Archive for May 13th, 2025

1. ONLINE Webinar ‘The Connected Histories of James Baillie Fraser’s The Kuzzilbash: A Tale of Khorasan’

with Brenden Benjamin

British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS), 28 May, 2025, 5:00 pm UK Time

Information and registration: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t3w6U1w3RMmE26sS95oqPA#/registration

 

 

 

 

2. Upcoming online course:

The Meaning of Life in Islamic Thought

July 28– August 02, 2025 |  Live Sessions

Hosted by the Sadra International Institute, this unique academic course brings together internationally recognized scholars to explore one of the most profound questions of human existence: What is the meaning of life? through the lens of Islamic philosophy and theology.

📚 Course Topics Include:

1. The Concept of Life and Its Purpose in Islamic Thought – Dr. Maria Massi Dakake, George Mason University, USA
2. Revelation as a Source of Meaning in Islamic Thought – Dr. Khalil Andani, Augustana College, USA
3. The Path to the Perfect Human in Islamic Mysticism – Dr. Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad, Florida International University, USA
4. Mulla Sadra and the Transcendent Philosophy of Life, Dr. Oliver Leaman, University of Kentucky, USA
5. Understanding the Meaning of Life through Islamic Theology – Dr. Ahab Bdaiwi, Leiden University, Netherlands
6. Evil and the Search for Meaning in Islamic Thought – Dr. Sajjad Rizvi, University of Exeter, UK

This course is ideal for students, researchers, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Islamic intellectual traditions and their relevance to contemporary questions of purpose, existence, and fulfillment.

Register here: https://sadrai.com/meaning-of-life-in-islam

 

 

 

 

 

3. Call for Expressions of Interest – Visual Anthropology Book Review Editor (2025-2028)

(This is a voluntary role)

Visual Anthropology seeks a new Book Review Editor, the position is also open to a team of two or three people. The position(s) is suitable for a person with a PhD in a field relevant to visual research and practice. This is an exciting time to join VA as we develop the journal and introduce new content types and strategies. This is a high profile position suitable for applicants who are committed to actively and creatively participating in the relaunch of a pivotal journal for our discipline, and engaging with scholars and practitioners in the field. VA publishes approximately five book reviews per issue (with 4 issues a year), requiring the Book Review Editor(s) to identify and commission up to 20 book reviewers each year.

The Book Review Editor(s) will work directly with book publishers to have hard copy or e-books sent directly to reviewers as they are identified.

As the Book Review Editor(s), the successful candidate(s) will manage the commissioning, review and acceptance process for book reviews submitted to the journal, in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief.

The Book Review Editor is responsible for:

1. Identifying books for review and coordinating the delivery of review copies/e-books from book publishers to the author,
2. Identifying potential book reviewers and commissioning submissions. This includes providing clear instructions as to the format and range of the book review and submission procedures,
3. Corresponding with book review authors (e.g., acknowledging receipt of a submitted book review; providing information about its editorial review as necessary),
4. Providing feedback to book review authors (e.g., editing reviews to the standard of the journal, including content, references and book information, etc.; conveying the editorial decision and providing guidance for revisions),
5. Keeping accurate records to ensure that there is a sufficient flow of reviews,
6. Proving progress reports and updates to the Editor-in-Chief and the Associate Editor as required.

Although the Book Review Editor will have independent authority in selecting the reviewers and the books reviewed, the final decisions will be with the Editor-in-Chief.

The Book Review Editor is encouraged to be innovative in their approach. VA welcomes book review sections (where important books on mixed themes are reviewed) and book review symposia (several reviews on newly published key books and comparisons of two or three related books by a single author). We are also open to proposals for launching something new and exciting, as well as for the continuation and revitalisation of book reviews.

Applications should include:

• Your professional C.V. (two pages)
• An example of a book review that you have contributed to a journal yourself
• A Cover Letter of no longer than one page to include the following:
• Your motivation for applying for this role,
• How you would go about undertaking the role and any experience or skills you bring to it,
• Your vision for a new book review section.

Please send your applications (should be sent as attached PDF file) to the Editor-in-Chief (P.Khosronejad@westernsydney.edu.au ) by 30 May 2025 (end of day).

https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/gvan20

 

 

 

 

 

4. ‘Khayyām Literacy among Turkman Copyists, Yāraḥmad Rašidi’s Ṭarabkhānẹ’
DONNINI, Piero
Studia Iranica, 52/1 (2023)
https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php?url=article&id=3294138&journal_code=SI

 

 

 

 

5. On Monday 26/5/2025, from 3.00 pm – 4.30 pm CET, Simon Stjernholm will discuss his latest book “Sensing Islam: Engaging and Contesting the Senses in Muslim Religiosity” (Bloomsbury). After the book talk, Merve Rehyan Kayikci will offer a response, which will be followed by a Q&A.

Abstract

Simon Stjernholm – “Sensory Engagements in the Study of Muslim Piety”

How have practices and imaginaries of sensing been religiously engaged and contested by Muslims? How do contemporary Muslim practices and debates concerning religious sensing relate to historical precedents?

In his new book Sensing Islam: Engaging and Contesting the Senses in Muslim Religiosity (Bloomsbury), Stjernholm analyses examples dealing with contemporary Sufism and Muslim religious oratory in order to explore practices and imaginaries of sensing. Combining the research fields of Islamic Studies, anthropology of Islam, material religion and sensory studies, this book covers a range of materials, including writings by Muslim religious authorities, ethnographic material, audio recordings and videos. In this talk, he will present the general framework of the book and discuss a few examples of its analyses in detail.

Simon Stjernholm is Associate Professor of the Study of Religion at the University of Copenhagen. His work is situated in the anthropology and history of Islam, with particular focus on Sufism and Muslim preaching.

Discussant Merve R. Kayikci is a postdoctoral researcher at the KADOC Documentation and Research Center on Religion, Culture and Society, Belgium.

To register for this meeting, click here.

To subscribe to IED’s maillist, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

6. The Islamic College:

A one-day workshop: An adventure in the realm of spiritual & moral personal experiences

Sunday 18 May 2025

10 am – 7 pm (London time)
Venue:
The Islamic College 133 High Road London NW102SW

Register here:

https://islamic-college.ac.uk/islamic-college-events/

 

 

 

 

7. RUB Workshop June 11-13: The Reception and Transformation of the Late Ancient Knowledge Tradition in the Arabic-Muslim World

The Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) is thrilled to invite you to our upcoming workshop, “The Reception and Transformation of the Late Ancient Knowledge Tradition in the Arabic-Muslim World.”

 

The workshop’s theme is a key research area of our institute at the RUB. It covers a wide range of topics and texts, and is the first in a series of events to promote the institute’s newly established professorship dedicated to the history of knowledge and its transfer from late antiquity into the Arabic-Muslim world.

Please consider joining us and the distinguished speakers on campus for what we hope will be a memorable and enlightening event.

🗓 Date: June 11–13, 2025

📍 Location: Building GB, Room 5/160, Ruhr University Bochum (Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany)

Day One (Keynote Address):

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

18:15–19:45 Asad Ahmed (Berkeley/Paris): “The Legacy of Avicennism in Nineteenth-Century South Asia”

Day Two:

Thursday, June 12, 2025

09:15–09:30 Opening Words by Cornelia Schöck & Andreas Lammer

09:30–10:45 David Wirmer (Cologne): “Ibn Bāǧǧa on the Agent Intellect as ‘Form of Forms’”

11:00–12:15 Ibrahim Safri (Munich): “Re-Thinking Aristotle: An Atomist Account of Motion in Pre-Modern Islamic Philosophy”

13:45–15:00 Miriam Rogasch (Cologne): “al-Fārābī’s Influence on Avicenna’s Ontology of Essence”

15:15–16:30 Alexander Lamprakis (Munich/Utrecht): “The Sources and Afterlife of the Section on Logic in al-Lawkarī’s Bayān al-ḥaqq bi-ḍamān al-ṣidq”

17:00–18:15 Paul Hullmeine (Munich): “al-Bīrūnī’s Reception of Greek Knowledge”

Day Three:

Friday, June 13, 2025

09:00–10:15 Joschka Dunz (Würzburg): “Psychology and Epistemology in Ibn al-Haytham’s Optics”

10:30–11:45 Hanif Amin Beidokhti (Bochum): “In Defence of the Peripatetics: Suhrawardī against Abū l-Barakāt on Void and Body”

11:45–13:00 Cornelia Schöck (Bochum): “Systematic Place and Function of the Division of the Signification of Terms in Avicenna’s Theory of Science”