Archive for July 19th, 2025
Shii News – Academic Items
1.The Tokat Institute for Advanced Islamic Studies is pleased to announce its inaugural Book Completion Grant (in the amount of $3000).
See here for details: https://tokatinstitute.org/grants/book-completion-grant
2. Visualizing Egypt: European Travel, Book Publishing, and the Commercialization of the Middle East in the Nineteenth Century
P Banas,
AUC Press, 2025
https://aucpress.com/9781617976674/
3. Classical Persian through Living Books: Introduction to Persian Manuscripts
The course will take place from August 11 until August 21st (two weeks).
Designed for students with little or no prior exposure to Persian manuscripts, this intensive course offers an introduction to the Persianate manuscript tradition. Here is a short-hand list of the main manuscripts that will be discussed (links on the website):
- Kitāb al-abniya ‘an haqāiq al-adwiyya. 1056 AD
- Florence Shahnameh, 1217 AD, Florence
- Naṣr-Allāh Munšī, Kalīlah va-Dimnah (Persian MS 68), 1219 AD, Manchester
- Prince Baysunghur’s Rose Garden (Gulistan) by Sa`di (Per 119), 1427 AD
- Dawlatshāh Samarqandī (d. ca. 1494). Taẕkirat ul-Shuʻarā (Persian MS 54). Date 1749.
By the end of the course, participants will:
- Be able to read and interpret Classical Persian manuscripts
- Be familiar with key scripts, including Nasqand Nasta‘liq
- Understand Persian orthographic conventions and their development
- Gain insight into historical manuscripts from diverse regions and periods
- Explore the connection between Persianate literature and manuscript art
- Build the skills needed to work independently with Persian manuscripts
You can read more and apply via the link below.
The application deadline is August 4th.
https://ferdowsi.org/classical-persian-through-living-books-summer-2025/
Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature
Yerevan, Armenia
Website: www.ferdowsi.org
4. Four and a Half Ghazals from the time of Ferdowsi (in Early Judeo-Persian)
The manuscript presented in the post (Ms. Heb. 8333.195, probably from the first half of the 11th century, kept at the NLI) is a unique piece in that it preserves to us a small collection of 4 (and a half) poems written in Persian in Hebrew characters, which in my estimate date to the late 10th century.
This manuscript is highly important in that it can provide us with a glimpse into the earlier stages of the development of Persian literary traditions.
You are welcome to read more about it in this post:
https://ferdowsi.org/four-and-a-half-ghazals-from-the-time-of-ferdowsi-in-early-judeo-persian/
5. ‘Black Light in Akbarian and Persianate Sufism’ online lecture IIS
Please join us at 5 pm (British time) on Thursday, 24th of July, for the next session of the Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series organised by the Institute of Ismaili Studies.
Dr Dunja Rašić’s talk is titled “Behind the Veil of the Night: The Black Light in Akbarian and Persianate Sufism”, with Dr Toby Mayer as discussant.
This lecture will focus on Ibn ʿArabī’s writings on the black light of the night. We will explore Ibn ʿArabī’s notions of the night serving as the source of knowledge, power and protection for the spiritual seekers known as the Nightfolk (ahl al-layl) and identify the possible origins and parallels of these teachings in Persianate Sufism.
To join, please register for online attendance at https://www.iis.ac.uk/events/behind-the-veil-of-the-night/
6. “International Conference on Turkic Studies”, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw, 13-14 November 2025
Proposals for papers and panels are invited in the domains of language, literature, history, culture, society, and politics, and philology of the Turkic peoples.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 July 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2rey25p7
7. Workshop “Cities and Decolonization: Anti-colonial Struggles, Urban Protest, and Global Solidarities”, University of Oxford, 19-20 March 2026
The workshop advances current approaches to anti-colonialism by rethinking the urban histories of the struggle against empire in Asia and Africa through a focused examination of actors, venues, and tensions. This approach moves beyond comparative frameworks to reveal the complex entanglements and ongoing legacies of urban anti-colonial protest, connecting historical struggles with contemporary debates over urban space and colonial heritage.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 September 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/yke5hts2
8. Conference “Istanbul: Cultural Pasts – Urban Futures” Işık University Istanbaul, 6-8 July 2026
The conference is expressly international and welcomes perspectives from across a range of fields: the humanities and the social sciences; architecture, urban planning and landscapes; heritage studies and design, and more. As such, it is open to local, regional and international discussions of art historical research, building renovation projects, digital art and heritage, anthropological study and socio-cultural critiques – past, present and future.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 July 2025. Information: https://amps-research.com/conference/istanbul-heritages/
9. Assistant, Associate or Full Professor in Middle East History, Brigham Young University, Utah
The appointment is for a scholar with expertise in Middle East history, preferably with a specialization in the period 600-1800 CE. Those with exceptional teaching and a strong research agenda are encouraged to apply. The position may be filled with visitor
Deadline for applications: 30 September 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2k5uvun9
10. Articles on “The Arab World and Middle East in an Age of Dynamism and Change” for a Special Issue of “The Journal of Social Encounters”
The latest developments in the MENA region will be explored from the perspectives of Anthropology, Arab and/or Arabic Studies, Classics, Communication and Rhetoric, Diaspora Studies, Education, Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, Government, History, Human Rights, International Law, International Relations, Media Studies, Mediter-ranean Studies, Middle East Studies, Peace Studies, Political Science, Religious Studies, and/or Theology.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 August 2025. Contact Dr. Mawa Mohamed at mawabagi@gmail.com
11. Articles on “Gift Giving and Economic Anthropology” for a Special Issue of the Journal “Anthropology of the Middle East”
We invite contributions to investigate gift giving, receiving, and reciprocating as they occur within complex value systems of different cultures of the Middle East and North Africa. These investigations could be within religious, social, economic, and political dimensions. Submissions may draw on data from archaeology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology to illuminate the complexities and historical depth of gift exchange.
Deadline for articles: 1 August 2025. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3wrhtn24
- July 19, 2025
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment