Archive for March 22nd, 2025
Shii News – Academic Items
1.The Qurʾān You Don’t Expect: An Overview of the Multifarious Forms of a Well-Known Text
A special issue of the Journal of Islamic Manuscripts (JIM) will be dedicated to the unexpected outcomes of the Quranic manuscript and material production and its textual excerpts. We welcome contributions that examine unusual features of Quranic manuscripts—or early printed volumes—as well as textual Quranic excerpts in under-studied surfaces. The goal is to document the multifarious aspects of the Quranic production and investigate the geographical, chronological, religious, linguistic and sociocultural contexts in which these unusual manuscript shapes and material uses—on the edge of what can be considered a familiar and somewhat normative text and book-form production—were rooted and made sense.
This special issue therefore aims to cover, discover, illustrate and analyse the contexts of production of what goes beyond the well-known form of the Quranic codices. These range from Quranic scrolls to illustrated Quranic manuscripts and prints, from Quranic cipher texts to Qurans in exceptional formats (large or small), from Qurans written on watermarked paper bearing Christian symbols to Qurans with translations, from relic Qurans to forged Quranic manuscripts (for example, falsely attributed to famous people), from xylograph Qurans to epigraphic Qurans, notably on textiles and coins. The issue aims to include a wide range of nuances in which the sacred text of Islam appears in manuscript or written form, with the aim of contributing to the study of the Quran as a living text.
Please send your paper proposal (500 words plus selected bibliography) to the following addresses for the end of May 2025:
Arianna.dottone@uniroma1.it or benazzouna@unistra.fr
You will be informed about the paper selection in June 2025 and the final text (between 8.000 and 12.000 words, and 8–10 HR images) will be expected for the end of December 2025.
For the stylesheet and transliteration chart, please refer to JIM website.
Contact Information
Nourane Ben Azzouna
Contact Email
URL
https://brill.com/view/journals/jim/16/1/article-p121_7.xml
2. Rethinking the Qur’ān in Late Antiquity
J Cole
De Gruyter, 2025
3. Ottoman Jewry, Leadership, Charity, and Literacy
Y Ayalon
Brill, 2024
4. Pacifism and Non-Violence in Contemporary Islamic Philosophy: Mapping the Paths of Peace
Tom Woerner-Powell
CUP, 2025
Open Acess at:
5. Le CeRMI a le plaisir de vous convier à la prochaine séance du séminaire “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du Monde iranien”, qui se tiendra le jeudi 10 avril 2025, 17h-19h, en salle 4.15 à l’INaLCO(65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII, 4eétage).
Nous sommes heureux d’accueillir M. Nima Asefi (Universität Hamburg), pour une conférence intitulée: “Central Iran during the Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods : A Study Based on the Pahlavi Archive of Hastijān and the Tārīkh-e Qom”.
Résumé:
Our understanding of Iran after the Muslim conquests relies mainly on chronicles written two centuries or later after the facts. For a long time, the scarcity of local accounts and limited access to original administrative documents left scholars with little direct evidence from the final years of the Sasanian Empire and the first two centuries of the Islamic period.
In the late 20th century, the discovery of the Pahlavi Archive of Hastijān provided researchers with valuable evidence from Central Iran during the first century following the collapse of the Sasanian Empire. Chiefly spanning the period of 3 to 50 years after the death of Yazdgird III, the last Sasanian king, this economic archive sheds new light on the distribution of wealth, the prerogatives of governors (darhandarzbed, ōstāndār), as well as storekeepers and public ration managers (dārīg). It also documents the presence of Arabs in the region, or the celebration of the Frawardīgān festival, thus offering invaluable insights into the history of that period.
A most useful complement to these documents is provided by the late 10th-century local chronicle of Tārīkh-e Qom, which describes the events following the arrival of the Ash‛ari Arabs in the region, between the years 62 and 82 after Yazdgird’s death. The book does not merely discuss the region of Qom and its surroundings extensively, it offers precious cues to identify protagonists and locate places mentioned in the Hastijān archive. Based on Tārīkh-e Qom, for instance, a recurring placename formerly misread as “Namtar” could be restored as “Namēwar,” and identified with the village of “Nīmwar” which is still standing to this day. Similarly, Tārīkh-e Qom provides a host of information about the life and whereabouts of one Yazdānpādār/Yazdānfāδār, an important character mentioned in both corpora. By cross-reading the data from the Pahlavi Archive of Hastijān and the Tārīkh-e Qom, therefore, we gain new insights about the life and circumstances of the people of central Iran right after the Arab conquests.
Orientations bibliographiques:
– Ansari, M. R. (ed.), 2006, Tārīx-e Qom, Qom: Ketābxāne-ye Omoumi-ye Āyatollāh Marʿaši Najafi.
– Weber, D., 2010, “Villages and Estates in the Documents from the Pahlavi Archive: The Geographical Background.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 24, p. 37-65.
– Weber, D., 2014, “Pahlavi Documents of Windādburzmihrābād. The Estate of a Zoroastrian Entrepreneur in Early Islamic Times (with an Excursus on the Origin of the Fulanabad-Type of Village Names).” Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 28, p. 127-147.
– Weber, D., 2014, “Arabic activities Reflected in the Documents of the Pahlavi Archive (Late 7th and Early 8th Centuries).” In R. Gyselen (ed.), Documents, argenterie et monnaies de tradition sassanide, Res Orientales 22. Bures-sur-Yvette, p. 179-189.
– Gignoux, Ph., 2013, “Les documents de Dādēn dans l’Archive de Berkeley/Berlin.” In Pavel Lur’e & S. Tokhtasjev (eds.), Commentationes Iranicae (Sbornik statej k 90-letiju V.A. Livšica). St. Petersburg, p. 157-165.
– Gignoux, Ph., 2010, “La société iranienne du 7e siècle AD d’après la collection de Berkeley.” In Carlo G. Cereti (ed.), Iranian Identity in the Course of History. Proceedings of the Conference Held in Rome, 21–24 September 2005, (Serie Orientale Roma CV, Orientalia Romana 9), Rome, p. 145-152.
Pour rappel, vous retrouverez le programme 2024-2025 du séminaire mensuel de recherche “Sociétés, politiques et cultures du Monde iranien” sur le site du CeRMI :
6. Invitation: Bilingual Lecture Series – Abbas Amanat
Calendar and Identity:
Why did the Persian solar calendar survive for 1400 years and become an important feature of Iranian identity?
Abbas Amanat
Monday, April 7, 2025 at 3:00 pm (Pacific), Bunche Hall 10383
Alternate live stream on Zoom:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/95885037418
(No need to register in advance, just click the link at 4:00pm on April 6 to join)
Since the end of the Sasanian era the Persian solar calendar, and the associated rite of Nowruz, endured as became a significant features of Iranian, and to some extent the Persianate, cultural identity. With Hijra as its starting point but based on vernal equinox, it is a unique solar time reckoning throughout the Muslim world and beyond. This talk explores the circumstances that allowed the survival and its adoption as a national calendar of Iran at the turn of the 20th century. A book of the same title is in the press.
7. Pourdavoud Lecture Series with Yuhan Vevaina
Zoroastrian Hermeneutics in Late Antiquity
The Sūdgar Nask of Dēnkard Book 9
Wednesday, April 2, 2025 at 4:00pm Pacific
Royce Hall 306
Hybrid Zoom Option Available
The Sūdgar Nask of Dēnkard Book 9 is a commentary on the ‘Old Avesta’ of the 2nd millennium BCE produced in Pahlavi (Zoroastrian Middle Persian) in the Sasanian (224–651 CE) and early Islamic centuries. This commentary is a value-laden, ideologically motivated discourse that displays a rich panoply of tradition-constituted forms of allegoresis. It mobilizes complex forms of citation, allusion, and intertextuality from the inherited Avestan world of myth and ritual in order to engage with and react to the profound changes occurring in Iranian society. Despite its value and importance for developing our nascent understanding of Zoroastrian hermeneutics and the self-conception of the Zoroastrian priesthood in Late Antiquity, this primary source has attracted scant scholarly attention due to the extreme difficulty of its subject matter and the lack of a reliable translation. This 2-volume work represents the first critical edition, translation, and commentary of this formidable text which will contribute to the philological, theological, and historiographical study of Zoroastrianism in a pivotal moment in its rich and illustrious history. Reading the Sūdgar Nask is a hermeneutic process of traversing texts, genres, and rituals in both the Avestan and Pahlavi corpora, thus activating nodes in a web or network of textual and meta-textual relations that establish new forms of allegoreses or meaning making. It is argued that this entire hermeneutical complex of weaving a ‘new’ text composed of implicit proof text and explicit commentary renews, extends, and, ultimately, makes tradition.
8. Macaulay Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Art of the Islamic World
Smarthistory is seeking applications for a one-year Macaulay Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow to develop public art history content in the area of the arts of the Islamic world. This is a one-year full-time position, beginning September 2025. Applicants will have a Ph.D. in art history (earned within the last three years) as well as teaching experience.
The successful applicant will have a commitment to public scholarship and teaching and will be self-motivated and comfortable working remotely for a small organization. The Fellow will work closely with Smarthistory founders and Executive Directors Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker and content editor Dr. Marika Sardar. The position will largely consist of writing Smarthistory-style essays on the art of the Islamic world for a broad public audience. These essays will augment the work of numerous authors who have contributed to Smarthistory over the years. See https://smarthistory.org/islamic/ for existing content created prior to 1900 (note: Modern and Contemporary work is located elsewhere on the site, all of these sections will soon undergo a significant reorganization). The Fellow will also be expected to work with contributors and content editors, to seek new contributors, and help develop syllabi.
The Fellow will receive professional development mentoring, periodic performance evaluations, and will be supported in developing professional relationships with academic contributors, curators, and museums over the course of the year. This is a temporary full-time position with an annual salary of $60,000 (plus a generous health insurance option and a retirement match). The Macaulay Family Foundation Fellow can work remotely but will ideally be available during eastern-time zone working hours.
Smarthistory is a not-for-proft organization dedicated to making engaging yet rigorous art history accessible to learners around the world for free. Learn more about the organization and its mission here: https://smarthistory.org/about/.
Only those with a Ph.D. in art history will be considered (degrees expected to be received by the end of the academic year—prior to August 2025 may apply).
Application deadline: Wednesday, April 30, 2025
URL
https://smarthistory.org/macaulay-family-foundation-postdoctoral-fellowship-in-…
9. Great Mughals Conference – online tickets
The V&A will be hosting a two-day conference in conjunction with the Great Mughals exhibition on Thursday 27th and Friday 28th March.
In-person tickets are almost sold out, but online tickets are available via the website: https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/lXn7Yo3pzK9/the-great-mughals-conference-online-mar-2025
All of the talks will be streamed online, and ticketholders will receive a joining link prior to the event.
10. UW-Madison Annual Conference on South Asia, October 22-25, 2025
Call for Abstract Submission
Panel Discussant: Professor Sylvia Houghteling, Associate Professor of History of Art, Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania
The panel, “Ecological Imaginaries in South Asia’s Art History” invites abstracts for the Annual Conference on South Asia at UW-Madison in Wisconsin from October 22-25, 2025.
The preeminent archive of art and architectural histories—objects, structures, and creative renderings—is produced by the human species. Thereby, human agents such as artists, patrons, and audiences become the essential interlocutors in this disciplinary narrative. How can non-human agency activate the material and materiality of artmaking in new ways? What are the pathways to invigorate and rethink disciplinary methodologies and paradigms in the wake of epochal climate crises? And, how can this recalibration enrich scholarship on spatial and visual cultures of South Asia?
The early glimmers of such an ecological alertness can be seen in longue durée histories of the Mediterranean. Within art history, ecological imaginaries emerge in the North American context through the Land Art Movement and a call from art historian W J T Mitchell to study landscape not just as a “genre” but as a “medium” holding social, political, and cultural meaning (Mitchell 1994).
While the ecocritical turn in art histories of North America and Western Europe began to crystallize in the first decade of the twenty-first century, the ecological turn in South Asian Studies was first discernible in disciplines such as history and anthropology. However, the last few years has seen a growing momentum in South Asian scholarship on exploring the intersections between art history, hydro architecture, climate, materiality, monsoon, and geology in the construction of affect in spaces and works of art. This panel seeks to build on this burgeoning ecological turn in South Asia’s art history to pave the course for critical inquiries on the subject.
The panel invites abstract submissions from Art History and allied disciplines such as Architecture, Geography, Geology, Urban Studies, Anthropology, South Asian Area Studies among others.
The Annual Conference on South Asia invites scholars, students, and professionals to Madison, Wisconsin, for a four-day event featuring research panels and round tables, lectures, performances, film screenings, booksellers, association receptions, and other special presentations! The conference has grown year-by-year since its inception in 1971 and welcomed over 1,200 registered attendees in 2024.
Abstract Submission Deadline: Wednesday, 02, April, 2025
Eligibility:
- Paper must have 2 points of focus— ecology, South Asia
- Upon selection, pay registration fees through the conference website— $115 for students, $255 for non-students (refundable; student fees typically covered by conference grants offered through your institution/ department/ south asia studies institute at your institution)
How to submit?
Email Title: Abstract Submission for Ecological Imaginaries in South Asia’s Art History
Submission Format: Pdf attachment
Documents: 200-300 word abstract and CV
Email address for submission : krishnashekhawat@berkeley.edu
Selected participants will be contacted very shortly after 02 April, 2025.
Organizer: Krishna Shekhawat, University of California, Berkeley
For further information on submission guidelines: See section, “Panel and Single Paper Submission Guidelines” at https://southasiaconference.wisc.edu/conference-submission-guidelines/
11. Online Course: Classical Persian through Historical Texts: Reading Beyhaqī’s History of Mas’ūd
Upcoming online course titled “Classical Persian through Historical Texts: Reading Beyhaqī’s History of Mas’ūd“.
As the title suggests, the main text that we are going to study during this one week course, is the mid-11th c. historical masterpiece of Beyhaqī. You can learn more about the course and the program by visiting the course’s webpage.
The deadline for applications is March 26th, and the course will start on March 31st.
I also want to mention that the course is free of charge.
Ruben Nikoghosyan
Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature
Yerevan, Armenia
Website: www.ferdowsi.org
12. The next lecture in the Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series will take place on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 12:00 New York / 16:00 London / 17:00 Venice / 19:00 Istanbul.
Amber Elisabeth Peters (Ca’Foscari University) will present “The Ocean in Early-Modern South Asian Art.”
To attend, please make sure to register in advance here:
https://wellesley.zoom.us/meeting/register/ipegVg01RVGFLnpNRDJigA
Upon registration, you’ll receive the link to access the lecture.
You may also wish to save the date for our subsequent talk, which will be the final lecture of the semester. On Tuesday, April 15, 2025, Carol Bier (Center for Islamic Studies, Graduate Theological Union) will present “Geometry in Islamic Art: Number, Shape, and the Nature of Space.”
As always, you can find a full schedule of upcoming talks and register for our list-serv on our website at www.viahss.org . Although not every talk is recorded, we also have recordings of several recent talks available on the VIAHSS Vimeo page at vimeo.com/viahss . Lastly, you can follow us on Instagram at @theviahss to stay up to date on upcoming events!
13. “AI and the Digital Humanities for the Study of Asia, Africa, and Oceania.”
We are particularly interested in the following strands: Institutional organisation of/around DH and AI. – DH research design with AI. – AI and language. – AI and cultural heritage. – DH, AI and ethics.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 March 2025. Information: https://digitalorientalist.com/2025/03/04/cfp-the-digital-orientalists-virtual-conference-2025/
14. “XIII International Medieval Meeting Lleida”, Universitat de Lleida, Espanya, 3-6 June 2025
Main themes in Medieval Studies: Wars and Crusades. – Institutions, Law and Government. – Islam. – Judaism. – Political History. – Social and Economic History. – Woman and Gender Studies; Etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 March 2025. Information: https://www.internationalmedievalmeetinglleida.udl.cat/en/
15. 58th International Conference of the “ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies” on “The Aramaeans BC: History and Archaeology,” Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, 14-15 July 2025
Deadline for registration: 31 March 2025.
Information: https://www.aramsociety.org/conferences/current-conferences/
16. 58th International Conference of the “ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies” on “The Amorites and Hurrians”, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, 17-18 July 2025
Deadline for registration: 31 March 2025.
Information: https://www.aramsociety.org/conferences/current-conferences/
17. “Third Conference of Early Modern Ottoman Studies (EMOS)”, Historians Association, Istanbul University, 4-6 September 2025
We invite historians, researchers, and scholars (with a PhD degree or having already started with their doctoral research) specialized in the political, diplomatic, social, economic, cultural, military, etc. intricacies of Ottoman early modernity.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 April 2025. Information:
https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20060592/emos-early-modern-ottoman-studies-2025
18. Workshop “New Approaches to Khārijite History, 7th – 10th Century CE”, SCORE Social Contexts of Rebellion in the Early Islamic Period, University of Hamburg, 16-17 October 2025
The organisers invite contributions that study Khārijism from a decidedly historical perspective. Social-historical approaches are especially welcome, as are more experimental methods and those that bring in (sociological, anthropological …) theory. In order to respond to the dearth of research on Khārijism, we strongly encourage historians of the early Islamicate world and adjacent fields who do not usually work on Khārijites to consider submitting an abstract.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 April 2025. Information: https://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/voror/medien/kharijite-history-cfp.pdf
19. “Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding”, Nominations for 2025
The total prizes for each sub-category of main languages are up to $200,000 USD. The total value of the award is $2 million. They include the translation from Arabic to German, Turkish and English and vice versa.
Deadline for nominations: 31 March 2025. Information: https://www.hta.qa/pages/topic/1872
- March 22, 2025
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment