Archive for 2020

Visions of <i>Sharīʿa</i>

Dr Ali- Reza Bhojani, Ph.D. (2013), Durham University, is Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Markfield Institute of Higher Education, Lecturer at the Al-Mahdi Institute, and Research Associate at the University of Oxford. He is author of Moral Rationalism and Sharīʿa: A Study of Independent Rationality in Modern Shī ͑ī Uṣūl al-fiqh (Routledge, 2015).

1.Muqarnas, volume: 36

Editors: Gülru Necipoğlu and Maria J. Metzler

Muqarnas 36 features a stunning variety of Islamic art genres, ranging from monumental architecture, manuscripts, textiles, and tiles, to inscriptions, material objects, and forgery. It sweeps across India, Iran, and Turkey, and concludes in Britain, with the discovery of an Ashmolean Museum objet d’art that is not exactly what it is advertised to be.

The volume begins with an overview by Finbarr Barry Flood of the architecture, calligraphy, epigraphy, painting, and portable arts of pre-Mughal Islamicate South Asia. Pre-Mughal court culture has always played second fiddle to the overwhelming hegemony and brilliance of the Mughal dynasty but in its regional heterogeneity it is more than worthy of study.

This is followed by two essays examining manuscript illumination: Cailah Jackson, 2017 winner of the Margaret B. Ševčenko Prize in Islamic Art and Culture, discusses two manuscripts illuminated by Mukhlis ibn ʿAbdallah al-Hindi in thirteenth-century Konya; and Denise-Marie Teece treats the early sixteenth-century Safīna manuscript (Biblioteca Reale Ms. Or. 101), its illuminator Ruzbehan al-Modhahheb, and its unique six-page preface. A Byzantine stole with embroidered Arabic inscriptions in the collection of Vatopediou Monastery on Mount Athos is the subject of the fourth essay by Nikolaos Vryzidis.

The volume’s seven essays conclude with three investigations into Ottoman art history: the blue-and-white tiles of the Baba Naqqaş style of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, as prominently displayed in the Muradiye Mosque in Edirne (Patricia Blessing), the architectural book Risāle-i Miʿmāriyye of the seventeenth-century Caʿfer Efendi and in particular his notes on surveying and the architect’s cubit (Gül Kale), and the evolution of the late sixteenth-century Ottoman custom of requiring the sultan to be victorious over the non-Muslim enemy and to only use spoils from the holy war in the construction of a sultanic mosque (Samet Budak).

The Notes and Sources section continues with Bill Hickman’s analysis of the tantalizing calligraphed tiles of the now destroyed mosque built for the Sufi shaykh and poet Eşrefoğlu Rumi (d. 1469?), and two communications about artifacts on British soil: a wooden box, believed to have contained the heart of Abbot Roger de Norton (d. 1291), with an Arabic inscription that is now deciphered by Barry Knight, 147 years after its discovery; and a gorgeous Persian luster bowl in Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, which when subjected to UV examination, revealed that it was a product of extensive repair, or “restoration,” over the centuries. A systematic examination of the bowl and its remarkable history by Francesca Leoni and her colleagues uncovers a level of fakery of antiques that, it is suggested, might be prevalent in museum ceramic collections.

 

https://brill.com/view/title/56479

 

 

 

2. Call for Papers

The Arts and Archaeology of Funerary Cultures in Islam

16th Colloquium of the Ernst Herzfeld-Gesellschaft | Ernst Herzfeld Society

Rome, Sapienza University, July 2-4, 2020

In cultures of Islam, like those of other religions which believe in life in the hereafter, death is not the end but a transition into something to come. The significance of visual and material culture relating to the dead is clear from the wide spread of monumental mausolea that shelter and mark the grave, remember the buried, and invite visitors. It is reflected in various other arts, and in social practices of visiting burial places and in literature such as pilgrimage guides. Research has shown that since the early Islamic period, despite religious disapproval of ostentatious grave marking, burial monuments for specific persons were a part of funeraryculture as well as the use of inscribed tombstones.

 

While art historical and archaeological research on various civilizations has dealt with funerary culture in a wider sense, this is less the case in Islamic art and archaeology. Although a significant amount of scholarship has been produced, a comprehensive image of visual and material aspects of funerary cultures is lacking, and some aspects have been overshadowing others. One focus has been on the form, function, and epigraphy of funerary architecture, such as mausolea, tomb towers, their relation to other buildings, and commemorative mosques.

Graves with tombstones and cemeteries, which constitute the majority of burials, have been less systematically studied; even lesser the various media and artefacts which furnish them, such as cenotaphs, railings, textiles, and other. Semantics of form have rarely been dealt with.

The evidence gained from archaeology, such as types of tombs, the placement of corpses,their clothing, the use of epigraphy, often has remained discrete, disconnected from wider discussions and interpretations of visual and material culture. Among the reasons behind this fragmented perspective are the diversity and geographical spread of evidence and the variety and range of disciplines and methods involved. They include field archaeology, archaeometric analysis of human remains, art historical study and discussion of architecture and artefacts,epigraphy, anthropology, historical and religious studies based on texts.

 

The 16th Colloquium of the Ernst Herzfeld Society aims to bring together these diverse perspectives on visual and material aspects of death and the hereafter in Islamic cultures. It discusses Islamic funerary cultures through art history and archaeology as well as related disciplines and subfields. It invites individual papers and pre-arranged panels on all aspects and subjects that relate to this theme.

 

The Ernst Herzfeld Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der islamischen Kunst und Archäologie |Ernst Herzfeld Society for Studies in Islamic Art and Archaeology and the Department of Sciences of Antiquity, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy are delighted to invite you to participate in the Colloquium to be held in Rome, July 2–4, 2020.

 

Schedule – The Colloquium is planned to start with a keynote lecture on the evening of Thursday, July 2, 2020. The Colloquium continues with sessions on Friday and Saturday, July 3–4. A meeting of graduate students is scheduled for Thursday, July 2, for which a separate call will be circulated. The annual general assembly of the Ernst Herzfeld Society will be held on Friday or Saturday afternoon. A detailed schedule will follow in due course.

 

Application – Please submit your panel or paper proposal for the Colloquium by March 1,

2020 to Prof. Michelina Di Cesare: michelina.dicesare@uniroma1.it

 

All proposals will undergo a peer review selection process. Acceptance will be notified in the first week of April 2020.

 

The preferred colloquium language is English, while Italian and German are possible. Each presentation is limited to 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion (or 30 minutes of discussion per panel).

 

– Pre-arranged panels: will preferably include three presentations. Please submit a title and an abstract of no more than 500 words presenting the topic and the aim of the panel, as well as a provisional list of speakers.

 

– Individual papers: will be presented in open panels. Please submit a title and an abstract of no more than 300 words.

 

If you want to submit a paper proposal for the graduate meeting (separate call), please send your title and abstract to Sarah Johnson: sarah.cresap.johnson@gmail.com

 

Registration and participation in the colloquium are free for members of the Society. Other speakers and participants are asked to join the Society by paying the annual membership fee.

Speakers and participants will organise their own travel and accommodation. A list of hotels located in the vicinity of the Colloquium venues will be circulated in due course.

 

 

 

 

3. Reminder – closure of the V&A’s storage at Blythe House

Access to the V&A collections which are in storage at Blythe House will close while we prepare for the biggest move of our collections since the Second World War. Appointments services will reopen at our new Collections Research Centre at V&A East in Spring/Summer 2023.

The key closure dates you need to know are:

• Object viewing appointments (excluding textiles and fashion): 27 September 2020
• Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion: 18 December 2020
• Archive & Library Study Room (including Theatre & Performance collections and the Archive of Art & Design): 18 December 2020

 

Further information on the store move is available at the following link:

https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/planning-collections-research-centre

 

Please keep this in mind as you plan your research trips to London this year, and please make sure your students and colleagues are aware.

 

Objects housed at the V&A in South Kensington will still be available for study.

 

 

 

 

4. Iranian Elements in the Pseudo-Aristotelian Sirr al-asrar (Secretum secretorum)

Maria Subtelny, Professor of Persian and Islamic Studies in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, the University of Toronto

Date: Thursday,  January 30th, 2020

Time: 7:00-8:30 pm

Room 100,  Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St. George Street

 

Abstract: The pseudo-Aristotelian Politics, known in Arabic as Sirr al-asrar (The secret of secrets) and in its medieval Latin translations as Secretum secretorum, purports to be Aristotle’s correspondence with Alexander the Great who at the time was engaged in the conquest of Persia. Probably compiled in the 10^th century, this Arabic mirror for princes exhibits the influence of many different Late Antique sources, of which the Iranian—that is to say Sasanian—usually gets short shrift in the scholarly literature. The presentation seeks to identify the Iranian elements in the Sirr al-asrar that arguably constituted the basis for this poorly understood medieval blockbuster.

 

For free registration https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/iamcc-monthly-workshop-featuring-maria-subtelny-tickets-87162783231

 

 

 

 

5. Muhammad bin Hamad Aal Thani Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization
College of Islamic Studies
Hamad bin Khalifa University

Muhammad bin Hamad Al Thani Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization announces a student writing competition entitled: Muslim Intellectual Life in 2nd Century Hijri/8th Century CE Baghdad

Undergraduate Paper Writing Competition: $10,000 top prize  on the theme of Muslim Intellectual Life in 2nd/8th c. Baghdad. Two top $10,000 prizes (one for Arabic and another for English) will be awarded. The best Arabic and English papers will be published. For further information please contact: cmccaward@hbku.edu.qa

 

 

The Awards
1) There would be separate and equal awards for both English and Arabic language papers. The awards shall be as follows:

1. a) First prize – ($10,000) Ten Thousand US dollars.
   b) Second prize – ($7,000) Seven Thousand US dollars.
   c) Third prize – ($5,000) Five Thousand US dollars.
   d) Three (3) Incentive awards of ($2,000 Two thousand US dollars) each would be
   awarded to participants selected by a Jury Committee.

Competition Themes:
1- Religion and Ethics
2- Natural Sciences
3- Philosophy
4- Literature and Poetry
5- Architecture
6- Art and Music
7- Calligraphy
8- The Art of Healing
9- Political Thought and Governance

Terms of participation in the competition:

1) Participants should be UNDERGRADUATE college/university level students only.
2) The competition is open to all Qatari and International students, both in Qatar and globally, whether Muslims or non-Muslims.
3) Participation in the competition can be in Arabic or English languages.
4) Participants must submit the registration form through the given Cognito Online Form link along with a recent photograph and a copy of their valid passport or identity card:
https://www.cognitoforms.com/HBKU3/_2ndCMCCUndergraduateCompetition2020

5) The research must be an original work, which was not published before and was not submitted to any other institution or research contest.
6) The researcher must adhere to the norms of academic writing and observe honesty in research.
7) The research paper must be written in a grammatically correct language with well-structured sentences and refined linguistic style.
8) The length of the research paper should be between 10000-11000 words.
9) The following format should be followed in writing the research paper:
a) Font type: Time New Roman
b) Font size: 12 for the text and 10 for the footnotes
c) Space between lines: 1.5
d) Page numbers: Bottom of the page
e) Footnotes: At the bottom of the page
f) References and sources: At the end of the research paper
10) Research papers would be reviewed and judged by an academic committee
11) The decision of the committee shall be final.
12) The research papers submitted for competition will be the academic property of the Center and will not be returned to the participants.
13) Participation in the contest starts as of January 01, 2020.
14)The last date for submission of papers shall be June 30, 2020. No submissions would be considered if they reach the Center after this date.

 

 

 

 

6. DEADLINE APPROACHING: AMERICAN CENTER OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH IN AMMAN FELLOWSHIPS
2020–2021

Deadline for the following fellowships is February 1, 2020

NEH Fellowship: Maximum single award of ten months for a scholar who has a Ph.D. or has completed his or her professional training. Other awards for minimum of four to nine months. Fields of research include, but are not limited to: modern and classical languages, linguistics, literature, history, jurisprudence, philosophy, archaeology, heritage studies, comparative religion, ethics, and the history, criticism, and theory of the arts. Social and political scientists are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or foreign nationals living in the U.S. three years immediately preceding the application deadline. The award for ten months is $50,000 of which $32,000 is for stipend and travel and the remainder is for ACOR room and board. Shorter award periods are prorated accordingly (i.e., six months award for $30,000 includes $19,200 for stipend and travel); residency at ACOR is required. The award must be used between June 15, 2020 and December 31, 2021. Funding for this fellowship provided by the National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutes (FPIRI).

ACOR-CAORC Post-Doctoral Fellowship: Two or more two- to six-month fellowships for post-doctoral scholars and scholars with a terminal degree in their field, pursuing research or publication projects in the natural and social sciences, humanities, and associated disciplines relating to the Middle East. U.S. citizenship required. Maximum award is $32,400. Awards must be used between June 15, 2020 and December 31, 2021 and Fellows must reside at ACOR. Funding for this fellowship is provided by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

ACOR-CAORC Fellowship: Two or more two- to six-month fellowships for masters and doctoral students. Fields of study include all areas of the humanities and the natural and social sciences. Topics should contribute to scholarship in Middle East studies. U.S. citizenship required. Maximum award is $23,800. Awards must be used between June 15, 2020 and December 31, 2021 and Fellows must reside at ACOR. Funding for this fellowship is provided by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Jennifer C. Groot Memorial Fellowship: Up to four awards of $1,500 each to support beginners in archaeological fieldwork who have been accepted as team members on archaeological projects with ASOR CAP affiliation in Jordan. Open to undergraduate or graduate students of U.S. or Canadian citizenship as well as individuals who graduated less than 12 months before February 1, 2020 and/or have been accepted to a Graduate program for Fall 2020.

Bert and Sally de Vries Fellowship: One award of $1,500 to support a student for participation on an archaeological project or research in Jordan. Senior project staff members whose expenses are being borne largely by the project are ineligible. Open to enrolled undergraduate or graduate students of any nationality except Jordanian citizens.

Harrell Family Fellowship: One award of $2,000 to support a graduate student for participation on an archaeological project or for research in Jordan. Senior project staff members whose expenses are being borne largely by the project are ineligible. Open to enrolled graduate students of any nationality except Jordanian citizens.

Pierre and Patricia Bikai Fellowship: Two awards for one month each or one two-month award for residency at ACOR in Amman. It is open to enrolled graduate students of any nationality, except Jordanian citizens, participating in an archaeological project or conducting archaeological work in Jordan. The fellowship includes room and board at ACOR and a monthly stipend of $600.

Burton MacDonald and Rosemarie Sampson Fellowship: One award for either eight weeks residency at ACOR for research in the fields of Ancient Near Eastern languages and history, archaeology, Bible studies, or comparative religion, or a travel grant to assist with participation in an archaeological field project in Jordan. The ACOR residency fellowship option includes room and board at ACOR and a monthly stipend of $400. The travel grant option provides a single payment of $2,000 to help with any project related expenses. Both options are open to enrolled undergraduate or graduate students of Canadian citizenship or landed immigrant status.

Kenneth W. Russell Fellowship: One award of $1,800 toward educational assistance for a Jordanian student enrolled in an archaeology or cultural heritage degree program in any country. For the 2020–2021 cycle, the Russell fellowship is only open to enrolled graduate students of Jordanian nationality.

James A. Sauer Fellowship: One award of $1,250 to support a graduate student participating on an archaeological project or pursuing independent research in Jordan. For the 2020–2021 cycle, the Sauer fellowship is only open to enrolled graduate students of non-Jordanian nationality.

Frederick-Wenger Memorial Endowment: Two awards of $1,500 to assist a Jordanian student with the cost of their education. Eligibility is not limited to a specific field of study, but preference will be given to study related to Jordan’s cultural heritage. Candidates must be Jordanian citizens and currently enrolled as undergraduate or graduate students in a Jordanian university.

Jordanian Graduate Student Scholarship: Four awards of $3,000 each to assist Jordanian graduate students with the annual costs of their academic programs during the period May 1, 2020 through May 31, 2021. Candidates must be Jordanian citizens and currently enrolled in either a Master’s or Doctoral program in a Jordanian university. Eligibility is limited to students in programs related to Jordan’s cultural heritage (for example: archaeology, anthropology, linguistics/epigraphy, history, conservation, museum studies, and cultural resource management related issues). Awardees who demonstrate excellent progress in their programs will be eligible to apply in consecutive years.

Please Note: NEH, CAORC, MacDonald and Sampson (residency option), and Bikai Fellows will reside at the ACOR facility in Amman while conducting their research.

 

Deadline for the following scholarship is February 1, 2020.
See the application instructions for this scholarship:

Jordanian Travel Scholarship for ASOR Annual Meeting: Two travel scholarships of $3,500 each to assist Jordanians participating and delivering a paper at the ASOR Annual meeting in mid-November in the United States. Academic papers should be submitted through the ASOR’s website (www.asor.org/am) by February 1, 2020. Final award selection will be determined by the ASOR program committee.

 

Deadline for the following scholarship is February 15, 2020.
See the application instructions for this scholarship:

ACOR Fellow MESA Award:  One award of $1,000 to a former ACOR Fellow of any nationality for participation in the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) annual meeting. Eligible applicants are anyone who had previously been awarded any ACOR Fellowship (including the named fellowships and former CLS students) and their abstract has been submitted for presentation at the 2020 MESA annual meeting. The awardee must mention the award and ACOR in the text of paper, in addition to including ACOR’s logo on the “Thank You” slide. A check for $1,000 will be mailed before the meeting takes place. To apply, please submit the abstract, CV, and cover letter to usa.office@acorjordan.edu by February 15, 2020. For more information about the MESA annual meeting, please check MESA’s website: https://mesana.org/annual-meeting/

 

 

Further information can be found at: ACOR Fellowships 2020 – 2021. Applications should be submitted online at https://orcfellowships.fluidreview.com/

 

 

 

 

7. The Department of Medieval Studies at the Central European University is pleased to announce its call for applications for graduate programs offering tuition waivers and scholarships for the majority of students: 

• 1-year MA in Late Antique, Medieval and Early Modern Studies (10 months, 12-14 students admitted / year)

• 2-year MA in Comparative History: Late Antique, Medieval and Renaissance Studies in collaboration with the Department of History (20 months, 10-12 students/year)

• 2-year MA in Cultural Heritage Studies (20 months, 8-10 students/year)
• PhD in Late Antique, Medieval and Early Modern Studies (3 to 6 years, 5-6 students / year)

We provide comparative and multi-disciplinary postgraduate education on all aspects of the history and

culture of the period between c.300 and c.1600, including the following fields of study:

• Archaeology
• Art history
• Environmental and landscape studies
• Hagiography and religious studies
• Late Antique and Byzantine studies
• Manuscript studies and palaeography
• Material culture
• Medieval Judaism
• Ottoman studies
• Philosophy and theology
• Political history and political thought
• Social and economic history
• Urban history

 

Multi-disciplinary research

We host innovative research units, such as the Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, the Medieval Central Europe Research Network (MECERN) or the Center for Religious Studies. Students also have the opportunity to specialize in fields like Jewish studies and political thought. https://medievalstudies.ceu.edu/non-degree-specializations

Vienna / Budapest: Old and New Campus Work Together

CEU is a graduate English-language university in Vienna. While the mandatory teaching will take place there, we are also considering to offer research possibilities and optional teaching in Budapest during the academic year. Please signal in your application material if you would be interested in activities in Budapest.

Free source language courses

Our Source Language Teaching Group offers students year-round courses in less commonly taught languages, including Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Latin, Syriac, Hebrew, Armenian, Old Georgian, Ottoman, Old Church Slavonic and Persian, to help students get first-hand access to key research sources. https://sourcelanguages.ceu.edu/

Flexible funding options

CEU is committed to attracting talented students and scholars from around the world and offers a variety of merit-based scholarships and tuition awards available to students from any country. https://www.ceu.edu/financialaid

Application

Learn about our admissions process, deadlines and requirements at www.ceu.edu/apply. Deadline for applicants to master’s and doctoral programs who wish to be considered for CEU financial aid: January 30, 2020.

Questions?

Ask about our programs by contacting us at  medstud@ceu.edu or  through our inquiry form: http://sits.ceu.edu/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_enq&code1=AUMEDS&code2=&code4=IPR_UDF1=CFAREC1617MEDS

 

 

 

8. 2020 Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize

We are currently accepting entries for the 2020 Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize (for theses defended successfully in 2019).  The prize is awarded annually to the writer of the best PhD dissertation on a Middle Eastern topic in the Social Sciences or Humanities awarded by a British University in the previous calendar year.

The current value of the prize is £600 for the winner and £150 for the runner up.

To enter, please send the following to administrator@brismes.org by midnight on 31 January 2020: 

• An electronic copy of your thesis
• A letter of nomination from your supervisor

 

 

 

9. 20^th ISA World Congress of Sociology on “Resurgent Authoritarianism: Sociology of New Entanglements of Religions, Politics, and Economies”, Melbourne, Australia, 24-30 July 2022

Information: https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/conferences/world-congress

 

 

 

 

10. 2 Postdoctoral Researchers for the Project “Going Local in the Perso-Islamic Lands: Afghan Geniza, Islamisation and Language in the pre-Mongol Islamic East”, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford

We are looking for someone who has (or will have by the start of the role) a relevant PhD/DPhil, and expertise in Persian, Arabic, Hebrew or other specialist knowledge of the ancient languages, traditions and history of the pre-Mongol Islamicate East. Ideally you will also have an understanding of and interest in Islamicate history, Iranian linguistics, documents and archival practices.

Deadline for applications: 7 February 2020.

Information: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BXN982/postdoctoral-researcher-golocal-project-2-posts

 

 

 

11. Intensive Summer School of Ottoman History and Paleography: “Ottoman Provincial Elites: Origins and Transformations“, Rethymno, Crete, Greece, 8-14 July 2020

The aim of the summer school is to combine students’ training in the reading of Ottoman documents with their familiarization with research methodology and the academic literature and theoretical debate about an important theme of Ottoman history.

Deadline for applications: 31 January 2020.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/11419/discussions/5674199/intensive-summer-school-ottoman-history-and-paleography-rethymno

 

 

 

Problematizing Ottoman Sunnism: Appropriation of Islamic History and Ahl al-Baytism in Ottoman Literary and Historical Writing in the Sixteenth Century

A growing number of studies argue that the Ottomans became militantly Sunni in the sixteenth century as they participated in the age of confessionalization. In defining Ottoman Sunnism, state policy and state-appointed jurists and scholars played a significant role.

BIRD Weekly #258: Three Year Anniversary of the Executions of Three Bahraini Torture Victims

15 January 2020 – Today marks the three year anniversary of the executions of torture victims, Sami Mushaima, Abbas AlSamea and Ali AlSingace, an event which initiated theresumption of the use of the death penalty in Bahrain following a 7 year de-facto moratorium.

Bahrain: Worsening Rights Record

(Beirut) – Bahrain’s human rights record worsened in 2019, as the government carried out executions, convicted critics for peaceful expression, and threatened social media activists, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2020 . The government executed three people in July, including two prisoners convicted in a mass trial marred by serious due process violations and allegations of torture.

1.The latest issue of International Journal of Islamic Architecture (IJIA), 9/1:

https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/ijia/2020/00000009/00000001

 

 

 

2. The University of Michigan Library invites applications for fellowships for research in residence. We will award Ralph C. and Mary Lynn Heid Research Fellowships to support research projects that require substantial on-site use of our special collections, including the Islamic Manuscripts Collection held in the Special Collections Research Center. Applications for support for all types of research projects — academic, creative, journalistic, etc. — will be considered, and no specific credentials are required.

Fellows are expected to be in residence for at least one week during the period from 1 July 2020 through 30 June 2021. Fellows will be awarded $1,500 for a project requiring a residence of one week or more, or $3,000 for a project requiring a residence of three weeks or more. The application deadline is 31 January 2020. Award notifications will be made by 31 March 2020.

Applicants are required to provide a description of the proposed research (500 words or fewer), a description or preliminary list (one page max) of the collection material to be consulted, a curriculum vitae or resume, and two letters of support. The fellowship opportunity is open to applicants of all nationalities. Non-U.S. citizens awarded a fellowship are required to obtain a J-1 visa. Fellowships are normally not granted to researchers who live within commuting distance of the library.

Applications must be submitted online through Submittable.

Questions, including those regarding collections that are in scope for this fellowship opportunity, may be directed to Martha O’Hara Conway, Director, Special Collections Research Center, University of Michigan Library, at moconway@umich.edu.

 

 

 

 

3. The programme for the 6^thannual Islamic Archaeology Day co-hosted by SOAS and UCL and held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on Saturday February 1^st 2020 between 11 and 6pm is below.

 

Rsegister online at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/islamic-archaeology-day-2020-tickets-84251457377.  There is an early-bird registration fee of £12 for those who register before January 10^th; registration after the 10^th is £18 (£10 for students) so we encourage you to register as soon as possible! Registration will cover a sandwich lunch, refreshments and a wine reception.

 

There will be a dinner afterwards at the Life Goddess on Store Street for anyone who would like to attend at a cost of £35pp (including 3 courses, plenty of wine and tip) so please indicate on the registration form if you are interested in joining us. We’ll confirm final numbers and the price for the dinner with all those interested in mid-January.

 

 

Islamic Archaeology Day 2020 Programme

11-6pm, Saturday, February 1^st 2020

31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY

 

Session 1 (Chair: Hugh Kennedy)

11:00 Introduction

11:15 A Recent Project on the Mosque-Palace Complex of Kufa

Michelina Di Cesare (La Sapienza-Rome)

11:40 Rayy: Citadel, the Walled City, Its Neighborhoods and Expansions, and the Suburban Zone

Renata Holod (University of Pennsylvania)

12:05 Missing bricks: exploring the long history of Dandankan (Daş Rabat)

Martina Rugiadi (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Paul Wordsworth (Oxford)

12:30 Jāṭū – Recent research on a medieval ‘Muslim City’ in Western Sicily

Nicole Mölk (University of Innsbruck)

1:00 Lunch (provided)

Session 2 – (Chair: Corisande Fenwick)

2:00 Zooarchaeological insights into social Islamisation in al-Andalus

Marcos Garcia Garcia (York)

2:25 Meat consumption and food taboos in Islamic Sicily

Veronica Aniceti (Sheffield)

2:50 Persian Blue: A New Blue Pigment or A Different Method of Egyptian Blue Production?

Rahil Alipour (UCL) and Thilo Rehren (Cyprus Institute/ UCL)

3:15 Palermo’s trade from the end of the 9th to the 11th century: written Arabic sources and archaeological data

Viva Sacco (École française de Rome)

3:45 Tea break

Session 3 – (Chair: Scott Redford)

4. 4:15 The two mosques of Baydha: The Islamic Baydha Project in Petra and its first results

Michaela Sinibaldi (Cardiff University)

4:40 Rethinking the periurban landscape in Nasrid Granada: the land of Aynadamar

Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz (Universidad de Granada)

5:05 The Mongol Conquest in Central Asia: New evidence from Merv (Turkmenistan) and Otrar (Kazakhstan)

Katie Campbell (Oxford)

5:30 Julfar: a port of the Hormuzi maritime empire

Rob Carter (UCL)

6-7pm Reception in SCR

7 :15pm Dinner (for those who have pre-booked) at the Life Goddess, Store Street

 

For more information on the Islamic Archaeology Network and its events: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/directory/islamic-archaeology-network

 

 

 

 

4. Organizers of the Second Annual Workshop on Ibadi Manuscripts & Manuscript Cultures, “Ibadi Manuscripts in European and North American Libraries,” are pleased to announce a call for participants. The workshop will be held in Lviv, Ukraine on 24-25 April 2020, and the deadline for proposals is 15 February 2020. Details can be found in Arabic, English, and French at: https://ibadistudies.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/lviv_ibadi_mss_cfp_2020.pdf

 

 

 

 

5. Intensive course: A methodological seminar on Venetian sources concerning trade in Mamluk territories and the role of Cyprus in this regard
A three-day intensive seminar on a wide range of Venetian sources related to maritime trade in the Mamluk sultanate and to the role of Cyprus in this regard will be conducted by Professor Benjamin Arbel of Tel Aviv University. The course, which will focus on late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century materials, will be held immediately before the Seventh Conference of the School of Mamlūk Studies at the Centre for Visual Arts and Research in Nicosia, from June 29 to July 1, 2020. It is intended to develop methodological, palaeographic, and analytical abilities for the study of sources related to the above-mentioned field, such as decisions of Venice’s government bodies (particularly documents on the organization and control of commercial shipping), reports by Venetian consuls and governors, notarial contracts, commercial guides and tariffs, merchant letters, etc. An advanced or intermediate ability in reading Italian texts is required.
) Since the number of the participants will be limited (a maximum of 12), those who desire to take part in the course are requested to submit a CV, a statement of purpose, and a letter of recommendation by someone familiar with your work to the following email address: sms2020nicosia@gmail.com by the end of January, 2020. Those who are selected for the course will be notified by the end of February, 2020, at which time information about the method of payment for the course fees will be provided.
The course fee is 315€, which also includes the registration fee for the subsequent conference (July 2–4). The fees must be paid by April 30, 2020. Registration and participation will not be confirmed until payment is received. Please note that any cancellations received in writing by May 14, 2020, will secure a full refund of the fees paid, minus 20%. Refunds of fees paid will not be made under any circumstances for cancellations made after May 14, 2020. Participants must make their own travel arrangements.

 

 

 

 

6. The Balzan Seminar on the formation, maintenance, and failure of states in the Muslim world before 1800

To advanced graduate students, postdocs, and holders of tenure-track positions working on relevant topics:

We are seeking to bring together an internationally recruited group of eight to ten early-career scholars working on topics related to the formation, maintenance, and failure of states in the various regions of the Muslim world prior to 1800.  We would also like to include in the group two early-career scholars working on similar topics in the non-Muslim world.  The project will last for five years, and is funded by the generosity of the Balzan Foundation.  In the first two years the group will meet twice on its own, and in the last three it will convene up to five conferences to which other scholars, including more senior ones, will also be invited.  The first meeting will be in late June or early July of 2020 at a location yet to be determined.  The project will issue in the publication of a volume the core of which will be studies written by members of the group.  The regular language of the group will be English, and basic expenses of the participants (including travel and accommodation) will be funded.  More details are available below, and preliminary inquiries can be addressed to Antoine Borrut (aborrut@umd.edu) or Michael Cook (mcook@princeton.edu).

 

Applications to join the group should be submitted by January 31, 2020.  Your application should consist of a CV, a cover letter setting out your interests and fields of expertise, two writing samples (papers or chapters, published or unpublished), and contact information for two referees.  In the cover letter you should also indicate your availability in late June or early July of 2020.  These materials should be assembled in the form of a single PDF, and sent to: nessemi@princeton.edu.  Please name the file “lastname firstname Balzan application.pdf”.

 

Antoine Borrut (University of Maryland)

Michael Cook (Princeton University)

 

 

FURTHER DETAILS

 

The Balzan seminar seeks to shed fresh light on the formation, maintenance, and failure of states in the various regions of the Muslim world prior to 1800 in a comparative perspective.  The basic idea of the project is to examine the roles not just of material resources and obstacles, but also of traditions and values, both Islamic and non-Islamic, over time and space, and the interactions between all these elements.  We may decide to delimit the themes of the project in some respects after the group has taken shape.

 

As stated above, we would like to recruit eight to ten scholars working on the Muslim world together with a couple of scholars working on comparable topics in non-Muslim contexts.  These contexts could be ancient, medieval, or early modern.  We would particularly like to secure the presence of a scholar familiar with the well-developed literature on such issues in the European context, but are also interested in recruiting a scholar working on East Asia, Hindu South Asia, or another part of the non-Muslim world.

 

The venue for the meetings and conferences remains to be determined; one consideration in making the decision will be visa requirements, particularly as they may affect scholars from the Muslim world.

 

The purpose of the first meeting (summer 2020) is for the members of the group to get to know each other and begin to establish a framework for the discussion of the issues.  What matters is not that all members of the group should agree, but that they should be in widely-based conversation with each other.  To expedite this process, we ask each member of the group to submit a month in advance a chapter or paper representative of their work for group discussion.  Another significant part of the agenda of this first meeting will be to decide the basic parameters of the position paper that each member of the group will submit a month in advance of the second meeting.

 

The first task of second meeting (summer 2021) will be to discuss the position papers.  These papers will not be presentations of detailed research but rather analytical and synthesizing discussions of agreed-upon issues within the region and period of the member’s broader field of expertise.  When this is concluded, we expect to have a well-knit group with shared interests (not necessarily shared views) that reach across space and time, and include comparison with the non-Muslim world.  The second task of the meeting will be to plan a series of up to five conferences.

 

These conferences will take place over the following three years.  They could be on particular regions or periods, or particular themes across regions and periods.  The group will identify other scholars, including more senior ones, to invite to these conferences; these would be scholars it was particularly interested in engaging with.  The group will nevertheless constitute the backbone of each conference, and several of the papers submitted will be by its members.

 

Within six months of the final conference, each member of the group will be responsible for submitting a final version of the paper discussed at the second meeting, taking account of the work of the conferences.  These papers, together with a few contributions from the senior scholars, will be peer-reviewed and published with a leading university press.  We plan to seek a contract for the volume after the second meeting.  We attach great importance to the coherence of the volume.

 

Members of the group in good standing will receive an annual research fund of $2,000 for the five years of the project.  This can be used for relevant expenses including books and travel (other than travel to the meetings and conferences, which is already covered).

 

The project will also be able to support a few manuscript review workshops outside the framework of the meetings and conferences.

 

 

 

 

7. Persian Calligraphy, Nasta’liq Script
Mondays 6:00-8:00pm 20 January 2020 — 23 March 2020.
Wednesdays 6:00-8:00pm 22 January 2020 — 25 March 2020.
SOAS University of London (room to be confirmed at registration)
10 Thornhaugh St, Bloomsbury, London WC1H 0XG

Information is available at: https://www.iranheritage.org/calligraphy.html

 

 

 

8. Why Yemen Matters: The Heritage of a Land in Crisis

Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 5-6:30 pm

White-Levy Room, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ

 

Yemen’s war and humanitarian crisis are in the news, but very little is known about the rich cultural heritage of the southwestern corner of Arabia throughout history. Also largely unknown are Yemen’s geographic and economic diversity or their impact on recent events. Yemen’s diversity owes much to conquest, trade, and migration between Yemen and Christian Ethiopia, Sasanian Iran, Ayyubid Egypt, Islamic Iran, Ottoman Turkey, the African coast and Southeast Asia.

In this panel experts on different periods of Yemeni history and its diverse contemporary contexts probe beyond current politics to share their insights and discuss potentials for future scholarly research on Yemen.

Panelists, currently scholars at IAS, include: historians of antiquity, Glen Bowersock (IAS) and Christian Robin (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris), and of the Islamic era, Hassan Ansari (IAS), Sabine Schmidtke (IAS), Daniel Varisco (American Institute for Yemeni Studies), and anthropologists Najwa Adra (IAS) and Nathalie Peutz (New York University Abu Dhabi).This event is part of the Near Eastern Studies Workshops sponsored by Professor Sabine Schmidtke (IAS).

RSVP to nitschke@ias.edu

 

 

 

9. The newly established, fully open-access Journal of the Contemporary Study of Islam is now accepting submissions for its first issue, to be released at the end of March 2020. 

The Journal of the Contemporary Study of Islam was launched by the Institute for the Contemporary Study of Islam, based in the UK, to promote and disseminate research related to Islam and Muslims in the contemporary world. Although we may consider any submissions that fall within the scope of JCSI, we are keen to publish research articles that deal with some of the most pressing issues that Muslims face in the contemporary world, such as new approaches to Islamic law, new religious trends in the Muslim world (e.g. new atheism, deism, and agnosticism), Islam and politics, sectarianism in the Muslim world, Islam and social change, Islam and human rights, Islamophobia, Muslim-Christian relations, new methodological developments in Quranic studies, and hadith studies.

JCSI aims to reach a wider readership beyond academia, and thus we suggest authors use accessible language in their submissions. The journal is open-access, free of cost for authors and readers alike, and provides unrestricted online access to its readers.

JCSI is a member of Crossref, an independent membership association for building shared technologies. Crossref was launched in early 2000 as a cooperative effort among publishers to enable citation linking in journals using the Digital Object Identifier, or DOI. Our DOI prefix is 10.37264 and our ISSN is 2633-7282 (online). We are in the process of applying for membership to the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and CLOCKSS archival service.  

JCSI has a prestigious advisory board and will be covered by the leading relevant indexing services.

Interested scholars are invited to submit their articles for consideration at https://contemporarystudyofislam.org/index.php/jcsi/about/submissions

Manuscripts will undergo a process of blind peer review. Author guidelines are available at https://contemporarystudyofislam.org/index.php/jcsi/about/submissions

 

 

 

10. ISMC Event: Recognising Islam in Europe and North America Mosques, the Congregation and Anglophone Islam
London – 5 February 2020

By Abdul-Azim Ahmed, Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK

There are currently somewhere in the region of 2000 mosques in Britain, with many more being established every year, and those that are established, growing and expanding in size. The importance of the mosque to British Muslims, and the role of the congregation in establishing and maintaining them, is an unexplored aspect of contemporary Islamic studies. In this lecture, Abdul-Azim Ahmed explores the role of the Muslim congregation in Britain, and more widely, within Anglophone Islam, as a means of doing and producing religion together.
Dr Abdul-Azim Ahmed is Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK. His doctoral study was an ethnography of a British mosque, exploring the everyday, rhythm, and sacred space. He is continuing his research, but focusing on the prominence of the congregation amongst Muslims in diaspora, and its relationship to an emerging category, that of Anglophone Islam. He has also previously worked in the third-sector in Wales, managing a youth work project and undertaking policy research.

Wednesday 5 February 2020, 18.00-19.30
Atrium Conference Room,
Aga Khan Centre,
10 Handyside Street,
London N1C 4DN

For the full programme: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SwToy-v2BuV7dchg4TOKEdx9g-y14jRj/view

This event is free but booking is essential:
To attend in person, please click here.
To attend online, please click here.

 

 

 

 

11. Workshop: “Western Intervention in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings: Political Containment, Neoliberalism, and Imperial Legacies”, University of Oxford, 10-11 March 2020

This workshop will situate current military and development interventions into a larger context and debate about (neo)colonialism, governance, the state, sovereignty, and to encourage a systematic treatment of the historical continuities and ruptures between the present and the explicitly imperial political contexts of the early twentieth century.

Information: https://www.area-studies.ox.ac.uk/article/call-for-papers-western-intervention-in-the-wake-of-the-arab-uprisings-political-containment

 

 

 

 

12. Assistant Professor in Global Public History (Focus on the Islamic World since 1800), York University, Ontario, Canada

Required qualifications include a completed PhD in History or a related discipline, and an ongoing program of research in the area of specialization. Candidates are expected to demonstrate excellence or the promise of excellence in teaching and in scholarly research.

Deadline for applications: 25 January 2020.

Information: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=59541

 

 

 

 

13. Non Tenure-track Instructor in Islamic Studies at the Rank of Lecturer (2020-2021), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

The ideal candidate will have the PhD in hand as well as proven ability to teach in at least three of the following areas: Sufism, Islamic Intellectual Traditions, Islamic Scriptures, Shi’ism, Islamic Mystical Literature, the Prophet Muhammad, an introduction to Islam, and a survey of religions of the Western World.

Review of applications will begin on 14 February 2020. Information: http://jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/107353

 

 

 

 

14. New Posts at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University, Canberra

Lecturer (Iranian Studies with a Focus on Political Science and IR Related to Iran)

Deadline for application: 3 February 2020. Information: https://jobs.anu.edu.au/cw/en/job/534784/lecturer-iranian-studies

Senior Lecturer (Politics and International Relations of the Arabic Speaking Middle East)

Deadline for application: 2 March 2020. Information: https://jobs.anu.edu.au/cw/en/job/530822/senior-lecturer-politics-and-international-relations-of-the-arabic-speaking-middle-east

Lecturer (Sociology of Islam and Muslim Societies)

Deadline for application: 2 March 2020. Information: https://jobs.anu.edu.au/cw/en/job/535130/lecturer-sociology-of-islam-and-muslim-societies

Postdoctoral Fellow (Central Asian Studies)

Deadline for application: 2 March 2020. Information: https://jobs.anu.edu.au/cw/en/job/535158/postdoctoral-fellow-central-asian-studies

 

 

 

 

15. Intensive Summer Course in Modern Standard Arabic, Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, 29 May – 24 July 2020

Participants will develop their Arabic language skills, learn about North Africa, and experience various aspects of Moroccan culture through club activities and field trips.

Deadline for application: 24 May 2020. Information: http://www.aui.ma/aranas/

 

 

 

 

16. Teach English or Music to Palestine and Syrian Refugee Children in the Camps of Lebanon, 29 June – 8 August 2020

Volunteers are invited to provide English language instruction and other recreational enrichment activities (such as music, theater, dance, film, yoga, and creative writing), while living and working in the refugee camps of Lebanon.

Deadline for application: 12 February 2020.

Information: https://leap-program.org/?na=v&nk=410-cab1fdffad&id=66

 

 

18. Lecturer in Arabic

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures is seeking a lecturer in Arabic, beginning on August 15, 2020 for a full-time, non-tenure-track, nine-month position.  This appointment may be renewable, subject to performance, department needs, and available funding. The preferred candidate will have formal training in the teaching of foreign language and specifically in the teaching of Arabic as a foreign language.

The successful candidate will have the ability to teach elementary through advanced Modern Standard Arabic courses, as well as any of the languages taught in the department (e.g., French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish) at the elementary level or higher.

Responsibilities include teaching undergraduate courses (12 credit hours per semester), meeting with students during regular weekly office hours, and collaborating with the program director on course and curriculum development.  Superior proficiency in Arabic, intermediate proficiency in the secondary language, and a solid knowledge of English are required.

Qualifications include a commitment to excellence in Arabic language pedagogy, a minimum of one year of college-level teaching experience, and a Ph.D. in Arabic literature or linguistics, or a related field, in hand by July 31, 2020.

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.  Preference will be given to candidates whose materials are received by January 31, 2020

The application should consist of a cover letter, curriculum vitae, transcripts, and three letters of recommendation. Materials should be submitted through Interfolio:  https://apply.interfolio.com/71953

 

Conference Call for Papers: Historicizing the Shiʿi hadith Corpus

Hosted by Leiden University Centre for Islam and Society (LUCIS) and Shiʿi Studies Unit, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London (IIS)

Date: June 24-26 2020

Location: Leiden University, the Netherlands

Convenors: Hassan Ansari, Edmund Hayes, Gurdofarid Miskinzoda

Abstract deadline: January 31st 2020

This conference will focus on the processes which led to the early production, evolution, dissemination and canonisation of a set of distinctively Shiʿi hadith corpora. These corpora are both clearly linked to the greater project of hadith in Islam, but they also follow certain, understudied processes specific to the Shiʿi communities. In the conference, both the specificities of the various Shiʿi hadith corpora (Twelver, Zaydi, Ismaili, Nuṣayri, and so on) will be addressed, as well as their links and cleavages with hadith corpora preserved by other Muslim traditions. The focus of this conference will be the period in which the Shiʿi hadith corpora were initially formed and canonized, and therefore will aim at contributions dealing with the years roughly 700-1250 CE, however extensions to this period will be accepted if the case demands it.

This conference will bring together scholars working on the formation and canonisation of Shiʿi hadith, to summarise progress, and sketch out future directions and lacunae. The aim of the conference is to produce a landmark publication for the study of Shiʿi hadith, to be published as part of the Institute of Ismaili Studies’ Shiʿi Heritage Series, and all participants will be expected to submit their papers for consideration in the resulting volume.

Participants in the conference will be asked to present original research which illuminates and reflects upon the key sub-fields of the study of Shiʿi hadith, including particular figures, geographical schools, texts, social contexts, topics and methods. Thus, even if contributions are on a narrowly focused topic, it is essential they address the larger questions and framework of the conference, indicating how their work relates to work that has been done in the larger field, and how it fills a gap or strengthens a direction of research which will be salutary to the field. Contributions might address the following areas for the formative period of the Imami, Ismaili, Zaydi or other Shiʿi traditions:

· Definitions of hadith and hadith studies (comparing Imami, Ismaili, Zaydi perspectives)

· Genres and terms, such as hadith, khabar/akhbār), aṣl, kitāb, muṣannaf, jāmiʿ, masāʾil, nawādir

· Authenticity, dating, transmission history

· Manuscripts of Shiʿi hadith works

· Dealing with particular Imams and the bodies of hadith ascribed to them

· Mechanisms of production, dissemination and circulation of hadith during the lifetime of the Imams and thereafter

· Hadith relating to a particular event, such as the Occultation or the rise of the Fatimids

· Hadith in a particular era of production and compilation, such as the Buyid or Seljuk eras

· Hadith in a particular location, such as Qum or Qayrawan

· Post-classical hadith compilations

· Particular hadith compilers and their works, such as Qāḍī Nuʿmān or Ibn Babawayh

· Hadith of Nusayris, Druze or “ghulāt”

· Hadith and history writing

· Hadith and law

· Hadith and theology, philosophy or mysticism

· Hadith and ethics, piety, practice, liturgy (prayer, ziyāra, etc.)

· Exegetical hadith/ hadith in exegesis

· Apocalyptic hadith

· Science, medicine and magic

· Hadith, adab and poetry

· Hadith and heresiography

· Bio-bibliographical literature (rijāl and fihrist)

· Hadith criticism and commentary

· Isnād criticism

Details

Please send an abstract of around 300 words to e.p.hayes@hum.leidenuniv.nl by January 31st 2020.

Draft papers should be pre-circulated 1 month before the conference.

Final chapters should be submitted for the edited volume by January 31st 2021.

Subsidies for travel and accommodation will be available.

Setting Grounds for Violence: Saudi Influence in Malaysia – Shia Rights Watch

Shia Rights Watch condemns violence-inciting speech at the Pertubuhan Ilmuan Malaysia Convention in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in early January of 2020. Communication with both Malaysian and Saudi Arabian authorities have been initiated to address the abhorrent marginalization of Shia Muslims by Saudi presence in the nation of Malaysia.

Saudi Arabia arrests wanted man in Eastern Province: state TV

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia on Tuesday arrested a man it said had opened fire on a security patrol in the eastern Al-Qatif region, a regular flashpoint between the Sunni Muslim dominated government and minority Shi’ites. State TV identified the man as Mohammed Hussein Al Ammar and said he had been wanted since 2016 for attacks on security forces and robbing vehicles transporting cash.

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