Archive for April 11th, 2026
Shii News – Academic Items
1. The www.asmeascholars.orgAssociation for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) is offering Research and Travel Grant opportunities in conjunction with its Nineteenth Annual Conferencetaking place in Washington, D.C. on November 7 – 9, 2026.
The ASMEA Research Grant Program seeks to support research on topics in Middle Eastern and African studies that deserve greater attention. Applicants may submit paper proposals on any topic as long as it constitutes new and original research. Grants of $2500 will be awarded. The deadline to apply is May 1, 2026.
ASMEA is offering Travel Grants of up to $750 which can be used towards the costs associated with attending the Annual ASMEA Conference. The deadline to apply is May 1, 2026.
Grant opportunities are open to members only. For information on how to become a member and full guidelines on each program as well as our general Call for Papers and Panels, visit our website at www.asmeascholars.org.
Contact Information
Emily Lucas
Membership and Operations Director
Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA)
Contact Email
URL
https://www.asmeascholars.org/upcoming-conference
2. Masnavi.net is upgraded
The masnavi.net website has been upgraded and re-launched, After running well for ten years, it became slow and gave frequent time-out messages. Now it runs quickly and smoothly.
The website consists of matching Persian, Turkish, and English texts (with Nicholson’s own lists of corrections incorporated), plus thousands of matching audio files in Persian. The site has an excellent search function.
On a related topic, an article of mine that has been making the rounds on academia.edu is largely based on research done by Frank Lewis: https://www.dar-al-masnavi.org/rumi.misconceptions.pdf
Best wishes,
Ibrahim Gamard
End of bips
3. Complete Tafsir Qur’an Commentary Series
https://fonsvitae.com/product-category/islam/quran/
4. 10th HIAA Biennial Symposium
Technologies of Making and Knowing
Hosted jointly at Getty, LACMA, and UCLA
Los Angeles, California, March 4 – 6, 2027
Beyond its modern conceptualization, technology has always informed artistic production in the Islamic world. To name but a few examples, paper production, reduction firing to produce lusterware, and sustainable architectural forms like windtowers were all rooted in technological innovation. Today’s digital tools and methods, such as imaging systems, 3D modeling, and computational analysis, extend this history rather than inaugurate it. They are also re-shaping the way that the field is studied and presented.
With this broad perspective, the Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA) calls for a field-wide reflection on the technologies, both longstanding and new, which have governed the production, circulation, reception, and study of Islamic art.
For the full call for papers, visit the HIAA website: https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/events-and-symposia/symposia/Technologies-of-Making-and-Knowing-2027-03-04.html
Proposals for in-person and remote contributions are due by May 15, 2026 and should be submitted using this form: https://forms.gle/yM5R6ns9b1N6PPHv7
The conference will be held in-person at the three host venues in Los Angeles. Presentations delivered by Zoom will be considered. Certain parts of the symposium may be streamed online.
URL
https://www.historiansofislamicart.org/events-and-symposia/symposia/Technologie…
5. UCLA : Hybrid – Pourdavoud Lecture Series
‘Misunderstanding in Ancient Interstate Relations
The Arsacid Princes of the Roman Empire’
Jake Nabel (Pennsylvania State University)
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 at 4:00 pm Pacific Time
Royce Hall 306 and Via Zoom
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSetRf7ShQwiIdoS0Ydjk068K5qUBm5AzD4binpchwJ5JkAYuA/viewform
6. Recording: Anti-Muslim Hate in the Wake of the US-Israel War on Iran, 31.3.26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZE2b5NnO8U&t=1095s
7. Hybrid Lecture – Sacred Power: The Motif of the Seven Magical Signs – 16 April 2026 – SOAS, University of London
Farouk Yahya, Independent Scholar of Islamic Art and Magic and Divination
Sacred Power: The Motif of the Seven Magical Signs
The motif of the Seven Magical Signs is a set of seven symbols believed to represent the Most Exalted Name of God. They are discussed in texts on magic such as the Shams alma‘arif al-kubra and appear on amulets and various talismanic objects.
This seminar will examine the tradition of the Seven Magical Signs in Southeast Asia from the perspective of both texts and objects. In doing so it aims to investigate possible relationships between the textual tradition and material culture, which may help shed further light into the connections between theory and practice in the occult sciences within Muslim societies.
Dr Farouk Yahya’s research interests include the Southeast Asian arts of the book, as well as texts and images relating to magic and divination. He holds an MA in Islamic art and a PhD on Malay manuscripts from SOAS University of London. He is the author of Magic and Divination in Malay Illustrated Manuscripts (Brill, 2016), editor of The Arts of Southeast Asia from the SOAS Collections (Areca Books, 2017), and co-editor of Islamicate Occult Sciences in Theory and Practice (Brill, 2021).
More recent publications include: “The Maxwell Collection and Local Private Libraries in the Malay Peninsula during the Nineteenth Century”, in “Manuscript Libraries and Colonialism in Island Southeast Asia”, edited by Alan Darmawan and Mulaika Hijjas, special issue of Archipel, vol. 110 (2025): pp. 239-280; with Anna Contadini, “Planispheric astrolabe”, “Wing-handled vases”, “Honey jar”, “Glass pitcher and vase”, in Conoscenza e Libertà: Arte Islamica al Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna, edited by Anna Contadini, Genoa: Sagep, 2024, cats. 1, 20-21, 24, 26-27; and “Talismans with the Names of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus/Aṣḥāb al-Kahf in Muslim Southeast Asia”, in Malay-Indonesian Islamic Studies: A Festschrift in Honor of Peter G. Riddell, edited by Majid Daneshgar and Ervan Nurtawab, Leiden: Brill, 2023, pp. 209–265.
8. Call for Contributions – The Middle East Cultural Heritage at Risk in Armed Conflict Project
The Middle East Cultural Heritage at Risk in Armed Conflict Project invites scholars, art historians, archaeologists, and other researchers to contribute short pieces on monuments and sites at risk in Iran.
This project, initiated by Dr. Mehrnoush Soroush and Dr. Kiersten Neumann at the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC), documents and monitors cultural heritage under threat through an interactive map, updates on damaged sites and monuments, and short written contributions that highlight their historical, artistic, and personal significance.
The project welcomes submissions of short stories that reflect on a particular monument or site, especially those that speak to its meaning, history, memory, and place within broader cultural and scholarly conversations. Contributions may be academic in tone, personal in reflection, or a combination of both.
By contributing, you can help preserve the memory of these places, draw attention to their significance, and participate in an urgent collective effort to document and preserve cultural heritage at risk.
To express interest or submit a contribution, please contact Camel@uchicago.edu .
Contact email: Camel@uchicago.edu
URL: https://heritagewatch.camelab.net/stories
Contact Email
URL
https://heritagewatch.camelab.net/stories
9. Open Acess – New Book – Letters in Silk Pouches: Diplomatic Correspondence from the Safavid Court in the Swedish National Archives
Letters in silk pouches were sent from Persia to Sweden in the 17th century as part of diplomatic and commercial contacts. In the book “Letters in Silk Pouches. Diplomatic Correspondence from the Safavid Court in the Swedish National Archives”, authors Stanisław Adam Jaśkowski and Anna Jolly analyse the letters and silk pouches in their historical context.
In the 17th century, the Swedish crown sent three embassies to the Safavid court in Isfahan to negotiate a trade agreement for the export of Iranian raw silk to Stockholm. The diplomat Ludvig Fabritius led the Swedish delegations on their journeys and extended sojourns at the Persian court. After each embassy, a letter from the Shah of Persia to the King of Sweden was brought back to Stockholm.
These documents are today kept in the Swedish National Archives. Their composition and content reflect the formalised writing style of the Safavid chancellery. For transport the royal letters were folded and slipped into precious textile pouches which have also been preserved and were first published by the Swedish scholars Agnes Geijer and Carl Johan Lamm in 1944. The fabrics from which the pouches were made count among the most luxurious silk textiles produced in Safavid Iran. This monograph offers a detailed study of these Persian letters and silk pouches in their historical context and presents them as tangible evidence of two highly developed arts practised at the Iranian court, both conveying the splendour of their sovereign: the art of writing and the art of silk weaving.
Authors
Stanisław Adam Jaśkowski is assistant professor at the Department of Iranian Studies, Faculty of Asian and African Cultures, University of Warsaw, Poland.
Anna Jolly is curator of textiles from 1500 to 1800 at the Abegg-Stiftung in Riggisberg, Switzerland.
Book info
ISBN: 978-91-88763-71-6
ISBN: (PDF) 978-91-88763-72-3
ISSN: 0083-6761
176 pages
Published: 2026
Dutch bind (flexibound)
Series: Antikvariska serien 61
Price: 380 SEK
The volume is also available open access.
Distribution via Stardist. Order or download here
10. Journal of Arabian Studies, Volume 15, Issue 2 (2025)
- April 11, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment