Categories : Field-specific (academic)

Shi’i clerical networks and the transnational contest over …: Ingenta Connect

This article explores the transnational contest over sacred authority in contemporary Shi’i Islam as it plays out between contemporary maraji’ (sources of emulation) and the Iranian Supreme Leader, and in practice between their respective networks.

The Impact of the Black Death on Iranian Trade (1340s-1450s A.D.)

The Great Plague, generally known as the Black Death, swept many parts of the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe in the mid-14th century repeatedly for decades and inflicted widespread demographical, social and economic consequences.

“All the City’s Courtesans: A Now-Lost Safavid Pavilion and Its Figural Tile Panels”: Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 54 (2019) | MetPublications | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum Journal is issued annually and publishes original research on works of art in the Museum’s collection. Highlights of volume 54 include conservators’ discoveries of Renaissance sculptor Andrea della Robbia’s workshop techniques; a new reading of lavishly dressed women on tile panels from 17th-century Iran; and John Singer Sargent’s decisive role in choosing his socialite sitters’ fashionable attire.

Legalised Pedigrees: Sayyids and Shiʽi Islam in Pakistan | Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society | Cambridge Core

Legalised Pedigrees: Sayyids and Shiʽi Islam in Pakistan – SIMON WOLFGANG FUCHS

Beyond structure and agency: Rethinking political identities in Iraq after 2003

This paper examines ethno‐symbolic and instrumental explanations of ethnic and sectarian identities placed within the constructivist turn in the study of political identity, both in the abstract and how they have been deployed to explain the increasing contemporary influence of ethnosectarian mobilisation in Iraq and the wider Middle East.

Sunnis and Shi’a

When Muhammad died in 632 without a male heir, Sunnis contended that the choice of a successor should fall to his closest companions, but Shi’a believed that God had inspired the Prophet to appoint his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as leader. So began a schism that is nearly as old as Islam itself.

The Bektashi Shi’as of Michigan: Pluralism and Orthodoxy within Twelver Shi’ism

Project Associate Mohammad Sagha writes on the Bektashi Shi’a community based in Michigan, USA for the Visions Blog. He explores debates on orthodoxy and heterodoxy within Islam and the need to examine the diversity and pluralism within modern Shi’ism which is often overlooked in larger debates of Islam and the Muslim world.

Zahid Ali Fellowship

The Zahid Ali Fellowship was established in 1997 by The Institute of Ismaili Studies in the name of Professor Zahid Ali (1888-1958), a pioneer of modern Ismaili Studies, at the bequest of Professor Zahid Ali’s son, the late Professor Abid Ali, and his family.

Sunni-Shia Reconciliation in Malaysia

The 1996 fatwa [recognizing “Sunni Islam” as the official religion of Malaysia] was a pivotal turning point that paved the way for subsequent efforts at “othering” the Shia minority, and through this to discredit and deny them their human rights.

Approaches to the Qur’an in Contemporary Iran

Approaches to the Qur’an in Contemporary Iran explores the importance of the Qur’an in the religious, artistic, political, and intellectual discourses in modern and contemporary Iran from the nineteenth century to the present. The chapters included in the volume have been written by some of the most authoritative specialists in the modern history of Iran.