1.8th International Conference on Popular Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa – “Popular Culture between Site and Flow”, Tbilisi, Georgia, 28-30 September 2017

In what ways can or should the idea of popular culture be adapted to account for the significant patterns of contemporary movement of MENA peoples? In what ways are the spectacular demographic flows towards, through, and away from the region leading to the fetishization of movement, hybridity, and exchange in MENA cultural production? Etc.

Extended deadline for paper and panel proposals: 15 March 2017. Information: https://menapoptbilisi.wordpress.com/

2. Associate Professor of Ottoman History, University of Oxford

With a doctorate in the field of Ottoman history, the successful applicant will have an outstanding record of internationally excellent publication and research in Ottoman history of the period. She/he will have an excellent command of Ottoman Turkish, being able to carry out research using primary sources in that language, and to teach it to students; a working knowledge of Arabic and/or Persian is also necessary.

Deadline for application: 24 March 2017. Information: www.ox.ac.uk/about/jobs/academic/index/ac23361j/

3. Gibb Memorial Trust

A.H. Morton Scholarship for Doctoral Research in Classical Persian Studies

The Gibb Memorial Trust is pleased to announce an Annual Scholarship in memory of Alexander (Sandy) Morton for doctoral research in the area of classical Persian Studies. Sandy Morton (1942-2011) worked at the British Museum and as Senior Lecturer in Persian at the London School of African and Oriental Studies. His interests ranged widely over the field, from glass weights and numismatics to Persian literature and the history of Iran from the Saljuqs to the Safavids. He was a long-standing Trustee of the Gibb Memorial Trust.

The award is for a maximum of £3,000 and can be applied to any year up to the final completion of a course of doctoral study at a British university, including for an approved period of study abroad; it will be paid at the start of the academic year in question, up to the submission of the dissertation.

Deadline: 30 April

http://www.gibbtrust.org/Scholarship.html

4. Mardin Artuklu University

Faculty of Literature Position Advertisement Anthropology

Closing date for applications: April 15^th 2017

The Department of Anthropology at Mardin Artuklu University, Turkey, invites applications for full-time positions at the rank of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor with a specialization in the field of Socio-Cultural Anthropology. We are seeking creative thinkers with intellectual interests in the issues related to the Middle East, North Africa and Balkans. Positions are available for candidates at all ranks beginning in September 2017 or earlier. Successful candidates, once hired, are expected to fulfill their respective Department’s requirements with regard to teaching, research, record of publications, and service to the institution. Junior candidates are expected to have a Ph.D. at the time of appointment. All candidates should have an excellent command of English or Turkish and a strong commitment to teaching and research.

Mardin Artuklu University (ARTUKLU) is a newly founded, public university which has put forward a vision of research and teaching in social sciences, humanities and architecture. ARTUKLU aims to be a leading research university in especially the Middle East region. The medium of instruction is English and Turkish. The campus is located in Mardin, south east region of Turkey.

Please submit an application file that includes information about your research and teaching interests, your curriculum vitae, one sample of written work and names of three references or three letters of recommendation (for junior candidates) via e-mail to:

Assist. Prof. Süleyman Şanlı, suleymansanli@hotmail.com

Short-listed candidates will be individually informed of their selection for formal interviews.

Mardin Artuklu University: www.artuklu.edu.tr

5. XIX^ème Journée Monde Iranien

17 mars 2017

Bibliothèque Universitaire des Langues et Civilisations (BULAC)
Auditorium du Pôle Langues et Civilisations
65, rue des Grands Moulins 75013, Paris

Organisation : Florence Jullien et Pollet Samvelian

http://www.iran-inde.cnrs.fr/evenements-scientifiques/colloques-et-conferences-2017/xixeme-journee-monde-iranien.html?lang=fr

6. Jobs:

Tufts University – Lecturer part-time in Middle Eastern History
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=54572

University of Glasgow – Lecturer in Medieval Transcultural History
(Grade 7 or 8)
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=54631

University of Glasgow – Lecturer / Senior Lecturer in Global History
(Grade 7, 8 or 9)
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=54633

7. The Seventh issue The Journal of Rotterdam Islamic and Social Sciences (JRISS) Vol. 7, No. 1, 2016 focuses on themes such as philosophy, epistemology, study of religion and comparative studies while taking a critical-analytical approach to the most important contemporary theoretical issues and questions. We invite scholars from all over the world to submit their articles to JRISS.

For more information please click the link here: https://www.jriss.nl/

8. The 5th Perso-Indica Conference

Science and Philosophy: Translation, Transmission and Interaction between Persianate and Hindu Traditions

The Fifth Conference of Perso-Indica (see: www.perso-indica.net) looks at the forms of interaction and translation between Persian and Hindu cultures in the scientific and philosophical fields. Persian scientific studies in South Asia acquired important distinctive features compared with the treatises produced in Iran and the rest of the Muslim world during the post-Abbasid period. In the multicultural context of South Asia, where Muslims remained a minority of the population, a number of treatises dealing with Indian scientific materials were written in Persian: Persian language and texts became new means of expression and transmission of Hindu scientific knowledge and practices, allowing them to circulate beyond the networks of Hindu scholars. Persian translations of Sanskrit sources appeared from the Sultanate period, especially from the early 14th century, and the production of these texts lasted until the colonial period. Many of them were compiled by and for the Muslims; however, from the Mughal period onward, Persian scientific texts — dealing with both Hindu and Greco-Arabic materials — were also written by Hindu scholars and for Hindu noblemen. Certain sciences seem to have fulfilled specific demands of the ruling elite: such as astrology, prognostication and the treatises on the horse. Differently, the large amount of Persian texts dealing with Ayurveda and pharmacology chiefly emerged and developed outside the courts. The production of these texts does not seem to have been a homogeneous trend but rather a polycentric phenomenon in which the regional spaces occupied a key role.

In the scope of this conference we aim to explore especially the following topics:

Which were the common cross-disciplinary aspects and practices of scientific translation, and which were the non homogeneous features that characterized the reception of different Indian sciences in the Persianate environment, either from an historical, geographical or social perspective?

Which were the historical, geographical, regional and dynastic contexts in which these scientific studies emerged and developed?

Which were the symmetric features of these interactions? How did Hindu scholars assimilate scientific notions drawn from Muslim sources? Did Muslim scientific materials circulate through translations and become incorporated into Sanskrit sources, and which disciplines were concerned? How and to what extent did Persian-speaking Hindu scholars appropriate Muslim sciences by reading the sources in the original languages?

Which genres of Persian texts on Indian sciences were produced, and how did the role of different types of texts evolve or change according to the requirements of different disciplines? What was the influence of direct translations from Sanskrit and other Indian languages and what was the role of new Persian treatises on Indian sciences? Moreover, how were Indian notions and practices incorporated and transmitted in Persian works which dealt chiefly with Greco-Arabic knowledge?

How were the source terms and notions translated in the lexicon and the concepts of the target culture? Which Indic terms were incorporated in Persian texts? Did their transliteration into Persian script follow common patterns or evolve? What was the role of intermediate translations in vernacular languages in the production of these Persian texts, and how did this influence translation?

Which were the non textual, oral and social aspects of the interaction? How was knowledge taught and transmitted between masters and students of different religious groups and networks of scholars, and how did these interreligious pedagogical interactions emerge and develop?

What were the impact and the legacy of these interactions and of the corpus of Persian texts for Indian sciences? Did these studies propose conceptual changes compared to the Greco-Arabic tradition? Did they have a reflexive impact that could redefine certain concepts of the target culture which were involved in translation? In a wider perspective, did these Persian studies circulate also outside South Asia, and into which languages were they translated?

Date: 1st and 2nd February 2018.

Venue: Friedrich-Wilhelm University Bonn, Germany

Scientific coordination: Eva Orthmann (Friedrich-Wilhelm University, Bonn) – Fabrizio Speziale (Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris)

Contact for information: Soraya Khodamoradi: skhodamo@uni-bonn.de

Deadline for submission of abstract proposals: 1st August 2017, abstract proposal must be sent to: skhodamo@uni-bonn.de. The abstracts will be assessed by peer review.

Web page: http://www.perso-indica.net/events-news/31

9. New Book Series – The Material Culture of Art

New Book Series, Bloomsbury Academic

Series Editor: Michael Yonan, University of Missouri

The Material Culture of Art is devoted to scholarship that brings art history into dialogue with interdisciplinary material culture studies. The material components of an object – its medium and physicality – are key to understanding its cultural significance. Material culture has stretched the boundaries of art history and emphasized new points of contact with other disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, consumer and mass culture studies, the literary movement called “Thing Theory,” and materialist philosophy. The Material Culture of Art seeks to publish studies that explore the relationship between art and material culture in all of its complexity. The series is a venue for scholars to explore specific object histories (or object biographies, as the term has developed), studies of medium and the procedures for making works of art, and investigations of art’s relationship to the broader material world that comprises society. It seeks to be the premiere venue for publishing the growing scholarship about works of art as exemplifications of material culture.

The series encompasses material culture in its broadest dimensions, including the decorative arts (furniture, ceramics, metalwork, textiles), everyday objects of all kinds (toys, machines, musical instruments), and studies of the familiar high arts of painting and sculpture. The series welcomes proposals for monographs, thematic studies, and edited collections.

Please direct inquiries and proposals to both:

Michael Yonan, series editor, yonanm@missouri.edu

Margaret Michniewicz, Visual Arts Acquisitions Editor, Margaret.Michniewicz@bloomsbury.com

10. The Historians of Islamic Art Association invites proposals from junior scholars (advanced graduate students or those within 3 years of completion of the PhD) to present at its Majlis, to be held at the Middle East Studies Association Meeting, November 18-21, 2017, in Washington DC.

The HIAA Majlis, held periodically in conjunction with MESA or CAA, offers an opportunity for junior scholars in Islamic art to learn about their colleagues’ work and to connect with more senior scholars. It will take the form of a panel of four papers, followed by comments from more senior colleagues and discussion. We invite proposals for 20-minute papers on current research focused on any topic, time period or region related to Islamic art.

Proposals should be submitted by email to Amanda Phillips at sec.hiaa@gmail.com as a two-part attachment and should include:

a cover sheet with your name, academic status, contact information (postal address, e-mail address, telephone number/s) and title of proposed presentation; and
an abstract of no more than one page.

Proposals are due by April 15, 2017.

Please note that all those selected to present at the Majlis must be current members of HIAA.

Posted in: Academic items

March 04, 2017
by Andrew Newman
0 Comment

Shii News – Anti-Shii Dimensions of Salman’s Tour

What Saudi King Salman wants from his tour of China, Malaysia

Posted in: News, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia

March 04, 2017
by Andrew Newman
0 Comment

Shii News – Al-Mahdi Spring Seminars (Birmingham, UK)

AMI Research Seminars Spring 2017

16th March 2017:
Dr Jafar Morvarid (Ferdowsi University of Mashhad)
“Theology of Shi‘ite Ziyārah: the Case for a Norm-Sensitive Approach to Religion”

27th April 2017:
Dr Mansur Ali (Cardiff University)
“Shifting discourse in the Muslim organ donation debate: reports of finding”

18th May 2017:
Dr Arzina R Lalani (The Institute of Ismaili Studies)
Title: tbc

Posted in: Field-specific (academic)

March 01, 2017
by Andrew Newman
0 Comment

Shii News – OBO on Shii Hadith

Oxford Bibliographiues Online
Hadith: Shi’i, Kumail Rajani
Introduction

Hadith, according to Imami Shiʿi Islam, is narrative record of a saying, deed, or tacit approval attributed to one of the People of the Household (Ahl al-bayt): fourteen infallibles which include Prophet Muhammad, his daughter Fatima, and twelve rightly guided Imams appointed by the Prophet. Ismaʿili Shiʿa will concur with this definition through their chain of Imams, whereas Zaydi Shiʿa would be more open to embrace the sayings of the Companions. Generally, the chain of narrators of a particular report is supposed to be considered a part of hadith, making hadith a combination of chain of narrators (al-sanad) and text (al-matn). Theoretically, hadith serves the purpose of an auxiliary source to the Qur’an but in practice it is the focal point of reference for jurisprudence, Qur’anic exegesis, theological doctrines, and moral values. The distinct feature of Shiʿi Hadith literature, Zaydis being an exception, is the absence of hadith narrated by a Companion of the Prophet.