Categories : Field-specific (academic)

For more information, click here.

Since July 2023, Dr. Qutbuddin is the AlBabtain Laudian Professor of Arabic in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford, and a Professorial Fellow of St John’s College.
Originally from Mumbai, Dr. Qutbuddin earned a BA and Tamhidi Magister from Ain Shams University, Cairo, and a PhD from Harvard. She taught briefly at Yale and the University of Utah, then for two decades at the University of Chicago.
She teaches classical Arabic literature from its oral beginnings in the 7th century to the cusp of modernity around 1800, seeing it as a direct window into the rich culture and thought of the vast medieval Arabic-speaking world.
She has been awarded by HE Sheikh Thani in the category of Arabic to English translations, for her work on the Nahj al-Balagha, in the “2024 Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding” winners circle.

Dr Sobhani’s Lecture: “Environmental Challenges and Islamic Legal Solutions”

with articles of interest to Shii News by
Hannah Richter
Robert Gleave
Ali-reza Bhojani
Sümeyra Yakar
Maryam Rutner
Zahir Bhalloo
Elham Bakhtary

The Islamic College

Nahj al-Balāghah stands as one of the most celebrated and enduring works in the Arabic-Islamic intellectual tradition. Al-Sharīf al-Raḍī’s compilation of the sermons, letters, and sayings of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib has inspired profound theological, ethical, literary, and political reflection across centuries.

This edited volume (under the auspices of ICAS Press) seeks to explore Nahj al-Balāghah through the interconnected lenses of text, thought, and tradition. We invite original, unpublished contributions that offer close readings, critical engagements, and interdisciplinary or comparative approaches to the Nahj as a literary text, a vehicle of doctrinal and philosophical reflection, and a living tradition transmitted, interpreted, and rearticulated across diverse contexts.

Suggested Themes
Text
Manuscript traditions and transmission history
Authorship, attribution, and compilation
Linguistic, rhetorical, and literary analysis
Genre and stylistic features of sermons, letters, and aphorisms
Thought
Doctrinal themes: tawḥīd, ʿadl, nubuwwah, imāmah, and maʿād
Philosophical and mystical dimensions of the soul and intellect
Political theology and theories of governance
Spirituality, asceticism, and the inner life
Tradition
Shi‘i and Sunni commentary traditions
Engagements with hadith, Qur’anic exegesis, and jurisprudence
Reception and reinterpretation across historical and regional contexts
Contemporary political, pedagogical, or devotional appropriations
Cross-sectarian or interfaith transmission and interpretation

Submission Instructions
Submissions should be sent via email to: shiistudies@islamic-college.ac.uk

Please include the following:
Abstract (400–600 words)
Brief academic biography (150 words)
Curriculum Vitae
Email subject line: Nahj al-Balāghah CFP – [Your Full Name]
Timeline
Deadline for Abstracts: 15 September 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 15 October 2025
Final Chapters Due: 15 April 2026
Chapter Length: 6,000–8,000 words (excluding references)

https://islamic-college.ac.uk/call-for-papers-nahj-al-balaghah-text-thought-and-tradition/

For more information, click here.

Of particular interest to Shii News subscribers are:

‘Rulers as Authors: ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and the Other Twelver Imams’
T Bernheimer

‘Zaydī Rulership and Authorship: A Quest for Legitimacy. The Case of al-Muʾayyad bi-llāh Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Hārūnī (333–411/945–1021)’
M Jarrar

‘Shah Ṭahmāsp and the Taẕkira: A Sixteenth-Century Ruler’s Justification of His Policies’
P Bockholt

For full information, see here.