Shii News – Academic Items
1.The first cycle of the Iran Heritage Foundation’s 2024 grant programme, with the deadline of 30th May, 2024, is now open for receipt of application. With the overall aim of fostering knowledge and appreciation of Iran’s rich cultural heritage research grants in various academic disciplines are awarded. The particular emphasis (in alphabetical order) is on archaeology, arts, history, linguistics, and literature, though applications from other disciplines will also be considered.
Projects to be supported may include the most various academic initiatives, from fieldwork to workshops to building databases and digitising images, and will – as previously – privilege new research such as editions and translations of key texts. In order to support multiple initiatives grants of up-to a maximum of £3,000 will be considered.
The application process and conditions for the grants can be viewed on our website.
To apply please click here.
For Terms and Conditions please click here
2. NEW Deadline:
Translanguaging and Linguistic Diversity in Arabic
Conference | University of Cambridge | 18 April 2024
Registration is open for the 4th Biennial Conference on Arabic Language Teaching and Learning in HE which will be hosted at the University of Cambridge. The conference aims to delve into Translanguaging and Linguistic Diversity in Arabic, and provide a platform for robust discussions and networking opportunities.
The new deadline for registrations is 10 April 2024.
More information
3. What They Ate in Old Baghdad, and How We Know with Charles Perry
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 – 7p PST
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Who were medieval Middle Eastern cookbooks written for? What were they used for? To answer these questions, culinary historian Charles Perry delves into the Kitab al-Tabikh (The Book of Dishes), the earliest surviving Arabic cookery text. This 10th-century manuscript is currently on view in Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting. This event is free and in-person. A recording of the lecture will be available on LACMA’s YouTube and Vimeo channels. For more information on this event, please visit LACMA’s event calendar.
Charles Perry is a Los Angeles-based food historian with deep knowledge of medieval cookbooks, the preparation of the associated cuisines (in both theory and practice), and the Arabic nomenclature of recipes. He has led a long and exceptionally varied career, beginning as a journalist for Rolling Stone and including a longtime stint as food writer for the Los Angeles Times. He tests historical recipes in his own kitchen, and has become known, admittedly in narrow circles, for hosting from time to time a complete Abbasid-era banquet. His translated cookbooks include Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook (2017) and A Baghdad Cookery Book (2005).
Contact Email
URL
https://www.lacma.org/event/what-they-ate-old-baghdad
4. A Stroll in the Enchanting Sphere of Persian Wisdom, Language, and Culture
A Series of Courses Introducing Masterpieces of Persian Literature
Course 1:
With Sa‘di in the Delightful Gardens of Golestan
Lecturer: Dr Isa Jahangir
Fee: £100
April 16 – July 16
Tuesdays 6-7:30 pm
Venue: The Islamic College 133 High Road London NW102SW
To register please complete this form or contact the Short Course Department by email: shortcourses@islamic-college.ac.uk
5. CfP: ‘Beyond History: Revisiting the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean Connectivity’
Call for Papers: Journal of Gulf Studies
Special Issue: ‘Beyond History: Revisiting the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean Connectivity’
Guest Editor: Dr Amna Sadiq
View the full call here>>
https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-gulf-studies#call-for-papers
At the geographical convergence of East and West, both regions have been shaped by a dynamically complex system of dependency. The nature of this dependency has transformed over time, moving from early dhows transporting pilgrims and Omani merchants to British oceanic steamship services and, more recently, to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The subsequent advent of the Arabian Gulf region and South Asia as geostrategic and economic powers has shifted the practical means of cooperation across the ocean, from a simple economic corridor to a more sophisticated inter-regional cooperative system.
Today, this inter-regional cooperation plays a significant role in shaping the international system rather than merely being shaped by it. As a result, both regions are involved in a relational and dynamic rather than geographical and static relationship. Tracing the internal dynamics of the connections between the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean has important implications for our understanding of this relationship. By approaching the development of both regions as an evolving process, we can clarify the conditions under which their dependency functions, along with the associated complexities of regional power struggles.
Although the study of the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean has drawn increasing academic interest, scholars have thus far paid scant attention to the changing nature and scope of their system of dependency. Influenced strongly by historical inquiry, the Indian Ocean is frequently conceptualized as a mere container of economic activity, and the Arabian Gulf is seen simply as an economic corridor. This Special Issue of the Journal of Gulf Studies invites scholars and readers to move beyond this tradition and learn about the changing dynamics and contemporary developments in the Arabian Gulf–Indian Ocean relationship.
In this issue, we aim to engage with the latest scholarly trends while also addressing the historical roots of this relationship, offering forward-looking, fresh readings and new approaches to the study of Arabian Gulf–Indian Ocean interactions. We seek to map the rapidly changing patterns of political, economic, and social interactions between both regions as well as clarify the ramifications of these interactions for the international system.
Scholars interested in contributing to this Special Issue are encouraged to pay attention to the timeline identified below:
Abstract submission: Please contact the journal (gulfstudiesj@outlook.com) by 30 April 2024 with a short bio and an abstract of around 300 words. The authors will be informed of their papers’ inclusion into the special issue on a rolling basis.
Delivery of the final paper: 31 September 2024.
For editorial inquiries you can reach the journal at: gulfstudiesj@outlook.com
More information about the journal can be found at: https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/jgs
Kayvan Tahmasebian, Rebecca Ruth Gould
International Journal of Middle East Studies
doi: 10.1017/S0020743824000266, 17 pages. Published Online on 1 April 2024
7. Zoom: The Islamic College Monthly Talk:
‘The Development and Significance of Muslim Chaplaincy’
A Talk by Professor Sophie Gilliat-Ray
Wednesday 24 April 2024
6.00 P.M. – 7.30 P.M. (LONDON TIME)
on Zoom
Meeting ID: 884 0412 9777
Passcode: 821079
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88404129777?pwd=obDh0uVhiKchTaPvAS1B04dKbYhQAp.1
8. The inter-university association Routes de l’Orient, in partnership with the Institut du Monde Arabe and Archaïos, is organizing an international symposium entitled “On the Roads of Arabia: Itineraries by Land and Sea”, to be held at the Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris) on the 12th, 13th and 14th December.
The aim of the symposium is to study the overland and maritime routes of the Arabian Peninsula and the exchanges they made possible, through archaeology, history, philology, religion and life sciences. This topic will be addressed in the longue durée, from the Bronze Age to the Islamic period. The symposium will also examine the networks of exchanges with border regions such as the Indian subcontinent, the Horn of Africa and Egypt, as well as the empires of the Ancient Near East, and the Greek and Roman empires.
This wide-ranging, interdisciplinary and diachronic theme, will be of interest to researchers, lecturers and doctoral students from various international institutions. This symposium is also intended as a meeting place for senior scholars, young researchers and students. It will encourage exchanges between disciplines, in line with current scientific methodologies.
We invite papers from archaeologists, historians, art historians, epigraphists, ceramologists, philologists, ethnologists, anthropologists, biologists, archaeozoologists and others. In this way, we hope to provide a comprehensive overview of the movement of goods and people across the Arabian Peninsula from the Bronze Age to the Islamic period.
During the three days of the symposium, the following themes will be addressed:
• The structures associated with land and sea routes: caravanserais, roads, post houses, trading posts and ports, etc. This theme focuses on the archaeological study of the structures necessary for the movement of goods and people;
• The actors involved in the movement of goods in and around the Arabian Peninsula: traders, buyers, patrons, producers, travelers, camels, etc. From the production of goods to their transport, from the reception of travelers to the financing of expeditions, this theme will explore the identity and function of the actors involved in these commercial, cultural and religious flows;
• Pilgrimage routes: ancient and Islamic pilgrimages. From pre-Islamic sanctuaries to religious practices in the trading outposts of the 1st millennium , from the Darb Zubayda to the Hijaz railway, this theme looks at pilgrimage routes and the practices of pilgrims;
• From coastal shipping to navigation on the high seas: maritime routes, pilots and nautical knowledge. This theme looks at the use of maritime spaces as a means of spreading goods and cultures;
• Circulation of goods, materials and techniques: dissemination and exchange of know-how and raw materials. This theme seeks to better understand the spread of certain craft techniques, chaînes opératoires, raw materials and finished products such as ceramics, metallurgy and glass;
• Leaving one’s imprint, quantifying goods or making a dedication: linguistic and epigraphic diffusion. This theme seeks to understand the linguistic circulation in the Arabian Peninsula.
Conditions for submissions:
Deadline: Friday 17th May 2024
Contributions will take the form of a 20-minute lecture followed by 10 minutes of questions.
An abstract of no more than 300 words should be sent as an attached file (.docx) to surlesroutesdarabie@gmail.com by Friday 17th May 2024. This file must also include the full name, email address, status and affiliation of the author(s), the title of the paper and the chosen topic.
Papers can be submitted in English or French.
The proceedings of this conference will be published digitally in a special issue of our journal Routes de l’Orient.
In line with the objectives and values of Routes de l’Orient, we strongly encourage young researchers (masters, doctoral and post-doctoral students) to submit their contributions.
Contact Information
Sterenn Le Maguer-Gillon
Contact Email
URL
https://www.orient-mediterranee.com/activity/colloque-sur-les-routes-darabie-it…
9. CFP – Arabic Pasts Workshop, October 2024
This annual exploratory and informal workshop offers the opportunity to reflect on methodologies, research agendas, and case studies for investigating history writing in Arabic in the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond in any period from the seventh century to the present.
We are interested in papers that consider the practical and conceptual challenges of working on history writing in Arabic. Papers might elucidate the following sorts of questions:
- How did adherents of different confessional or juristic traditions, men and women, and members of different social classes within societies that became “Islamic” imagine the shape and meaning of their specific societies’ own pasts, and their relation to the universal history of the Islamic community? Which ways of writing, remembering, or commemorating did they develop?
- How can marginalised communities and varieties of Arabic be given due attention?
- How can we broaden our scope beyond just textual historiography?
- In what ways do educational institutions, museums, media organisations and proponents of heritage use history writing to shape loyalties and senses of belonging in society?
- How can works of fiction contribute to our understanding of the past?
- How is the past used in creative arts, re-enactment, games, and augmented reality?
- How can we explore the past algorithmically? Can digital methods enhance our understanding of the past? Can they also limit or even alter it? Which new digital tools are being developed? What seem to be particularly promising approaches? What is lacking?
- How does, or could, artificial intelligence alter historiographical work?
Contributions are invited from scholars at all career levels, addressing any period and any part of the Middle East and North Africa, broadly defined. This year we anticipate running the workshop from the Aga Khan Centre in London and in Lisbon, with the possibility to have an online component featuring participants who are unable to travel to the UK or Portugal.
Arabic Pasts is co-convened by Hugh Kennedy (SOAS), James McDougall (Oxford), Lorenz Nigst (AKU-ISMC), and Sarah Bowen Savant (AKU-ISMC).
Please submit an abstract of 300 words or less in word document by Friday, 17 May 2024 to ArabicPastsConf@aku.edu. Please specify whether you wish to participate in London, Lisbon, or online.
The workshop dates: 3-5 October 2024
Contact Information
Anjum Alam
Contact Email
URL
https://www.aku.edu/ismc/events/pages/event-detail.aspx?EventID=2537&Title=Arab…
10. *Iran by Maps*
*CARAVAN ROUTES IN THE CENTRAL ALBORZ **AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY*
/Caravan routes in central Alborz, //Caravan routes in central Alborz/
http://www.irancarto.cnrs.fr/record.php?q=EA-050309&f=local&l=fr <http://www.irancarto.cnrs.fr/record.php?q=EA-050309&f=local&l=fr>
- April 06, 2024
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