Archive for August, 2018

Seyfeddin Kara
In Search of Ali ibn Abi Talib’s Codex:
History and Traditions of the Earliest Copy of the Qur’an
With a Foreword by James Piscatori

Publisher: Gerlach Press, Berlin & London
Hardcover, 292 pages
ISBN: 978-3-959940-54-2
Publication date: August 2018
EUR 95 / GBP 90

For more information:
http://www.gerlach-books.de/attachment/INFO_GerlachPress_Kara_IbnAbiTalibsCodex_Aug2018.pdf

Order form:
http://www.gerlach-books.de/attachment/Order_Form_Kara_Codex_July2018.pdf

Our offer:
– EUR 95 / GBP 90
– plus shipping charges (surface or air mail delivery)
– plus 7% VAT (within the EU – if no European VAT ID can be supplied only)
– our institutional and regular customers can order on open account
– when ordering for the first time we would like you to pay by credit card or pre-payment by bank transfer

Dr Leonard Lewisohn

The Iran Heritage Foundation greatly regrets to announce the death of Dr Leonard Lewisohn, who died suddenly in California on 6 th August while attending the Association for Iranian Studies conference. Lenny was Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow and Senior lecturer in Persian and Sufi Literature at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter (2004-2011).

1.6th International Conference on “Islam & Liberty – Building an Islamic Case for Open Markets”, Islamabad, 14-15 November 2018

The conference brings together academics and researchers to present and discuss papers on the current discourse on Islam, society and the world at large under the over-arching theme of Islam and liberty. The Conference is an attempt to re-discover the original tenets of economic freedom as propounded by the Quran and Sunnah

Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2018. Information: http://islamandlibertynetwork.org/blog/2018/06/01/building-an-islamic-case-for-open-markets/

2. Workshop: “The ‘Ethical’ and the ‘Everyday’: Interrogating Analytical Turns for/in the Study of Islam and Muslims in Europe”, University of Cambridge, 29-30 November 2018

This workshop seeks to provide a forum for critically engaging with the analytics of the “ethical” and the “everyday” in the study of Islam and Muslims in Europe. What is, we ask, the analytical purchase of these turns within the study of Islam and Muslims in Europe? What, furthermore, might escape our attention while preferring one turn among the other?

Deadline for abstracts: 31 August 2018. Information: https://bit.ly/2MnuFnN

3. Visiting Research Fellowships, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin

The call is open to senior researchers and recent postdocs in the humanities and the social sciences. Slots are available throughout the year with the exception of July and August 2019. We therefore ask applicants to state their preferred month(s) of stay while indicating alternative dates.

Deadline for applications: 17 August 2018. Information: https://www.zmo.de/Ausschreibungen/calls%20for%20papers/CfP%20-%20Visiting%20Research%20Fellowships2018.pdf

4. Scholarships for 75 Master’s Programs at the Goethe University Frankfurt

Applicants must hold an excellent Bachelor’s degree from a university outside of Germany. Awardees are provided with a monthly stipend of 1,000 EUR and other benefits to help them develop their career.

Information:  www.uni-frankfurt.de/masterstip

5. The journal Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia (ACME) is looking to recruit a new Book Review Editor and a new Film Review Editor, with the first contributed work to appear in Volume 5(1), Summer 2017/18.

If you are interested, please forward a copy of your curriculum vitae, along with a brief statement about your interest in the position and an example of your professional writing to:

Dr. Pedram Khosronejad (Chief Editor)

Farzaneh Family Scholar
Associate Director for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies
School of International Studies
Oklahoma State University
E-mail: Pedram.khosronejad@okstate.edu

6. The Second International Conference on Islamic Civilisation (ISIC 2019):

The Movement of Population, Objects, and Ideas in the Pre-modern and Modern Muslim World

Call for Papers

Abstract Submission Deadline: October 15^th, 2018

Conference Dates: February 12^th–13^th, 2019

Venue: National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taipei, Republic of China (details to be confirmed)

Muslim world, covering a vast geographical area, is characterised by its ethnic, linguistic, and cultural multiplicity. Its diversity is precisely captured by Dale F. Eickelman: ‘The main challenge for the study of Islam is to describe how its universalistic or abstract principles have been realized in various social and historical contexts without representing Islam as a seamless essence on the one hand or as a plastic congeries of beliefs and practices on the other.’ (1987) However difficult it may be to describe such rich human/social/cultural phenomena, the pluralistic ideas and practices in Muslim world result from the interaction, violent or non-violent, between Muslims and other communities, and between Muslims themselves, the exchange and transmission of ideas, objects, and techniques, through various media, over the past fourteen centuries. How and why do/did people, ideas, and objects move from one place to another? Through what agencies do/did people, ideas, and objects travel? How did/does such movement impact upon other communities, their social and cultural dynamics? We welcome contributions from scholars and postgraduate students concerned with these questions from any relevant scholarly discipline, including history, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, area studies, politics, (comparative) literature, and religious studies. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Migration of tribes, Sufi orders, refugees, or any distinctive group in pre-modern and modern contexts
• Transmission or translation of ideas, artistic or literary motifs, or texts
• Travel & travelogues
• Exchange and interaction through commerce (e.g. slave trade)
• Spread of techniques or objects (e.g. introduction of paper)

Each presentation will last 20 minutes, including Q&A session. Abstracts between 300–400 words along with a one-page CV should be sent to Dr. I-Wen Su at isu@nccu.edu.tw, by 5.00 pm, October 15^th, 2018, with ‘ISIC 2019’ in the subject line. The presenters whose papers are accepted will be notified in late October and early November, and asked to submit the full papers by January 10^th, 2019. The papers, which pass the double-blind review, will be published.

7. 32 Fellowships at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem

The fellowships are open to students and scholars in Near Eastern studies from prehistory through the Islamic periods, including the fields of archaeology, anthropology, art history, Bible, epigraphy, historical geography, history, language, literature, philology and religion and related disciplines.

Deadline for application: 31 August 2018. Information: http://www.aiar.org/fellowships/?mc_cid=a57d843a2b&mc_eid=4b7f78b915

8. Tenure Track Position in any Discipline on Islam in Asia, Asian Studies Program, Hamilton College, New York

The position on Islam in Asia includes Iran/Persia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, to begin July 1, 2019. Mastery of a relevant Asian language is expected.

Application deadline: 5 October 2018. Information: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=56980

9. Advanced Assistant/Associate Professor, Inayat and Ishrat Malik Professorship in Islamic Studies, University of Cincinnati

Minimum Qualifications: A Ph.D. is required, as well as prior teaching experience and evidence of scholarly excellence. The successful candidate is expected to engage in research, to teach on the graduate and undergraduate levels in their area, and to contribute, via interdisciplinary education and as appropriate, to undergraduate certificate programs in such areas as Religious Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Arabic Studies, Asian Studies, Security Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Deadline for applications: 31 January 2019. Information: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=57031

10. Project: Education and Childhood Studies Digital Resources for Afghanistan

The aim of the project is to produce digital resources on education in Afghanistan as part of the Bloomsbury Education and Childhood Studies – an authoritative digital resource on the state of the education system as well as the nature of childhood and youth experience in Afghanistan.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/2016591/bloomsbury-education-and-childhood-studies-digital-resources

Sunni Shia Dialogue – Event Highlights & Full Video Now Available

On April 28th, 2018, the Shia Muslim Council along with its partners, the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, CAIR, MPAC and Bayan Claremont presented a unique symposium to discuss Sunni and Shia relations.

Articles for Edited Book “Beyond Karbala, New Approaches to Shīʿi Materiality”

This call for papers invites submissions focusing on materially expressed Shiism, with a renewed focus on non-ʿAshūrāʾ rituals, practices and objects.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 August 2018. Information: https://bit.ly/2n4aKzi

1.De-centering the Global Middle Ages

February 8-9, 2019, University of Michigan

The Department of History and Medieval and Early Modern Studies Program at the University of Michigan invite proposals for a February 8-9, 2019 symposium, “De-centering the Global Middle Ages.”

This symposium will contribute to the burgeoning body of scholarship on the meaning of the “medieval” and “Middle Ages” in increasingly interdisciplinary and cross-regional conceptions of the premodern world.

This symposium invites researchers to consider scholarly perspectives of the “global Middle Ages” by presenting research and resources that address the connectivity and mobility of the globe c. 500-1600 CE. What work does the idea of “the Middle Ages” do in our scholarship, and what do we gain from a shared or comparative notion of the medieval? Papers and presentations will aim to contribute to a more inclusive view of the premodern world that de-centers European interpretations of the Middle Ages and recognizes dynamic globalisms. A keynote address will be delivered by Valerie Hansen (Stanley Woodward Professor of History, Yale University), specialist in premodern China and Silk Road Studies, whose current book project is entitled: The World in the Year 1000: When Globalization Began.

Faculty and graduate students are welcome to apply to deliver a lightning talk + complementary paper and/or a primary source-based research presentation. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words.

Lightning Talks

The symposium will hold two panels of lightning talks (8 minutes each) based on short, pre-circulated papers (approx. 4 pages) summarizing current work on globalized conceptions of and connections within the medieval world. Lightning talks will engage field- or region-specific conceptualizations of “the medieval/Middle Ages.”

Roundtable discussions with respondents will follow.

 Primary Source-based Research Presentations

 Submissions will also be accepted for 15- to 18-minute research presentations, each focused on a particular medieval primary source (text, image, object, etc.) that is useful for thinking in comparative or global perspectives. The source (an image or a selection from the source) should be pre-circulated to attendees.

Each talk will be followed by a moderated discussion.

All presenters are asked to submit a brief bibliography (5-10 entries) on resources related to their lightning talks or research presentations. After the symposium, these bibliographies will be uploaded to the Global Middle Ages Project website (http://globalmiddleages.org/, University of Texas at Austin) and contribute to the development of a canon of literature on the global Middle Ages.

Deadline:        September 17, 2018

How to Apply:

Applications should be submitted in PDF form to conference organizers Paula R. Curtis (prcurtis@umich.edu) and Amanda Respess (arespess@umich.edu by September 17. Those submitting both lightning talks and primary source presentations should prepare separate abstracts. Please include the following information:

Name:

Affiliation:

Faculty/Graduate Student/Independent Scholar:

Field:

Regional Specialization:

Proposed Format (Lightning Talk/Primary Source Presentation):

Abstracts of no longer than 300 words.

Notifications of acceptance will be made by no later than October 15, 2018.

This symposium is made possible by the generous support of the University of Michigan Department of History, Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, History of Art Department, Department of English Language & Literature, Asian Languages and Cultures Department, Slavic Languages & Literatures Department, Near Eastern Studies Department, Center for Japanese Studies, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, Forum on Research in Medieval Studies, and the Japanese Studies Interdisciplinary Colloquium.

Contact Email:

prcurtis@umich.edu

2. CfP: Empires of Pleasure across Eighteenth-Century Cultures Chair: Dipti Khera – New York University
Chair: Meredith S. Martin – New York University
Email: dipti.khera@nyu.edu, msm240@nyu.edu

Now one of art history’s most vibrant subfields, the eighteenth century has played a key role in the discipline’s global turn and in re-thinking conventional histories of art, empire and Orientalism. By tracing the increased circulation of people and objects in different parts of the world, scholars working on this period have highlighted new conceptions of knowledge, aesthetics, power and sociability. Furthermore, they have ensured that formerly devalued concepts tied to eighteenth-century practices and patrons – among them luxury, pleasure, leisure, femininity, sensuality, wonder, hybridity, and consumption – be taken seriously. Yet while the physical exchanges of eighteenth-century artworks, peoples, and things from around the globe has been the subject of recent scholarly inquiry, less attention has been paid to conceptualaffinities – notably a mutual emphasis on pleasure and decline – that existed between disparate geographical and cultural locales. For instance, how might we enrich or complicate the story of eighteenth-century art and culture by putting Indian or Chinese paintings of palace gardens in dialogue with French fêtes galantes? Our contention is that these kinds of global comparisons will not only yield a richer formal and conceptual understanding of each type of artwork, but will also enable us to ask larger theoretical and methodological questions related to the common grounds they share. By examining how intertwined histories of pleasure and power were mediated across local, trans-regional, or intercultural contexts, we hope also to contribute to scholarly debates beyond art history and to encourage new research projects and teaching agendas.

For instructions to submit paper abstract (250 words), see, http://www.collegeart.org/programs/conference/cfp

You may contact panel chairs for any questions. Deadline: August 6, 2018

3. The Royal Lens: Naser Al-Din Shah’s Photography of His Harem (July 2018)

By Pedram Khosronejad
Hardcover: 352 pages
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 8 x 1.1 x 8 inches

https://vimeo.com/281523679

Khosronejad’s unique collection provides us with a treasure trove of images focusing on the daily life of Naser al-Din Shah, his wives, concubines, and slaves of both sexes.
Janet Afary, Mellichamp Professor of Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara.

Pedram Khosronejad has provided invaluable new information about the history of photography in Iran during the 19th-century Qajar period. In particular he has carefully researched the photographs taken by Naser al-Din Shah, perhaps the Qajar monarch most fascinated by Western technology. These intimate photographs of his own harem are unique and highly informative, not just for their intrinsic value in a period in which human images were disapproved of, but also for what they reveal about Naser al-Din Shah, his self-image, his household and his court.
William Beeman, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/099948012X?ref=cp_d_n_u

4. From the Understanding Sharia (www.usppip.eu) project:

1. USPPIP Autumn School (Leiden, 11-17 November) applications: The USPPIP project held a successful “Uses of the Past in Islamic Legal Thought and Practice” summer school held in Exeter (8^th-14^th July – report to follow).  To follow up on this, the project will be holding a second “Autumn School”, to be held at Leiden University, 11^th-17^th The format will be the same (peer review of chapters/articles and collaborative translation of primary source texts).  The deadline for applications is quite soon, Wednesday 5^th September 2018.
2. “Uses of the Past in Islamic Law” Project Conference, 27^th-29^th September, Exeter, will be held in Exeter, .  A list of panel titles and a preliminary programme is available and the final list, with all the participants and titles of papers will be available in late August.
3. HERA fellow Judge Samoud al-Damiri and workshop on Islamic International Law: There was a very successful series of lectures and a workshop at the University of Göttingen, including the presentations of the HERA fellow Samoud al-Damiri, a Palestinian judge, and the workshop on Islamic International Law – 26^th-29^th Report (with pictures!) can be found here.

See http://www.usppip.eu/ for further information.

4. USPPIP Postdoctoral Fellow Success: It is with great pleasure we announce that two of our post-doctoral fellows have recently been appointed to academic positions, following on from their work with USPPIP: Dr Omar Anchassi has been appointed as the Early Career Fellow in Islamic Studies in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. Dr Eirik Hovden has been appointed Lecturer in Arabic at the University of Bergen.  Congratulations to them both.

USPPIP Project Director:

Robert Gleave

Professor of Arabic Studies

Director of the Centre for the Study of Islam

E-mail: r.gleave@exeter.ac.uk

Afghan Shia mosque attack kills 25

A suicide bomber has killed 25 people and injured at least 23 more in an attack on a Shia mosque in Afghanistan, an official has told the BBC. The attacker struck as people were attending Friday prayers in the eastern city of Gardez, Paktia province spokesman Abdullah Asrat said.

See also alJazeera

I CONCURSO LATINOAMERICANO DE CREACIÓN CULTURAL DE EID AL-GHADIR

En el Nombre de Dios, Clemente, Misericordioso. Con el objetivo de celebrar el día en el que el Profeta Muhammad (P) declaró frente a la Comunidad Islámica (Ummah) que tras su fallecimiento el liderazgo de la comunidad recaía en la persona de ‘Ali ibn abu Talib (P), en el evento conocido como Ghadir Jum; el Centro Islámico Amir al-Muminin (P) con sede en la Ciudad de México, México; tiene el placer de publicar la siguiente CONVOCATORIA, para todos los musulmanes de Latinoamérica.

Prominent Saudi Women Activists Arrested

(Beirut) – Saudi authorities have arrested the internationally recognized women’s rights activist Samar Badawi and an Eastern Province activist, Nassima al-Sadah, in the past two days, Human Rights Watch said today. Badawi and al-Sadah are the latest victims of an unprecedented government crackdown on the women’s rights movement that began on May 15, 2018 and has resulted in the arrest of more than a dozen activists.

See also US News and World Report

Precarious Belongings: Being Shiʿi in Non-Shiʿi Worlds (2017)
Edited by Charles Tripp and Gabriele vom Bruck

What is it that makes members of Shi`i communities distinct from other communities? This is the question that lies at the heart of the contributions to this volume. They range across a number of diverse settings precisely to bring out those features of the social and political life of the Shi`a that may be recognisably Shi`i, but are also the outcome of their interactions with specific social contexts.

Read more here.