/

 

7. International Congress on Historiography and Source Studies: “Asia and Africa: Their Heritage and Modernity”, St Petersburg State University, Russia, 21-12 June 2017

The major panel of the Congress is dedicated to the Middle Eastern history and sources.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 February 2017. Information: www.orienthist.spbu.ru/?lang=en

 

 

8. Posts/Jobs:

Open Rank Position in Religious Studies (Islamic Studies), Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan
The position is available from August 2017. Contracts are for a period of three years and are renewable upon a positive review.
Deadline for application: 11 December 2016. Information: https://chroniclevitae.com/jobs/0000341230-01?cid=VTEVPMSJOB1
 

 

Three Postdoctoral Fellowships in Global, Comparative, or International Affairs, Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Applications are welcome from scholars from any range of social science or interdisciplinary perspectives whose research addresses global, international, or transnational social processes, problems, governance, or conflicts. Fellowships will run from 1 September 2017 to 31 August 2019.
Application deadline: 3 January 2017. Information: http://buffett.northwestern.edu/funding-grants/buffett-postdocs.html

 

 

9.  Articles for Edited Volume on “Animals, Plants, and Landscapes: An Ecology of Turkish Literature and Film”

This volume aims to portray how the ‘defenseless’ and ‘silent’ partners of our lives appear in our language. To what extent have they been represented in Turkish literature and film? What roles have they appeared in? To what extent have they been given a voice?

Deadline for abstracts: 31 January 2017. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/151571/cfp-animals-plants-landscapes-ecology-turkish-literature-and
 

10. Articles on “Jewish History from the 18th Century to the Present Day” for Journal “Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History”

Deadline for papers: May 2017. Information: www.quest-cdecjournal.it/about.php?issue=9
 

 

 

11. Chapters for Edited Book on “Islam and Applied Ethics”

The editors are Rafik Beekun, Tariq Ramadan and Yasir Qadhi; published by Springer. The aim of this book is to advance both theoretical and empirical research about applied Islamic ethics within various disciplines such as business (e.g. economics, finance, marketing, accounting, and human resource development), the sciences (physical, social, life, etc.), media, the law, politics, and environmental ecology.

Deadline for submission: 28 February 2017. Information: http://production.sant.ox.ac.uk/centre/news/call-papers-islam-and-applied-ethics

 

 

12. SYMPOSIA IRANICA | THIRD BIENNIAL

CONFERENCE ON IRANIAN STUDIES

 Hosted by the University of Cambridge, 11-12 April 2017

***Call for Papers Deadline: 02 December 2016***

Applications are warmly invited for papers that relate to any aspect of Iranian studies in any discipline within the humanities and social sciences. This includes but is by no means limited to: prehistory through to contemporary history and historiography; anthropology; archaeology; cultural heritage and conservation; social and political theory; Diaspora studies; ecology and the environment; economics; historical geography; history of medicine; art and architecture history; education; international relations and political science; epigraphy; languages, literature, linguistics and philology; new media and communication studies; philosophy; religions and theology; classical studies; sociology; film studies and the performing arts. Comparative themes and interdisciplinary approaches are also very welcome.

All proposals undergo peer review.

MORE INFORMATION

Symposia Iranica is the biennial international graduate conference on Iranian studies. We bring together students and early career scholars to celebrate, encourage and stimulate their interest and engagement with the field, and seek to deliver a rounded, academically and professionally enriching experience that will have a real impact on the thinking, output and career progression of our participants.

For details on the conference, see our website: symposia-iranica.com

 

 

 

13. Medieval Ascension Narratives in Islamic and European Traditions

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

An Interdisciplinary Workshop with Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan) Organized by the Centre for Medieval Literature and the David Collection

Copenhagen, David Collection, 27 March 2017

A one-day workshop on medieval ascension narratives, from al-Sarai’s Nahj al-Faradis to the Liber Scale Machometi and Dante’s Commedia, will be held at the David Collection, Kronprinsessegade 30, Copenhagen, on Monday 27 March 2017. It will be followed by a public lecture on Tuesday 28 March 2017 by Prof. Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan), who has written widely on Islamic book arts, ascension images and narratives, and depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

This workshop—conducted by Prof. Gruber and an interdisciplinary team of art and literary historians from the Centre for Medieval Literature and the David Collection—will allow for a sustained analysis of the changing values conferred upon ascension texts and images in cross-cultural contexts. We will focus on their circulation in Islamic lands and Europe, since the notion of rising into the heavens was imagined in prose, verse, manuscript paintings, and wall frescoes from Ilkhanid Persia to Medieval Castile and Renaissance Italy. Ascension narratives served as a powerful tool for expressing and exploring theological, philosophical, spiritual, and soteriological concerns in literature and art, within both Christian and Muslim traditions. For these reasons, this workshop seeks to open new avenues and approaches, asking, in particular, how can we conceptualize narratives that travel and are adapted, reformed, and reimagined across various temporal and geographical domains. Additionally, how can we explore questions of world (or trans-imperial) literature through medieval ascension narratives? Is this possible through a sustained engagement with both text and image, positioning the artistic with the literary and vice versa?

Scholars from Denmark and abroad will have the unprecedented opportunity to examine some of the extraordinary manuscripts and precious objects preserved in the David Collection during a private visit led by the museum’s curators and Prof. Gruber.

The workshop is sponsored by the Centre for Medieval Literature in cooperation with the David Collection. Participation is free, and places available are limited to 15 in number. Participants will have to bear costs for travel and accommodation themselves.

Postgraduate students and early career scholars willing to become more familiar with questions of cross-cultural engagement, text and image issues, and medieval narratives are particularly encouraged to apply regardless of their disciplinary expertise. Please send motivation letters (max. 1000 words) explaining your research interests and reasons for applying, along with a brief CV, to either Shazia Jagot (jagot@sdu.dk) or Rosa M. Rodríguez Porto (rosa.rodriguezporto@york.ac.uk) by Saturday 10 December 2016. Applicants will be notified of the decision by Monday, 18 December 2016.

 

Sayyid Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd: An Iraqi Shiʿi Genealogist at the Court of Özbek Khan ” Brill Online

Bahrain Watch Launches #200MoreStories Ahead of Prince Charles Visit

International Conference on Justice and Ethics (ICJECA)
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Faculty of Theology
Mashhad, Iran – April 15-16, 2017
EXTENDED CALL FOR PAPERS

Location: Mashhad, Iran
Submission Deadline: December 30, 2016
Subject Areas: Theology, Philosophy, Islamic Studies, Religious Studies, Ethics and Justice Studies

Selected participants whose paper has been accepted for presentation will receive free accommodation for their four-day stay (April 13-18) in Mashhad.

Contact: Abbas Aghdassi, assistant director (coordinator@um.ac.ir)
Abstract submission deadline: December 30, 2016
Notification of acceptance: January 15, 2017
Full paper due: March 01, 2017
Conference: April 15-16, 2017

Further information: http://icjeca.um.ac.ir/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=129

ADHRB open letter to Prince Charles ahead of Bahrain visit – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain