Shii News – Academic Items

1.‘Mecca reoriented: alms, rice, and the marketplace’

J Meloy

JRAS, 2026

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/abs/mecca-reoriented-alms-rice-and-the-marketplace/EA1AE76FFF00C28803416F1C270C9BCE?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Article&utm_campaign=New%20Cambridge%20Alert%20-%20Articles&WT.mc_id=New%20Cambridge%20Alert%20-%20Articles

2. The Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Washington calls for submissions for the third cycle of the Mo Habib Translation Prize in Persian Literature.

Please find the details here.

Closing date (extended deadline): 31 December, 2026

3. Exquisite Things and Strange Wonders: In Defense of Persian Poetry

A critical edition and translation of Amir Khusraw Dihlavi’s Dībācha-yi dīvān-i ghurrat al-kamāl (Preface to the Full Moon of Perfection).

Edited and translated by Alyssa Gabbay

Written in 1294 as the introduction to a book of poetry, the Dībācha-yi dīvān-i ghurrat al-kamāl became a lauded work in its own right. Its author, Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (1253–1325), was a poet, historian, courtier, Sufi, and musician whose influence still resonates. In this extraordinary text, he defends poetry against its critics, especially religious scholars, while offering a bold system for understanding its forms and for mastering the art. Blending manifesto and autobiography, Khusraw recounts personal struggles and triumphs in a voice by turns aggrieved, proud, and humble yet always commanding.

More than a defense of poetry, the work makes audacious claims about its cultural power and about the central place of Persian poets in India. One of the earliest examples of literary criticism in Persian, it challenges assumptions about poetry, religion, and authority while opening a window onto the world of the Delhi Sultanate. Presented here in a new English translation with the Persian text in the Naskh script, Exquisite Things and Strange Wonders offers readers a vivid portrait of a poet who helped define the literary and intellectual landscape of his time.

More information at the Harvard University webpage here.

4. Classical Arabic Texts and the Pre-Modern Islamic Rhetorical Tradition: Rethinking the Qur’an and Early Arabic Poetry as Cultural Foundations”

The Open-access journal Religions (ISSN 2077-1444), has a special issue entitled “Classical Arabic Texts and the Pre-Modern Islamic Rhetorical Tradition: Rethinking the Qur’an and Early Arabic Poetry as Cultural Foundations.”

This collection brings together nine studies exploring the intricate relationship between the Qur’an and early Arabic poetry as foundational texts of Arabic-Islamic culture. The contributions examine a wide range of topics, including figurative imagery and religious discourse in pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry, the rhetorical transformation of poetic motifs in the Qur’an, word pairs and antithesis as Qur’anic rhetorical devices, representations of Luqmān in Late Antiquity, the literary artistry of Sūrat Yūsuf, and comparative analyses of imagery shared between the Muʿallaqāt and the Qur’anic text.

Together, these studies offer fresh perspectives on how the pre-modern Islamic rhetorical tradition emerged from, engaged with, and reshaped the poetic heritage of early Arabia, inviting us to rethink both corpora as interconnected cultural foundations rather than isolated traditions.

All articles are open access and freely available at:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/91U75R50H9

5. Registration Now Open — 2026 Harvard Islamic Finance Conference
As-salamualaikum. On behalf of the organizing committee, we are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the 2026 Harvard Islamic Finance Conference, which will be held on September 25-26, 2026, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Now in its 29th year, the Harvard Islamic Finance Conference is the world’s longest-running university conference dedicated to Islamic finance. Since 1997, it has brought together leading scholars, industry professionals, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and students to discuss the most important developments shaping the industry.

This year’s theme, Global Finance in Transition: Stability, Pluralism, and the Role of Islamic Finance, will explore how evolving global markets, technological innovation, and values-driven leadership are reshaping the future of finance. Conference sessions will cover topics including Islamic finance fundamentals, artificial intelligence and blockchain, entrepreneurship, ethical and values-based investing, global market developments, and the future of higher education.

We warmly invite you to join us for two days of thought-provoking discussions, networking, and collaboration with distinguished speakers and participants from around the world.

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