Categories : Field-specific (academic)

The Al-Mahdi Institute is pleased to announce that the deadline has been extended for the call for paper for the 1st AMI Graduate Islamic Studies Conference.

The conference is aimed at graduate students at the masters level working in the field of Islamic studies with the aim of providing those intending to pursue a career in research and academia with an opportunity to gain experience presenting at a conference and to network with like minded peers.

Students enrolled on a masters programme (taught or research) in any discipline at the time of the conference at any university or institution in the United Kingdom are invited to submit abstracts on any topic in Islamic studies, broadly conceived as the study of Islam and Muslim societies.

The conference will be held in-person at the Al-Mahdi Institute between Saturday the 28th May and Sunday the 29th May 2022. Provisions are in place should the conference be required to move online due to changes in public health guidance.

The new deadline for submissions is 23.59 GMT on the 18th March 2022. Abstracts sent after this date will not be considered.

There are arrangements in place for accommodation. Further information on this will be provided when the abstracts have been selected. The cost and arrangement of travel is the responsibility of each person attending. Participants are encouraged to speak to their respective universities who often offer financial support for attending conferences.

For those selected to speak but who will face financial difficulties attending, please email the conference convenor. Lunch and dinner will be provided for each conference participant thanks to the hospitality of the Al-Mahdi Institute.

Further details can be found at the following link: https://ami.is/gc

National Museum of Asian Art
Tuesday, March 15 at 12 pm EST, please join us for “Fit for a Palace: The Craze for Safavid Carpets in Seventeenth-Century Europe” with Jessica Hallett.
In the fifteenth century, the city of Venice was the principal gateway for the arrival of highly valued knotted-pile carpets with geometric designs from the Ottoman Empire. When the Portuguese opened the sea route to India in 1498, Asian carpets became more accessible to consumers in Europe. In Iran, the Safavids decided to seize the opportunity and capture this new overseas market. A revolution occurred in Safavid production with the rise of an urban carpet industry that reacted swiftly, embarking on innovative changes to materials, colors, designs, and dimensions to compete with cheaper Turkish carpets. In Europe, a craze ensued as the elite looked to substitute their old-fashioned geometric carpets with new floral ones, turning the floors of their palaces into gardens. In this talk, Jessica Hallett, curator of the Middle East and China at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, will address how the synergy between makers in Iran and consumers in Europe created this “craze.”
Jessica Hallett was guest curator for Iraq and China: Ceramics, Trade and Innovation at the National Museum of Asian Art (2004). She has curated many exhibitions in Lisbon, since then, including The Oriental Carpet in Portugal at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (2007) and The Rise of Islamic Art at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2019), both of which were awarded national prizes. Her publications include various academic articles and catalogues on ceramics, textiles, and carpets as well as the book Mamluk Glass in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (2000). She is currently preparing with Clara Serra a catalogue of Gulbenkian’s renowned carpet collection.
Register here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_I6w65FMNQtqOrQgSnzy17Q
For more information please visit our events page: https://asia.si.edu/events or contact us: AsiaScholarlyProgram@si.edu

Al-Mahdi Institute is pleased to announce that the Call for Papers for the 10th Annual Contemporary Fiqhi Issues workshop on “The Institution of Marriage in Islam and Modern Society” is now open.
The workshop will be held over two days on 21st and 22nd July 2022 at Al-Mahdi Institute (Birmingham, UK).
Deadline for submission of proposals is Friday 15th April 2022.
Find out more.. https://www.almahdi.edu/events/marriage-in-islam/

Angels Hastening: The Karbalāʾ Dreams

Christopher Clohessy, resident faculty member of Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI), and visiting lecturer at the Pontifical Beda College also in Rome.

When, on an autumn Medina night in 61/680, the night that saw al-Ḥusayn killed, Umm Salama was torn from her sleep by an apparition of a long-dead Muḥammad, she slipped effortlessly into a progression of her co-religionists who, irrespective of status, gender or standing with God, were the recipients of dark and arresting visions. At the core of those Delphian dreams, peopled by angels or ğinn or esteemed forbears and textured with Iraqi dust and martyrs’ blood, was the Karbalāʾ event. Her dream would be recounted by an array of Muslim scholars, from al-Tirmiḏī, stellar pupil of al-Buḫārī, and Ibn ʿAsākir, untiring chronicler of Syrian history, to bibliophile theologian Ibn Ṭāʾūs and Egyptian polymath al-Suyūṭī. But this was not Umm Salama’s only otherworldly encounter and she was not the only one to have al-Ḥusayn’s fate disturb her nights. This presentation will explore their story.

Register in advance here. After registering, you will receive an email containing information about joining the event.

Hosted by Sabine Schmidtke (School of Historical Studies, IAS) and George A. Kiraz (School of Historical Studies, IAS and Editor-in-Chief, Gorgias Press) in cooperation with Angelos Chaniotis (School of Historical Studies, IAS).

For more information, please contact ds@ias.edu

Webinar: Covering Contemporary Shiism in Europe: Methodological Insights, 9 March 2022 10:00 AM CET
Convener and chair: Minoo Mirshahvalad (FSCIRE)

Oliver Scharbrodt (Lund University), Using a Spatial Methodology in the Study of Diasporic Religions: The Example of Transnational Twelver Shia Islam in Europe
Ingvild Flaskerud (University of Oslo), Reflections on methodological challenges in the ethnographic study of Shi’is in Europe: Access to the field and comparable findings
Avi Astor (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Analyzing the Performative Dimensions of Shia Public Ritual in the Diaspora
Fouad Gehad Marei (University of Birmingham), How To Do No Harm: Reflections towards a responsible ethnography of Shi‘i Islam

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88389117597?pwd=NGZMNkVOclBnRHRweTJ6ajZTWDBhQT09
ID meeting: 883 8911 7597
Passcode: 666752

CfP: “Materiality, Rituals and Senses: The Dynamic World of Lived Shi‘i Islam”, Tbilisi, Georgia, 19 – 21 October 2022
This conference explores the material, ritual and sensory forms of expression that constitute and shape the experiences of Shi‘i Muslims in diverse geographies and different time periods. It therefore seeks to uncover the dynamics of lived Shi‘i Islam and its varied temporal and spatial dimensions.
Themes: Devotion and ritual practice and its multiple sensory, material, embodied and aesthetic forms; Gendered dimensions of Shi‘i cultural production; Translocal and transnational entanglements and flows of ideas, capital, and people; Political economy of Shi‘i cultural production; Impact of regional and world politics on content and form in Shi‘i cultural production.
We welcome research on various subdivisions of Shi‘i Islam, including the Twelver, Ismaili, and Zaidi subbranches, as well as research on Alid piety and different forms of devotion to ahl al-bayt more generally. Scholars of all career levels and disciplinary and interdisciplinary backgrounds are encouraged to submit an abstract, including from Anthropology, Area Studies, Cultural Studies, History, Islamic Studies, Media Studies, Political Science, Religious Studies, Sociology, Ethnomusicology and other relevant and related disciplines and fields.
Deadline for abstracts: 15 April 2022.
Further information:
https://www.ctr.lu.se/en/about-us/calendar/event/materiality-rituals-and-senses-dynamic-world-lived-shii-islam/

Al-Mahdi Institute is now enrolling for courses in Islamic Studies starting on the 28th February 2022. Courses available for enrollment are Hadith & Rijal Studies, Arabic Level One and Islamic Ethics which can be studied virtually live on-demand at anytime and place.

Deadline for applications is Thursday 24th February 2022.

Find out more or apply now: https://mailchi.mp/almahdi.edu/islamicfeb2022semester

💯 World-class line-up of over 60 panelists and world-renowned presenters, in the world’s largest virtual conference, with over 110 global collaborations.

https://conferenceimamali.com/?mc_cid=9ff1f768cd&mc_eid=745ddc2b63

IMES Research Seminar Series
University of Edinburgh, Spring 2022
“De-centring (the study of) Shiʿism”

Note the rescheduling of the IMES research seminar of 21 February, which will offer two fascinating presentations by IMES PhD candidates Lucy Deacon and Carlos Mendez.

The new date for this seminar is Monday 28 March at 17:15. Those who had already registered for the talk should not need to register again. Here is the registration link, both just in case and also to review the full list of presentations https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlcuyvqjgvHdaSodYsuXt5D9W4T3lim0DW

Lucy Deacon (UoE)
Karbala from Canvas to Stage: The Influence of Traditional Storytelling on the Iranian Taʿziyeh
Carlos Mendez (UoE)
Exploring the Intra-Shiʿi Moral Panic behind the Controversial Film “The Lady of Heaven”