Categories : Field-specific (academic)

Mohammad-Ali AMIR-MOEZZI, “Les Cinq Esprits de l’homme divin (Aspects de l’imamologie duodécimaine XIII)”, Der Islam 92.2 (2015), pp. 297-320.

Le corpus ancien du Hadith imamite contient un certain nombre de traditions sur les « cinq esprits » de l’imam. A quelques variantes près, ceux-ci sont les suivants: l’esprit saint, l’esprit de la foi, l’esprit de la puissance, l’esprit du désir et l’esprit du mouvement. « L’esprit saint » est présent dans toutes les versions. Ces traditions, concernant les membres intellectifs de l’homme divin, ne semblent pas avoir des fondements proprement islamiques ou arabes. En revanche, des traditions religieuses et spirituelles antiques et tardo-antiques peuvent nous fournir de nombreux parallèles saisissants. Dans une première partie, la « préhistoire » de la notion est étudiée. De nombreuses exégèses gnostiques et manichéennes d’Isaïe 11, 2–3 sont examinées (en particulier le logion 19 de l’Evangile selon Thomas, le Psautier copte et le traité chinois appelé « Traité Chavannes-Pelliot »). Elles concernent toutes les cinq membres de l’homme parfait surtout dans le manichéisme. La deuxième partie de l’article est consacrée aux prolongements de ces traditions (leur ancienneté dans les cercles ésotériques shiʿites imamites et ismaéliens, chez al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, dans le Umm al-kitāb et jusque dans l’apocryphe énigmatique tardif d’origine morisque appelé l’Evangile de Barnabé). L’implication majeure de ces traditions sur le plan doctrinal c’est la capacité de l’imam et de son initié de recevoir les révélations divines grâce aux facultés de « l’esprit saint » ou « l’esprit de la sainteté » (rūḥ al-quds).

Journal of Shi’a Islamic Studies new issue: Vol VIII – Issue 3

Shi’ism in South East Asia

Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA)
Preliminary Program
49th Annual Meeting
November 21-24
Denver, Colorado

Papers of potential interest to those on this list include those below. Full, on-line programme available at: http://mesana.org/annual-meeting/program.html

(4170) Shiʿi (Trans)nationalism
in Comparative Perspective
Organized by Robert J. Riggs and
Zackery Heern
Chair/Discussant: Juan Cole, U Michigan
Zackery Heern, Idaho State U–Modern
Usuli Shiʿism as a Transnational
Movement
Mina Yazdani, Eastern Kentucky U–
Shiʿi Nationalism in the Twentieth
Century Iran
Najam Haider, Barnard Col/Columbia
U–The Houthi Revolt: The Revival of
Traditional Zaydism in Republican
Yemen (1962-2015)
Robert J. Riggs, U Bridgeport–Al-
Sadr’s Indigenization Strategies and the
Emergence of Iraqi Arab Shiʿism

(4110) Rethinking Muharram:
Shiʼi Muslim Minorities
and the Politics of Ashura
Performances
Organized by Mara Leichtman
Chair: Toby Matthiesen, Cambridge U
Discussant: Chiara Formichi, Cornell U
Samer El-Karanshawy, Qatar Faculty
of Islamic Studies–Texts, Interpretation
and Commemorating Imām Husayn
Babak Rahimi, UC San Diego–The Green
Ashura: Urban Space, Ritual, and Post-
Election Iran
Mara Leichtman, Michigan State U–The
‘Africanization’ of Ashura in Senegal
Kathryn Spellman Poots, Aga Khan
U–Muharram Rituals and the Making of
British Shiʼism

(4231) Understanding the
Iraqi State: Sectarianism and
Authoritarianism
Chair: Timothy Schorn, U South Dakota
Dr. Nassima Neggaz, National U
Singapore–Sunnis, Shiʿa, and the State
in Iraq since 2003: The Construction of a
Sectarian-Authoritarian State
Tim Jacoby, U Manchester–(Mis)
Representing the Sunni Uprising in Iraq:
Culture Talk and the “Islamic State”
Yaniv Voller, U Edinburgh–The
Socio-Political Aspect of the Baʿth
Government-Sponsored Militias in
Northern Iraq: New Archival Findings

(4044) The Shiʿah of Lebanon:
Inter-Confessional Discourse
and Relations
Organized by Lynda Clarke and Farah
Kawtharani
Chair: Max Weiss, Princeton U
Discussant: Sabrina Mervin, CNRS
Farah Kawtharani, U Michigan
Dearborn–Shiʿis Responding to
Lebanon’s Sectarian State: Hizbullah and
Jurist Shams al-Din
Pascal Abidor, McGill U–The Anti-
Sectarian Politics of Ahmad ‘Arif al-Zayn
and His Majallat al-‘Irfan
Linda Sayed, New York U–Asserting
Roots: Muhammad Jabir al-Safa and His
Writing of a Shiʿa History
Lynda Clarke, Concordia U, Montreal–A
Shīʿite Clerical View of the Lebanese
State: Muḥammad Jawād Maghnīyah
(1904-1979)

(4159) Pro- and Anti-Safavid
Propaganda, 1480-1580
Organized by Matthew Melvin-Koushki
Chair/Discussant: Sara Nur Yildiz, St
Andrews U/Orient-Institut Istanbul
Christopher Markiewicz, U Chicago–
The Evolving Rhetorical Response to
Shah Ismail: Idris Bidlisi and Ottoman
Anti-Safavid Sentiment, 1501-1513
Matthew Melvin-Koushki, U South
Carolina–The Unpatriotic Persian: Fazl
Allah Khunji as Pioneer of Anti-Safavid
Propaganda
Colin Mitchell, Dalhousie U–F Is for
Fath: Qazi Mir Husain Maybudi and His
Model Victory Letter
Ayse Baltacioglu-Brammer, Ohio State
U–Turning Kızılbaş, Turning Safavid:
Pro-Safavid Propaganda in Anatolia
during the 15th and 16th Centuries

(4207) Negotiating Authority in
Contemporary Shiʿism
Organized by David Thurfjell
Chair: David Thurfjell, Sodertorn U,
Sweden
Johan Gärde, Ersta Sköndal U
Col, Sweden–Marginalization and
Disappointment? The Socio-economic
Conditions of Shiʿite Populations in the
Middle East
David Thurfjell, Sodertorn U, Sweden–A
Charismatic Challenge: The Heyyati-
Movement in Contemporary Iran

Dominance: The ‘Otherʼ Islamic
Powers of the Medieval Islamic
World
Organized by Christine Baker and Eric
J. Hanne
Chair: Jere L. Bacharach, U Washington
Christine Baker, Indiana U
Pennsylvania–Remembering the
‘Shiʿi Century’: The Fatimids, Buyids,
ʿAbbasids, and Local Reactions to Tenth-
Century ‘Sectarianism’
Robert Haug, U Cincinnati–I will Give
the Kharaj to al-Mu`tasim, Not `Abdallah
b. Tahir: Local Authority vs. Regional
Authority vs. Imperial Authority in
Tahirid Khurasan
Eric J. Hanne, Florida Atlantic U–The
Contested History of the Early Mazyadid
Amirate and Its Role in the Fourth-Fifth/
Tenth-Eleventh Century Political Arena

(4267) Making and Breaking
Boundaries in the Ottoman,
Safavid, and Mughul Empires
Chair: Amy Singer, Tel Aviv U
Ferenc P. Csirkes, U Chicago–A
“Panther-Like Poet”: Sadiqi Beg’s Fall
from the Persian Literary Canon
Conklin Tyler, Yale U–The Boundaries
of Loyalty: Self-Fashioning and the
Kurds in the Seventeenth-Century
Eastern Anatolian Ottoman Borderlands
Gregory Aldous, U Pittsburgh
Greensburg–Turk and Persian in the
Early Safavid Court: The Case of the
Khurasan Campaign of 1512
Ayelet Zoran-Rosen, New York U–The
Gazi of the Sixteenth-Century: Frontier
Warriors in Bosnia and the Imagined
Past of the Ottoman Empire

(4072) Beyond Orthodoxy
and Confessionalization: New
Perspectives on Ottoman
Sunnism
Organized by Vefa Erginbas
Chair: Jane Hathaway, Ohio State U
Yasir Yilmaz, Purdue U–Contextualizing
Confessionalism: An Historiographical
Inquiry into Confessionalization
Paradigm’s Applicability to Ottoman
Sunnism
Selim Güng.rürler, Georgetown U–
Sunnism, Qizilbashism and Shiʿism
in the Context of Ottoman-Safavid
Confrontation
Vefa Erginbas, Providence Col–Many
Faces of Ottoman Sunnism: Approaches
Toward Yazid b. Muawiyah in Ottoman
Literary and Historical Writing
Aslihan Gurbuzel, Harvard U–How
“Orthodox” Were the Ottoman ʿulamaʾ?:
Approaches to Defining the Islamic
Community in the Early Modern Age
Malissa Taylor, U Louisville–A
Sultanic Sunnism, a Hanifized Kanun:
The Expansion of the Sultan’s Legal
Prerogatives (16th and 17th Centuries)

(4082) Making History: From
Tabari to Tahrir
Organized by Heather N. Keaney
Chair/Discussant: R. Stephen
Humphreys, UC Santa Barbara
Amr Osman, Qatar U–The Lesser of Two
Evils: Sunni Scholars and Egypt’s 2013
Coup
Brian Wright, McGill U–Khawarij vs.
Pharoah: Using Faith to Define Politics
Heather N. Keaney, Westmont Col–
Shiʿism in the Eyes of al-Azhar
Aaron Hagler, Troy U–Sunnifying
ʿAlī: Historiography and Notions of
Legitimacy in Ibn Kathīr’s Kitāb al-
Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya

(4078) Medieval Ismaili Muslim
Thought: Methodology,
Hermeneutics and Cosmology
Organized by Khalil Andani
Chair: Daniel Beben, Nazarbayev U
Aaron Viengkhou, Harvard Divinity
School–The World as Discourse:
Hermeneutics, Cosmology, and Natural
Science in the Jābirian Corpus and Early
Ismāʿīlism
Khalil Andani, Harvard U–The Ismā‘īlī
Influence on al-Ghazālī: A Reassessment
Paul Anderson, Harvard U–Ties of
Blood and Water: The Ritualization of
Knowledge and the Legitimization of the
Dāʿī Muṭlaq in Ṭayyibī Shiʿism

Call for Papers – 2nd International Conference on Shi’i Studies

7-8 May 2016
London, UK

The Journal of Shi’a Islamic Studies in conjunction with The Islamic College and the Institute of Islamic Studies would like to invite abstracts to be submitted for the 2016 conference. This conference will provide a broad platform for scholars in Shi’i studies to present their latest research. Papers are welcome on any aspect of Shi’i studies. Suggested topics include:

* Theology
* Philosophy and mysticism
* Law and jurisprudence
* History
* Qur’an and Hadith studies
* Anthropological studies
* Shi’i minorities
* Inter-religious, cross-disciplinary, or comparative studies
* Shi’ism and Orientalism
* Authority in Shi’i thought
* Shi’ism in the hawzah and/or the university

Accepted papers will be published in the Journal of Shi’a Islamic Studies (subject to passing peer review), an internationally recognized, academic, peer-reviewed journal focusing on studies of Shi’ism, which will enter its ninth year in 2016.

** Travel funding is available on a limited basis. **

Abstract submission deadline: 31 December 2015
Deadline for completed papers: 1 April 2016
E-mail abstracts to: editor@islamic-college.ac.uk

For more information, see http://www.islamic-college.ac.uk/shiistudies

The University of Religions and Denominations (Qom, Iran) will hold the second 12-Day course on Shia Studies in March 2016. This course entails an introduction to Shia History, Principles, Futurology, Rituals and Practices in contemporary world. The focus will be on the Twelver Shia, the numerically largest and most influential denomination in Shiism; however, participants in this course will also learn about other main Shia traditions. All university professors, lecturers, researchers, and Ph.D. students in related fields are invited to apply. More information about this course is available at

http://shiacourse.urd.ac.ir
Or http://urd.ac.ir/en/index

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely
Ahmad Moghri
Program Coordinator,
University of Religions and Denominations (Qom, Iran)
shiacourse@urd.ac.ir

Consejo Ibero-Safavid de Estudios Históricos. International Conference. MISSIONARIES IN THE SAFAVID WORLD

Shi’i Cosmopolitanisms in Africa

Mara A. Leichtman offers an in-depth study of Shi‘i Islam in two very different communities in Senegal: the well-established Lebanese diaspora and Senegalese “converts” from Sunni to Shi‘i Islam of recent decades. Sharing a minority religious status in a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, each group is cosmopolitan in its own way. Leichtman provides new insights into the everyday lives of Shi‘i Muslims in Africa and the dynamics of local and global Islam. She explores the influence of Hizbullah and Islamic reformist movements, and offers a corrective to prevailing views of Sunni-Shi‘i hostility, demonstrating that religious coexistence is possible in a context such as Senegal.

The book should be available at the discounted conference rate for those attending MESA.

Panel 2015 MESA annual Meeting, Nov 21-24, Denver, Colorado, USA
P4110] Rethinking Muharram: Shi’i Muslim Minorities and the Politics of Ashura Performances

Texts, Interpretation and Commemorating Imām Husayn. by El-Karanshawy, Samer
The Green Ashura: urban space, ritual, and post-election Iran by Rahimi, Babak
The ‘Africanization’ of Ashura in Senegal by Leichtman, Mara
Muharram Rituals and the Making of British Shi’ism by Spellman, Kathryn

SUMMARY:
The first ten days of the month of Muharram (known as Ashura) are often taken as an essential cultural paradigm for Shi’i Islam by academics and by Shi’i Muslims themselves. Mourning performances revolve around the story of the battle of Karbala (680 CE). In this Iraqi desert field, Husayn, Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, along with his followers, died a martyr’s death by the army of Umayyad caliph Yazid (who ruled from 680-683). For Shi’a, remembering Karbala has served as a basic metaphor upon which many beliefs, worldviews, and ritual performances are based. The commemorative ceremonies have been used to affirm communal solidarity and express political, ideological, and social relationships and identities in shifting historical contexts. These ritual performances are also strategic in that they seek to affirm control of a community’s situation and flexibly reinvent rituals as ongoing processes to accommodate various ideas, symbols, and practices in culturally defined contexts.

This panel explores the creative ways Shi’i communities from various ethnic, racial, and national backgrounds use Muharram discourses and practices to further ethnic/nationalist goals, and to negotiate their identity in the context of shifting state-society relations. Such performances are studied here as new ways of commemorating Muharram that entail transgressive features yet remain conservative to affirm social solidarity and bring minority communities more visibility in society. In particular, we examine Shi’i Muharram rituals that do not conform to “official” models of religious action and yet promote Shi’i identity in terms of authenticity and appeal to “traditions.” In certain contexts, however, Ashura may challenge colonial or state hegemony, serve as expressions of self-revival, or as a means of displaying communal identity in a multicultural state.

Panel presenters expand on Muharram practices across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Ashura commemorations in Lebanon are analyzed as texts, open for interpretation and variability. Similarly, Ashura manifestations in Iran, shortly after the “Green Revolution” contesting the disputed 2009 elections, are examined in terms of carnivaleque theatricality and use of city space. In West Africa, Senegalese Shi’a do not participate in Muharram performances typical in the Middle East, but organize conferences on religious debates inclusive of the Sufi Muslim majority. In Britain, Shi’i youth use Ashura to contest the older generation and assert themselves within larger transnational Islamic movements and British secular space. Throughout all four papers, themes of Ashura performance as local political intervention permeate, regardless of Shi’i majority, Shi’i minority, or Shi’i diaspora contexts.

For full details on the MESA meeting and other panels see http://mesana.org/annual-meeting/

The Alawis of Syria | Hurst Publishers