Archive for 2024

1.Pourdavoud Lecture Series Video Available: Elspeth Dusinberre

We are pleased to share with you the recorded lecture of Dr. Elspeth Dusinberre (University of Colorado-Boulder). She presented “The Collapse of Empire: Gordion’s Transition from the Achaemenid to the Hellenistic World” for the Pourdavoud Institute on February 21, 2024.

https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/video/the-collapse-of-empire-gordions-transition-from-the-achaemenid-to-the-hellenistic-world/

2. Call for Papers – Arabic Pasts: Histories and Historiographies deadline 31st May 2024

Arabic Pasts is co-organized by Hugh Kennedy (SOAS), James McDougall (Oxford), Lorenz Nigst (AKU-ISMC), and Sarah Bowen Savant (AKU-ISMC)
Aga Khan Centre, London and online

3-5 October 2024 Arabic Pasts: Histories and Historiographies
This annual exploratory and informal workshop offers the opportunity to reflect on methodologies, research agendas, and case studies for investigating history writing in Arabic in the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond in any period from the seventh century to the present.
We are interested in papers that consider the practical and conceptual challenges of working on history writing in Arabic. Papers might elucidate the following sorts of questions:
How did adherents of different confessional or juristic traditions, men and women, and members of different social classes within societies that became “Islamic” imagine the shape and meaning of their specific societies’ own pasts, and their relation to the universal history of the Islamic community? Which ways of writing, remembering, or commemorating did they develop?
How can marginalised communities and varieties of Arabic be given due attention?
How can we broaden our scope beyond just textual historiography?
In what ways do educational institutions, museums, media organisations and proponents of heritage use history writing to shape loyalties and senses of belonging in society?
How can works of fiction contribute to our understanding of the past?
How is the past used in creative arts, re-enactment, games, and augmented reality?
How can we explore the past algorithmically? Can digital methods enhance our understanding of the past? Can they also limit or even alter it? Which new digital tools are being developed? What seem to be particularly promising approaches? What is lacking?
How does, or could, artificial intelligence alter historiographical work?
Contributions are invited from scholars at all career levels, addressing any period and any part of the Middle East and North Africa, broadly defined. This year we anticipate running the workshop from the Aga Khan Centre in London with the possibility to have an online component featuring participants who are unable to travel to the UK.
Arabic Pasts is co-convened by Hugh Kennedy (SOAS), James McDougall (Oxford), Lorenz Nigst (AKU-ISMC), and Sarah Bowen Savant (AKU-ISMC).
Please submit an abstract of 300 words or less in word document by Friday, 31 May 2024to ArabicPastsConf@aku.edu . Please specify whether you wish to participate in London or online.

The workshop dates: 3-5 October 2024. For more information, please click here.
The workshop is held in English.

3. “Wondrous intricacy: the place of ‘carpet pages’ in Islamic art” by Dr Umberto Bongianino
Time: 5.30pm – 7.30pm BST

Date: Wednesday, 22 May 2024

Venue: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 22A Old Court Place, W8 4PL, London 



Register to attend in-person: https://Alfurqan-Bongianino-talk.eventbrite.co.uk

4. Journée d’étude “Panorama sur la littérature pashto contemporaine en exil” – 21 mai 2024 – Maison de la recherche de l’Inalco

Nous avons le plaisir de vous inviter à la journée d’étude “Panorama sur la littérature pashto contemporaine en exil“, qui se tiendra à la Maison de la recherche de l’INaLCO, 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris (Salle LO.01), le 21 mai 2024 (10h-17h30).

Cette journée est organisée par :

• Sarah Hermann, doctorante en socio-anthropologie (INaLCO, UMR 8041 – CeRMI)
• Matteo De Chiara, Professeur de pashto, (INaLCO, UMR 8041 – CeRMI)

Avec le soutien de l’école doctorale de l’INaLCO et du projet ANR PLIC (Pashto Literature between Identity and Contact / La littérature pashto entre identité et contact)

Vous retrouverez le programme et les informations détaillées de la journée sur le site web du CeRMI :

https://cermi.cnrs.fr/journee-detudes-panorama-sur-la-litterature-pashto-contemporaine-en-exil/

Accès aux locaux

L’INaLCO a mis en place des mesures supplémentaires d’accès au bâtiment (voir les détails : http://www.inalco.fr/actualite/communique-inalco-passe-posture-vigipirate-urgence-attentat)

Toute personne extérieur à l’établissement, devra se munir d’une pièce d’identité valable, et présenter le programme imprimé de la journée à l’accueil si nécessaire.

5. The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies and the Invisible East Programme at the University of Oxford present a new series of monthly online seminars about archives and documents. 

Convened by Arezou Azad and Mohamad Tavakoli, the seminars are held monthly online, via Zoom.

Register for the full series at this link.

https://utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvd-GvqjgoGdM0BEPAFqUSCvO6E-57kwAp#/registration

6. Christian C. Sahner, The Definitive Zoroastrian Critique of Islam, Monday Majlis Online, 20th of May, 17: 00-18:30 (UK time)

Christian C. Sahner 

The Definitive Zoroastrian Critique of Islam

Monday Majlis Online on the 20^th of May, 17: 00-18:30 (UK time)

Centre for the Study of Islam, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter.

Register please on this link: 

https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMude6urjooGN0CQOy5AXHdP5ucq6RcGx3Z

7. Course “Digital Analysis of Prosopographical Data”

On 16-20 September 2024, the School of Arabic Studies (EEA, CSIC) will host the course “Digital Analysis of Prosopographical Data (with the programming language R)”, organized by Mayte Penelas (EEA, CSIC) and Maxim Romanov (Universität Hamburg). Víctor Ropero (EEA, CSIC) is the secretary of the course. It will be taught by Maxim Romanov (Universität Hamburg), with the collaboration of Covadonga Baratech Soriano (ILC, CSIC), Alicia González Martínez (Universität Hamburg) and Hamid Reza Hakimi (Universität Hamburg).

This course is designed to provide a practical introduction to the R programming language, with a specific focus on analyzing prosopographical data for historians. The primary dataset we will study in this course is the Prosopografía de ulemas de al-Andalus (PUA) Project (https://www.eea.csic.es/pua/), which contains the most extensive information on Muslim scholars from al-Andalus. It is is organized within the framework of the projects Al-Andalus and the Magrib in the Islamic East: mobility, migration and memory, AMOI-II (PID2020-116680GB-I00, funded by MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and The Evolution of Islamic Societies (c.600-1600 CE): Algorithmic Analysis into Social History (funded by the German Research Foundation [DFG] within the framework of the Emmy Noether Program).

For further information, please contact us at course.amoi-eis@eea.csic.es.

https://www.eea.csic.es/actividades-eea/course-digital-analysis-of-prosopographical-data/

https://www.csic.es/es/node/126208

8. Online: Please join the National Museum of Asian Art online on Tuesday, May 28, 12–1 pm EDT, for Ancient Yemen: Looking East and West.

Ancient Yemen was a cultural and economic hub that reached its height between the 1st millennium BCE and the turn of the CE. The ancient kingdoms that ruled in Yemen were key players in the establishment of the incense trade, which fostered economic as well as cultural exchanges between neighboring and distant regions.
This program looks at ancient Yemen’s relationship in a broader geographical context. In particular, it will discuss the recent research in Ethiopia that has shed light on the close relationship of Yemen with east Africa and will look at Yemen’s connection eastward with India.
Speakers Include: 
Dr. Iris Gerlach, Head of the Sanaa Branch, German Archaeological Institute, Oriental Department, Germany
Dr. Alexia Pavan, University L’Orientale of Naples, Italy

Register here

View event details here

Contact Information

Lizzie Stein, Scholarly Programs and Publications Specialist

National Museum of Asian Art

Contact Email

AsiaScholarlyProgram@si.edu

URL

https://asia.si.edu/whats-on/events/search/event:174268338/

9. Call for Papers: Translation and Multilingualism in the Premodern Islamic World(s), Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

focusing on the role of translation and multilingualism in the premodern Islamic world(s). The conference will be held in person from November 15th to 16th, 2024, at the Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. You can access the Call for Papers (CFP) through this link:

 https://www.academia.edu/119236124/Call_for_Papers_Translation_and_Multilingualism_in_the_Premodern_Islamic_World_s_Institute_of_Islamic_Studies_Freie_Universit%C3%A4t_Berlin_Germany_15_16_November_2024_organized_by_Hany_Rashwan_United_Arab_Emirates_University_UAE_and_Florian_Zemmin_Freie_Universit%C3%A4t_Berlin_Germany_

10. The Tenth Biennial Convention of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies

ASPS/Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies

August 12-16, 2025

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

CALL FOR PAPERS:

The Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) is pleased to announce

its Tenth Biennial Convention, to take place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, August 12-16,

2025. The meeting will be hosted by Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies.

The Deadline for Submission of Abstracts is October 31, 2024.

https://www.persianatesocieties.org/abstracts_form/

11. ONLINE Table ronde « Actualités de la recherche en islamologie à l’IFEA », Institut Francais d`Etudes Anatoliennes (IFEA), Istanbul, 21 mai 2024, 9h00 – 11:00 CEST

L’objectif de cette table ronde est de présenter la jeune recherche en islamologie à l’IFEA, dont les sujets, les matériaux documentaires et les méthodes ne s’inscrivent pas nécessairement dans ce cadre. Il s’agira ainsi de mettre en dialogue des pratiques de l’islamologie, en revenant sur l’apport de chacune, en interrogeant les sources et les méthodes et en réfléchissant sur les frontières entre les disciplines.

Information et inscription : https://www.ifea-istanbul.net/index.php/fr/evenements/eve-hist/table-ronde-actualites-de-la-recherche-en-islamologie-a-l-ifea

12. Journée d’études “Normes et pratiques dans la documentation juridique islamique (II)”, CRH, Paris, 4 juin 2024, 9h30 – 17h30 CEST

La journée d’études, organisée par Naveen Kanalu Ramamurthy (CRH, Ladéhis-GEHM), a pour objectif d’analyser la relation entre les normes et les pratiques dans la documentation juridique islamique. Dans une perspective comparative, elle s’attachera à faire émerger et à expliciter tant les similarités que les divergences existantes entre les grandes puissances de la terre d ’Islam où prévalait le droit musulman.

Information et programme : http://crh.ehess.fr/index.php?9338

13. Stage intensif de langue arabe: “Option recherche sciences humaines et sociales”, IRMC Tunis, 19 juin – 16 juillet 2024

Ce cours comprend 100 heures de cours : 60 heures d’arabe littéral, 25 heures d’arabe dialectal et 15 heures de cours d’arabe appliqué aux SHS.

Inscription au plus tard le 31 mai 2024. Information : https://irmcmaghreb.org/stage-intensif-de-langue-arabe/

Introducing: Studies in Shiʿi Materiality
Series editors: Karen Ruffle, University of Toronto & Babak Rahimi, University of California, San Diego

This new, interdisciplinary book series is the first dedicated to material practices, ritual, embodiment and the sensorium in Shiʿism, seeking to understand Islamic practices in everyday contexts from a broad historical and theoretical perspective.

> Focuses on lived Shiʿism as a lived tradition that is multiplex and creative rather than singular in expression
> Engages with all periods of history
> Features studies of Shiʿi communities including Ithna ʿAshari, Ismaʿili (Nizari and Tayyibi), Zaydi, Druze, Bektashi, Alevi, Nusayri, and ʿAlid traditions including Sufism
> Covers Shiʿi and ʿAlid traditions in South, Central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Turkey, the Caucasus, Africa, Europe, North America and Australia
> Encourages interdisciplinary approaches and methods

Find out more on the Studies in Shiʿi Materiality series page.

Bahrain pardoned 1584 unjustly jailed prisoners, yet 600 remain behind bars and on death row

For the latest ADHRB newsletter, click here.

1.ONLINE Book Talk Sinem Arcak Casale (University of Arizona), QhoD, Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Vienna, 23 May 2024, 18:00 h CEST

Sinem Erdoğan İşkorkutan will talk on her book: “The 1720 Imperial Circumcision Celebrations in Istanbul: Festivity and Representation in the Early Eighteenth Century”

Deadline for registration: 20 May 2024.

Information: https://qhod.net/context:qhod/sdef:Context/get?mode=activities&locale=en

2. HYBRID International Conference “Modern Challenges to Islamic Law: Exploring New Pathways”, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg, 6-7 June 2024

This international conference in honour of Prof. Shaheen Sardar Ali (University of Warwick, UK) takes up the urgent issues of modernity that Islamic law is faced with in various ways, including Islamic constitutionalism, family law reform in the Muslim world, and the epistemology of Islamic law by looking at how Islamic law is being taught.

Information and registration: https://www.mpipriv.de/1790969/6-7-june-2024-modern-challenges-to-islamic-law-exploring-new-pathways.html

3. PhD Position in the Project “ALiDiM – Arabic Linguistic Discourse in the Making”, Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca` Foscari University of Venice

Applicants should hold a master’s degree in a field pertinent to the PhD program and possess a keen interest in Arabic linguistics and text analysis. A background in Arabic studies and knowledge of Arabic and English are essential, while additional experience in linguistics, philology and DH is advantageous. Candidates shall submit a proposal for research that they aim to pursue.

Deadline for applications: 23 May 2024.

Information: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CaYKHHYNHlEhowl-BLfUozosaZWXbHE-/view

4. Postdoctoral Fellowship (1 Year) on “Primary Sources in Early Arabic Grammatical Texts”, Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca` Foscari University of Venice

Using a text-based approach, the project will study key Arabic linguistic works from the 7th to the 10th century, considering both local Arab-Islamic frameworks and external influences. Ultimately, the project seeks to develop a new understanding of the origin and formation of the Arabic linguistic tradition, tracing origins and reception of the linguistic themes and identifying the factors that contributed to the process of language standardization of Classical Arabic.

Deadline for applications: 21 May 2024.

Information: https://apps.unive.it/common2/file/download/assegni_ricerca/662116de21adf

5. Prize for the best Dissertation on the Medieval Middle East (500-1500 CE), Middle East Medievalists (MEM)

Requirements: Dissertations must have been filed and defended between 1 June 2022 and 31 May 2024.

Applicants must be current members of Middle East Medievalists or should join MEM .

Deadline for applications: 30 June 2024.

Information: https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20030160/announcing-middle-east-medievalists-mem-biennial-dissertation-prize

6. Joint English-language M.A. Program in Ottoman History (2 Years), Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete/Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH

Students are required to complete: Five history courses (four in Ottoman History, and one in Medieval or Modern History); four Turkish language courses; four Ottoman language and palaeography courses. Furthermore, students are required to write an original M.A. thesis based on the critical analysis of Ottoman archival, epigraphic or narrative sources.

Deadline for applications: 20 May 2024.

Information: https://www.history-archaeology.uoc.gr/en/graduate-studies/programs-of-post-graduate-studies/joint-english-language-m-a-program-in-ottoman/?lang=en

7. Articles for a Special Issue of “Archiv orientální (ArOr) – The Journal of African and Asian Studies”

Archiv orientalní (http://aror.orient.cas.cz) is an indexed, peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to the cultures and societies of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Deadline for abstracts: 19 May 2024.

Information: https://aror.orient.cas.cz/index.php/ArOr/announcement

8. The Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) will offer two seven-week intensive summer Arabic programs on AUB campus from June 19 to August 7, 2024.

 The Arabic Language and Culture program is designed for students interested in developing overall proficiency in Arabic in both its Standard and Lebanese varieties. Emphasis is placed on the development of the various skills within a communicative, proficiency-based framework that perceives Arabic in all its varieties as “one language” and thus integrates standard Arabic and Lebanese colloquial within the same course, and that gives special attention to the development of intercultural competence in Arabic. The program provides instruction at different levels of proficiency from elementary to high advanced.

The Colloquial Lebanese Arabic program offers intensive instruction at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. The program is designed for learners who want to devote their attention to the development of proficiency in Lebanese Arabic and thus places heavy emphasis on the speaking and listening skills and on building/enhancing intercultural competence.

Both programs provide intensive instruction and immersion in the language and culture through a rigorous academic program that is complemented by an integrated series of films, lectures, clubs, field trips, and community service activities. Students receive 9 credit hours that they can transfer to their home institutions.

The application deadline is on June 7, 2024.

 For detailed information about the academic content of the programs, how to apply, costs, and financial support, please visit our website: https://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/cames/sap/Pages/default.aspx

The 2024 Annual Conference of the British Association for Islamic Studies final programme can be viewed online here: www.brais.ac.uk/conferences/brais-2024, including

The Science of Hadith Across Time and Tradition
Chair: Haroon Sidat (Cardiff University)
Ahmed Ragab Abu Zayd (University of Wales TSD), The Historicity of Biographical Sources on Ḥadīth Narrators: Why Al-Mizzī’s Tahdhīb Al-Kamāl Is Larger than Its Source?
Zachary Wright (Northwestern University), Sufism and Hadith Scholarship in the Eighteenth Century: the Writings of Muḥammad Ḥayāt al-Sindī
Haider Hobballah (Al-Mahdi Institute), The Emergence of the Hadith Critique Movement in the Twentieth Century Shīʿī Context: The Case of Abū al-Faḍl al-Burqaʾī
Amina Inloes (The Islamic College), Eclipses and Lament in Twelver Shīʿī Ḥadīth

Global Perspectives on Gender, Identity and Society
Chair: Alyaa Ebbiary (University of Lancaster)
Giammarco Mancinelli (École pratique des hautes études), Second generations and the mosque in Italy: Feminisation without feminism
Muhammad Tajri (Al-Mahdi Institute), Denying Dichotomy?: The Intersection of LGB Shīʿa Muslims
Ummul Fayiza Puthiya Peedikayil (University of Warwick), Muslim Women’s Rights and the Codification of Muslim Personal Law in India: Revisiting the Enactment of Muslim Women Act 1986
Ayesha Ulhaq (University of Cambridge) A qualitative study of Muslim women’s safety and resilience in the face of individual and cultural trauma in Britain

Of Coming and Becoming: Muslim Identities in Europe
Chair: Alyaa Ebbiary (University of Lancaster)
Jaffer A Mirza (King’s College London), The early Shi’a religious spaces in Britain (1960s-1970s)
Sayed Mahdi Mosawi (University of Edinburgh), Religious Dynamics in Transition: A Study of Hazara Migrants in Scotland
Akif Tahiiev (Goethe University Frankfurt), Becoming a Shia in Russia: understanding the reasons of Conversion to Shi’ism in Russia
Thijl Sunier (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Branding Islam: Claims-Making, Knowledge Production and Academic legitimation

Sufi Knowledge Production in Pre-Modern Islam
Chair: Saeko Yazaki (University of Glasgow)
Faris Abdel-hadi (University of Exeter), The Aporia of Interpreting a Premodern Andalusian Mystic: Ibn ʿArabī’s Religious Pluralism
Eyad Abuali (Cardiff University), Space, Affect, and Imagination in the Transmission of Knowledge in medieval Sufism
Zoheir Esmail (Al-Mahdi Institute), Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī and the Oneness of Being in al-Muḥīṭ al-Aʿẓam
Bronislav Ostřanský (Czech Academy of Sciences), Sufi Dreams as a Tool of Spiritual Guidance: The Example of al-Risāla al-Qushayrīya

1.Short video about the life of Johns Haskell Shedd:

PHS LIVE: Presbyterian Mission in Persia and the Life of John Haskell Shedd

2. A Literary History of Medicine

The ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ of Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah (5 Volumes)

Editors: Emilie Savage-Smith,
Simon Swain, and
Geert Jan van Gelder

Brill 2024

Now in paperback and Open Access: Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah’s “A Literary History of Medicine”. This is the earliest comprehensive history of medicine, containing biographies of over 400 physicians, their practices and collaborations across Islamic, Christian, and Jewish societies. These 5 volumes present the first complete and annotated translation along with a new edition of the Arabic text showing the stages in which the author composed the work. Read and download here.

3. Three Philosophical Epistles

By Sa‘īd b. Dādhurmuz (fl. 5/11)

Mazda, 2024

http://www.mazdapublishers.com/book/Three%20Philosophical%20Epistles

4. HEDAYAT ON RELIGION

Edited by:

R. Ghanoonparvar and Paul Sprachman.

With Contributions by:

Iraj Bashiri

Michael Beard

Mehdi Khorrami

Nasrin Rahimieh

Mazda, 2024

http://www.mazdapublishers.com/book/hedayat-on-religion

5. Ahmad Kasravi, SUPERSTITIONS

Translated from the Persian By:

R. Ghanoonparvar

Mazda, 2024

http://www.mazdapublishers.com/book/superstitions

6. AKU-ISMC: 15 May 2024 Virtual Open Day

Join AKU-ISMC students, staff and academics online for a Virtual Open Day at 12:00 -13:00 (London Time) to explore educational study options at AKU-ISMC (Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations) and discover the various opportunities we have to offer.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/aku-ismc-virtual-open-day-may-tickets-871653889247?aff=oddtdtcreator&_gl=1%2Atr7trm%2A_up%2AMQ..%2A_ga%2AMTgwOTY0ODk3MS4xNzE1MDkzMTI4%2A_ga_TQVES5V6SH%2AMTcxNTA5MzEyNy4xLjEuMTcxNTA5MzE5OS4wLjAuMA

The Aga Khan University Institute’s for the Study of Muslim Civilisations

Handyside Street
London, | N1C 4DN United Kingdom

7. Prof Sajjad Rizvi Inaugural Lecture – ‘For the love of wisdom’: Philosophy as a Way of Life in the World of Islam’

Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter, LT1 and 2 (or via MS Teams)

Monday 13th May, 16:00 – 17:00 (UK time).

Please see the details and register on the link below:

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/events/details/index.php?event=14013

8. ONLINE Webinar “Fifty Shades of Collecting: Jean Pozzi and his Islamic Collection”, with Negar Habibi

British Institute of Persian Studies 22 May, 2024, 5:00 pm UK Time

This talk aims to document the life and art collecting career of Jean Pozzi (1885-1967), a French plenipotentiary Minister in Iran (in 1935) and Egypt (1939-1942). Over the course of nearly 60 years, Pozzi collected more than 3500 art objects in his Parisian apartment, including textiles, carpets, manuscripts, album folios, ceramics, and tiles from the Islamic lands and beyond. Despite this, his career remains largely unexplored today, mainly due to the fact that his collection was widely dispersed to various museums, auction houses and heirs after his death. We examine specifically his first collection catalogue, commented on and published by Edgar Blochet in 1930. Reviewing the keen Parisian interest in “Oriental” arts and crafts, and especially their appeal to renowned French couturiers and designers, we argue that Jean Pozzi’s catalogue may be seen as one of the persuasive Persian collections of the early twentieth century, providing the forms and tones that French industries of textile design and fashion sought before World War II.

Information and registration:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5517108616181/WN_MskJQ0MwSAK1rhYFOYQ-eQ#/registration

9. CfP: until 15 May 2024: Ethnolinguistic cartography (18th – 21st centuries) in comparative perspective

Ethnolinguistic maps are an important genre of modern political cartography. The genre originated in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century and subsequently experienced a tumultuous development, mainly due to the organisation of statistical censuses, the development of printing technologies, the efforts of states to territorialise (centralise), and the growth of modern nationalism. With the development of mass literacy and mass politics, ethnographic maps became an important medium of public debate. Various drawing techniques emerged to serve the political goals of national movements and the territorial aspirations of nation-states. Ethnolinguistic maps became part of school curricula, political agitation and national conflicts. They became an important argument in the post-war negotiations on new borders. They were also an important propaganda tool for movements seeking the territorial revision of ‘unjust’ borders. However, there were also efforts at inter-ethnic cooperation in cartography and innovations aimed at ‘scientific’ and neutral cartography, such as the dot method. After 1945, the genre lost much of its political potential due to the discrediting of the idea of territorial expansion in Europe, but it experienced a rebirth during post-communist ethnic conflicts (post-Soviet, post-Yugoslav countries) or ethno-religious conflicts in the Near East.

The theme of the workshop will be to analyse the development of ethnolinguistic maps in Europe and other regions of the world from different perspectives from the 18th to the 21st century. In particular, we encourage papers that address the following questions:

• How has the genre developed from its origins to the present day?
• What were the specificities of ethnolinguistic mapping in different European or non-European regions/states?
• How did ethnolinguistic mapping manifest itself during wars, peace negotiations and attempts to revise borders?
• What was the relationship between ethnolinguistic mapping and ethnic statistics?
• What was the relationship between ethnolinguistic maps and other specialised map genres (dialect maps, town plans, historical atlases)?
• How can the transfer and comparative perspectives be applied to the study of ethnolinguistic maps?
• How did ethnolinguistic maps serve the purposes of political propaganda? Do they represent specific sites of memory?

The deadline for submitting abstracts (300 words) and a short CV is 15 May 2024. Authors will then be notified of the acceptance or rejection of their proposals by 31 May 2024. Each participant will have 20 minutes for their presentation and there will be time for questions and answers at the end of the presentation. Travel within Europe and accommodation will be covered by the organisers. The organisers plan to publish selected papers either in the conference proceedings or in a thematic section of an open-access scholarly journal.

Contact Information

Jitka Močičková, Ph.D.
Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Prosecká 809/76, 190 00 Prague 9
Czech Republic
www.hiu.cas.cz

Contact Email

mocickova@hiu.cas.cz

URL

https://www.hiu.cas.cz/en/events/ethnolinguistic-cartography-18th-21st-centurie…

W.M. Watt Lecture
Arabic has been taught at the University of Edinburgh for over 260 years, and today our department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES) is globally recognised as a leading centre in the field.
From his appointment as Lecturer in Arabic in 1947, until his retirement as Professor in 1979, William Montgomery Watt made an outstanding contribution both to Islamic scholarship and to the development of IMES.
The inaugural Watt Lecture was launched in November 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of Watt’s Inaugural Lecture as the first Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Scotland.

The 2024 lecture
We are delighted to welcome Professor Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi (École Pratique des Hautes Études – Sorbonne) to deliver the seventh annual W.M. Watt Lecture.
For more information and to register, click here.

At the upcoming Ninth Annual International Conference on Shi‘i Studies, 11 May, 2024, ICAS Press will celebrate its silver jubilee with the release of its largest publication to date: Al-Asfa, A 17th-Century Shi‘i Exegesis of the Qur’an by Mulla Muhsin Fayd Kashani.

All other ICAS Press books will be available at a 40% discount.

See the conference schedule and register here.

Zahra Ali Syed
Towards a Sustainable Arbaeen: Advocating for a Plastic-Free Pilgrimage in Iraq
Wednesday (exceptionally) Majlis Online on the 15th of May, 17:00-18:30 (UK time)
Centre for the Study of Islam, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter
Register please on this link:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwtfu6urTMjHNQIy-gFG9vRSwPaXwi1smsB