Archive for September 5th, 2026
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Daiber Collection II, MSS 1–50, has now been made available on “The Daiber Collection Beta Database “
The Daiber Collection Beta Database Project, “Team Daiber,” is pleased to announce that the fourth installment of images and metadata, covering Daiber Collection II, MSS 1–50, has now been made available online. The project aims to develop a renewed database of the Daiber Collection, one of the largest collections of manuscripts in Arabic script in East Asia held by the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo.
For further details, please visit: https://u-parl.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/notice20260902
2. Zahra Institute’s 2026 Fall Speaker Series
Lords of the Mountains: Kurds and Kurdistan in English Writing
Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Time: 12 PM CT / 1 PM ET
Registration link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/D0zY9DldT6eo45TkPns_lw#
3. University of Arizona’s remote Persian language courses, offered online via Zoom. These courses are open to visiting and non-degree seeking students from other universities as well, so they may be a great option for any of your students who still need to fulfill a foreign language requirement, regardless of their home institution.
Course details:
– Elementary Persian (PRS 101/102) – available in-person and online
– Intermediate Persian (PRS 401/402) – available in-person and online
– Advanced Persian (PRS 403/404) and 4th Year Persian (PRS 407/408) – in-person only (500-level graduate sections also available)
Who can enroll:
– University of Arizona Main Campus students (remote students only)
– Visiting and non-degree seeking students from other universities (upon admittance to Main Campus as a non-degree seeking student)
The program offers small class sizes, individual consultation, and instruction from experienced, published faculty, with levels available from beginner through superior proficiency.
For any questions, students can reach out directly to oconklin@arizona.edu.
4. Le CeRMI a le plaisir de vous convier, le jeudi 10 septembre, à la première édition du colloque « PhLIrT : Philologia Linguisticaque Iranica et Turcica » à la Maison de la recherche de l’INaLCO (2 rue de Lille, 75006 Paris, dans l’auditorium Georges Dumézil).
Cette première édition du colloque est organisée, avec le concours du CeRMI et de l’INaLCO. Le colloque aurait vocation à se tenir au mieux tous les deux ans, et à donner lieu à une publication de ses actes dans le courant de l’année suivant sa tenue.
Veuillez trouver le programme ci-joint et sur le site web du CeRMI : https://cermi.cnrs.fr/phlirt-philologia-linguisticaque-iranica-et-turcica/.
L’entrée est libre dans la limite des places disponibles.
Dans le cas où vous souhaiteriez suivre le colloque « PhLIrT : Philologia Linguisticaque Iranica et Turcica » à distance, les informations sur le lien Zoom se trouvent sur cette adresse : https://www.inalco.fr/evenements/phlirt-philologia-linguisticaque-iranica-et-turcica-premiere-edition
Les organisateurs de l’édition 2026
Sébastien Gréal (CeRMI – INaLCO) et Dorian Pastor (Université de Lausanne)
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CeRMI – CNRS UMR 8041
Centre de Recherche sur le Monde Iranien
Campus CNRS Ile-de-France Villejuif
7, rue Guy Môquet – 94800 Villejuif – FRANCE
cermi@cnrs.fr – https://www.cermi.cnrs.fr
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5. Richard M. Eaton Recipient of the 25th Levi Della Vida Award
Richard M. Eaton, a well-known and respected social-cultural historian of Islam and premodern India (1000—1800), has been awarded the 25th Giorgio Levi Della Award in Islamic Studies by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. As part of the award, CNES will host a scholarly conference on a theme selected by Eaton, at which he will deliver a formal lecture. The conference, “Sufis in Premodern Persianate Societies and Politics,” will be held at UCLA on November 5, 2026. UCLA historians and CNES Faculty Affiliates Nile Green and Choon Hwee Koh are organizing the event, with the proceedings to be published as a new volume in the Giorgio Levi Della Vida Series in Islamic Studies. Read more here.
6. The recording for the recent Library of Congress event, “From South Asia to the American South: A Discussion about the History and Trade of Seersucker”, is now available on the Library of Congress website and YouTube page:From South Asia to the American South: A Discussion about the History and Trade of Seersucker. Please feel free to share this link with anyone who might be interested.
Contact Information
Charlotte Giles, PhD
South Asia Specialist, Asian Division
Library of Congress
Contact Email
URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVLbutMA2-o
7. A new anthology ‘Erwerbungen und Provenienzen Islamischer Kunst zwischen 1933 und 1945 (Acquisitions and Provenance of Islamic Art between 1933 and 1945)’ edited by Franziska Bloch and Miriam Kühn brings together 15 essays examining current research into the acquisition and provenance of Islamic art during the Nazi era.
A central focus is the fate of Jewish collectors and their collections, including Felix Ganz, Alfred Cassirer and Dr. Max Ginsberg. Their stories are closely connected to the holdings of the Museum for Islamic Art in Berlin and demonstrate how persecution, forced sales, displacement and the dispersal of collections also shaped museum collections.
The volume also examines acquisitions by museums and libraries, including the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and explores approaches to making provenance research visible and accessible through museums.
Provenance research is essential to understanding an object’s biography: who owned it, how it changed hands, and under what circumstances it entered a collection. Where gaps remain, research can nevertheless reveal networks, historical contexts and responsibilities that are crucial to the way museums understand and care for their collections today. By bringing together current research and methodological perspectives, it provides a basis for further investigation into the histories of Islamic art collections in Germany.
The publication is mainly in German. Published by arthistoricum.net in 2026 and is available open access online.
Access the publication: https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1638
Contact Information
Museum für Islamische Kunst (im Pergamonmuseum)
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 6
D-10117 Berlin
Contact Email
URL
https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1638
8. Applications are now open for the 2026 Canadian Friends of Sufi Arts, Culture, and Knowledge™ (CFSACK®) Research Awards.
The CFSACK Research Awards support research and scholarly or creative projects that advance the study and understanding of Sufi arts, culture, and knowledge. With the support of the American Friends of Sufi Arts, Culture, and Knowledge (AFSACK), the program is open to eligible applicants affiliated with institutions in both Canada and the United States.
The Research Awards welcome proposals across a broad range of disciplines and areas of practice. Eligible fields include, but are not limited to, art and art history, anthropology, archaeology, architecture, classics, cultural studies, curatorial practice, ethnomusicology, fine arts, history, literature, philosophy, psychology, religious studies, sociology, and related interdisciplinary fields.
Projects may involve fieldwork, archival or collections-based research, community-engaged research, creative or curatorial work, conference participation or organization, and the development and dissemination of research outputs.
Award Amounts
- Undergraduate and master’s students: up to CAD 2,000
- Doctoral students/candidates and postdoctoral fellows: up to CAD 5,000
Eligibility
Applicants must be one of the following:
- Undergraduate students
- Master’s students
- Doctoral students/candidates
- Postdoctoral fellows
Applicants must be enrolled at or formally affiliated with an eligible Canadian or U.S. post-secondary educational, research, or cultural institution, including a university, college, research institute, museum, or archive.
Citizenship is not an eligibility requirement.
Research Access Opportunity
Award recipients may, upon request and subject to approval, be granted funded research access to the Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO™ in Chatou, France. Depending on the nature of the project and availability, this may include consultation with members of the Museum’s curatorial or research teams and access to relevant collections or research resources.
Important Dates
- Applications Open: September 4, 2026
- Application Deadline: October 25, 2026 at 23:59 PDT
- Notification of Results: Mid-December 2026
Full program guidelines, eligibility requirements, FAQs, and the online application portal are available at:
https://www.cfsack.org/research-awards
Contact Information
Nooshin Esmaeili, Chair, CFSACK Research Awards Committee
Shahed Ejadi, Board of Directors, CFSACK
Contact Email
URL
https://www.cfsack.org/research-awards
9. The first lecture in the Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series for the fall 2026 semester will take place on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at 12:00 New York / 17:00 London / 19:00 Istanbul.
Rachel Winter (MSU Broad Art Museum) and sculptor and installation artist Armita Raafat will present “History in Motion: A Conversation between Armita Raafat and Rachel Winter about Contemporary Art and Islamicate Visual Cultures.”
To attend, please register in advance here:
https://wellesley.zoom.us/meeting/register/LvXw8DkPQxWbxiXkWNK5Rw
Upon registration, you’ll receive the link to access the lecture.
As always, you can find a full schedule of upcoming talks and register for our list-serv on our website at viahss.org. Although not every talk is recorded, we also have recordings of several recent talks available on the VIAHSS Vimeo page at vimeo.com/viahss. Lastly, you can follow us on Instagram at @theviahss to stay up to date on upcoming events!
Contact Information
Drs. Alexander Brey, Jaimee Comstock-Skipp, and Rachel Winter
Contact Email
URL
10. HYBRID Colloque “PhLIrT : Philologia Linguisticaque Iranica et Turcica – Première edition”, inalco, Paris, 10 septembre 2026, 9h00 – 19h00 CET
Information, program et inscription : https://tinyurl.com/2we5r3ae
11. Workshop: “Conceptual History and Translation – Between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East”, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin, 10-11 September 2026
This workshop brings together scholars and translators working between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East to examine, through concrete case studies, how key concepts – from critique and secular-ism to ʿasabiyya, boko and civil society – are made and unmade as they cross languages such as Arabic, French, English, German, Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Kashmiri, Hausa and Kiswahili.
Information and program: https://tinyurl.com/bdcn4bep
12. Conference “The Concept of Health and the Concept of Illness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam”, BaFiD, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen, 23-25 September 2026
Themes: – The Concept of Health in Judaism: Prof. Dr. Catherine Hezser, SOAS University of London. – The Concept of Health in Christianity: Prof. Dr. Isolde Karle, Ruhr-Universität Bochum. – The Concept of Health in Islam: Prof. Dr. Ali Ayten, Marmara Üniversitesi. – The Concept of Illness in Judaism: Prof. Dr. Laura Zoloth, University of Chicago. – The Concept of Illness in Christianity: Prof. Dr. Ashley Moyse, Baylor University (USA). – The Concept of Illness in Islam: Prof. Dr. Mehmet Sayilgan, Georgetown University.
Program and registration: https://tinyurl.com/2kj6emh3
13. HYBRID Lecture Series “Political Order beyond Westphalian Statehood: Perspectives from Asia and Africa”, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin, 24 September 2026 – 25 Feb-ruary 2027
Themes: – The Impish Revolutionary: Mischief, Play, and Counter-Sovereignty in Iran. – A Polypoly of Legitimate Violence? Political Orders on the Sahara Frontier. – Ruling Strategies and State-Building after Multi-Actor Civil Wars: Evidence from Syria and Beyond. – Jihadist Debates over Political Identity and Technologies of Government in the Lake Chad Basin. – The Southwest Caucasian Republic (1918-1919) and the Limits of Pseudo-Statehood.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/5dum4pyv
14. International Conference “God, Human, Machine: Images and Imaginaries of Religion in the Age of AI” (Focus Islam Studies), 28-30 September 2026, University of Erfurt, Germany
The conference critically examines how AI technologies are reshaping religious images and imagi-naries, encompassing the symbolic, affective, and sensory dimensions of religious life and practice across traditions, cultures, and social contexts. The conference brings together theoretical and empiri-cal perspectives, connecting scholars and practitioners working at the intersections of Religious Stud-ies, Anthropology, Art History, and Science and Technology Studies.
Deadline for registration: 16 September 2026. Information, program and registration:
15. ONLINE Three-Part Workshop “Studying East of Byzantium XIII: Centers and Hubs”, Hellenic College Holy Cross & Harvard University, 9 October 2026 / 12 February 2027 / 3-4 June 2029
The workshop intends to bring together doctoral students and recent PhDs studying the Christian East to reflect on the usefulness of the role of Centers and Hubs in studying the Christian East, to share methodologies, and to discuss their research with one another and senior specialists in the field.
Deadline for abstracts: 13 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3pbrvdww
16. International Conference “Villes du Levant: Mémoire, Identité et Avenir Urbain”, Levantine Heritage Foundation & Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 29 October 2026
Themes: – Cities defining the Levant: Beirut, Saida, Tyre, Haifa, Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleppo, Alex-andria etc. Separate entities and rivals or a cultural collective? – Cosmopolitan cities: the nature and evolution of Levantine urban identity. – Memory, destruction and the politics of reconstruction in the Levant. – Reflections of the Levant in literature and film. – The future of Levantine cities and communi-ties: resilience and renewal. – The history of foreign communities in Lebanon and beyond. – Etc.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/2zuvpsca
17. “60th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA)”, Boston, 21-24 No-vember 2026
We will have several special events reflecting on the past and looking ahead. These include a special session, “Former MESA Presidents Reflect on Major Events in the Last 30 Years”, about some of the challenges various presidents faced and how MESA responded. Another special session, “MESA at 60: The Past, Present, and Future of Middle East Studies”, considers the evolution of the field and where we might go from here. A roundtable, “Teaching MES in Different Generations:Culture Wars, Geopoli-tics, Retaliation, and the Teacher”, discusses 60 years of undergraduate teaching in Middle East stud-ies.
Preliminary program: https://tinyurl.com/va6bjvtx
18. ONLINE “Ninth Annual Graduate Student Book Review Colloquium on Islamic and Middle
Eastern Studies”, AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies, George Mason University, 3 December 2026
The Colloquium invites advanced graduate students and advanced undergraduate students in the so-cial sciences and humanities to submit reviews on noteworthy books published since 1 January 2025 in the field of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. At the Colloquium, the accepted students will have the opportunity to present their book reviews in pre-organized panels lasting 20 minutes.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/bdhua4t3
19. Conference “On the Orientalists’ Divan: Questions of Reflexivity from the 18th to the 21st Cen-turies”, Inalco, Paris,15-16 March 2027
The academic aim of this conference is to highlight the explicit and conscious relationship between the scholar and their subject of study, and to capture the reflexivity of Orientalists – that ‘close, intimate and entirely personal bond they maintain with their work’. Researchers are invited to catch Orientalists in the act of explaining, as historians, the link between the history we have made and the history that has made us.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3u2jeyd5
20. Candidatures pour des bourses de recherche en islamologie, Master 2 (1 à 3 mois), Doc-torant/es/Jeunes docteur/es (6 mois), L’Institut de recherche sur le Maghreb contemporain (I-REMC), Tunis
L’octroi d’une bourse de mobilité devra permettre aux masterant/es, doctorant/es ou jeune docteur/es d’accomplir un travail de terrain de recherche en islamologie en étant accueilli/es dans une ou deux UMIFRE. La discipline « islamologie » est entendue au sens large et pourra intégrer les axes suivants. – Histoire de l’Islam. – Étude et analyse critique du corpus des textes religieux, théologiques, juridiques, doctrinaux et philosophiques de la période de l’Islam Classique. – Etude en sciences sociales des groupes musulmans. – Etc.
Limite : 15 octobre 2026. Information : https://tinyurl.com/y7vvh3h2
21. Summer School “Fatih Sultan Mehmed: 1420-1500”, Arkhé Campus in Şirince, İzmir, 5-12 September 2026
The summer school will examine the period through political thought, law, historiography, intellectual history, philosophy, and court culture. Particular attention will be given to Mehmed’s relationship with the Roman and Byzantine imperial past, the reorganization of the Ottoman court and state, the trans-formation of Istanbul into an imperial center, and the relationship between political authority and schol-arly life. The language of instruction is Turkish.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/y7vvh3h2
22. New Book: “An Ottoman Perception of Greek History: Mahmut Efendi’s History of Athens”, Translated by Thomas Sinclair, Edited by Thomas Sinclair & Gülçin Tunalı, Edinburgh University Press, August 2026, 584 Pages
This edition comprises a transliteration, translation and commentary of a history of Athens written from the 1710s to the 1740s by Mahmut Efendi, a locally born Ottoman court official. The text describes the city’s early history, the reforms of Solon, the battles of Marathon and Salamis, Socrates’ teaching, Al-exander the Great’s involvement with the city and exploits in Asia, and the city’s conversion to Christi-anity. It also outlines the involvement of Venice in the city’s fortunes starting in the 13th century and complains of the second Venetian occupation (1686-87) of the Peloponnese and Athens.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/ykf6pjhh
23. New Book: “Curating Islamic Art in European Museums: Postcolonial Perspectives and Mus-eological Transformations” by Constance Jame, Routledge, 16 June 2026, 278 Pages
Since the early 2000s many museums around the world have been either re-organising or creating ex nihilo galleries dedicated to Islamic art. This movement has often been attributed by the press and scholars as a response to international geopolitical events. Challenging this prevailing narrative, in this book Jame examines these developments as part of a longue durée process rooted in evolving art historical perspectives and institutional efforts to de-Europeanise their approaches. Thus, she explores how Islamic art was presented and interpreted within Western European museums in the 2010s.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/29d3m8tc
24. New Book: “Kurdish Women’s Transnational Resistance: Revolutionary Politics in Everyday
Life” by Nisa Goksel, University of Washington Press, June 2026, 302 Pages
Goksel draws on years of multisited ethnography and archival research to illuminate the lives of ex-guerrillas, local activists, politicians, activist mothers, and migrant women who have carried the struggle across borders, advocating for the democratic and gendered transformation of Kurdistan and the wider Middle East. The book shows how they have created alternative political subjectivities, new political spaces, and novel gendered strategies at the precarious intersection of local and transnational politics.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/6cubfnkz
25. New Book: “A Trade in Dreams: A Century of Egyptian Print Advertising” by Bahia Shehab, AUC Press, 26 May 2026, 252 Pages
Drawing on over 350 images of magazine and newspaper ads, Bahia Shehab reveals how consumer culture intertwined with political, social, and economic change during the period between 1880 and 1980 in Egypt. She shows how the Egyptian market navigated the influx of European and American luxury goods, from fine fabrics and jewelry to agricultural machinery, and how these items became symbols of aspiration and, at times, ignited a wave of national resistance.
Information: https://aucpress.com/9781649033024/
26. New Book: “Social Movements and Democratization in North Africa, 1912-2024” by Moha Ennaj, Palgrave Macmillan, 2026, 338 Pages
This transdisciplinary book examines social movements in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It focuses on nationalist, democratic, women’s, Islamist, Berber (Amazigh), and youth movements since 1912 through the post-Arab Spring era. The book takes current debates on the topic to a more inclusive level, involving linkages among policy, cultural identity, democratic culture, and social justice. It analyzes the role of social movements in driving social change, democratization, development, and social cohesion.
Information: https://tinyurl.com/nxwj8ja5
- September 05, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment