Archive for May, 2026
- May 18, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Query: Maritime cartography and a late 17th-century French chart of India
At the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam we are researching a French chart of the second half of the seventeenth century. It is part of a collection of 5 charts procured by the Museum in 1949.
While 4 of these maps are nautical charts used by the Dutch East India Company during the 17th century, the fifth one is a French chart outlining the Bay of Bengal, dating around 1650-1700 without details on the cartographer or place of manufacture. You will find the chart, with an image on our collection website: https://collectie.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl/details/museum/505967
All the maps in the collection bear, in the same hand, in manuscript on the reverse side N (number) Bonté (year)” . To state an example, the French map is signed “N 12 Bonté 1692. At the moment, it is a mystery to us what or who Bonté could be.
We are also having difficulty finding literature connected to maritime cartography and representation of the Indian Ocean in a French context during the late 17th century. If someone would have suggestions for further information of literature, this would be much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Diederick Wildeman
Curator of Navigation, Cartography & Library Collections
Het Scheepvaartmuseum / National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
2. Society for the History of Discoveries Virtual Lecture Series:
“There is Nothing in the Desert”: Empire, Environmental Perceptions, and the Allure of Emptiness in Modern Desert Exploration
Dr. Andrea Duffy, Associate Professor of History, Colorado State University
June 4, 2026, 2 pm CST.
Modern imperialism was about more than just resource-rich environments and new spaces for settlement; it also involved the investigation, acquisition, and control of desolate, forbidding places such as deserts, high mountains, oceans, polar regions, and space. These extreme environments involved heightened threats to human visitors and created unique challenges for imperialism. They also defied common assumptions about the drivers and objectives of imperialism. Unlike other landscapes of exploration and empire, extreme environments were generally considered uninhabitable and lacked the appeal of resources. Explorers branded them as useless, dangerous, and empty, even when they were not.
While most extreme environments were considered natural – and in some cases the most pristine examples of nature – imperial agents often viewed desert regions as unnatural and sought not just to contain or tame them, but to restore them to an idealized, fertile past. This paper highlights the unique nature of desert exploration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It affirms that imperial ventures were largely about power and the ideal of control over not just territory or people, but nature itself.
You can RSVP here: https://discoveryhistory.org/event-6689464
A zoom link will be distributed closer to the date!
Contact Information
Cortney Anne Berg
Contact Email
URL
https://discoveryhistory.org/event-6689464
3. Orbs of Blood in 14th-Century Persia
The «Tānksūqnāmah» and Its Theory of the Rotational Motion of Blood
Ben Kavoussi
28 May 2026 – 5 PM (CET)
A 14th-century Persian medical manual on the Medicine of Cathay (Northern China) known as the Tānksūqnāmah-yi Īlkhān dar funūn-i ʿulūm-i Khaṭāʾī (Tānksūqnāmah) explicitly states that blood “makes rounds” within the body, flowing from the liver to the heart, then to the lungs, and returning again to the liver.
Commissioned by the vizier and physician Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī (1247–1318) during Mongol rule in Iran, the manual is an attempt to explain Chinese medicine to a Persian readership, translating a book that summarised Chinese medical knowledge at the time.
Drawing on Chinese cosmology and medicine, as well as the Graeco-Arabic medical tradition, the book ultimately advances its own conception of blood movement, moving beyond simple continuity. This model, which links bodily processes to celestial movements, differs from the philosophical description of pulmonary transit by Ibn al-Nafīs (1213–1288) and the quantitative theory of systemic circulation by William Harvey (1578–1657).
The Tānksūqnāmah is therefore best understood as a product of the distinctive cross-cultural milieu of Mongol-era Iran, exemplifying how scientific ideas can emerge through reinterpretation within zones of cultural and scientific contact rather than through linear transmission within a single lineage.
To register for this event, please click here.
Kindest regards,
Andreas Hylla
Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance (CSMBR) – Assistant Coordinator
Domus Comeliana, Via Cardinale Maffi 48, 56126 Pisa, Italy
Tel.: +39.02.006.20.51 – Mobile: +39.333.13.12.203
Email: ah@csmbr.fondazionecomel.org
4. Interdisciplinary hybrid conference at the University of Geneva, May 20–21:
Reframing the Constitutional Revolution: Gender, Law, and the Iranian Press
This interdisciplinary gathering brings together scholars from art, literature, history, and religious studies from Iran, the United States, and beyond.
The conference will explore new perspectives on the Constitutional Revolution through the lenses of gender, law, and media. At a time of renewed global and local challenges, these discussions aim to offer critical insight into the historical and contemporary significance of these issues: https://unige.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UIwLbMwjSeOC6GycTFSvgA
5. Hybrid:2026 Sir William Luce Lecture – Wednesday 10 June 2026 – 12.00 – 1.00 (GMT)
You are warmly invited by Durham University’s Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies to attend the 2026 Sir William Luce Annual Lecture scheduled to take place on Wednesday 10 June 2026 from 12.00pm – 1.00pm in Room IM102, Al Qasimi Building, School of Government & International Affairs, Durham University,DH1 3TU.
The 2026 Sir William Luce Fellow, Professor Simon Smith will present a lecture on ‘Recovering lost slave voices: Slavery and Manumission in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula’. Professor Simon C. Smith is a Professor of International History at the University of Hull. His research focus is on imperialism, nationalism and decolonization in South-East Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East with a particular focus on the Gulf region.
You can attend the lecture online on the day at 12.00pm on Wednesday 10 June 2026 using the following link – Sir William Luce Annual Lecture
If you plan to attend the lecture in person can you please RSVP to luce.fund@durham.ac.uk by Monday 1 June 2026.
6. Call for Papers: Entangled Histories Seminar Series 2026–2027
Following the success of the current edition, the Entangled Histories Seminar Series invites abstracts for its 2026–2027 cycle:
“Borders and Sustainability: Human and Natural Resources across Time and Space.”
This edition explores sustainability not as an exclusively environmental concern but as a multifaceted concept that intersects with borders across diverse cultural, material, and ecological contexts.
The series adopts a diachronic and interdisciplinary perspective, spanning from prehistory to the contemporary world.
Sustainability and Borders: A Broad Perspective. We seek to investigate sustainability in its multiple dimensions:
- Material sustainability:recycling of resources (manuscripts, architectural structures, waste, and landscapes).
- Ecological sustainability:relationships between humans, animals, and environments; balance between preservation and exploitation.
- Social, linguistic, and cultural sustainability:transmission of knowledge, endangered languages, healing practices, migration, and community resilience.
- Symbolic sustainability:representations of ecological limits, hybrid beings, and cultural imaginaries of nature and borders.
Conceptual Framework At the heart of the series lies the concept of borders, understood as dynamic thresholds that shape access to resources and regulate interactions. Borders are not only physical or political: they can be ecological, cultural, social, linguistic, political and material. While we encourage long-term temporalities and global spatial entanglements, we also offer the elements (earth, water, air, fire, ether, wood, etc.) as a possible heuristic framework to explore these dimensions across different historical strata.
Topics of Interest: We encourage contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to:
- Archaeology and Prehistory: Resource use, landscapes, indigenous practices, and environmental interactions over time.
- Medieval Studies, Philology, and Manuscript Cultures: Material sustainability of manuscripts, palimpsests, intellectual ecologies, literatures and languages, and the transmission of knowledge.
- Art History and Visual Culture: Representations of nature, landscapes, borders, and material practices across different periods.
- Anthropology and Folklore: Vernacular ecological knowledge, oral traditions, liminal beings, and environmental imaginaries.
- History of Science and Medicine: Healing practices, scientific knowledge, and environmental understanding across cultures.
- Environmental Humanities and Ecology: Human–non-human relations, ecosystems, climate, and resilience.
- History of Economy, Trade, and Food Systems: Circulation of resources, subsistence, scarcity, and sustainability practices.
- Architecture and Infrastructure Studies: Built environments, water and soil management, roads, and material borders.
- Geography, Cartography, and Media Studies: Spatial representation, mapping, and communication of environmental knowledge across borders.
🌟 High-Impact Publication Opportunity: A selection of the most significant contributions will be published in a dedicated edited volume or a special issue with a leading international publisher (past collaborations and ongoing projects include prestigious venues such as Brill, De Gruyter, and Routledge). This ensures that the research presented reaches a global audience of specialists.
Submission Guidelines
- Format:Online seminar (approximately 30-minute talk + discussion).
- Schedule:October 2026 – Summer 2027.
- Required:Title, Abstract (250–300 words), Short Bio (100–150 words), Affiliation, email address, and preferred months of availability.
- Deadline:31 August 2026.
- Send to:seminars@outlook.com.
Contact Information
Organized by:
- Maria Pia Ester Cristaldi(Üsküdar University)
- Elisa Ramazzina(University of Insubria)
Under the patronage of: The Faculty of Communication and the Master’s Programme in Media and Cultural Studies at Üsküdar University.
Contact Email
entangledhistories.seminars@outlook.com
URL
https://sites.google.com/view/entangledhistories/home
7. ‘The Bisotun–Madharan route: the reconstruction of a lost communication route in the southern part of the Bisotun–Sahneh plain’
8. Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics
Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory
Liverpool U Press, 2024
H Rashwan, R Ruth Gould, N Askari, eds.,
https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9780197267790
- May 16, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – ‘Ismaili Imamat and the Making of an Ethical World’ (Washington, 10 April 2027)
Ismaili Imamat and the Making of an Ethical World
Faith and Development in the Time of Aga Khan IV
Georgetown University, April 10, 2027
Call for Papers
This conference seeks papers on the thought, guidance, and institutional legacy of His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV(1936–2025). As the forty-ninth hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, Aga Khan IV shaped the religious, ethical, and institutional life of his followers. His leadership also extended into philosophical and ethical discourse, architecture and the built environment, and major initiatives in education, health, cultural preservation, and social development. Yet sustained scholarly engagement with these interconnected dimensions of his Imamat remains limited and dispersed.
This conference brings together scholars and graduate students whose work examines how Aga Khan IV’s Imamat took form across intimate, spatial, institutional, and global registers. We ask how his ethical vision is made present through everyday devotional life, institutional practice, and the built environment. We approach his legacy through scholarly analysis of the social worlds his work helped shape: how his vision has been lived, built, operationalized, interpreted, and remembered across different communities, institutions, and publics.
We invite papers that engage one or more of the following themes. Papers may consider the work of Aga Khan IV in time (synchronically) or through time (diachronically) as a particular manifestation of Shi’i Muslim ethics:
History, Imamat, and Muslim Ethics: How might we understand the ethical and philosophical vision articulated across Aga Khan IV’s speeches, writings, interviews, and institutional discourse? How might we historicize this vision across the changing contexts of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries? How have his ideas shaped conversations on pluralism, citizenship, educational, health, development, gender, and cultural heritage? How might these materials be read to illuminate broader questions concerning faith, ethics, governance, and Muslim life?
Devotion and Intimacy: How do Nizari Ismaili Muslims relate to the Imam, specifically Aga Khan IV? How do prayer, accounts of barakah and protection, devotional poetry, sacred objects, photographs, memorabilia, and domestic or communal spaces mediate relations between followers and the Imam? How do these devotional forms differ across regional contexts? Theological approaches are especially welcome in this section.
Culture, Arts, and Built Environment: How do cultural forms and practices—including architecture, visual and performing arts, and public spaces such as Ismaili Centers, jamatkhanas, museums, parks, and delegation buildings—materialize Aga Khan IV’s religious, ethical, and aesthetic vision? In what ways do aesthetics shape belonging and moral formation? How are spirituality, environment, beauty, and public culture brought into relation in different regional and political settings?
Development Institutions and Governance: How have the development institutions and initiatives associated with Aga Khan IV translated ethical vision into social, cultural, and political practice? How have people experienced these development projects? How might scholars critically assess the intersections of religious ethics, development practice, and global policy frameworks?
We welcome submissions from scholars and graduate students in anthropology, religious studies, history, architecture, development studies, political theory, sociology, and related fields.
A select group of undergraduate students will also be invited to present.
The conference is designed to support the development of publishable scholarly essays and to build a conversation around Aga Khan IV’s Imamat. Participants will be asked to circulate draft papers in advance of the conference. Papers will receive feedback from convenors. Select papers will be considered for a planned edited volume.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit the following:
Name, affiliation, and position
Paper title
An abstract of 500 words that clearly identifies the paper’s central argument, methods, and contribution to the conference’s themes
A brief biography of 150 words
A statement that the paper is not under consideration for publication elsewhere
Deadline for abstract submission: August 15, 2026
Notification of acceptance: August 31, 2026
Draft papers: December 13, 2026
Draft papers may range from 2,000–9,000 words. The wide word count range is intended to accommodate papers at different stages of development.
First round of feedback: February 4, 2027
Conference: April 10, 2027 at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Revised papers due for inclusion in edited volume: July 2027
Language: English
Submit to: Dr. Khoja-Moolji at sk2285@georgetown.edu
Subject line: Imamat Conference
The conference will cover airfare and two nights of hotel accommodations for participants traveling from North America and Europe. Scholars from other regions are warmly encouraged to apply and will be invited to participate virtually.
Convenors
Dr. Shenila Khoja-Moolji
Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani Endowed Chair of Muslim Societies
School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University
Dr. Hussein Rashid
Co-Director
Religion and Public Life
Union Theological Seminary
Sponsors
Organized by Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, with co-sponsorship from the Global Human Development Program; African Studies Program; the Global Cities Initiative; Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies; and the World Faiths Development Dialogue.
- May 15, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- May 14, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – ‘Mahboub, Gune-shenasi-ye asnad-e Astan-e Quds’
It is a great pleasure for me to announce the release of a major contribution by Elaheh Mahboub Farimani to diplomatics, administrative history, and many other fields related to the study of the early modern Persianate world and Iran.
Please visit the link below to download the work from the UTokyo Repository.
With best regards,
Kazuo Morimoto
الهه محبوب فریمانی (تألیف)؛ کازوئو موری موتو (همکاری و مقدمه فارسی)، گونه شناسی اسناد آستان قدس در عصر صفوی، توکیو، 2026.
- May 13, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Upcoming Course: The Shahname: Introduction to the Iranian Epic
The new Shahname course is already open for applications, and will start on May 27. Here you can read more about it:
https://ferdowsi.org/the-shahname-introduction-to-the-iranian-epic-spring-2026/
Always feel welcome to write me if you have any questions, course ideas or are considering participating in the Ferdowsi Summer School but are not sure about your plans yet.
All the best,
Ruben
Ferdowsi School of Persian Literature
Yerevan, Armenia
Website: www.ferdowsi.org
2. Monday Majlis Series
Online on Mondays, 2025-2026, Summer Term
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
University of Exeter
18th of May (Monday) 17:00-18:30 (UK time).
András Barati, A Tale of Two Decrees: Dynastic Rivalry and Bureaucratic Continuity in Eighteenth-Century Isfahan
Register please at:
https://Universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/LWnKOTWjTlO_NgNHfL61_g
25th of May (Monday) 17:00-18:30 (UK time).
Nuha Alshaar, Muslim Sicily: Fāṭimid and Kalbid Policies Towards Their Christians and Muslim Populations
Register please at:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/TBJgbYt6Rk2rVXgQvpdvvA
1st of June (Monday) 17:00-18:30 (UK time).
Tim Greenwood and Leone Pecorini Goodall, Rare Insights into the Late Umayyad Era through a Neglected Armenian Source: The Martyrdom of Vahan of Gołt‘n
Register please at: https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/9osam7fcQ6GNiuN2lpNwaw
8th of June (Monday) 17:00-18:30 (UK time).
Bilal Orfali, Prophets, Tricksters, and the Yellow Cow: Qurʾānic Echoes in al-Hamadhānī’s al-Maqāma al-Mawṣiliyya
Register please at:
https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/VMC2b0OAShOR4mwBrFIXuA
In the spirit of the label ‘Majlis’ and also to make the talks even more interesting, our speakers present the topic discussed as embedded in their own journey.
You can watch the previous Majlises here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8YRkUahFj_81oJzCSDLTx4kVQQgeHLc-.However, we don’t record the Q&A in order to keep the discussion free. Please come and enjoy the talks and the discussions.
If you’d like to be included in the CSI (Centre for the Study of Islam, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter) mailing list, please write to I.T.Kristo-Nagy@ex.ac.uk.
3. Call for Papers
Balkan Islam and Balkan Muslims
European Perspectives
Diasporic Trajectories, Institutions, Identities
International conference · 5–6 October 2026
Conference Hall, MISHA — 5 allée du Général Rouvillois, 67000 Strasbourg
Since the labour migrations of the 1960s and 1970s, the displacements caused by the post-Yugoslav wars, post-socialist mobilities, and contemporary student and professional circulations, Muslim populations from the Balkans, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Sandžak, have settled durably in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Benelux, the Nordic countries, and the United Kingdom. They now constitute one of Western Europe’s oldest autochthonous Muslim diasporas, yet they remain comparatively invisible in public and academic debates on European Islam, which tend to be structured around other regional reference points.
This conference proposes to place these communities at the centre of the analysis. It seeks to examine the modalities of their settlement, the organisation of their religious and associative lives, the transnational ties they maintain with their societies of origin, and the ways in which they articulate their European belonging in a context shaped by the securitisation of Islam and the reconfiguration of secularism regimes. The historical legacies of Balkan Islam, its Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Yugoslav layers, provide the necessary backdrop to this reading, without being its main object.
Thematic tracks
- The formation and historical development of Islam in the Balkans
- Theology and the specificities of the interpretation of Islam in the Balkans
- Islamic thought and its contemporary developments
- Plural identities: being Muslim, Balkan and European
- Migratory trajectories and diasporic reconfigurations: labour, war, post-socialism, contemporary mobilities
- Institutions, places of worship and Balkan Muslim associations in Western Europe
- Transnational circulations: imams, religious knowledge, ritual practices, diaspora economies
- Generations, languages, transmission and religious practice in diasporic contexts
- Women and youth in Balkan Muslim communities across Western Europe
- Relations with host societies: institutional recognition, secularism, pro- and anti-Muslim discourses
- The experience of war, genocide and collective memory
The conference brings together contributions from history, sociology, anthropology, religious studies, political science and law. Both comparative approaches across Western European countries and localised case studies are welcome.
Submission guidelines
Proposals (200–300 words, in English or French), together with a short biographical note, should be sent by 15 June 2026 to: akgonul@unistra.fr and dzsusko@gmail.com. Notification of acceptance: 15 July 2026. Funding (travel and accommodation) may be awarded, with priority given to doctoral candidates and early-career researchers.
Conveners and Scientific Committee
Conveners: Dževada Garić and Samim Akgönül (University of Strasbourg).
Scientific committee: Samim Akgönül, Dževada Garić, Ségolène Plyer, Khalid Rabeh.
4. I am pleased to announce the recent publication of a special issue of the Annales islamologiques. The dossier, entitled “Symbolisms and Representations of the Ka’ba” and edited by Kader Smail, Gregory Vandamme, and myself, is now available in open access at the following link:https://www.ifao.egnet.net/anisl/60
Here is the table of contents of the dossier :
– Fârès Gillon, Kader Smail, Gregory Vandamme, “Introduction”
– Harry Munt, “The Kaʿba in al-Fākihī’s (d. c.279/892–893) History of Mecca: From Local Traditions to Universal History”
– Adam Bursi, “On the Pattern of God’s Throne: The Kaʿba as Paradise in the First Centuries of Islam”
– Jean-Charles Ducène, “Le sanctuaire de la Kaʿba et ses représentations topographiques médiévales”
– Anna Caiozzo, “Présence de la Kaʿba dans la culture visuelle de l’Orient médiéval”
– Luca Patrizi, “The Relics of the Kaʿba and Their Ritual Use Through Islamic Historiographical and Exegetical Sources”
– Simon O’Meara, “House First: The Quranic Figure of the Kaʿba
– Fârès Gillon, “Interprétations ésotériques du sanctuaire mecquois dans le chiisme ismaélien du ive/xe siècle. Entre antinomisme et symbolisme”
– Gregory Vandamme, “Le sanctuaire de la Kaʿba et ses dimensions symboliques dans les Futūḥāt al-makkiyya d’Ibn ʿArabī”
Fârès Gillon
Maître de conférences en Islamologie et langue arabe, Aix-Marseille Université
+33 (0) 6 66 34 28 31
5. I am happy to announce that my book, Transcendent God, Rational World: A Maturidi Theology (Edinburgh University Press, 2021), will be the subject of a forthcoming Book Symposium in TheoLogica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology, guest edited by myself and Shoaib Ahmed Malik.
For this special issue, scholars are invited to engage with, critique and extend the philosophical and theological ideas within the book. I will also be writing a published response to the papers. There are further details here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HopazieQ02RLyK3Qduq7s95gNUE3Roox/view?usp=drive_link
Dr Ramon Harvey
Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies
Cambridge Muslim College
14 St. Paul’s Road
Cambridge, CB1 2EZ
- May 12, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
- May 12, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Shiʿi Studies Symposium: Ritual in Shiʿi Islam (Chicago, May 14-16)
Please join us for the 2026 University of Chicago Shiʿi Studies Symposium: Ritual in Shiʿi Islam.
The symposium will take place from Thursday, May 14 through Saturday, May 16, primarily at the Franke Center for the Humanities.
The keynote address, “Purity, Sexuality and Ritual: Shiʿi Legal Doctrines of Menstrual Purity” will be given by Dr. Robert Gleave on Friday, May 15, at 4:30 pm. Featured speakers include Dr. Aun Hasan Ali and Dr. Scott Lucas.
Dr. Stefan Williamson Fa and Dr. Babak Rahimi will discuss their recent books, Sonic Relations and Senses of Mourning respectively, at the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore on Thursday, May 14, from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm..
The conference’s full program and locations can be found here, and you can register for the conference here.
Please be in touch with us at uchicagoshiistudies@gmail.com if you have any questions about the symposium.
Best wishes,
Shiʿi Studies Group Organizers
Ammar Farra, Rana Ghuloom, Ameena Yovan
- May 11, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – Academic Items
1. The Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections annual Digital Lab Days event will take place in Edinburgh on 2–3 July 2026. The event brings together scholars, curators, developers, educators, and heritage professionals working across Islamic art & architecture, history, video games/immersive media, and GLAM. The programme is designed to foster conversation across Islamic art, games/entertainment/XR, and GLAM sectors and to share new approaches to research, representation, and public engagement.
Speakers and workshops will engage with topics including:
- Digital tools for Islamic architectural heritage
- Al-Andalus in Arabic television
- Game design as art historical methodology
- Self-Orientalism in games and popular media
- Art and MENA representation in contemporary digital media
This event is particularly relevant to scholars and practitioners in:
- Islamic history and art history
- Medieval and Middle East studies
- Digital Humanities
- Museum/Heritage studies
- Games, Entertainment, & Creative Industries
- Game Studies
Contact Email
URL
https://www.digitallabivcc.com/digital-days-islamic-art-games-xr-glam-edinburgh…
2. Fons Vitae- An English translation ofLiu Zhi’s The Exposition of the Five Pillars of Islam, which remains the most influential Chinese-language Islamic work, regarded by Chinese Muslims (Islam arrived in China as early as 618 CE) as a fundamental textbook for learning and comprehending the divinely ordained duties of Islam. Liu Zhi(1660-1739), was a prominent Chinese Sunni Hanafi-Maturidi scholar of the Qing dynasty and a leading figure in the Han Kitab tradition.
“The Exposition of the Five Pillars of Islam” (Wugong Shiyi) by Liu Zhi is a profound treatise on the meaning of the Five Pillars of Islam (Shahada, Salah, Sawm, Zakat, and Hajj), framed within a metaphysical structure that draws on the language and lens of Chinese civilization and philosophy. The work provides both a theological and spiritual explanation of the Five Pillars as well as a moral framework that connects them to broader philosophical ideas about the nature of existence, ethics, and personal cultivation.
Bi-lingual: English and Chinese edition. To purchase… Available in Paperback, PDF and ePUB formats. (UK & Europe customers ORDER here.)
3. Invisible East WEBINAR | Documents from Turbulent Times: Middle Persian Collections from the Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods-Opportunities and Challenges
The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies and Invisible East present ‘Rethinking History: Returning to Archives and Documents’, a series of monthly online seminars.
Convened by Arezou Azad and Mohamad Tavakoli, the seminars are held on Zoom.
Please join us on Wednesday 13 May at 12PM EDT / 5PM BST to hear Dr Nima Asefi of
Universität Hamburg speaking on ‘Documents from Turbulent Times: Studying Middle Persian Collections from the Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods-Opportunities and Challenges’. Pre-registration is essential.
4. Fashion in Late Ottoman Istanbul
Photography and Identity in a Global City
Nancy Micklewright
5. Christian-Muslim Relations in the Bodleian Library Manuscript Wardrop d.
11 May, 6-7 BST
We are deeply honoured to welcome Dr Jaimee Comstock-Skipp, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and Research Fellow at New College, University of Oxford, to lead a session of the Manuscripts in Interfaith Contexts Reading Group
Abstract: What makes an illustration a ‘Persian miniature’? The paintings within a Georgian-language Vepkhistqaosani (Man in the Panther Skin) by Shota Rustaveli (c.1160 – c.1220) in the Bodleian Library (MS Wardrop d.27) look ‘Persian’ and connect to Iran. The term ‘Persian’ can refer to the language of a manuscript containing illustrations or a geographic attribution where Persian was spoken or appreciated, but it more often functions as an elusive cultural and stylistic evocation deployed without proper explanation. The Bodleian manuscript permits a targeted investigation into specific artistic and political connections between Iran and Georgia in the late 16th through the 17th century. Its illustrations, posited to have been completed c.1650–1700, reflect a familiarity with artistic conventions and developments in the Safavid capital Isfahan, synthesised with elements from local workshops in or near Tbilisi. Whereas the qualifier ‘Persian’ is often taken as a given, the talk offers a case study in artistic and sartorial influence and diffusion between presumed original source material and later assimilation and deployment elsewhere. In addition to political co-mingling, numerous artists originally born in Georgia served in the Royal Safavid workshops. How long a style associated with one centre takes to transfer to another is an open question, as is whether the artists responsible for the Bodleian manuscript’s illustrations were personally trained in Safavid workshops, or whether forms and figures were transferred through circulating materials for Georgian artists to copy.
Speaker: Dr Jaimee Comstock-Skipp is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and a Research Fellow at New College, University of Oxford.
Chair: Dr Shaahin Pishbin, Laming Junior Research Fellow at the Queen’s College, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford.
Date: 11 May, 2026
Time: 18:00-19:00 BST | 10:00-11:00 PDT | 13:00-14:00 EDT
Venue: Online
More information and registration: https://oxfordinterfaithforum.org/thematic-international-interfaith-reading-groups/manuscripts-in-interfaith-contexts/christian-muslim-relations-through-bodleian-library-ms-wardrop-d-27/
6. ONLINE Webinar “Regulating Kinship: Religion, Genetics and Reproductive Governance across Europe and the Middle East” by Yafa Shanneik (SOAS), University of Manchester, 13 May 2026, 14:00 – 15:30 CET
This presentation introduces RELI-GENE, a new interdisciplinary research project at SOAS. The project examines how state-led genetic healthcare policies intersect with religious beliefs, kinship traditions and individual reproductive decision making in close-knit religious minority communities. It further ex-plores how transnational spaces enable families to navigate, negotiate and bypass national legal and healthcare frameworks.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/4dun6ej9
7. ONLINE Webinar “Borders and Epidemics: Sanitary Transformation of State Borders in the Ottoman Empire (18th – 19th Centuries)” by Giorgio Ennas (University of Utrecht), 13 May 2026, 17:00 – 19:30 CET
Through the establishment of quarantine facilities, the Ottoman imperial government sought to control population movements, render inter-imperial borders more visible, and resist the expansion of rival powers. This session will emphasise the fundamental role of sanitary measures in shaping both the internal and external administrative boundaries of the Empire, ultimately influencing the national bor-ders of the 20th century.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/vd6h2dyk
8. ONLINE Talk on “Tracing al-Suyūṭī’s Impact on Sixteenth-Century Syrian Scholars: A Quanti-tative Analysis of Najm al-Dīn al-Ghazzī’s (d. 1651) Biographical Dictionary al-Kawākib” by Gürzat Kami (Istanbul University), OIB/Universities of Bamberg & Göttingen, 13 May 2026, 18:00 CET
This presentation in the Webinar Series “The Heirs of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 1505 AD)” traces the reception, influence, and memory of al-Suyūṭī in sixteenth-century Ottoman Syria. To this end, it exam-ines scholarly lineages and book transmission in al-Ghazzī’s biographical dictionary “al-Kawākib”, using social network analysis tools and methods to map patterns of intellectual continuity and transformation.
Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/suyuti1. About the series: https://tinyurl.com/suyuti2
9. Colloque « Philosophie, théologie et mystique dans l’Occident musulman médiéval », Mai-son méditerranéenne des sciences humaines et sociales, Aix-en-Provence, 20-21 mai 2026
Information et programme : https://tinyurl.com/46xakkts
10. ONLINE Book Talk “Empire of Officials: Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Bureaucracy” by Abdulhamit Kırmızı (Marmara University), Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Studies Student Asso-ciation (OPSA), University of Toronto, 21 May 2026, 17:00 – 18:00 CET
The particular focus of the historian is on bureaucracy, governance, and intercommunal relations under imperial rule. The event will be of interest to students and scholars working on Ottoman history, post-Ottoman studies, bureaucracy, minorities, empire, and modern Middle Eastern and Balkan history.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/226xza3a
11. HYBRID Vortrag “Digitale Doppelgänger und menschliche Verantwortung: Islamische Theo-logie im Dialog mit KI-Medizin” von Hadil Lababibi (Universität Zürich), Universität Innsbruck, 2. Juni 2026, 18:30 – 20:00 CET
In der Vortragsreihe “Mensch 2.0? Religion, Politik und Ethik im Zeitalter von KI, Transhumanismus und Anthropozän” beleuchtet Hadil Lababidi die ethischen Herausforderungen digitaler Doppelgänger in der modernen Medizin aus islamisch geprägter bioethischer Perspektive. Der Vortrag diskutiert Chancen und Risiken dieser Technologie insbesondere im Hinblick auf Personsein, Datenschutz und gerechte Zugänge zur Gesundheitsversorgung.
Information und Registrierung: https://tinyurl.com/26u86yzh
12. HYBRID Vortrag “Transhumanismus zwischen horizontalem Fortschritt und vertikalem Rückschritt. Philosophisch-ethische Reflexionen aus der Perspektive der islamischen Anthro-pologie” von Ilhan Ilkilic (Istanbul Universität), Universität Innsbruck, 16. Juni 2026, 18:30 – 20:00 CET
In der Vortragsreihe “Mensch 2.0? Religion, Politik und Ethik im Zeitalter von KI, Transhumanismus und Anthropozän” interpretiert Ilhan Ilkilic den Transhumanismus aus Sicht der islamischen Anthropo-logie als einen „vertikalen Rückschritt“, der das gottgegebene Wesen des Menschen verfehlt. Der Vortrag zeigt auf, warum islamische Ethik und Menschenbild eine fundamentale Kritik an der techni-schen Selbstüberwindung des Menschen nahelegen.
Information und Registrierung: https://tinyurl.com/26u86yzh
13. Annual Digital Lab Days “The Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections”, Edin-burgh, 2-3 July 2026
The event brings together scholars, curators, developers, educators, and heritage professionals work-ing across Islamic art & architecture, history, video games/immersive media, and GLAM. The pro-gramme is designed to foster conversation across Islamic art, games/entertainment/XR, and GLAM sectors and to share new approaches to research, representation, and public engagement.
Deadline for registration: 1 June 2026.
Information, abstracts of papers and speakers: https://tinyurl.com/7e53bhjr
14. Fall 2026 Workshop of the Mediterranean Seminar on “The Urban Environment”, 18-19 Sep-tember 2026
We seek papers that deal with any aspect of the urban environment as it relates to the Mediterranean world in any period but with a focus on Late Antiquity through Early Modernity. These aspects may be literal or metaphorical, historical or imagined, as seen from diverse disciplinary perspectives: economic, social, cultural, or political history; literature; history of philosophy, religion, science, or medicine; art and art history; musicology; anthropology; or any related humanities or social science disciplines.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ep5ebshn
15. International Symposium “Qurʾānic Manuscripts”, Manuscript Institution of Türkiye (TÜ-YEK), Istanbul 12-13 November 2026
The symposium will bring together scholars to advance research on Qurʾānic manuscripts, including their identification, dating, cataloguing, and digitization.
Deadline for abstracts: 23 May 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2rvxhf9f
16. ONLINE 55th Annual Conference of the North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (NAAIMS): “Islam, Ethics and Environment”, Fordham University, New York, 19 Novem-ber 2026
How do Islamic ethical traditions engage contemporary environmental challenges? This conference invites reflection on the moral, theological, legal, and philosophical dimensions of the human relation-ship to the natural world. We welcome contributions that examine environmental questions, including water and air quality, resource use, and animal welfare, through sustained engagement with Islamic sources, concepts, and lived practices.
Deadline for abstracts: 11 July 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/v2m42u7s
17. HYBRID Workshop “Law on the Margins of Empire: Pluralism and Politics in Colonial Pe-ripheries” (Focus MENA), Trinity College, University of Cambridge, 19-20 March 2027
This workshop investigates colonial law on the “margins” of (early) modern empires. We invite papers that engage with transregional, comparative, and locally grounded perspectives. Selected papers may be considered for a journal special issue. Applicants should submit a title, abstract, bio, and attendance preference. Limited travel funds are available.
Deadline for abstracts: 10 August 2026. Information: https://www-tinyurl.com/3b3b7884
18. Postdoctoral Fellowship (6 Months) in Islamic Bioethics, Research Center for Islamic Legis-lation and Ethics (CILE), Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar
We are seeking early-career researchers (PhD obtained within the last 5 years) specialized in Islamic Bioethics or Applied Ethics. Ideal candidates will be ready to transform their research into high-impact publications and possess professional proficiency in either English or Arabic (bilingualism is a signifi-cant advantage).
Deadline for applications: 23 July 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/54net8n8
19. Cataloger (1 Year, Remote Employment Only) of West African Manuscripts in Arabic, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML), Collegeville, MN
Qualification: Doctorate in History, African Studies, Islamic Studies, Arabic Studies. – Excellent knowledge of Arabic language and paleography and of Islamic literature in the West African context. – Native or near native English language proficiency and good communications skills. – Experience in working with manuscripts or cataloging manuscripts. – Strong computer skills.
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Information: https://tinyurl.com/5je9cs8t
20. Arcapita Visiting Professorship (1 Semester) in Modern Arab Studies, Columbia University, New York
We are interested in candidates whose field of research and teaching is in history, culture, or social sciences of the modern Arab world. The incumbent will be expected to teach one course, participate in the activities of the Middle East Institute, and give a brown bag lecture and other such public lectures as may be appropriate.
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Information: https://apply.interfolio.com/184343
21. Summer School for Persian Language, Yerevan, Armenia, 6-10 weeks, 21 June – 28 August 2026
Courses are available at beginner, elementary, and intermediate levels and focus on all core language skills: reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar, and vocabulary. Small class sizes ensure close interaction with experienced instructors and rapid progress. Participants will also benefit from a strong cultural immersion component, including guided excursions.
Deadline for applications: 21 May 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2mdhwru9
22. ONLINE Summer Skills Seminar “Medieval & Early Modern Cartography: An Introduction” with Karen Mathews (University of Miami), CU Mediterranean Studies Group & Mediterranean Seminar, 22-25 June 2026
This seminar addresses the importance of maps in medieval and early modern society in terms of their production, function, display, and their contribution to a mapping mentality. We will study different types of maps from Islamic and Christian territories in relation to their form, content, use, and context. We will work here to integrate maps more fully into art historical discourses while analyzing them as ideological objects.
Extended deadline for applications: 17 June 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3kwjz2b2
23. HYBRID Summer School on “Ottoman Paleography” and “Ottoman Archival Documents and Diplomatica”, Middle East and Africa Research Center (ORDAM), Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf Uni-versity, Istanbul, 7-30 July 2026
The program aims to teach archival languages required for research in Social Sciences, particularly in History, and to improve participants’ existing language skills. Participants will be able to use the archival language they learn for academic or personal purposes. During the program, 48 hours of intensive language training will be offered.
Deadline for applications: 29 May 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/ynncsawd
24. Articles on “Literature and the Body: The Relations Between Being and Writing” for a Special Issue of “Nesir: Journal of Literary Studies”, Samsun, Turkey
This issue eeks to reconsider how literature translates bodily experience into writing and visibility, and how the body, in turn, discloses and shapes literary meaning. It welcomes essays that conceive litera-ture as an ontological threshold, poised between meaning and sensation, writing and life, word and world.
Deadline for abstracts in English and Turkish: 1 August 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3xpctvxd
25. Chapters on “Humanistic Approaches to the Sharia in Islamic Fiqh and Theology” for Vol-ume Edited by Masoumeh Rad Goudarzi, Combined with a Workshop in Aarhus University, Den-mark
We invite chapter proposals for an author workshop and edited volume exploring humanistic ap-proaches to the Sharia in Islamic fiqh and theology, with a focus on innovative, comprehensive, and underexamined perspectives in contemporary Islamic thought. The volume will target scholars of Is-lamic studies, law, theology, and human rights, as well as interdisciplinary researchers working on reli-gion and ethics.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 May 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4kzaeec7
26. ONLINE New Book “Rethinking Neoliberalism in WANA (West Asia and North Africa): Femi-nist Economic Perspectives”, Edited by Salam Said & Adriana Qubaiova, Dietz Verlag, 2026, 254 Pages
The book argues that feminist economics offers a valuable alternative framework by highlighting the structural roots of inequality and by integrating economic analysis with social, political, and environ-mental dimensions. It pays particular attention to issues such as neoliberal policy impacts, geopolitical interventions, and persistent gender and social inequalities that continue to shape the region.
Download: https://tinyurl.com/yxs8vvhk
27. New Book: “Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Genizah” by Jane Hathaway, Open Book Publishers, March 2026, 510 Pages
Moving beyond the more familiar Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic texts, the author ventures into neglected terrain, offering expert translations of Arabic and Ottoman Turkish texts in Arabic script. The collection is rich with remarkable ‘firsts’, including a Jewish funerary prayer on the reverse of a letter from a military commander, fragments of Sufi poetry, and a primer on Muslim practice. Each document opens new avenues of inquiry, linking Egypt’s Jewish community to wider intra- and intercommunal networks in the Ottoman Empire and beyond.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/4csx3eps
28. ONLINE E-Book: “Coptic Heritage Awakening” by Mariz Tadros, Refcemi, London, January 2026, 282 pages
Readers are invited on a journey of heritage sense-making through multiple lenses: that of the author, the heritage gatherers comprising the hundreds of young people who have captured the photos and collected the stories, alongside members of their communities. The journey starts from the heart of Coptic communities; heritage is gathered through the young people residing there, and heritage sharing efforts are shared first and foremost in these same communities.
Download: https://tinyurl.com/4cxev36k
- May 09, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment
Shii News – ‘Shii Studies Network’: upcoming lectures
25 May 2026
Dr Kate Pukhovaia (Utrecht University and Leiden University Library)
What Makes Premodern State-Building Shiʿi?
2 June 2026
Dr Teresa Bernheimer
Revisiting the ʿAlids: Reflections on the Study of Kinship and Authority in Early Islam
- May 08, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment