Shii News – Academic Items

1.Special issue of al-Masāq

Special Issue: Constructing the Umayyads: from Mecca to Madīnat al-Zahrā

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/calm20/28/1

2. The British Library’s oldest Qur’an manuscript now online

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/asian-and-african/2016/04/the-british-librarys-oldest-quran-manuscript-now-online.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+asian-and-african+%28Asia+and+Africa%29

The British Library’s oldest Qur’ān manuscript, Or.2165, dating from the eighth century, has now been fully digitised and is available on the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts site. Among the most ancient copies of the Qurʼān, containing over two-thirds of the complete text, it is one of the largest of known…

3. The Islamic Manuscript Association, in cooperation with Cambridge University Library and the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, is pleased to announce an advanced short course in manuscript studies, entitled Scholars, Scribes, and Readers: An Advanced Course in Arabic Manuscript Studies, which will be held at Cambridge University Library from 6 to 10 June 2016.

This intensive five-day course is intended for researchers, librarians, curators, and anyone else working with Islamic manuscripts. As an advanced course, it is particularly aimed at those who already have some experience in Islamic codicology and palaeography and all participants must have a good reading knowledge of Arabic. The course will focus on Arabic-language manuscripts from various regions, including historical Turkey, Iran, and India. It is hoped that this advanced course will allow participants to gain greater exposure to and familiarity with the vast array of practices encountered in Arabic manuscripts.

The workshop will consist of three days of illustrated, interactive lectures on selected manuscripts and two days of hands-on sessions focusing on a selection of manuscripts from the Cambridge University Library collection. The manuscripts selected for presentation by the instructor cover the whole range of scribal practices encountered in a variety of subjects/genres, geographical regions, and historical periods (see the programme for details).

The course will be led by Adam Gacek, a retired faculty lecturer and former head of the Islamic Studies Library, McGill University, who is the author of a sizeable corpus of publications on Islamic manuscripts, including The Arabic Manuscript Tradition: a Glossary of Technical Terms and Bibliography (2001, 2008 – Supplement), and Arabic Manuscripts: a Vademecum for Readers (2009).

For further details, to view the programme, or to register, please visit our website at www.islamicmanuscript.org

4. The Department of Near Eastern Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University, invites applications for a temporary position as a Teaching Associate in Persian language for one semester, August 16 – December 31, 2016. The successful candidate will teach two courses: Elementary and Intermediate Persian/Farsi. Minimum requirements are: a Masters’ Degree in a related field such as Persian Literature, Linguistics or Comparative Literature; experience teaching Persian language at the university level; and demonstrated commitment to innovative methods of language instruction. Please submit letter of application, curriculum vitae, and the names and addresses of three references via Academic JobsOnline

https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/7198

The application deadline is May 22, 2016. Diversity and Inclusion are a part of Cornell University’s heritage. We’re an employer and educator recognized for valuing AA/EEO, Protected Veterans, and Individuals with Disabilities. We actively encourage applications of women, persons of color, and persons with disabilities.

5. What is Islam? A Symposium in Memory of Shahab Ahmed (1966-2015)

What is Islam? A Symposium in Memory of Shahab Ahmed (1966-2015) will take place on April 29, 2016 from 1-6:30pm in Boylston Hall at Harvard University. The symposium will feature Michael Cook, Noah Feldman, Cemal Kafadar, Gülru Necipoğlu, Parimal Patil, and Nicholas Watson, who will discuss the ways in which What is Islam? speaks to, affects, and/or challenges their respective fields of study.

The symposium is sponsored by The Standing Committee on Medieval Studies, the Mahindra Humanities Center, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, the Committee on the Study of Religion, with support of the Rabbi Joseph S. Shubow Memorial Fund, the South Asia Initiative, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, and the Islamic Legal Studies Program.

Please contact Nora Lessersohn, noralessersohn@g.harvard.edu, with any questions.

http://agakhan.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k69205&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup105011

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10587.html

6. Job opening: Post-Doctoral Research Fellow – SESRI, Qatar University

A new Post-Doctoral Research Fellow position with the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) at Qatar University. The position is attached to SESRI’s Policy Unit (headed by Justin Gengler) and is open to recent PhDs working on a wide range of policy areas relevant to the Gulf.

The full advertisement is available at the following link, and materials
can be sent to pdsearch@qu.edu.qa :

http://sesri.qu.edu.qa/sites/default/files/SESRI_PolicyFellow.pdf

Review of applications begins May 1.

7. Conference: “The Dynamics of Change in the Pakistan-Afghanistan Region: Politics on Borderland”, University of Peshawar, Pakistan, 29-31 August 2016

The conference will to reflect on the changing geostrategic reality, state discourses, and border-making practices as well as the ethical and normative aspects of the border control regimes and focus on the practices of commuting, crossing, and transgressing the physical, cultural, and normative border.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 May 2016. Information: https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/118506/dynamics-change-pakistan-afghanistan-region-politics-borderland

8. ERiC Summer School on Problems of Studying Inter-religious Relations on a Global Scale, Center for Religious Studies (CERES), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, 25 July – 3 August 2016

Aimed at doctoral and advanced masters’-level students, ERiC encourages students from around the world to consider religious studies from multiple political and cultural standpoints, giving them the opportunity to create an international network of like-minded junior scholars.
Accepted students will receive a round trip ticket from their home to Germany, accommodations, all lunches and two dinners. The summer school is free of charge.

Deadline for application: 1 May 2016. Information: http://eric.ceres.rub.de/en/

9. Apply for Fulbright Opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa

The 2017-2018 Fulbright U.S Scholar Program competition to the Middle East and North Africa is underway! Each year, U.S. scholars in a wide variety of academic disciplines teach and/or conduct research at educational institutions across the Middle East and North Africa. Beyond their specific research or teaching objectives, Fulbright Scholars to the region build relationships that serve as the foundation for future collaborations and increase mutual understanding across cultures. Applications for 2017-18 are currently being accepted from all levels of faculty, including early career, and professionals.

10. On line/Open Access Sources

Aligned corpus of Divan-e-Hafez, translated by H. Wilberforce Clarke. Calcutta, India. 1891.

http://perseids.org/sites/alignment-prototypes/hafez/index.html

Open Persian Project of the Open Philology Project

http://www.dh.uni-leipzig.de/wo/open-philology-project/open-persian/

11. From Fereydoun Ave to Charles-Hossein Zenderoudi:
Collecting Iranian Art at the British Museum

Lecture by Dr Venetia Porter

Wednesday 27th April 2016, 6.30pm

Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP

http://www.iranheritage.org/27April16/default.htm

12. Registration is now open for The Architecture of the Iranian World 1000–1250, which will take place at the University of St Andrews, Thursday 21 – Sunday 24 April 2016.

This conference is the first for more than a generation that has as its focus the architecture of the Iranian world in a golden age that set the parameters for centuries of future development. Classic forms were developed for mosques, minarets, madrasas, mausolea and caravansarais. The definitive choice of brick as the medium of construction and decoration changed the face of Iranian architecture in the Iranian world, leading to the creation of monumental dome chambers, spectacular developments in vaulting technique and an astonishing range of ornaments. New heights were attained in fields as disparate as architectural epigraphy and multi-layered carved stucco. The dimension of colour as a key element in the repertoire of decoration began to be seriously exploited. A building boom in the 12th century fostered the emergence of a series of local styles across the vast area between the Tigris and the Indus, the Persian Gulf and the Aral Sea. This period, then, consolidated the tentative experiments of the previous three centuries and embarked on a series of bold innovations that propelled this region into pole position in the architecture of the contemporary Islamic world.

The Organising Committee gratefully acknowledges the support of University of St Andrews, the British Institute of Persian Studies, and Iran Heritage Foundation.

Dates: Thursday 21 – Sunday 24 April 2016

Location: Parliament Hall, South Street, St Andrews, Scotland

Registration: A limited number of free places are available by application until 18 April 2016 – Please see the conference website for details and an application form:

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/school/conferences/Iranian_Architecture.html

Speakers

Dr Alireza Anisi (Iranian Research Center for Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Tehran)

Mr Warwick Ball (Independent Scholar)

Professor Sheila Blair (Boston College, Massachusetts)

Professor Jonathan Bloom (Boston College, Massachusetts)

Professor Abbas Daneshvari (California State University, Los Angeles)

Dr Eisa Esfanjary (Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan)

Dr Abdullah Ghouchani (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Dr Joachim Gierlichs (Qatar National Library, Doha)

Professor Roberta Giunta (University of Naples)

Professor Robert Hillenbrand (University of St Andrews/ University of Edinburgh)