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Controversies in Formative Shi’i Islam: The Ghulat Muslims and Their Beliefs

AMI Research Seminar by Dr Mohammadreza Kalantari 19/01/2017

Panel: “Beyond Karbala: Theorizing Shiʿi Materiality”, German Association for the Study of Religion, Marburg, 13-16 September 2017

This panel invites to think about how theoretical assumptions and academic approaches towards Shiʿi materiality can be made fruitful to contribute to a broader understanding of Shiʿism, and account for non-binary views. While doing so the panel tries to assess Iranian and non-Iranian forms of Shiʿi materiality alike.

Deadline for abstracts: 22 January 2017. Information: Christian Funke (christian.funke@ithrw.uni-hannover.de) and Robert Langer (robert.langer@uni-bayreuth.de).

Call for Papers

Shii Studies: The State of the Art

International Conference held at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ

December 7-9, 2017

The undersigned are pleased to invite paper proposals for a conference on “Shii Studies: The State of the Art.” The conference is part of a larger endeavor aimed at fostering the scholarly exploration of all aspects of Shiism: the “Shii Studies Research Program”, funded by the Carnegie Foundation. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the history of the study of Shiism (proto- and early Shiism; Zaydism; Twelver Shia; Isma’iliyya); the history and / or current status of Shii manuscript repositories; future perspectives for research on Shiism; trends, past and present, in scholarship on Shiism; the status of Shii Studies in academic curricula.

The conference will be held at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, December 7-9, 2017.

The deadline for the submission of paper proposals is March 1, 2017. Successful applicants will be notified by April 1, 2017. Their travel expenses (economy) as well as accommodation and board will be covered through the “Shii Studies Reseach Program”.

Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the peer-reviewed Shii Studies Review (Brill, Leiden), vol. 3, devoted to the topic “Shii Studies: The State of the Art”.

Hassan Ansari (afarhang1349@ias.edu)
Sabine Schmidtke (scs@ias.edu)

Conference on Shi’i Studies

See website for further information.

Lecture – Angela Andersen, “The Role and Meaning of the Alevi Cemevi: Islamic Congregational Architecture Outside the Mosque Paradigm” (5 Dec. Cambridge, U.S.) | H-Islamart | H-Net

A Treasury of Virtues: Sayings, Sermons, and Teachings of Ali, with the One Hundred Proverbs, attributed to al-Jahiz (Library of Arabic Literature)

See also: Light of the Heavens: Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad

MESA 2016 Program

Papers of potential interest to the list set for delivery at the annual Middle East Studies Association meeting in Boston 17 – 20 November, 2016, include:

4321 Networked Texts: New Ways of
Seeing the Arabic Textual Tradition
(750-1500)

Organizers: Maxim Romanov, Sarah
Bowen Savant
Chair: Matthew S. Gordon, Miami U
Maxim Romanov, U Leipzig-Of a
network and a node: “The History of Islam”
of Al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) and its place in the
premodern Arabic textual tradition
Sarah Bowen Savant, Aga Khan
U-Khurasan and its literary networks in the
late 10th-early 11th centuries: Arabic letters
at the rise of Persian literature
Najam Haider, Barnard Col/Columbia
U-The myth of margins: mapping Shi’i
historiography
Majied Robinson, U Edinburgh-Text
reuse and nasab: outlining by genre

4364 Ismaili Thought Through the
Medieval and Modern Periods:
Gender, Exegesis and Metaphysics

Organizer: Khalil Andani
Khalil Andani, Harvard-The monorealism
of Aga Khan III: echoes of Ismāʿīlī
neoplatonism and Akbarī ontology
Shahrad Shahvand, Harvard-Ismailism
under the influence of Ibn ʿArabī: some
metaphysical views of  qā Khān Maḥallātī
(d. 1881)
Paul Anderson, Harvard-Projections:
gendering the spiritual in Ismāʿīlī cosmology
Aaron Viengkhou, Harvard-The true
path (satpanth): narrative hermeneutics
(taʾ wī l) in the Ismāʿ ī lī Ginā ns

4657 Arab-Iranian Intellectual
Exchanges and Political Encounters

Chair: James F. Goode, Grand Valley State
Arash Reisinezhad, Florida
International-Pre-revolutionary Iran and
Shia Lebanese 1958-1979
Gholam R. Vatandoust, American U
Kuwait-Pan-Iranism, pan-Arabism and
pan-Islamism: the dispute between the Shah
of Iran and Gamel Abdul Nasser of Egypt
Amirhossein Teimouri, Illinois Urbana-
Champaign-Round-the-clock revolution
of 1979: divergent perceptions of the Arab
revolts in Iran
Yusuf Unal, Emory-Sayyid Qutb in Iran:
translating the Islamist ideologue in the
Islamic Republic

4358 “Orthodoxy” and “Heterodoxy”
in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

Organizer: Jane Hathaway
Chair/Discussant: Gottfried Hagen,
Michigan Ann Arbor
Vefa Erginbas, Providence Col-
Reappraising religiosity in the reign of
Murad III: Mustafa Darir’s Siretun Nebi and
its unspoken content
Ayse Baltacioglu-Brammer,
Binghamton-One word, many implications:
the term “Kızılbaş” in the early modern
Ottoman context
John Curry, UNLV-Formation of a Sunni
orthodoxy or an ongoing negotiation?:
making sense of the works of Cemal El-
Halveti (d. 1499) and Karabaş `Ali Veli (d.
1686)
Jane Hathaway, Ohio State-El-Hajj Beshir
Agha and Ottoman attitudes toward Sufism
and Shi’ism

4545 Ghazali and His Interlocutors

Organizer: John Walbridge
Discussant: Elizabeth R. Alexandrin, U
Manitoba
Seyed Asghari, Indiana U-The
Maktab-i Tafkīk and its opponents in the
contemporary Shī’a seminary in Iran
John Walbridge, Indiana U
Bloomington-Is God really light?
Eiyad Al-kutubi, Indiana U-Al-Fayḍ Al-
Kāshānī and Al-Ghazālī: reclamation of the
“Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm Al-Dīn”
Yasin Basaran, Indiana U-Taking
Avicenna seriously: reevaluation of Al-
Ghazali’s objections on creation

4523 Nasir-i Khusraw and His
Associations: Shifting Biographies
and Affiliations in the Appropriations
of the Persian Poet, Philosopher and
Fatimid Da`i (Summoner)

Organizer: Shiraz Hajiani
Daniel Beben, Nazarbayev U-A tale of two
masters: the uses and reuses of discipleship
narratives in the legendary biographies of
Nasir-i Khusraw
Shiraz Hajiani, U Chicago-Second fiddle:
an examination of the constructions of
master and protégé relationship between
Nāṣir-i Khusraw and Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ and
its later inversions in the legitimations of
authority in Nizari Ismailism
Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev,
Inst of Ismaili Studies-The place
and significance of Nasir-i Khusraw in
Badakhshan

4590 Diplomatics, Law and Language
Politics in the Early Modern Turco-
Persianate World

Organizer: Ferenc P. Csirkes
Chair: Sholeh A. Quinn, UC Merced
Zahit Atcil, Istanbul Medeniyet
U-Background of the first Ottoman-Safavid
treaty in 1555
Abdurrahman Atcil, Istanbul Şehir
U-Three Ottoman jurists’ opinions about the
Safavids and the Qizilbash from the first half
of the sixteenth century
Colin Mitchell, Dalhousie U-Mir Husain
Maybudi and the emergence of the Safavids
Ferenc P. Csirkes, Tuebingen U-Sadiqi
Beg and language ideologies in Safavid
Persia

4506 Inventions and Reinventions in
Modern Twelver Shi`i Islam

Organizer: Omid Ghaemmaghami
Discussant: Roy Mottahedeh, Harvard
Mina Yazdani, Eastern Kentucky
U-Clerical cooperation and Islamic
radicalism in 1940s Iran
Omid Ghaemmaghami, Binghamton-
The messianic turn in modern Twelver Shi`i
Islam: notes on Ali-Akbar Nahavandi’s Fine
Wonders of Beauty
Babak Rahimi, UC San Diego-Internet
Mahdism in the (re)shaping of Shi‘i Iran
Reza Masoudi Nejad, SOAS London-The
political geography of Shi’i pilgrimage in the
Middle East

4373 The ‘Alawis and the Origins of
Political Confessionalism in Syria,
1908-1963

Organizer: Stefan Winter
Chair/Discussant: Ussama Makdisi, Rice U
Fabrice Balanche, Lyon 2 U-The Alawites
of Syria: from the mountain refuge to the
city
Stefan Winter, U Quebec Montreal-
Between confessional differentiation and
radical assimilation: the ʿAlawis of Syria and
Southern Anatolia between Abdülhamid and
the Turkish War of Liberation
Max Weiss, Princeton-Imagining the
ʿAlawis between history and literature

4375 The Shi’a of Lebanon: New
Approaches to History, Politics, and
Religion

Organizers: Mara Leichtman, Michigan
State, Rola El-Husseini, Graduate
Center, CUNY
Chair: Nadim Shehadi, Tufts
Discussant: Augustus Richard Norton,
Boston U
Nabil Hage Ali, Georgetown-
Reconceptualizing Islam in 1970s Shī`ī
Lebanon: the “men of mosques”
Moulouk Berry, American U Dubai-
Divorce in Lebanese Muslim Shi`i
jurisprudence: a reform law?
Linda Sayed, Michigan State-Narrating
history: Hizbullah’s efforts to inscribe time
and place for the Shi`a of Lebanon
Bashir Saade, U Edinburgh-Hizbullah’s
Ashura: identity, ethics, and the problem of
the past
Eric Lob, Florida International-The
export of Iran’s development model to
Lebanon: the case of Jihād Al-Bināʾ

4516 E.G. Browne and His Iranian
Interlocutors: Knowledge Production
Beyond Orientalism

Organizer: Assef Ashraf
Chair/Discussant: Sholeh A. Quinn, UC
Merced
Assef Ashraf, Yale-Portrait of a young
scholar: the diaries of E.G. Browne
Dominic Parviz Brookshaw, Oxford-
In defence of Qajar poets: the personal
dimensions to E.G. Browne’s appreciation of
early nineteenth-century Persian poetry
Farzin Vejdani, Ryerson U-Iran’s “Lord
Byron”: commemorating and contesting E.G.
Browne in early twentieth-century Iran

4687 Texts, Acts, and Interpretations
in Medieval Islam

Chair: Andrew Magnusson, U Central
Oklahoma
Alison Marie Vacca, U Tennessee-
Connectivity and power in Caliphal Armenia
and Albania
Nassima Neggaz, Oxford-The Baghdadi
neighborhoods of Bab Al-Basra and
Al-Karkh: a micro history of Sunni-Shi‘i
episodes of violence in medieval Baghdad
(945-1258 AD)
Christian Mauder, U Göttingen-The
birth and early life of the Mamluk Sultan
Qānṣawh Al-Ghawrī (r. 1501-1516): literary
and historical analysis of an unpublished
late Mamluk manuscript

4517 Liminal Spaces from Sacred to
Urban: The Friday Mosque and the City

Organizer: Suzan Yalman
Discussant: Suzan Yalman, Koç U
Farshid Emami, Harvard-The city and
its dual Friday mosques: the sacred and the
urban in Safavid Isfahan
Fadi Ragheb, U Toronto-The city
as liminal space: holy sites and Islamic
pilgrimage to Jerusalem during the Mamlūk
period (648-922/1250-1517)
Abbey Stockstill, Harvard-Directionality
in the ceremony and urban project of
Almohad Marrakesh
Ayse Hilal Ugurlu, İstanbul Technical
U-Changing spatial and political relations
between “the city” and “the mosque” in the
nineteenth century Ottoman Empire

The full programme can be accessed at: http://mesana.org/annual-meeting/program.html

Online Program Book | PAPERS

Papers of potential interest to the list set for delivery at the annual American Acdemy of Religion meeting, 17 – 22 November, 2016, in San Antonia, Texas include:

A20-323

Islamic Mysticism Group

Theme: Devotion to the Family of the Prophet in Muslim

Hagiographical Traditions

Sunday, 5:00 PM–6:30 PM

Convention Center-210B (2nd Level – West)

Sophia Arjana, Boulder, CO, Presiding

Aun Ali, McGill University

Understanding the Maqtal of al Husayn as Devotional and Mystical

Literature

Rubina Salikuddin, Harvard University

Imamophilism and Timurid Pilgrimage Narratives

Afsar Mohammad, University of Texas

Fatima is Our Goddess: Devotion to ‘Ali and Fatima in Oral Poetry

Rose Aslan, California Lutheran University

The Day ‘Ali Reversed the Sun: Embodied Miracles and the Sanctity

of Place

Responding:

Ali S. Asani, Harvard University

A21-322 (#islamaar)

Study of Islam Section and Islamic Mysticism Group

Theme: The Occult Challenge to Islamic Mysticism

Monday, 4:00 PM–6:30 PM

Convention Center-301A (3rd Level)

Torang Asadi, Duke University, Presiding

Mushegh Asatryan, University of Calgary

Magic and Apologetic Miracles in 11th Century Baghdad: Al-

Baqillānī’s Refutation of Magic and Its Broader Context

Patrick D’Silva, University of North Carolina

Do Sufi Occultists Dream of Electric Sheep? Magical Constructions of

Muslim Authenticity in a 19th CE Persian Manuscript

Matthew Melvin-Koushki, University of South Carolina

Islamic Philosophy as Occult Practice: The Case of Safavid Iran

On list

Hunter Bandy, Duke University

Imam ‘Ali as Master Magician: Occultism in the Twilight of the

Deccan Sultanates

Responding:

Maria Massi Dakake, George Mason University

1. Azfar Moin, University of Texas

A22-119 (#islamaar)

Study of Islam Section

Theme: Questioning Categories

Tuesday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM

Convention Center-207B (2nd Level – West)

Elliott Bazzano, Le Moyne College, Presiding

Nora Jacobsen Ben Hammed, University of Chicago

Paths to Eternal Felicity: Sufism and Rationalism in Fakhr al-Dīn

al-Rāzī

Amir Syed, University of Michigan

The Pen and the Unseen: Islamic Esoteric Sciences of Writing in the

Library of al-Hajj ‘Umar Tal

Reyhan Erdogdu Basaran, Rice University

The Sectarian Inquiry: The Position of Alevi Islam within the Sunni-

Shi’ite Split

Abby Kulisz, Indiana University

What Others Suffer, We Behold: Public Pain and Traumatization in

the Shi’ite Ashura Ritual

Siti Sarah Muwahidah, Emory University

For the Love of Ahl-Bayt: Transcending Sunni-Shī’i Sectarian

Allegiance

The full programme is available at: https://papers.aarweb.org/program_book