Archive for October 14th, 2025

1.‘A “Social Constructionist” Approach to “Muslim Biomedical Ethics: Examining “Muslim” Opposition to Physical-Assisted Suicide‘

H Godazgar,

Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory

2025

https://www.jcrt.org/archives/24.1/

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. The last two Ferdowsi Online Classes of this year. 

The first is the “Introduction to Pahlavi: Online Autumn School of Zoroastrian Middle Persian” (November 3 – November 20), generally open to everyone who is interested in getting a solid introduction to this language, with an overview of the academic literature, and an historical-linguistic contextualization.

The second course is the weekly “The Shahname: Introduction to the Iranian Epic” (November 7 – December 22), during which we will be reading the story of Rostam and Esfandyar. The main stress during this course falls on the understanding of the grammar of the Shahname (which means analyzing the morphology and syntax of Early Classical Persian), viewing the text from the historical and philological perspective.

If you share this with your students, that will always be appreciated!

In addition, in case you haven’t seen this before, on the website of Ferdowsi School there is a small section called Ferdowsi Blog, where I compile lists that might be of use to both students and researchers in the field. I wanted to share with you the list of the posts from there which you might find interesting (I am aiming at expanding the list in the future):

• Iranian & Silk Road Studies Book Series
• New Journals on Iranian Studies
• Journals on Silk Road and Central Asian Studies
• Festschrifts & Memorial Volumes on Iranian Studies
• 35 Persian Journals for Iranian Studies
• 15 Websites for Reading Persian Manuscripts Online

Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature

Yerevan, Armenia

Website: www.ferdowsi.org

 

 

 

 

 

3. Zoom: Gennadeion Seminar: A Material History of an Athonite Monastery’s Ottoman Archive, Oct. 15

• 10/15/2025
• 4.00pm – 5.30pm (EEST)

Presented by

The Gennadius Library, American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Speakers (in order of presentation at seminar):

Vanessa R. de Obaldía, University of Cambridge (alumna)

Georgios Boudalis, Senior Book and Paper Conservator, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki

Nikolaos Vryzidis, Adjunct Instructor, University of West Attica

Maciej Pawlikowski, Head of Cambridge Heritage Imagining Laboratory (CHIL)

Location

Pia Zombanakis Seminar Room, Gennadius Library/Zoom

Register on Zoom

Webinar Registration – Zoom

Description
This seminar presents the preliminary findings of an interdisciplinary project investigating a previously undocumented practice discovered at the Ottoman archive of the 13th-century Athonite monastery of Simonopetra: pasting of high-quality textile or paper linings onto the back of documents which are primarily of legal importance to the monastery. In line with contemporary trends in interdisciplinarity, the team comprises an Ottoman historian, a historian of material culture, a paper conservator, and an expert in advanced scientific imaging. While rooted in a microhistorical case study, this inquiry opens broader avenues for exploring the archive as both a physical entity and a medium of materiality. Additionally, it interrogates the significance of this practice – extending beyond its role in document preservation – within the broader context of the Ottoman Empire, with a particular focus on the experiences of Ottoman Christians. Essentially, this study introduces the concept of “material history” as a theoretical framework for examining two interconnected dynamics: first, the materiality of the linings highlights the perceived importance of specific documents; and second, the research uncovers materials that were not intended for widespread visibility, thus offering a new lens on the period’s material culture. As a pilot project with potential for broader expansion, Material History also addresses the inherent inaccessibility of these documents, given their continued significance to the monastery today. Specifically, it explores how this challenge can be partially solved through digitization, with the monastery providing digital copies of materials that are ordinarily not meant to be handled in-situ. Ultimately, this project engages with the interplay between materiality and intangibility, both rooted in a specific historical context, and explores novel, interdisciplinary avenues of research that could add value to the monastic archive itself.

Contact Email

Msmali.Genn@ascsa.edu.gr

URL

https://www.ascsa.edu.

 

 

 

 

4. Call for Papers

Pre-arranged Panel at the 15th Biennial Conference of the Association for Iranian Studies

Utrecht University, the Netherlands | 5–8 August 2026

Panel Title: The Legacy of Dr. Hans Eberhard Wulff: Pioneer of Research on Traditional Crafts, Technology, Science, Material Culture, and Art of Persia

Convenor: Professor Pedram Khosronejad (Western Sydney University, Australia)

Background

Johannes Eberhard Wulff (1907–1967) was a German engineer and scholar whose groundbreaking work documented the traditional crafts, technology, science, material culture, and art of Iran. In 1936, at the request of Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925–1941), Wulff was appointed to establish Iran’s first technical engineering schools as part of a German-Iranian educational cooperation initiative. He founded the first technical college in Shiraz in 1937, and at its opening ceremony, received a royal commission to compile a comprehensive encyclopedia of Persian traditional crafts and technology.

Between 1937 and 1941, while directing technical colleges in Shiraz, Isfahan, and Tabriz, Wulff conducted extensive fieldwork throughout Iran. He observed, interviewed, and photographed master craftsmen across numerous guilds, meticulously documenting their production techniques and tool-making practices. This research served both pedagogical purposes for his technical schools and as primary material for his royal commission.

The outbreak of World War II disrupted Wulff’s work. Following the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, he and other German nationals were interned in Australian camps. Released in 1947, Wulff joined the University of New South Wales in 1950 as a lecturer. In 1953, he retrieved his research materials from Iran, including extensive notes, diaries, and photographs. In 1963, he enrolled as a doctoral candidate in the Department of Industrial Arts at UNSW, basing his thesis on his Iranian research. Wulff returned to Iran in 1964 and 1965 to complete his fieldwork and published The Traditional Crafts of Persia (MIT Press, 1966), presenting only a portion of his extensive documentation. Wulff passed away in 1967, leaving the bulk of his archive unpublished. This archive was retrieved from his family in Australia in 2019 and is currently held by Professor Pedram Khosronejad.

Panel Objectives

This panel seeks to illuminate the significance of Wulff’s scholarship from multiple disciplinary perspectives. We invite papers that examine:

This panel is part of a broader collaborative project to identify, digitize, and make Wulff’s archive accessible to scholars and the public, to publish his encyclopedia of Persian traditional arts and technology, and to produce a new edition of his 1966 monograph.

Submission Guidelines

We invite proposals from scholars working in:

Early career scholars and PhD candidates are particularly encouraged to apply.

Please submit:

Deadline: 15 October 2025

Submit materials to: pedram.khosronejad@westernsydney.edu.au

Important Information

Accepted speakers are responsible for all costs, including conference registration, travel, and accommodation.

For conference details, visit: https://associationforiranianstudies.org/…/information

Contact Information

Pedram Khosronejad, Western Sydney University, Australia

Contact Email

pedram.khosronejad@westernsydney.edu.au

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Research Awards – 2025 CFSACK – Deadline Extended until Oct. 20

Application Deadline Extended – 2025 CFSACK Research Awards
We are pleased to announce that, due to high interest, the application deadline for the 2025 CFSACK Research Awards has been extended. Applications will now be accepted until October 20, 2025 at 23:59 PST.Applicants who have already submitted may revise their materials by logging into the application portal until the new deadline. Please ensure your application is submitted before the deadline, as no late submissions will be accepted.

The Canadian Friends of Sufi Arts, Culture, and Knowledge (CFSACK) Research Awards support original research related to Sufi arts, culture, and knowledge across a wide range of disciplines. Eligibility has been expanded this year to include applicants affiliated with higher education or cultural institutions in both Canada and the United States, with support from the American Friends of Sufi Arts, Culture, and Knowledge (AFSACK).

Award Amounts

• Undergraduate & Master’s Students: up to $2,000 CAD
• PhD Candidates & Postdoctoral Fellows: up to $5,000 CAD

Supported Research Activities
Funding may support archival and manuscript research, fieldwork, conference participation, acquisition of specialized research materials, or scholarly programming. A complete list of eligible and ineligible expenses is available on the program website.

Eligibility
Applicants must be affiliated with a Canadian or U.S. higher educational or cultural institution for the duration of the award. Eligible applicants include:

• Undergraduate students
• Master’s students
• Doctoral students/candidates
• Postdoctoral fellows

Note: Eligibility for the CFSACK Research Awards spans a wide range of disciplines. Any research project related to Sufi art, culture, or knowledge is welcome, including but not limited to: art history, fine arts, anthropology, archaeology, architecture, classics, cultural studies, ethnomusicology, history, literature, musicology, philosophy, psychology, religious studies, sociology, and other related fields. This interdisciplinary scope reflects the program’s commitment to advancing a holistic and nuanced understanding of Sufi traditions across academic and creative domains.

Special Opportunity
Recipients may request exclusive scholarly access to the Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO™ (MACS MTO) in Chatou, France, including:

• Privileged access to collections
• Consultations with curators/research staff
• On-site research support

Important Dates

• Applications Opened: August 4, 2025
• New Deadline: October 20, 2025, 23:59 PST
• Awards Commence: January 2026

Full details and application portal: https://www.cfsack.org/research-awards
Inquiries: research.awards@cfsack.org

Contact Information

Nooshin Esmaeili, Chair, CFSACK Research Awards Committee

Shahed Ejadi, CFSACK Board of Directors

Contact Email

research.awards@cfsack.org

URL

https://www.cfsack.org/research-awards

 

 

 

 

 

6. International Conference: The Empire that Made India: 500 Years of the Mughals

3–4 June 2026

École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 54 Boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris

Organiser: Naveen Kanalu (EHESS-CRH)

The year 2026 marks half a millennium since the foundation of the Mughal Empire (1526-1857), the last precolonial imperial power that governed most parts of the Indian sub-continent. Though earnest in its beginnings following the Central Asian chieftain, Babur’s victory at the First Battle of Panipat on 22 April 1526, in its heyday, the Mughal dynasty ruled over a population of more than 100 million subjects. The Mughal Empire has remained at the centre of major debates in Indian historiography on issues as diverse as the nature of political and administrative institutions, fiscal and economic systems, literary and artistic cultures as well as inter-religious cohabitation prior to colonial rule. The international conference organised to mark the 500-year anniversary of the empire’s foundation provides an opportunity to critically engage with various historiographical approaches that have been proposed thus far, as well as explore potential avenues for future research.

Since its inception in nineteenth-century British colonial debates, Mughal historiography has undergone several mutations in the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries, including nationalist, Marxist and cultural interpretations among others, demonstrating the continued vitality of the field. Yet the vast archival and manuscript sources, available in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and regional languages, dispersed across repositories in South Asia and beyond, still await scholarly studies. Even a cursory glance at catalogues reveals that such a rich, unexplored corpus could infuse the field with new empirical and analytical approaches.

In recent decades, historians have rejected framing the construction of the Mughal Empire within the narrow scope of “methodological nationalism” and increasingly approached it through transregional connections and interactions. At the same time, professional history-writing can also find itself in a tense relation with trends in the public sphere. This is particularly acute today, given that the legacy, symbols and contribution of the Mughals are increasingly contested in India. In the current climate of political crisis, how can historians challenge popular stereotypes that depict the Mughal rulers as either paragons of harmonious syncretism or perpetrators of religious bigotry? How can we move beyond the study of representations, self-fashioning of the elites and courtly cultures that have dominated the field in the last few decades and explore other areas of research such as social, legal, economic and intellectual history? Are there other types of archival sources that would allow us to chart new directions in understanding how the Mughal Empire worked?

Themes

We welcome papers on the following topics and related themes:

Institutional, legal, military and political frameworks of governance

Administrative logistics, information circulation and forms of exercising authority

Documentary practices and archival cultures

Economic, financial and fiscal patterns

Social histories of religious communities, ethnic, clan and caste configurations

Borderlands, regions and frontiers in the construction of imperial space

Longue durée connections and interactions with the Islamic world

Keynote

Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Distinguished Professor of History and Irving & Jean Stone Chair in Social Sciences, UCLA, will deliver the keynote address.

Practical information

The organisers will cover economy class air/train tickets and hotel accommodation for 3 nights.

Please send an abstract of 300 words and a short biography of 200 words by 25 November 2025 to the following email address: mugurba@ehess.fr

Selected participants will be notified by mid-December.

The proceedings will be published as a special issue of a journal or an edited volume.

The conference is funded by the Agence national de la recherche (ANR) project, MugUrba: “The Bureaucratic Rhythms of Imperial Urbanity: Law, Property, and Public Life in Mughal South Asia, c. 1650–1750”.

Contact Information

Naveen Kanalu

EHESS – École des hautes études en sciences sociales

Centre de recherches historiques

Bureau B4-16, 54 Boulevard Raspail – 75006 PARIS

Contact Email

mugurba@ehess.fr

URL

https://mugurba.hypotheses.org/