Archive for 2019

Bahrain’s Rulers Last Chance to Save Their Country

AT THE height of Bahrain’s riots and protests in 2011 and 2012, some, including certain figures in the U.S. government, argued that Bahrain’s royal family had to give way to the protesters’ demands or be swept away by the tides of history. They were wrong.

 

1.Position in Islamic Studies

Harvard University’s Faculty of Divinity seeks to make a full-time, tenure track appointment in Islamic Studies. We are particularly interested in a candidate with scholarly expertise either in: Islam in the Americas, Islam in Southeast Asia, or Quranic Studies. The candidate should be competent in the appropriate research languages and conversant with the broader, global history of Islamic religion and culture.

This is a tenure track position. The successful candidate will work closely with students in the Divinity School’s masters programs and the doctoral program in the Study of Religion. It is likely they will also teach undergraduates in the Comparative Study of Religion and graduate students in related departments of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. It is expected that this scholar will be in conversation with those in other programs and schools at Harvard critical to Islamic Studies. Openness to our growing program in ministry studies in Islam will be an advantage.

Applicants should also be able to contribute to the Divinity School’s degree programs, including its multi-religious Master of Divinity program, and be familiar with forms of analysis that address race, gender, and social location. The doctoral degree must be held by June 30, 2020.

Applications should be made online at: http://academicpositions.harvard.edu . A CV, cover letter, writing sample, and the names of three references whom the School may wish to contact will be required of all candidates. Review of applications will begin in September 2019 and continue until the position is filled. Selected candidates may be invited to initial interviews at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, this coming November.

Letters of nomination are also welcome and should be sent to: Islamic Studies Search Committee, c/o Faculty Search Office, Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Divinity Hall 417, Cambridge, MA, 02138, or to islamicsearch@hds.harvard.edu . Applicants should address any questions regarding the position itself or the online application system to the Office of Academic Affairs at islamicsearch@hds.harvard.edu .

 

 

2. Viola ALLEGRANZI, Aux sources de la poésie ghaznavide. Les inscriptions persanes de Ghazni (Afghanistan, XI-XIIe siècles, 2 vols., Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2019. (ISBN: 978-2-87854-981-2)

Here in the link to PSN webpage with more information on the book (in French and in English): http://psn.univ-paris3.fr/ouvrage/aux-sources-de-la-poesie-ghaznavide-les-inscriptions-persanes-de-ghazni-afghanistan-xi-xiie-siecles#

 

 

 

3. CfP: CIWAS (The Centre for Islamic and West Asian Studies) Third Annual Conference

‘Urban Islam: Muslim Minorities, Identity and Tradition in West Asian, South Asian, and African Cities’

19 February, 2020

Royal Holloway,

University of London

 

Deadine for abstracts: 4 October, 2019.

 

Full details at:

http://ciwas.net/upcoming-events-2/

 

 

 

 

4. Mosques: The 100 Most Iconic Islamic Houses of Worship

Bernard O’Kane is Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the American University in Cairo, where he has been teaching since 1980.

He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Timurid Architecture in Khurasan (1987), Studies in Persian Art and Architecture (1995), Early Persian Painting: Kalila and Dimna Manuscripts of the Late Fourteenth Century (2003), The World of Islamic Art (2007), The Appearance of Persian on Islamic Art (2009), The Illustrated Guide to the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo (2012) and The Mosques of Egypt (2016).

https://www.assouline.com/products/mosque-ultimate

 

 

 

 

5. Materials and Technologies in the Age of Transition: The Byzantine, Sasanian and Islamic Near East

Wolfson College, University of Oxford, 10–11 July 2019

Organisers: Moujan Matin (moujan.matin@wolfson.ox.ac.uk) and Alain George (alain.george@orinst.ox.ac.uk)

For registration please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/materials-and-technologies-in-the-age-of-transition-the-byz…

Between the late seventh century and the so-called Golden Age of Islam in the ninth to tenth centuries, the patronage of Islamic courts promoted the establishment of learned circles, observatories and semi-public libraries, the conduct of scientific research, and a translation movement from Greek and Sanskrit into Arabic. Various aspects of the transmission of knowledge in this period and the development of more abstract sciences of mathematics and astronomy, as well as medicine, have been discussed in the scholarly literature. However, very little is known about the development of materials technologies in this period, such as metalwork, ceramics, glass, manuscripts, textiles and cosmetics, that originated in the experimentation and hands-on knowledge of miners, smiths, scribes, potters and other craftsmen. Scientific analyses of archaeological materials in recent decades have produced a large body of scientific data on methods of production and technological links. Despite their crucial importance, these archaeological scientific projects tend to focus on only one type of material – e.g. metalwork, or pottery – and hence fail to provide a broader historical perspective on the development and spread of technologies and the cross-technology interactions. This symposium will provide a rare occasion to bring together historians and researchers engaged in scientific study of different materials, and to help transform their respective outlooks on the Byzantine-Islamic transition in different artistic media. This one-and-a-half-day symposium will be divided into six sessions:

 

 

 

 

6. 12th Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age

November 21-23, 2019

Hooking Up

In partnership with the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS) at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries is pleased to announce the 12th Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age, Hooking Up.

The concept of linked open data is the holy grail of the digital humanities. Yet the problem of how to link information across platforms has existed since civilization began. As knowledge and learning expanded in pre-modern society, the problems associated with collecting, combining, and disseminating information inspired new approaches to and technologies for the material text. In the internet age, we continue to grapple with the same problems and issues. While technologies have changed, the questions remain the same.

This year’s symposium explores the connections between historic and current approaches to data linkage in regard to manuscripts and manuscript research. Hooking Up addresses the topic from a variety of angles and considers how the manuscript book operates as a vehicle for information retrieval and dissemination from the technology of the page and the textual apparatus of a book, to the library, and finally, the internet. We will also consider such questions as how medieval practices of memory shaped information retrieval and gathering, how did the technology of the manuscripts book—in all its many forms—facilitate or hinder information processing, how can medieval solutions inform modern technologies, and how do modern technologies illuminate medieval practices? The program will also feature sessions highlighting projects that are advancing linked data technologies for manuscript researchers, including the T-AP Digging Into Data Challenge project Mapping Manuscript Migrations.

The program will begin Thursday evening, November 21, 5:00 pm, at the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Parkway Central Library, with a keynote address by Professor Mary Carruthers, New York University, and All Souls College, Oxford University. The symposium will continue November 22nd-23rd at the Kislak Center of Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania.

Other speakers include:

• Benjamin L. Albritton, Stanford Libraries
• Toby Burrows, e-Research Centre, Oxford University,
• Matthew Driscoll, University of Copenhagen
• Christoph Flüeler, University of Fribourg
• Katarzyna Anna Kapitan, University of Copenhagen
• Mikko Koho, Aalto University
• Megan C. McNamee, Warburg Institute
• Aylin Malcolm, University of Pennsylvania
• Sally Ragep, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
• Helmut Reimitz, Princeton University
• Linda Safran, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto
• Elly Truitt, Bryn Mawr College
• Kelly Tuttle, University of Pennsylvania Libraries
• Athanasios Velios, Ligatus, University of the Arts London
• Hanno Wijsman, Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes
• Jeffrey Witt, Loyola University Maryland
• Elizabeth Yale, University of Iowa
• Kıvılcım Yavuz, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas

For more information, go to http://www.library.upenn.edu/about/exhibits-events/ljs-symposium12. Registration opens in September 2019.

 

 

 

 

7. CFP:  “Acts of Excommunication” in the Late Antique and Early Islamicate Middle East. March 12-13, 2020, Leiden University

As part of the ERC-funded project, “Embedding Conquest, Naturalising Muslim Rule (600-1000)”, at Leiden University, this conference aims to bring together both senior and junior scholars to present research which illuminates the dynamics implicit in the act of excommunication and associated practices: ostracism, anathema, and other forms of religio-social exclusion, among the major religious communities of the Islamicate world, 600-1200 CE: including various Christian and Jewish denominations, Sunni, Shiʿi, ‘Khārijī’ and other groups within Islam; Zoroastrians and other relevant groups.

The workshop will focus on “acts of excommunication”, meaning that its primary focus will be specific cases, whether real or imagined, which display the dynamics and implications of excommunicatory practices. The discussion of specifc (pseudo-) documents is particularly encouraged. While participants will be asked to focus on specific cases, they should show how these examples illuminate the larger frameworks within which their cases occurred.

Topics to be covered might include the following:

• Excommunicatory statements in contracts and oaths
• Excommunication as a tool in managing institutional hierarchies and hierocracies
• Maximal and minimalist excommunication
• Exclusions from ritual, social activities, trade, place and space
• Political rebels
• Overlapping or contested jurisdictions
• Enforcement issues
• Excommunication at centre and periphery
• Conversion and apostasy

Aims of the workshop

Scholars of Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Islam often study excommunication in separate silos, developing separate vocabularies and models. However, during the early Islamic period, these communities shared space and ideas. When compared, various contexts (theology, ritual, eschatology, social mores) indicate isomorphisms which suggest that different religious communities were as connected as they were divided.

Excommunication is a tool of coercion, and as such, it deserves to be studied in comparative context which might highlight the operation of intersecting power dynamics in society.

This workshop aims to move beyond the idea that acts of excommunication were purely the result of theological issues. Instead, this workshop aims to explore acts of excommunication as social and political as well as religious practice, with important implications for activities in local communities, but also for interactions with wider society and with governing authorities within the early Islamic empire.

While the theological, doctrinal and legal backdrop are important, an act of excommunication does not simply flow from the conceptual force of a doctrinal transgression, but rather the act is situated within a set of overlapping fields which may include economic, institutional, familial, political, ethnic, linguistic and generational aspects. These fields, in turn, contributed to how an act of excommunication came to be interpreted and positioned within evolving systems of law, theology and doctrine.

Format and logistics

The workshop will take place Thurs 12-Fri 13 March , 2020, Leiden University

The output of this workshop will be an open-access special issue on the topic of excommunication in and around the early Islamicate empire, to be published in Al-ʿUsur al-Wusta: The Journal of Middle East Medievalists ( http://islamichistorycommons.org/mem/al-usur-al-wusta/).

Contributions to this workshop will be understood to be works in progress, with final versions to be submitted for the special issue.

Please send an abstracts of around 300 words to e.p.hayes@hum.leidenuniv.nl by October 1^st, 2019.

Pre-circulation of papers will not be necessary, but final versions of papers for publication will be requested by September 2020.

If you are unable to attend the workshop, but would be interested in submitting to the special issue, please indicate this.

Subsidies will be available for travel and accommodation.

 

https://emco.hcommons.org/

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/research/research-projects/humanities/embedding-conquest#tab-1

 

 

Three Years of Arbitrary Detention: ADHRB Commemorates the Anniversary of Nabeel Rajab’s Arrest and Calls for His Release – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain

14 June 2019 – Yesterday marked three years since human rights defender Nabeel Rajab was arrested at his home on 13 June 2016 by Bahraini security forces, led by the Ministry of Interior’s notorious Cybercrime Unit in the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption, Economic, and Electronic Security (GDAEES). Nabeel Rajab has …

For ADHRB Newsletter 303, click here.

1.37^th Annual Symposium of the Association for the Study of Islam and Middle East Law (RIMO): “Informal Dispute Resolution and Islam”, Leiden, 4 July 2019

See program at http://www.verenigingrimo.nl/

 

 

 

 

2. International Conference: “Global Islamism 2019 – Phenomena, Interdependencies, Prevention”, Potsdam, 15-17 October 2019

The conference will feature discussions along the entire spectrum of transnational Islamism, from legalistic Islamism all the way to violent Jihadism. Besides providing a platform for analysing the phenomena as such, the conference will bring together experts from Germany and around the world to exchange notes on prevention strategies.

Deadline for registration: 27 September 2019. Information:

http://www.bpb.de/veranstaltungen/format/kongress-tagung/290378/glocal-islamism-2019

 

 

 

 

3. International Conference: “The Qur’an in its Milieu of Origin: Possibilities of the Historical Reconstruction of the Qur’anic Revelation”, Muenster, 8-10 November 2019

This conference is particularly dedicated to the context of the Qur’an in its milieu of origin. We are looking for contributions concerning the following questions: do we have enough authentic Islamic and non-Islamic historical sources to reconstruct the historical context of the Qur’anic revelation? Which sources, studies and academic researchers could be employed to contextualize the Qur’an historically? Etc.

Deadline for abstracts: 31 July 2019. Information: https://www.uni-muenster.de/imperia/md/content/zit/veranstaltungen/cfp_quran_conference2_2019.pdf

 

 

 

 

4. Humanities Multi-Year Research Fellowships for the Study of the Arab World, New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD)

While open to scholars working in all areas of the Humanities, the program aims in particular to build a center of outstanding research capacity in areas of the Humanities that are relevant for the study of the Arabic world. Eligible candidates for the senior fellowships have an outstanding scholarly accomplishment. Mid-career scholars with strong publication records and exceptional scholarly promise may be considered in this category. Eligible candidates for the research fellowships, which are intended especially for young scholars who wish to turn their doctoral dissertations into book manuscripts publishable with major academic presses, have received their PhD within the previous five years and have a strong record of scholarly accomplishment.

Deadline for applications: 1 September 2019.

Information: https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/research/centers-labs-and-projects/humanities-research-fellowship-program.html

 

 

 

5. Islamic Studies Tenure Track Position, Harvard Divinity School

We are interested in a candidate with scholarly expertise either in: Islam in the Americas, Islam in Southeast Asia, or Quranic Studies. The candidate should be competent in the appropriate research languages and conversant with the broader, global history of Islamic religion and culture.

Deadline for applications: 30 June 2019. Information: http://academicpositions.harvard.edu

 

 

 

 

6. Cape Town Summer School: “Critical Muslim Studies (CMS): Decolonial Struggles and Liberation Theologies”, 8-15 January 2020

CMS is inspired by a need to open up a space for intellectually rigorous and socially committed explorations between decolonial thinking and studies of Muslims, Islam and the Islamicate. CMS does not regard Islam only as a religio-spiritual tradition, or a civilization, but also as a possibility for a decolonial epistemic perspective that suggests contributions and responses to the problems facing humankind today.

Deadline for applications: 30 June 2019. Information: https://criticalmuslimct.com/

 

 

 

 

7. Articles on “Contemporary Politics of the Middle-East and North-Africa” for Special Issue of the Journal “Societies”

Articles are invited that deal either with internal political considerations and the governmental systems of one of the countries in the region, or comparisons between different countries or focusing on the international relations of any of the countries.

Deadline for manuscripts: 30 September 2019. Information: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/societies/special_issues/contemporary_politics_

 

 

 

 

8. Research and Publications on “Power and Institutions in Medieval Islam and Christendom”

This is a cooperative effort led by a team that consists of medievalists specialising in Western, Byzantine and Islamic history tackling a vital historical question: Why did the Christendom government and society develop certain processes of institutionalisation that did not characterise the Islamic world, considering that the early medieval situation might have suggested otherwise?

Information: http://pimic-itn.eu/what/

 

 

 

 

9. CfP: Colophons in Middle Eastern Manuscripts Workshop

Kiraz, George A.; Schmidtke, Sabine

 

Abstract:

The colophon, the ultimate or “crowing touch” paragraphs of a manuscript, provides readers with a the historical context in which the scribe produced the manuscript. At its basic essence, the colophon gives us the “metadata” of the manuscript: who was the scribe? When and where was the manuscript pro-duced? For whom was it produced and who paid for it? But colophons are far more rich. They are literary works on their own right, having a style and rhetoric independent of the main literary text of the manuscript. In addition, colophons provide historical facts otherwise lost to histories: wars, earthquakes, religious events, etc.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together scholars from various disciplines to study colophons in Middle Easter manuscripts in various languages, including, but not limited to, Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian,* Hebrew, Persian, and Syriac. Scholars interested in participating may send via email a proposal between 750 and 1,000 words. Pro-posals are to focus on the colophon (i.e. not a study of the main literary text of the manuscript). Com-parative analyses across traditions is encouraged but not required.

Submission deadline is January 15, 2020. Submissions are to be sent via email directly to George A. Kiraz at gkiraz@ias.edu.

Scholars are expected to fund their travel to/from and accommodation in Princeton. The Institute will provide meals and a conference celebratory dinner. Speakers will be invited to contribute to a collected volume on an agreed-upon theme.

https://albert.ias.edu/handle/20.500.12111/7776

 

 

 

 

10. BRAIS – DE GRUYTER PRIZE 2020

 

The Fifth Round of the BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World is now open for submissions.

The British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS) and De Gruyter are delighted to announce the fifth round of the BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World. This international prize will be awarded annually to the best doctoral thesis or unpublished first monograph based on a doctoral thesis. English-language submissions on any aspect of the academic study of Islam and the Muslim world, past and present, including Muslim-minority societies are accepted. Applicants can be based in any country, and manuscripts will be assessed on the basis of scholarly quality and originality.

Documents must be submitted to prize@brais.ac.uk by 5.00 pm GMT, 1 October 2019.

For full details, see https://www.brais.ac.uk/prize

 

 

 

 

11. We are pleased to announce the upcoming international conference “There was one, there wasn’t one”: Modalities and challenges of the narrative in the Persianate world, in memory of our dear friend and colleague, Dr. Marina Gaillard (1955-2015), in Paris next week.

 

A prominent specialist of medieval Persian narrative, Marina Gaillard was a member of the “Mondes iranien et indien” CNRS research team and associate faculty member at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO, Paris). Her work on prose narrative, and particularly on the modalities of the “semi-popular” romance in medieval Iran, constitutes a major contribution to our understanding of pre-modern Persian literature. Interrupted by her untimely death, her pioneering research continues to nourish and inspire much of our own work.

 

The conference will be held June 27-28, 2019 at the Auditorium du Pôle Langues et Civilisations (Inalco, Paris).

 

Attached, please find the conference program, with full description and abstracts.

 

The program is also available online from the CNRS research team “Mondes iranien et indien”: https://www.iran-inde.cnrs.fr/scientific-events/events-2019/there-was-one-there-wasn-t-one-modalities-and-challenges-of-the-narrative-in.html?lang=en

 

The event is free and open to the public. Please consider joining us if you are in Paris next week.

 

 

 

12. CALL FOR PAPERS

Global Technology in Local Contexts: Lithography in Asia

A two-day international workshop at the University of Chicago Center in Delhi

16–17 March 2020

Workshop conveners

Prof. Ulrike Stark, Dept. of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

Prof. Thibaut d’Hubert, Dept. of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

Prof. Abhijit Gupta, Dept. of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

The year 2022 will mark the bicentenary of the arrival of lithography in India, a watershed moment in the history of printing in South Asia. In anticipation of this anniversary, the University of Chicago Center in Delhi will host a two-day workshop on 16–17 March 2020. We invite scholars working on various aspects of lithography in Asia to submit proposals for papers. We especially welcome proposals from scholars based in South Asia and from early career researchers.

The upcoming anniversary provides a timely moment to review the history of lithography in its technological, sociocultural, economic, and aesthetic dimensions, and from both local and transregional perspectives. Rather than focusing on India alone, the workshop aims to look at the rise of lithography across Asia, from Teheran to Shanghai, and to address the impact of a global technology that bridged traditional and modern practices of textual production from a variety of disciplinary lenses, languages, and local contexts. The workshop will bring together junior and senior scholars from the US, Europe, India and other Asian countries to discuss approaches to the study of lithography in light of recent interest in material cultures, entangled histories, and the circulation of knowledge and technologies. We will explore new lines of inquiry into the relationship between manuscript and print production and the competition between lithography and typography. Possible topics of discussion may include: the social history of lithography; lithography’s trajectory from the sphere of artistic book production to commercial mass printing, lithography as a religious technology, lithography as an art form, the democratizing effect of lithography, lithography and community formation, lithography and the rise of vernacular journalism, global flows of technology and expertise, missionary uses of lithography, lithography in graphic design and advertising.

The workshop will be free and open to invited guest participants. We are unable to cover travel costs for international presenting participants from outside South Asia, but will cover two nights of accommodation in Delhi as well as refreshments and meals for the duration of the workshop. For speakers based in South Asia, we will cover two nights of accommodation and travel expenses (domestic economy round-trip travel).

 

Proposals

We invite proposals for papers of 30-minute duration. Proposals should be submitted no later than 15 August 2019 and must include:

1. An abstract of no more than 350 words outlining your research presentation
2. A current CV
3. A completed contact information form. A copy of the form can be accessed at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeAcDs3P9MOeaI04gBtCuL5H8ojY85lFOZsy88fYaVcMQlYqQ/viewform

Please email these materials to Shruti Brar at shrutibrar@uchicago.edu

Proposals may also be sent via mail to the following address:

University of Chicago Center

Attn: Shruti Brar

DLF Capitol Point

Baba Kharak Singh Marg

New Delhi, India 110001

 

—

Thibaut d’Hubert
Bengali language and Bengal studies
South Asian Languages and Civilizations
The University of Chicago
http://salc.uchicago.edu/faculty/d-hubert
https://chicago.academia.edu/ThibautdHubert

 

 

 

Hikmat International Institute is organizing a learning tour of Iran from 7 – 21 of September 2019 for professors, students, and anyone else who want to explore Iran and learn more about Shiism and culture, other religions and history of the country. In this tour, the participants will see Iran’s most important tourist attractions in 6 major cities. Also, there will be a session to talk about religion and culture in Iran. The tour will include the unique opportunity to experience the Ashura festival at Yazd. An introduction to the significance and the ritual of the festival will be given. The tour will be held with high standards and is an amazing opportunity.

Further Information and registration can be found at this link:

http://hikmat-ins.com/iran-tour-5/

Registration deadline is August 9, 2019.

The Early Bird Discount is a 100 Eur discount reserved for participants who register before June 30.

(Because of the longer visa processing time for Americans and Canadians, the registration deadline for applicants with American or Canadian passports is Friday June 21)

1.ISLAMIC PAINTED PAGE DATABASE – EXTENSION

The University of Hamburg’s Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures and Islamic Painted Page are pleased to announce the launch of a new version of the Islamic Painted Page website, www.islamicpaintedpage.com.

The website exists to help users locate reproductions, commentaries and online images for tens of thousands of Persian, Ottoman, Arab, Mughal, Sultanate and other paintings, bindings, illuminations, and decorated Qur’an pages up to c.1900 CE. It is also a signposting site, providing item-specific onward links and references to authoritative online and print publications.

As well as some refinements to the site, we are proud to report the database is now expanded to 42,000 references, of which 21,000 now include images.

Very grateful acknowledgement is made to the Smithsonian Freer Sackler Galleries; The Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Harvard Art Museums; Copenhagen David Collection; the Geneva Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, and Chester Beatty Library, for permission to include images from their collections on this latest version of the database. Together with previous permissions and Creative Commons policies, this enables the database to display images for items from twenty of the world’s most important collections so far.

As a result, the database now covers works from over 270 collections worldwide, with image facilities and direct collection weblinks for 50% of the content. Everything is fully searchable by picture description as well as by place, date, accession number and other metadata, and supportive item-specific links are also provided to VIAF, WORLDCAT and FIHRIST.

The Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures aims to enable the continued development of the Islamic Painted Page database, and the site is now hosted and supported by the University of Hamburg, although the database ownership and maintenance remain unchanged.

We hope that users will find the site increasingly useful, and warmly welcome feedback and any suggestions for future developments.

Stephen Serpell

Islamic Painted Page & Research Associate, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), University of Hamburg

e-Mail: stephen.serpell@uni-hamburg.de

 

 

 

2. ASPIRANTUM -School of languages and cultures invites international participants to apply and take part in Armenian, Persian and Russian language winter schools from December 1 till December 21, 2019 in Yerevan, Armenia.

You can read testimonials of our alumni here: https://aspirantum.com/testimonials

You may find the details about Persian language winter school here: https://aspirantum.com/topics/persian

You may find the details about Russian language winter school here: https://aspirantum.com/topics/russian

You may find the details about Armenian language winter school here: https://aspirantum.com/topics/armenian

 

 

 

 

3. Colloque international

Jeudi 27 & vendredi 28 juin 2019

INaLCO, Auditorium de la BULAC (65 Rue des Grands Moulins, 75013 Paris)

 

« Il y avait quelqu’un, il n’y avait personne »

Modes et enjeux de la narration dans le monde persanophone

Colloque international dédié à la mémoire de Marina Gaillard (1955-2015)

En 2015 disparaissait, fort prématurément, notre chère collègue et amie, Marina Gaillard, spécialiste de littérature persane classique, enseignante à l’INaLCO et membre de l’équipe CNRS « Mondes iranien et indien ». Son travail sur le récit en prose, et en particulier, sur les modalités du roman « semi-populaire » dans l’Iran médiéval, constitue une contribution majeure à notre connaissance de la narration persane pré-moderne. Auteur d’une œuvre pionnière, trop tôt interrompue, elle continue de nourrir nos recherches et d’inspirer nombre de nos travaux. Ce colloque est dédié à sa mémoire.

Du pouvoir salvateur des contes de Schéhérazade au mordant des récits de Hedayat et de Golshiri ; de l’épopée mythique de Ferdowsi aux romances médiévales en vers et en prose ; des anecdotes édifiantes de Sa‘adi à l’humour illustré de Marjane Satrapi ou au cinéma de Kiarostami et de Farhadi : autant de récits qui ont fasciné et continuent de fasciner le public persanophone aussi bien qu’étranger, en offrant un accès privilégié au monde dont ils sont issus, à ses croyances, à sa culture et sa pensée.

Y aurait-il donc un mode spécifique du récit « à la persane » ? Un rapport particulier à l’auditoire ? Une façon de raconter, héritage de pratiques ancestrales, qui aurait perduré à l’époque moderne ? Se pourrait-il que ces récits, dans leurs formes et dans leurs visées, voire dans leurs publics, se soient développés sinon indépendamment, du moins parallèlement aux formes connues du monde occidental ? L’attrait persistant qu’exerce, à ce jour, la narration persane sur un vaste auditoire, mérite que l’on s’attarde sur ces questions.

 Comité d’organisation

• Amr Ahmed, Maître de Conférences en langue et littérature kurdes sorani, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, “Mondes iranien et indien” (FRE2018, CNRS-Sorbonne Nouvelle-INaLCO-EPHE)

• Julie Duvigneau, Maître de Conférences en langue et littérature persanes, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, “Mondes iranien et indien” (FRE2018, CNRS-Sorbonne Nouvelle-INaLCO-EPHE)

• Yassaman Khajehi, Maître de Conférences en Études Théâtrales, Université Clermont Auvergne, Centre d’Histoire “Espaces et Cultures” (CHEC)
• Justine Landau, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

Programme et Information sur le site web de l’Inalco et de « Mondes iranien et indien »

INALCO : http://www.inalco.fr/evenement/avait-quelqu-avait-personne-modes-enjeux-narration-monde-persanophone

Mondes iranien et indien : https://www.iran-inde.cnrs.fr/evenements-scientifiques/colloques-et-conferences-2019/il-y-avait-quelqu-un-il-n-y-avait-personne-modes-et-enjeux-de-la-narration-dans.html

 

 

 

 

4. 1st Annual Muslim Minorities and Human Rights Conference – London

This conference aims to encourage academic and quality research on Muslim minorities’ issues, and trying to provide academic and practical solutions to the problems and challenges of social, political, educational aspects that are faced by Muslim minorities in Britain. Aiming also to create a forum of dialogue on related issues for researchers and stakeholders.

Centre for Arab Progress – London is pleased to invite researchers and academics to participate in the 1st Annual Conference, to be held on (5th September 2019), entitled: “Islam, Muslims in Britain: radicalisation, deradicalisation, islamophobia and human rights”.

The conference aims to become an important academic and research platform in the UK on Islam and Muslim minorities and related matters. In addition, the papers that are accepted and presented in the conference will be published as hard copy and in electronic format.

For further information on the conference please visit the conference website on the following link: http://mmhrc.co.uk/

 

 

 

5. Call for papers: 

*AFGHANISTAN IN THE WORLD: 100 Years of Independence
*SOAS, University of London*
*18-19 October 2019*

https://afgacademia.wixsite.com/afgindependence

*Deadline: June 30, 2019*

*Subject Fields: *Anthropology, Archaeology, Asian History / Studies,
Geography, Humanities

2019 marks one hundred years since the signing of the Anglo-Afghan Treaty
of 1919. This monumental event resulted in the United Kingdom formally
recognising Afghanistan’s independence, yet at present Afghanistan’s
sovereignty is still being contested. In a year when multiple events will
be taking place globally to celebrate the country’s independence, we seek
to critically engage with the notion of independence in a two-day workshop
marking the centenary of the modern state of Afghanistan with our Keynote
Speaker cited above.

We welcome PhD students and early-career researchers to submit abstracts of
200 words on any of the following themes:

1. Colonialism and imperialism
2. Society, borders and mobility
3. Histories and historiography
4. Insider-outsider perspectives
5. Decolonisation, resistance and resilience

For further details about the workshop and information on applying please
refer to:
*https://afgacademia.wixsite.com/afgindependence/call-for-papers

Completed abstracts should be e-mailed to afg1919soas@gmail.com

*Deadline for abstract submission:* *30th June 2019*

*The workshop will take place on Friday the 18th of October and Saturday
the 19th of October 2019 at SOAS, University of London.*

This workshop is supported by the generosity of the SOAS Early Career
Development Fund and the Association for Central Asian Civilizations & Silk
Road Studies – UK.

*Conveners*: Rabia Khan (SOAS) – Florence Shahabi (SOAS)

*Contact Info: *Florence Shahabi

*Contact Email: afg1919soas@gmail.com

*URL:* http://bit.ly/2HGwc7x

 

 

 

 

6. MA Iranian Studies: Iran in Antiquity and Late Antiquity

For the autumn 2019/20 (“Wintersemester”) at the Institute of Iranian Studies,

Freie Universität Berlin. This two year (four semesters), full-time study programme

is convened in English , leading to an internationally recognised Master of Arts in

Iranian Studies.

See: https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/iranistik/studium/master/index.html

 

 

 

 

7. « Current Perspectives on Ibn ʿArabī and ‘Akbarī’ Thought »

June 24-25, 2019

UCLouvain | Salle du Sénat académique (Halles universitaires, Place de l’Université 1) – Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

9:30 — 17:30

PROGRAM.pdf

Keynotes:

Claude Addas | Denis Gril | James W. Morris

 

Participants:

José Bellver (UCLouvain) | Nicholas Boylston (Harvard) | Stephen Hirtenstein (MIAS)

Giovanni Maria Martini (L’Orientale) | Michele Petrone (UCLouvain) | Ali Reza Pharaa (Stony Brook)

Sophie Tyser (EPHE/Uni. Bonn) | Gregory Vandamme (FNRS/UCLouvain) | Cornelis van Lit (Utrecht)

 

Organisers:

Cécile Bonmariage & Gregory Vandamme

 

UCLouvain

Institut supérieur de philosophie (Centre De Wulf-Mansion)

 

Partners:

RSCS | INCAL

Ecole des Sciences philosophiques et religieuses (USL-B)

F.R.S.-FNRS

 

https://uclouvain.be/fr/instituts-recherche/isp/evenements/current-perspectives-on-ibn-arabi-and-akbari-thought.html

 

 

Muslim Pilgrimage in the Modern World | Babak Rahimi | University of North Carolina Press

Pilgrimage is one of the most significant ritual duties for Muslims, entailing the visitation and veneration of sites associated with the Prophet Muhammad or saintly figures. As demonstrated in this multidisciplinary volume, the lived religion of pilgrimage, defined by embodied devotional practices, is changing in an age characterized by commerce, technology, and new sociocultural and political frameworks.

FCO 2018 Report Continues to Deceive the Public Over Bahrain’s Rights Record

7 June 2019 – The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) diminished the human rights deterioration in Bahrain in its 2018 report on human rights and democracy priorities, labelling it a “mixed picture of challenges and positive developments.” Similar labels were given in the 2017 and 2016 reports.

For BIRD Weekly 238, click here.

The Empires of the Near East and India | Columbia University Press

ISBN: 9780231174374 672 Pages Format: Paperback List Price: $50.00 £40.00 ISBN: 9780231174367 672 Pages Format: Hardcover List Price: $150.00 £116.00 ISBN: 9780231547840 672 Pages Format: E-book List Price: $49.99 £40.00 In the early modern world, the Safavid, Ottoman, and Mughal empires sprawled across a vast swath of the earth, stretching from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

1.Part-Time Lecturer in Arabic

The University of Chicago: The College: Humanities Collegiate Division

Location:  Chicago, IL

Open Date:  Jun 7, 2019

Deadline: Jul 10, 2019 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time

Description

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the Humanities Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago are accepting applications for a part-time benefits-eligible Lecturer in Arabic language for a one-year renewable term, starting September 1, 2019.

Required is a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Arabic language or a related field and proficiency at the Superior Level (as defined by the ACTFL) in Modern Standard Arabic.  Specialized training in second-language acquisition, second-language pedagogy and/or assessment is highly desirable.

The teaching load will include four classes of various levels (elementary, intermediate, and/or high intermediate) of Arabic over three quarters of the academic year.

To apply for this position candidates must submit their application through the University of Chicago’s Interfolio jobs board at apply.interfolio.com/63890   Applicants must upload a current CV; a cover letter of interest that addresses professional and teaching experience, and discusses approaches to pedagogy; sample syllabi; and the names and contact information for three references.  Optionally, course evaluations (if available) may be uploaded.

Application deadline is July 10, 2019. Only complete applications will be considered.  For further questions about this position, please contact Amanda Young, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, amanday@uchicago.edu

This position will be part of the Service Employees International Union.

This position is contingent upon budgetary approval.