Categories : Field-specific (academic)

‘Sunni-Shi’i Rapprochement:
Internal Contradictions’

Hamid Mavani

Abstract
Ecumenical initiatives to promote Sunni-Shi’i reconciliation and
mutual respect have failed to take root because they do not tackle
the incendiary issues that prompt each branch to view the other with
disdain, if not as outright apostates or unbelievers. I argue that this
will not change until the main fault lines in their worldviews, communal
self-understanding, sacred narratives, history, theology, and
philosophy are confronted head-on.

If this cannot be done, then all proclamations of Muslim unity and
brotherhood/sisterhood under one ummah will remain hollow and
lack substance, because each side’s internal discourse would remain
unchanged. Any type of mutual tolerance and coexistence prompted
by expediency and power dynamics cannot be expected to be deeprooted
and long-lasting. The United States, along with such other
local and foreign players as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Iraq, and
Syria, have instrumentalized Sunni-Shi’i sectarianism to promote
their own myopic vested interests. The result is clear for all to see:
an exponential increase in Sunni-Shi’i antagonism.

The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 33:1 (2016), 133-47

Iremam – Journées d’étude IREMAM/WAFAW/LABEXMED

Zahir Bhalloo, “Judging the judge: Judicial competence in 19th century Iran”, Bulletin d’études orientales, 63 (2014), pp.275-293.

Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of the dominant Imāmī Šīʻī Uṣūlī doctrinal model in nineteenth century Iran of the jurist (muǧtahid) as arbiter (qāḍī al‑taḥkīm) on judicial practice. By drawing on a “litigant archive” from this period, I discuss one problem that emerged from the dominant doctrinal model. It became possible for litigants to challenge the binding force of a ḥukm by claiming they did not recognize the scholar who issued the ḥukm to be a muǧtahid and hence judicially competent. This ultimately forced Uṣūlī writers to come up with a juridical framework where one recognized muǧtahid would have to confirm the emergence of another one in cases where a scholar’s juristic qualifications (iǧtihād) were challenged. In practice, as I demonstrate, even if a scholar’s judicial competence as a muǧtahid was confirmed by another recognized muǧtahid, it was still no guarantee that the scholar’s ḥukm would be enforced.

Keywords
decentralization, judicial competence, qaḍāʼ, Uṣūlī, muǧtahid, judgement, Qājār, Iran.

Contested modernity: divided rule and the birth of sectarianism, nationalism, and absolutism in Bahrain

Seminar to Commemorate the Martyrdom of Imam Ali

SUNDAY 19th JUNE 2016 – 2:00 PM

VENUE – RUDOLF STEINER HOUSE

35 PARK ROAD, LONDON NW1 6XT

Opposite Mumtaz Restaurant

Tube station: Baker Street

Chair: Dr Gurdofarid Miskinzoda

Dr Gurdofarid Miskinzoda is Head of the Shiʿi Studies Unit in the Department of Academic Research and Publications at the Institute of Ismaili Studies. Gurdofarid is an Alumna of the Institute’s Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities and the recipient of the Institute’s Doctoral Scholarship Programme. She received her BA in Oriental and African Studies (1998) and her MA in Arabic Studies (2000) from the Institute of Asian and African Countries of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Gurdofarid completed her studies with a PhD in the History of the Near and Middle East and Islam from SOAS, University of London (2007). Her thesis, entitled On the Margins of Sīra: Mughulta’i (689–762/1290–1361) and His Place in the Development of Sīra Literature focused on a work of Mughulta’i on the biography of the Prophet Muhammad. It also examined new trends in the understanding of sīra literature and some current issues of studying sīra as a genre of Muslim literary and historical tradition.

Dr. Reza Shah-Kazemi

Imam Ali’s Discourses to Kumayl

Dr. Reza Shah-Kazemi studied International Relations and Politics at Sussex and Exeter Universities before obtaining his PhD in Comparative Religion from the University of Kent in 1994. Formerly a Consultant to the Institute for Policy Research in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Dr Shah-Kazemi is at present a Research Fellow with the Department of Academic Research and Publications at the Institute of Ismaili Studies where he is Managing Editor of Encyclopaedia Islamica, the English translation and edition of the on-going multi-volume Persian Great Islamic Encyclopaedia (Da’irat al-Ma’arif-i Buzurg-i Islami). He has authored several works, including most recently The Spirit of Tolerance in Islam (IIS/IB Tauris, 2012); Spiritual Quest: Reflections on Qur’anic Prayer according to the teachings of Imam ‘Ali (IIS/IB Tauris, 2011); and Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism (Fons Vitae, 2010).

Gulamabbas Lakha

Insights into the ʾakhlāq of Imam Ali (a.s.) from Psychology and Neuroscience

Gulamabbas Murtaza Lakha is undertaking postgraduate study approved by the British Psychological Society, focussing on mental health effects from dhikr practices and corresponding neural activity of the brain. His interests in the psychology of Islam have included research on al-Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya at Oxford University, analysing ʾakhlāq traditions at the Islamic College in London, and lecturing for eight years on personal development from the Qurʾān, ḥadīth and Islamic history. He is an economist by profession, having been awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, and manages a practice he founded twelve years ago.

AN OPEN INVITATION

PLEASE BE SEATED BY 2:00 PM

ORGANISER & SPONSOR: THE AHMED FAMILY – C/O MUHAMMADI TRUST (020 8452 1739)

Understanding urban Alevism through its socio-spatial manifestations: cemevis in İzmir

Imam Ali Chair for Shi‘i Studies and Dialogue among Islamic Legal Schools — Hartford Seminary

Hartford Seminary announces an opening for a Shi‘i scholar with a distinguished record that includes an academic doctorate, religious training and lived religious commitments to occupy the newly endowed Imam Ali Chair for Shi‘i Studies.

The successful candidate will demonstrate expertise in Shi‘i Islam and its relation to other traditions of Islam and Christianity and may be grounded in one of a number of academic disciplines. The candidate must be able to teach courses at both introductory and advanced levels and have the intellectual depth required to direct Ph.D. students. The appointment begins in fall 2017.

The appointment is to the core faculty of the seminary and will be a member of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. It carries the full-time teaching load of four courses per year, a student advising load expected of all faculty, and regular faculty committee and administrative responsibilities to be determined in relation to the candidate’s gifts and the seminary’s needs. Scholarly research and productivity are priorities in light of the school’s history as a place of advanced learning and publication. Hartford Seminary is a religiously diverse community and expects its faculty to appreciate and respectfully engage views and traditions that are different from one’s own.

Rank is open; Ph.D. or its equivalent is required. Review of applications will begin on 15 September 2016 and will continue until the position is filled. A complete application should be submitted electronically to Ms. Lorraine Browne at lbrowne@hartsem.edu and includes a letter of application, a current curriculum vitae, and three letters of reference submitted directly by the recommenders. For further information, please contact Dr. Scott Thumma, Chair of the Imam Ali Chair Search Committee, at sthumma@hartsem.edu.

Twelve Infallible Men

Rituals of Commemoration, Rituals of Self-Invention: Safavid Religious Colleges and the Collective Memory of the Shi’a