Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Religious Healing and Sacred Health Curing: Online Documentary Film Program and Debate (week 1). After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

A virtual documentary film presentation and debate organized by the Network of the Anthropology of the Middle East and Central Eurasia of EASA in collaboration with the Religion and Society Research Cluster, Western Sydney University. Introduction to the program by Dr. P. Khosronejad (Western Sydney University), and debate by Dr. R.

Week 1 Film Presentation:
THE SMELL OF DUST
Majed Neisi, 2002, 11 minutes, Iran.

Synopsis
During the sacred month of Moharram in Iran, Shiite Muslims mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. A rumour spread throughout the city of Ahwaz in the south of Iran: Imam Hossein had been sighted in an earth soccer field where the annual passion play (Taziyeh) commemorating him was being performed. The earth of the field was said to be blessed and to miraculously heal the infirm. People came out in droves, often with their infirm in tow; people unable to speak, blind people, cripples, and many more, brought together by their faith in miracles.

Colour, Light and Wonder in Islamic Art – Saqi Books

Colour, Light and Wonder in Islamic Art Home> Books> Saqi>Colour, Light and Wonder in Islamic Art The experience of colour in Islamic visual culture has historically been overlooked. In this new approach, Idries Trevathan examines the language of colour in Islamic art and architecture in dialogue with its aesthetic contexts, offering insights into the pre-modern Muslim experience of interpreting colour.

The seventeenth-century Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, represents one of the finest examples of colour-use on a grand scale. Here, Trevathan examines the philosophical and mystical traditions that formed the mosque’s backdrop. He shows how careful combinations of colour and design proportions in Islamic patterns expresses knowledge beyond that experienced in the corporeal world, offering another language with which to know and experience God. Colour thus becomes a spiritual language, calling for a re-consideration of how we read Islamic aesthetics.

“Bahrain: Unrest, Security, and U.S. Policy” Updated June 26, 2020

Protecting the Citadel of Islam in the Modern Era: A Case of Shiʿi Mujtahids and the Najaf Seminary in Early Twentieth‐Century Iraq

The concept of protecting the Citadel of Islam ( Hifẓ Bayzat al‐Islam) , is common in the lexicon of Shiʿi political jurisprudence. It refers to those Islamic principles and foundations without which the existence of Islam and the Muslim community would be in danger.

Shi’a Minorities in the Contemporary World

New comparative perspectives on Shi’a minorities outside the Muslim world Key features Provides comparative insights into Shi’a Muslim communities across the globe, set in Muslim minority contexts Makes an important contribution to understanding the glob

Norm and Dissidence: Egyptian Shiʿa between Security Approaches and Geopolitical Stakes

Valter, Stéphane. “Norm and Dissidence: Egyptian Shiʿa between Security Approaches and Geopolitical Stakes.” CIRS Occasional Paper no. 23. Doha, Qatar: Center for International and Regional Studies, 2019.

For access, click here.

Muslim-Christian Polemics in Safavid Iran

Explores theological debates between Muslims and Christians in Iran in the 17th and early 18th centuries Provides case studies on Muslim-Christian polemics in early modern Iran Contributes to our understanding of interreligious relations in the Islamic

Bahrain and the politics of COVID-19 – Responsible Statecraft

According to Johns Hopkins University, as of May 22, 2020, Bahrain has registered 8,000 positive cases of the coronavirus, with 12 deaths. The reported numbers are suspect, especially as Bahrain’s neighbors report much higher totals of positive cases- Saudi Arabia more than 67,000, Qatar over 40,000, the UAE over 26,000, and Kuwait more than 19,000.

Persian Poetry, Sufism and Ismailism: The Testimony of Khwājah Qāsim Tushtarī’s Recognizing God | Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society | Cambridge Core

Abstract Khwājah Qāsim Tushtarī’s recently discovered Recognizing God (Maʿrifat-i Khudāy taʿālā) is one of the only texts known to have survived from the early Alamūt period of Ismaili Muslim history. This article analyses the work in the context of the “new Invitation” (daʿwat-i jadīd) to the Ismaili faith that al-Shahrastānī (d.

Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-ʿĀmilī’s draft letter to his teacher: The culture of scholarly correspondence and the Islamic republic of letters in the sixteenth century | Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies | Cambridge Core

This study focuses on a draft letter by Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-ʿĀmilī (d. 984/1576) for his teacher Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿĀmilī (d. 965/1558); both were prominent Twelver Shiite jurists from the region of Jabal ʿĀmil in what is now Lebanon. Yūsuf Ṭabājah, who first published the text, argued that Ḥusayn wrote the letter while he was in Iraq c.