Archive for September 19th, 2026
Shii News – Academic Items
1. Reconfigurer les savoirs sur l’Asie centrale : dynamiques et défis disciplinaires
Journée d’études jeudi 3 et vendredi 4 décembre 2026
INALCO, Auditorium Dumézil, 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris
Cette quatrième journée d’études est organisée dans le cadre des activités du GIS MoyenOrient et Mondes musulmans (MOMM), en partenariat avec l’Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), le Centre de recherche sur le Monde iranien (CeRMI) et le Centre de recherches Europes-Eurasie (CREE).
Dans la continuité des précédentes, la journée d’études a pour ambition de promouvoir les études centrasiatiques en rendant compte de leur dynamisme et de leur diversité, de mettre en relation ses différentes disciplines et composantes, et de proposer un moment d’échanges entre les collègues impliqué-e-s dans les travaux sur la région. L’Asie centrale est ici entendue dans une acception géographique large, s’étendant de l’Iran à la Mongolie et de l’Afghanistan à la Russie.
Cet appel s’adresse aux chercheuses et chercheurs de tout statut, y compris doctorant-e-s et jeunes docteur-e-s, qui travaillent des périodes anciennes jusqu’à nos jours, sur des thématiques aussi diverses que le patrimoine, le religieux, le pouvoir, le territoire, les rapports sociaux, les circulations, le numérique, le changement climatique, les approches critiques, etc. La journée prolongera la réflexion sur les conséquences des crises géopolitiques et environnementales actuelles sur les terrains et le champ de recherche centrasiatiques, ainsi que les effets de ces dynamiques régionales sur les enjeux globaux, qu’ils soient politiques, sociaux ou écologiques.
Propositions de communications et de posters
L’événement se tiendra en français et en anglais, et les communications auront lieu en présentiel exclusivement. Les propositions de communication devront comprendre un titre, un résumé de 200 mots, une courte bibliographie ainsi que le nom et l’affiliation de l’auteur/autrice, et une adresse de contact.
Les propositions de posters devront comprendre un titre, un résumé du projet de recherche présenté soulignant ses points importants, ainsi que le nom et l’affiliation de l’auteur/autrice. Les posters seront affichés sur le lieu de l’événement.
Les collègues qui souhaitent rendre visibles des ouvrages ou des numéros thématiques de revue récemment publiés peuvent nous le signaler à l’adresse mail ci-dessous, ils pourront faire l’objet d’un affichage lors de l’événement. Merci d’envoyer votre proposition à l’adresse centraleasie@gmail.com avant le 22 septembre 2026. Une réponse sera transmise mi-octobre 2026.
Des financements sont possibles pour les participant-e-s résidant en France (mais en dehors de la région parisienne) et ne disposant pas de ressources de leur institution.
Organisation
GIS MOMM (Moyen-Orient et mondes musulmans)
INALCO (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales)
CeRMI (Centre de recherche sur le Monde iranien), UMR 8041
CREE (Centre de recherche Europes-Eurasie), EA 4513
Yordam, association des doctorantes et jeunes docteur-es sur l’Asie centrale
Comité d’organisation
Juliette Cleuziou, anthropologue, Université Lumière Lyon 2, LADEC, Institut Universitaire de France
Isabella Damiani, géographe, Université de Versailles / Université Paris-Saclay, LIMEEP-PS
Katja Doose, historienne, Université Lumière Lyon 2, LARHRA
Adrien Fauve, politiste, Université Paris-Saclay, IEDP
Olivier Ferrando, politiste, Université catholique de Lyon, UR Confluence : sciences et humanités
Svetlana Gorshenina, historienne, CNRS, Eur’Orbem
Xavier Hallez, historien, CETOBaC
Sophie Hohmann, sociologue, INALCO, CREE
Zhanna Karimova, sociologue, IMéRA – Institut d’études avancées d’Aix-Marseille Université, Centre Max Weber
Johanna Lhuillier, archéologue, CNRS, archéorient
France Orain, historienne de l’art, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, Orient et Méditerranée, CeRMI
Catherine Poujol, historienne, INALCO, CREE
Dilda Ramazan, historienne de l’art, curatrice, Sorbonne Université, Eur’ORBEM, CNRS, IFÉAC
William Rendu, archéologie, CNRS, ZooStan
Camille Rhoné-Quer, historienne, Aix-Marseille Université, IREMAM
Julien Thorez, géographe, CNRS, CeRMI
——————————————————–
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
2. The Bloomsbury Cultural History of the Middle East and North Africa (General Editor: Eve Troutt-Powell) is a history of the region in six chronologically-framed volumes from late antiquity to the present, with each volume organized around eight broad thematic essays of 8,000 to 10,000 words shared across each volume to facilitate the cross-volume tracking of ideas.
The volume devoted to “The Later Middle Ages, 1050-1450” (Volume editor: Paul M. Cobb) seeks contributors for the following unassigned essays:
Chapter 1. Perception, Representation, and Memory
Chapter 5. Selves and Society
Chapter 6. Emotions
The deadline for contributions is December 2027. Interested potential contributors should contact Paul Cobb at pmcobb@sas.upenn.edu for further details.
Contact Information
Paul M. Cobb
Department of Middle East Languages and Cultures
University of Pennsylvania
Contact Email
3. Two major new publications from the Khalili Collection:
A RIVAL TO CHINA
VOLUME X
Later Islamic pottery
In two parts
Part One
Peter Morgan, Rosalind Wade Haddon and Melanie Gibson
2025
Part Two
Pedro Moura Carvalho and J.M. Rogers with contributions by Julian Raby
2026
Volume X is the second of two volumes devoted to the ceramics in the Collection. It presents nearly 400 works produced after the Mongol conquests, dating from the 13th to the 19th centuries and originating from lands both within and beyond the Islamic world. The volume is divided into two parts.
The first part begins with the extensive group of Ilkhanid pottery, particularly strong in blue-glazed lajvardinah and lustre tilework, although virtually all types are represented. Judicious collecting has also created an important research resource for understanding the transition from Ilkhanid to Timurid styles. The pottery from Timurid Iran and Central Asia of the 15th century is noteworthy both for its rarity in other collections and for the opportunities it provides to explore links between Chinese and Islamic wares. The first part also includes a small but important group of vessels and sherds from Mamluk Egypt and Syria.
The second part comprises the Collection’s large holdings of Safavid pottery, particularly blue-and-white wares, allowing the east-west connections to be explored further. Pottery from the Ottoman realm contributes significantly to an understanding of the period. Smaller groups from Qajar Iran, later Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, China and Japan demonstrate both the similarities and diversity of the Islamic world from the 17th to the 20th centuries, as well as the influence of Islamic ceramics beyond the Islamic world.
https://khalilicollections.org/portfolio/a-rival-to-china-later-islamic-pottery-part-one/
https://khalilicollections.org/portfolio/a-rival-to-china-later-islamic-pottery-part-two/
Available here:
https://khalilipublications.com/product-category/islamic-art/
Contact Information
Qaisra M. Khan
Curator, Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage, The Khalili Collections
https://www.khalilicollections.org
Contact Email
URL
https://khalilicollections.org
4. Join the Freer Research Center at the National Museum of Asian Art for two upcoming scholarly programs celebrating the forthcoming exhibition From the Louvre: Masterpieces of Islamic Art(open September 26, 2026 – January 18, 2027). The programs are free and accessible online.
- Sneak Peek | An Exclusive Glimpse into From the Louvre
Tuesday, September 22, 12–12:45 p.m. EDT
Online
- From the Louvre: Opening Lecture with Souraya Noujaim
Saturday, October 3, 2–3:30 p.m. EDT
Hybrid (Meyer Auditorium and Livestreamed)
Register to Attend In-person
Register to Watch the Livestream
Questions may be directed to: FreerResearchCenter@si.edu
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5. The Virtual Islamic Art History Seminar Series is pleased to announce our lecture program for Fall 2026. All talks will take place on Tuesdays at 12:00 Eastern Standard/Daylight Time unless otherwise noted.
To attend, please sign up for our email list-serv on our website at viahss.org. You can also view past speakers and select recordings from the VIAHSS website at https://viahss.org/
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Charlene Vella
“Echoes of Geometry: The Enduring Legacy of Islamicate Ornament in Medieval Malta”
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Faezeh Jafari Mohammadabadi
“Mohammad Arjmand Kermani: The King of Late Nineteenth-Century Persian Carpets”
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Stefan Kamola
“Imagine Planets: The Emergence of Planetary Iconography in Seljuq and Mongol Iran”
Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Muhammed Nafi
“Arabesques by the Sea: Islamic Ornamentation and the Coastal Mosque Architecture of Kerala”
Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Kianoosh Motaghedi
“Cuneiform on the Loom: Furṣat al-Dawla Shirazi’s Persepolis Carpet as a Qajar Cultural Manifesto”
Tuesday, November 17, 2026
Olga Nefedova
“Authority: The Art of Mahmoud Sabri in the Soviet Union (1960–1963) in Its Context”
Tuesday, December 1, 2026
Richard McClary
“Lajvardina Wares: A Comprehensive Re-Examination of a Distinctive Style of Ilkhanid and Golden Horde Ceramic Wares”
Contact Information
Drs. Alexander Brey, Jaimee Comstock-Skipp, and Rachel Winter
Contact Email
URL
6. CFP for special issue on medievalisms
Please consider contributing to our volume for the Radical History Review on medievalism, The Politicized Premodern Past. Find the full abstract here. Among other topics, we are specifically looking for contributions on medical medievalisms. We also welcome collaborative pieces and contributions from scholars working outside of the Middle Ages and Europe.
Even if you can’t contribute, we would love if you could distribute the CFP within your department mailing lists.
Abstracts are due October 15th. Please feel free to contact me directly with questions.
Robin S. Reich
Assistant Professor
History Department
Seattle University
Casey 410-09
7. New Publication
Pedram Khosronejad and Thierry Zarcone ‘Chapter 24: Sufi Material Culture in Photography (Nineteenth to the Early Twentieth Century)’. In Sufi Material Culture, Vol 2. Pp. 577–611. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1: The Near and Middle East, vol. 154/4.2; Handbook of Sufi Studies, vol. 154/4.2. Leiden: Brill, 2026. Published 15 September 2026. ISBN 978-90-04-76900-7.
https://brill.com/edcollchap/book/9789004769007/BP000021.xml
8. alNaql.org: Digital Humanities Workstationand Classical Arabic E-Reader
Dear colleagues,
I would like to share a digital tool, or rather set of tools, I have developed for my own research (ḥadīth citation in Classical Arabic linguistics) as I feel it would be of general use for scholars in the fields of Classical Arabic Literature and Linguistics as well as Islamic studies. The tool, better described as an e-reader/digital humanities workstation, is live and can be accessed at alNaql.org. It is free, no registration required.
The alNaql e-reader is a library of Arabic texts dating from ~ 0 A.H. (i.e., pre-Islamic poetry collections) to ~1300 A.H. What differentiates this e-reader from the many, many others currently available online is that it is supplemented by a number of tools that run off data generated by a text reuse detection (TRD) software I created last year that finds instances of quotation, or really any intentional or unintentional repetition of language, between two texts. This software is available on my GitHub page and is described in an article I wrote in the Journal of Digital Islamicate Research last year. What sets this software apart from other TRD software is that its algorithm is designed specifically to handle the variable morphology and syntax of Arabic (for the technically inclined, I used Jaccard metric to compare n-grams and built matches from non-contiguous n-gram chains). The results are nearly 190 million substantial instances of text reuse among 5300+ works. These results have been integrated into the e-reader, allowing researchers to locate quotations and text reuse in seconds. The various tools provided include:
1) “Auto-Takhrīj”: When you use the e-reader, you may notice that the text is of variable color. When you click on a colored passage, a panel on the right side of the window will open with a list of all other works that include this passage (or a version of it). You can then click on one of these passages to navigate to the page in this work containing the passage. To start reading a book, click on كتب in the top bar, select a book from the list (searchable) and the e-reader will automatically open.
2) Search: Unlike other e-readers, the user can choose whether to search for verbatim or “fuzzy” results. The e-reader has the potential to perform morphology, root-based, and semantic searches. However, these are not currently live (this would require expensive compute that I cannot currently pay for).
3) Matches Navigator (تطابقات): Here, you can browse and filter the instances of text reuse between two or more books.
4) Visualizations: There are a number of visualization tools, which include:
- a) Network graph: Nodes and edges signifying text reuse between books. The graph is customizable and you can filter what books/types of text reuse are included.
- b) Sankey graph: Essentially, the same sort of data as a network graph but represented as a flow chart on the x-axis.
- c) Heatmap: A color-coded grid comparing books/genres/authors/dates based on number of matches.
- d) (And my favorite) Harald Motzki’s isnad-cum-matn analyzer: select hadith from a wide assortment of collections and generate an isnad tree to compare the transmission of one or more matn. N.B. isnaddata and hadith were programmatically extracted and the matn programmatically grouped. This is not an authoritative source. In fact, none of these visualizations should be used for anything but guiding your research; the data itself is flawed and should not be taken as a finding.
Corpus: I gathered the digitized texts from al-Maktaba al-Shāmila(Shamela), Shia Online Library, Masaha, al-Maktaba al-Zaydiyya (Ziydia), and al-Maktaba al-Shāmila al-Ibadiyya and converted them from their various original formats into TEI-XML. I have attempted to include only one edition per work, but there are a few duplicates. There are errors in the bibliographic data (e.g., death date, author), since these libraries used different naming conventions for the same authors and themselves contain the occasional error. However, most errors are on me as I, as a consequence of working alone, had to programmatically standardize the metadata.
Reuse statistics: The parameters of the algorithm used to generate the matches were loose in order to ensure as much text reuse was captured as possible. As stated above, there are nearly 190 million instances of text reuse (i.e., 65% similarity and >10 words). There are 1.2 billion additional matches ranging from 4 to 10 words. I have exerted much effort to remove formulaic phrases (e.g., صلى الله عليه و سلم، رضي الله عنه، عز وجل) and banalities, and the vast majority of these results are likely of interest to researchers for one reason or another. However, there is simply no way to produce results using TRD software that are of unassailable quantitative value. What counts as text reuse/formula/banality is subjective, and the available algorithms are subject to over/undercounts. The purpose of this admittedly imperfect dataset is to guide the researcher, not to serve a quantitative function.
AI integration: As noted, there are several unimplemented search options that would use AI models to expand searches beyond verbatim and fuzzy results. These require computing resources for which I am simply unwilling to pay out of my own pocket (the site currently costs me a reasonable 68 dollars a month). I have trained a semantic retrieval model on the alNaql data; it is accurate and performs as expected but the results it returns are not qualitatively better than what a keyword search or text reuse investigation produces. In fact, in my tests I have found it (and other semantic retrieval models produced by other researchers) underperforms the TRD results and matches keyword searches at best. Frankly, my feelings towards the utility of AI retrieval and embedding models are tepid. I may integrate these functionalities if I can secure funding (paying for the necessary GPUs would be hundreds of dollars a month), but I am in no hurry. I will upload the model I trained to HuggingFace in the coming weeks. It may be of interest to some, since it is to date the only model I know of trained exclusively on Classical Arabic as opposed to a combination of MSA and CA; I would be happy to provide the source code for the e-reader to anyone who would want to run this or another model locally. Nevertheless, I am skeptical that adding AI functionality at this time would significantly enhance the user experience.
تحذير: In addition to the unavoidable faults of such a data set, there is significant linguistic and orthographic variation in the corpus, not to mention errors in the digitization process. Page numbers of the text do not always accurately correspond to the printed edition. For a few books, there are multiple editions in the corpus, though I tried to limit the corpus to one edition per book (I have removed most duplicates from the reuse stats). Everything you encounter in the alNaql e-reader should be verified by either a physical copy of the book (hopefully a good critical edition) or, at the very least, a pdf scan. I built this tool first and foremost to be useful for researchers, not to provide an actionable or citable dataset. Its purpose is to save scholars time in choosing what to read, not replace the act of reading itself, which is best done away from a screen.
I invite any users to contact me with feedback. Let me know if you notice bugs, if the interface is counterintuitive or difficult to use, or if you would like to see certain texts/editions added to the corpus.
Regards
Tynan Kelly
Assistant Professor of the Humanities
Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University
Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia
9. 10-week online course, “Iran Before the Revolution: Education, Books, and Cultural Politics in Pahlavi Iran,” beginning October 5 at the Silk Road Academy.
Through books, archival materials, and cultural history, we’ll explore how education, publishing, translation, censorship, universities, children’s literature, and political and intellectual movements shaped Iranian society before the 1979 Revolution.
An important part of the course will be our weekly conversations around books, texts, and historical materials from the period—creating a space to read, discuss, and think together about the cultural and intellectual life of pre-revolutionary Iran.
Starts: October 5
Online | 10 weeks | Open to all
No specialized academic background is required, and enrollment is open to anyone interested in the cultural and intellectual history of modern Iran.
For course details and registration:
10. HYBRID International Conference “Arts and Crafts in the Late Ottoman Empire: Rethinking Practices and Concepts of Material Culture in Syria and Beyond (18th – Early 20th Century)”, Lebanese American University, Beirut, 25-26 September 2026
The conference brings together scholars working across art and architectural history, material culture, heritage, and social and economic history. It considers objects and practices as products of complex networks of artisans, patrons, merchants in the context of industrialization, expanding global markets, new technologies, museums and exhibitions, and emerging modern concepts of art and craft. The pa-pers explore both local practices and the circulation of objects, materials, techniques, and ideas across regional and imperial boundaries.
Information, programme and registration: https://tinyurl.com/yetjhmeh
11. Early Modern History Workshop: “Translation and Diplomacy in the Early Modern Ottoman World”, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, 2-3 October 2026
The workshop aims to bring together scholars working on translation and diplomacy in the Ottoman and Persianate worlds, with particular attention to diplomatic translation between Persian, Arabic, Ot-toman Turkish, and various European languages. It will address dragomans not only as practical inter-mediaries in diplomatic encounters but also as producers of knowledge whose translations, dictionar-ies, treatises, and descriptive writings shaped European understandings of Ottoman political culture, law, and society.
Information and programme: https://tinyurl.com/5ydkc38e
12. HYBRID Opening Lecture of the Exhibition “From the Louvre: Masterpieces of Islamic Art” by Souraya Noujaim, National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC, 3 October 2026, 20:00 – 21:30 CET
In this talk, department director Souraya Noujaim presents some of the masterpieces that could not make the journey to Washington for the exhibition “From the Louvre: Masterpieces of Islamic Art”. She shares their fascinating story and delves into their journey to the Louvre. Noujaim also focuses on individuals, curators, and donors who helped shape the collections through the present day. Following the lecture, she discusses the exhibition with co-curator Simon Rettig.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/2zcfp9nn
13. HYBRID Lecture “Embedded in the Flesh: Jewish Women and the Making of Modernity in the Late Ottoman Period” by Anabella Esperanza, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 5 October 2026, 18:00 – 19:30 CET
The speaker is completing her first monograph, a social and cultural history of Jewish women during the modernization of the Ottoman Empire throughout the 19th century to the second decade of the 20th century, when the empire finally ended. Drawing on a diverse array of sources, the book focuses on bodily practices and rituals embedded in the material body, and conducts a corporeal exploration of Judeo-Spanish-speaking women’s daily lives from Istanbul, Salonica, and Izmir. It will provide new his-tories of Jewish women navigating modernity, with a special focus on the Islamicate world.
Information and registration: https://tinyurl.com/2upzyn27
14. International Conference “The Composition of the Qur’an: Structure, Style & Meaning”, Ori-ent-Institut Beirut (OIB) & Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies (IDEO), Cairo, 19-20 March 2027
The conference aims to bring together leading scholars and early-career researchers working on the literary, rhetorical, philological, historical, and theological dimensions of the composition of the Qur’an. The conference welcomes contributions that revisit established assumptions, develop new methodo-logical perspectives, or explore how composition functions as a dynamic process of meaning-making within the Qur’an and across its interpretive traditions. Publication in MIDEO 45, 2029.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4574krfy
15. Workshops at the “17th Annual Gulf Research Meeting”, Cambridge, 20-22 July 2027
The Gulf Research Centre Cambridge (GRCC) welcomes any innovative proposal in the social science field dedicated to a better understanding of developments in the Gulf region. The organizing committee particularly seeks workshops in the following themes: – Gulf International Relations. – Gulf Environment and Sustainability. – Gulf Security. – Gulf Society (Culture, Education, Sports, Women). – Gulf Economy (Labour Market; Trade, Investment).
Deadline for proposals: 28 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/3ayh4ny5
16. PhD Candidates (Especially from the Middle East, 3 Years) in Peace and Conflict Resolution, “European Wasatia Graduate School for Peace and Conflict Resolution”, Europa-Universität Flensburg
Successful applicants will be able to pursue cutting-edge doctoral research in political reconciliation and conflict resolution within a uniquely international, interdisciplinary, and dialogue-driven academic environment.
Deadline for applications: 30 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/46pkaccd
17. Postdoc in Social Anthropology (4 Years) with a Focus on Yemen, Institute for Social An-thropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Wien
Qualifications: A PhD in Social Anthropology not more than six years prior to the start of the position. – Excellent command of English and Arabic. – Experience with digital/remote fieldwork methodologies. – Demonstrated interest in theoretical debates in anthropology and related fields. – Familiarity with the academic literature on Yemen is an asset. – A track record of publication in peer-reviewed journals, or a clear and realistic publication plan for early-career researchers.
Deadline for applications: 30 September 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/bdzuvpy5
18. Assistant Professor of Medieval History (Focus Near East), Stetson University, DeLand, Florida
Qualifications: Ph.D. in History or a related field by August 2027.Specific field of expertise is open, but candidates with specialization in Late Roman/Early Medieval History and the ability to teach Ancient Greek, Roman, and/or Near Eastern History are especially encouraged to apply. Other subfields of interest include the History of Science/Medicine/Technology, Public History, and Military History.
Deadline for applications: 15 October 2026. Information: https://tinyurl.com/4fcefbxt
- September 19, 2026
- by Andrew Newman
- 0 Comment