Archive for February 6th, 2021

1.Upcoming conference: Islamic Traditions in ‘Greater Khurāsān’ 

You are warmly invited to attend Islamic Traditions in ‘Greater Khurāsān: Ismailis, Sufis and Sunnis’ (February 24 – 27, 2021) convened by Dr Dagikhudo Dagiev at The Institute of Ismaili Studies.

The goal of this international conference is to explore a variety of manifestations of Islamic culture over a vast geographical area situated in the easternmost part of the Islamic world, including contemporary Central Asia, Afghanistan, north-eastern Iran, the Xinjiang region of western China and northern and western Pakistan. We have chosen to use the medieval geographic term ‘Greater Khurāsān’ to refer to this area.

Click below to learn more, download the conference programme, and register to attend.

 

Dates: 24 – 27 February 2021
Time: Sessions start from 11.30 GMT
Location: Online (Zoom)*

*Please note that the conference will be recorded, and may be published online by the Institute for use in teaching, research and marketing.

 

For further information and registration, please click the above link.

 

 

2.  Qur’an manuscripts from Southeast Asia in the British Library

The British Library’s collections of manuscripts from the Islamic world of Southeast Asia were largely formed during the early 19th century by officials in the service of the East India Company. These early colonial philologists eagerly sought out original literary, historical and legal texts composed in local languages such as Malay, Javanese and Bugis, but paid little attention to the rich corpus of writings in Arabic, constituting the bedrock of Islamic scholarship in the region. Manuscripts of the Qur’an, commentaries and prayerbooks were usually ignored, being regarded as poor copies of canonical texts already well known from multiple ‘better’ and older prototypes from the Middle East.

 

 

 

3. 18 Feb event – Black Monuments Matter – an insider’s guide to the exhibition.

The Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations and the Zamani Project at the University of Cape Town are pleased to present an online talk, chaired by Professor Stephane Pradines and given by three of the scholars and surveyors who designed and delivered the site.

Ralph Schroeder, Bruce McDonald and Roshan Bhurtha will cover an introduction to Zamani including some interesting documented sites and the recent House of Wonders collapse in Zanzibar.

The lecture will offer an overview of the Black Monuments Matter website and will share an in-depth look at three of the sites; Zimbabwe, Kua and Meroe using video and modelling to illustrate key points with additional insight into how data was used in the creation of the exhibition. The talk will conclude with  a preview of the team’s upcoming projects.

Black Monuments Matter recognises and highlights African contributions to world history by exhibiting World Heritage Monuments and architectural treasures from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Black Monuments Matter aspires to create links to living African heritage by making it visible, assessable and known to as many people as possible. In general, we would like to raise awareness of and respect towards Black cultures and Africa’s past to a larger audience.

Black monuments matter and black cultures matter. Sites and monuments are physical representations of histories, heritage and developments in society. This exhibition aims to display the diversity and richness of African cultures as part of world history through the study of African monuments; bringing awareness and pride of African roots and contributions to other cultures.

The African continent has numerous sites and monuments of historic and cultural importance, and our exhibition showcases some of its diversity and richness. From the pyramids of Sudan, the Great Mosque of Timbuktu, to the Swahili cities of East Africa, each site is presented in a virtual room and is introduced by short texts written by African scholars.

Through an approach founded on the latest knowledge and technology developed by the Zamani Project, this online exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to learn more about the glorious monuments and sites of African heritage and black cultures across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Time 

18 February 2021 at 12 noon London time

Join Online via Zoom

Meeting ID: 981 1417 2743
Passcode: 017672

Register here for updates.

 

 

 

 

4. From Malabar to Coromandel: Deccan Heritage, Art and Culture

Seminars and lectures co-organized by the Deccan Heritage Foundation, the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge, and the HH Sri Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar Foundation, Mysore, presenting the pioneering scholarship in various cultural fields from both the Northern and Southern Deccan regions of India.

MARCH 2021

• “The Idea of Sacral Kingship between Islamic and Turco-Mongol Concepts of Politics”

  Evrim Binbas, University of Bonn, March 5, 1pm GMT

• “Written in Stone: Traces of Medieval Architects”

  Subhashini Kaligotla, Yale University, March 26, 2pm GMT

 

APRIL 2021

• “Balsam and Betel Nut Palm: Botanical Representation in the Early Modern Deccan”

Nicolas Roth, Harvard University, April 9, 1pm GMT

• “Jaina Temple Architecture of Coastal Karnataka: Climatic Dependencies and Artistic Freedoms”

Julia A. B. Hegewald, University of Bonn, April 30, 1pm GMT

 

MAY 2021

• “Deccani Portraits in Jahangir’s Albums”

Navina Najat Haidar, Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 14, 1pm GMT

• “Discovering the Deccan”

William Dalrymple in conversation with George Michell, May 28, 1pm GMT

 

JUNE 2021

• “The Persianate World: What is it? How did it appear? Why did it Collapse?”

Richard Eaton, University of Arizona, June 11, 2pm GMT

• “Dressing in the Deccan: Clothing and Identity at the Courts of Central India”

Marika Sardar, Aga Khan Museum, June 25, 1pm GMT

 

Registration: https://www.deccanheritagefoundation.uk/events/webinars

 

Centre for Visual Culture Seminar: New York, Lahore: In Dialogue with Shahzia Sikander and Salman Toor

March 10, 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM GMT

Shahzia Sikander changed the game of the art world with her breakthrough at the Whitney Biennial in 1997. This year, Salman Toor, debuted his first solo museum exhibition at the Whitney, How Will I Know. In June, Sikander will open a career retrospective, Extraordinary Realities, at the Morgan Library & Museum co-organised with the RISD Museum. Centered on issues of gender, identity, global affiliations, appropriation, and narrative, this conversation engages the relationship between two artists on how they have navigated the shifting worlds of New York and Pakistan. In dialogue, we will pause and reflect over how we got here and anticipate where we are going.

Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/centre-for-visual-culture-seminar-2020-21-tickets-138079279843

 

 

 

 

5. NES Lecture: The European Qur’ān: The Qur’ān in European Religious and Cultural History, February 10, 2021, 12:00 pm (EST)

Mercedes García-Arenal (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [CCHS-CSIC], Madrid), Jan Loop (Københavns Universitet), John Tolan (Université de Nantes) and Roberto Tottoli (Universita degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale). Hosted by Sabine Schmidtke (School of Historical Studies, IAS).

“The European Qur’ān” (EuQu: https://euqu.eu/) is an ongoing project funded by a Synergy Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), dedicated to the important place of the Muslim holy book in European cultural and religious history. From the 12th century to the 19th, European Christians read the Qur’ān in Arabic, translated it into Latin, Greek and various vernacular languages, refuted it in polemical treatises, and mined it for information about Islam and Arab history. The “European Qur’ān”, in its various manifestations (Arabic editions, Latin and vernacular translations) should be conceived as scholarly efforts to understand Islam; as weapons in polemical exchanges between divergent versions of Christianity; as financial ventures on the part of printers and publishers; and as tools for the understanding of Semitic languages, Arab history and culture, and the history of monotheism.

The team that leads the project —Mercedes García-Arenal, John Tolan, Roberto Tottoli, Jan Loop— with their respective units in Madrid, Nantes, Naples and Copenhagen, will be dealing with various aspects of the transmission, translation, uses and study of the Qur’ān in Europe, on the role the Qur’ān played in debates about European cultural and religious identities, and more broadly about the place of the Qur’ān in European culture.

Register in advance for this webinar here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

 

 

 

 

6. ReOrienting Histories of Medicine, Encounters along the Silk Roads

Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim

Bloomsbury 2021

 

 

 

 

7. Leiden University – Lessons in codicology and palaeographybased on manuscripts from the Middle East, Islamic Africa and beyond

This is a collection of lessons in codicology – the study of handwritten documents or codices – and palaeography from the Muslim world. The lessons will guide you through the ways books were made and used there before the printing press, by investigating the traces left by producers, owners and readers of manuscripts. Using your mouse, you will come close to people in the manuscript age as they produced, transmitted, cherished and “consumed” the written texts.

The lessons are centered around fully digitalised manuscripts from the oriental collection of Leiden University Libraries. They include samples in Arabic, Persian and Coptic, from cultures ranging from the Maghrib to Mughal India. The lessons can be read in any order. All include suggestions for further reading and questions (with answers) or assignments.

 

 

 

8. I am writing on behalf of the Editorial Board of Essays in History (EiH) to announce that the journal is currently soliciting submissions for its upcoming fifty-fourth volume. We welcome submissions from scholars of the history of Middle Eastern politics.

Essays in History (EiH) is an open access journal for emerging historians. EiH publishes peer-reviewed articles and historiographical essays in all areas of historical inquiry, as well as reviews of the most recent scholarship. The journal has been staffed by graduate students at the University of Virginia since 1954. EiH aims to provide a supportive experience for our editors, authors, and referees. The editorial team is committed to ensuring that equity, anti-racism, and accessibility are at the heart of who we are, how we operate, and the work we publish.

Essays in History welcomes submissions from graduate students, scholars who have received their PhD within the last five years, and accomplished undergraduates. The deadline for submissions is April 2, 2021. You may submit your work or volunteer to serve as an anonymous referee through our website: https://www.essaysinhistory.com

Regards,

Alice King, Managing Editor,

The Editorial Team of Essays in History

essays_in_history@virginia.edu

 

 

 

 

9. Arab Translators Association (ArTA) is pleased to invite you to attend the Lecture titled:

Translation as an intercultural encounter

Dr. Ayman Nazzal

An-Najah National University, West Bank, Palestine

Day: Wednesday 10/2/2021

Time: 8 p.m. Jerusalem Time, 6 p.m. GMT

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89615401270

Free Certificate of Attendance sent to your email on the same day.

Dr. Ayman Nazzal:

Assistant Professor: Taught courses in General Linguistics, syntax and semantics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and Rhetoric & Public Communication

PH.D. in General Linguistics, Speech Communication, and Humanistic Studies

State University of New York at Albany, Albany, N.Y. 1996-2001

M.A. Degree in General/theoretical Linguistics & Cognitive Science

NYU, New York, N.Y. 1990-1993 Part-time

M.A. Degree in Applied Linguistics & Pedagogy

S.U.N.Y AT Stony Brook, N.Y.

Page: https://www.facebook.com/ArabTranslatorsAssociation /

Translation Courses:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ArTACourses/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQSdhuPN8G050I_IyqxoAQA

 

 

 

 

10. The programme of the second semester of the monthly seminar “Companies, Policies and Cultures of the Iranian World” organized by the Iranian World Research Center (CeRMI, UMR 8041) can be accessed at:

https://cermi.cnrs.fr/seminaire-de-recherche/