Congratulations to Megan Martucci!
Congratulations to MA student Megan Martucci on successfully completing her MA thesis entitled: "When language abandons us: translating Adania Shibliâs Minor Detail into English, French, and Portuguese".Ìę Her supervisor was Professor Michelle Hartman.
Talk by Mahdi Tourage - January 23, 2025
"Misogyny, Racism and the Limits of Mystical Knowledge in Rumi's Poetry"
We are pleased to invite you to the forthcoming Institute of Islamic Studies Lecture Series event for Winter 2025, which will maintain its emphasis on Sufi Studies.
Like all of our events, it is free and open to the public. All are welcome.
Thursday, January 23
Morrice Hall 017
2:30 - 4:00
Congratulations to Prof Prashant Keshavmurthy!
Professor Prashant Keshavmurthy has received an Internal Social Sciences and Humanities Development (SSHD) Grant for his project, forthcoming as a bilingual facing page translation with Brill, "Producing the first critical edition of Amir Khusraw's The Nine Skies."Ìę
Prashant Keshavmurthy's Recent Interview
Professor Prashant Keshavmurthy was interviewed by the Iranian magazine KhÄne-yi ketÄb va adabiyÄt-e IrÄn (The House of Books and Literature of Iran) on .
Talk by M Shobhana Xavier-December 3
Please join us for our next event of the Institute of Islamic Studies Lecture Series for Fall 2024, focused on Sufi Studies.
"Contemporary Expressions of Sufism in North America and Beyond"
ÌęTuesday, December 3, on Zoom, from 2-4 PM.ÌęPlease email sara.abdel-latif [at] mcgill.ca (Prof Sara Abdel-Latif) for the Zoom link.
Like all of our events, it is free and open to the public.Ìę
About the speaker: Dr M. Shobhana Xavier is an Associate Professor of Religion and Diaspora at Queenâs Universityâs School of Religion. She thinks and writes on contemporary Sufism in Canada, the United States and Sri Lanka. She is the author of several books on these topics including the most recent, Dervishes of the North: Rumi, Whirling and the Making of Sufism in Canada (2023) and is the co-editor of the forthcoming volume, Sufism in Canada: Weaving Islamic Mysticism and Contemporary Spirituality (UBC).
Description of the talk: Sufism in Canada and the United States is a religious and spiritual expression that exists amongst Muslim and non-Muslim communities. In this talk, I trace these registers of Sufism as they overlap today, be it through pilgrimages to Sufi shrines in the United States or consumption of Rumi in public spaces in Canada and consider how such expressions of Sufism is further informing and is informed by transnational and global Islam.
We look forward to seeing you there!
MIISSC's Smith's Tea on November 19
McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Students' Council (MIISSC) is inviting you to theÌęSmith's Tea with a Persian theme.Ìę
October 29, 4:30-5:30 pm
The Common Room, Morrice Hall 321
WIMESSA Organizes an Arabic Language Speaking Session
World Islamic and Middle East Studies Students' Association (WIMESSA) is inviting you to practice your Arabic language skills.
November 14, between 4 â 5:30
Morrice Hall 321 (The Common Room)
Prof M Hartman at Université Laval
On Thursday, November 14, Prof Michelle Hartman will deliver a lecture at UniversitĂ© Laval titled, âLa narration Ă lâenvers: traduire Gaza de la fin au dĂ©butâ in the series, Permission de Raconter la Palestine.
Graduate Research Talk
World Islamic and Middle Eastern Studiesâ Student Association & McGill Institute of Islamic Studiesâ Student Council invite you to a graduate research talk.
Featuring PhD Students Salma Shaaban & Jaleh Ebrahimi
Friday, November 8
Morrice Hall 017
5:30 pm
Turkish Movie Night
Kedi, the Cat
Wednesday, November 6, at 5:40 pm
Arts W-215
In Conversation: Michelle Hartman & Caline Nasrallah
An interview with Prof Michelle Hartman and MA graduate Caline Nasrallah (currently a PhD student at Concordia University) has just appeared in Asymptote about their recent translation,ÌęA Long Walk from Gaza. The novel was featured as the book of the month in their book club in September. You can read the interview and published in the journal.
MIISSC's Smith's Tea on October 29th
McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Students' Council (MIISSC) is inviting you to the the Mehfil-e Chai for theÌęSmith's TeaÌę.Ìę
October 29, 4-5:30 pm
The Common Room, Morrice Hall 321
Diwaloween This Friday
You are all warmly invited to this yearâs Diwaloween Event taking place on November 1st, 5-9 pm in Morrice Hall 017 (ground floor of Morrice Hall). Please note that the $5 ticket price is cancelled! The event is free so please come and encourage others to attend with you too!
There will be FREE food, FREE henna, dance performances, dance workshop, singing, poetry, rangoli, and sparklers!
Special thanks to Religious Studies, Islamic Studies, and the South Asian Studies Students Association for support.
Best dressed wins a prize!
Syed Nomanul Haq on November 26
"Bloom on the Gallows:ÌęកallÄj as Imagery and as Metaphor in Urdu and Persian Poetryâ
Institute of Islamic Studies' Lecture Series for Fall 2024
Tuesday, November 26, Morrice Hall 017, at 4:30 PM
Like all of our events, it is free and open to the public. All are welcome.
Professor Syed Nomanul Haq is a senior member of the faculty at the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, and Executive Academic Advisor at the University of Lahore.
Description of the talk:
In the year 922, following a decade of inquisitions in a mĂȘlĂ©e of political and court intrigues, the Sufi Ibn ManáčŁĆ«r al-កallÄj was mercilessly executed before a large crowd in Abbasid Baghdad. His fateful cry âAnaâl-កaqqâ (I am the Truth), the chief crime for which he was ostensibly punished, has echoed until this day in Sufi chambers, generating a massive body of explicative, devotional, romantic, as well as secular resistance poetry and other literary genres.
The memory of this slain Sufi has slowly spread aflame with beauty all across the literary and mystical horizons of Muslim societies. One sees his shadow hovering over classical Urdu and Persian poetry of South Asia from Amir Khusraw until our own times, so enduringly cast over literary imagination that he has been raised from the realm of factual history into that of metaphor and topos. Nomanul Haq explores this legacy, particularly in the context of Urdu poetry.
Talk by Maria Subtelny on November 12
"Vision and the Representation of Form in the Islamic Mystical Imagination: The Tale of the Contest between the Greek and Chinese Paintersâ
Institute of Islamic Studies'ÌęLecture Series for Fall 2024
Tuesday, November 12, Morrice Hall 017, from 2-4 PM
Like all of our events, it is free and open to the public. All are welcome.
About the speaker:
Dr Maria Ìęis Professor of Persian and Islamic Studies in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. She received her PhD from Harvard University and has been teaching courses on the history of medieval Iran and Persian literature and culture at the University of Toronto since 1984. Her publications include Timurids in Transition: Turko-Persian Politics and Acculturation in Medieval Iran; Le monde est un jardin: Aspects de lâhistoire culturelle de lâIran mĂ©diĂ©val; the chapter on the Timurids in The New Cambridge History of Islam; and more recently âA Man of Letters: Husain Vaâiz Kashifi and His Persian Projectâ in vol. 10 of The Idea of Iran; and âKashifiâs Asrar-i qasimi: A Late Timurid Manual of the Occult Sciences and Its Safavid Afterlifeâ in Islamicate Occultism in Theory and Practice. A few years ago she completed a critical edition of Kashifiâs mirror for princes, Akhlaq-i muhsini, and has been working on an annotated translation. Her forthcoming publications are âA Timurid-era Manuscript of the Pseudo-Aristotelian Sirr al-asrÄr (The secret of secrets) from the Atelier of BÄysunghur MÄ«rzÄ: Chester Beatty Library, Ar. 4183â in Prince Baysunghur, Before and After (in press), and an edition and translation of the earliest medieval Persian translation of the Sirr al-asrÄr.
Description of the talk:
Despite the problematic issue of depicting human form in the Islamic religious tradition, Persian painting had a long history of figural representation connected with the art of the book. Using as a framework the tale about a contest between painters related by Nezami Ganjavi in his Alexander epic, and reinterpreted in an esoteric register by Jalal al-Din Rumi in his Masnavi, the lecture will discuss the concept of vision in both material and mystical contexts.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Profs Michelle Hartman & Malek Abisaab at the CC4P
Women and ResistanceÌę
November 2 at 1:30 pm
Centre St Pierre
1212 Rue Panet
Montréal QC H2L 2Y7
This is part of a two-day.
Mana Kia's Talk: Re-Personalizing the State - November 5
The Old Women of Nishapur Initiative and The Institute of Islamic Studies invite you to a public talk:
Re-Personalizing the State: Persianate Sociability as Political Ethic
Dr Mana Kia, Columbia University
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
4:00 - 5:30
Morrice Hall 328
This talk shows the central role of social bonds, the intimacy that defined them, and forms of sociability they engendered as constituting the very possibility of good governance just before colonial rule. I read the specific context of 18th century Hindustan against a deeper history of Persianate and Islamic concepts and traditions of friendship and service. Persianate polities cohered around hierarchically structured social bonds linking individuals and groups marked by dissimilar origins, religious affiliations, social locations, occupational groupings, and claims to power. I argue that forms of sociability that engendered such bonds constituted the very ground of the political and must be part of any consideration of what the state was before colonial rule.
Dr Mana Kia will also hold a discussion seminar on Wed November 6, at 2:30; please get in touch with setrag.manoukian [at] mcgill.ca (Setrag Manoukian) with for details.
Prof Khalid Medani's at Ontario Tech University on the Sudan Crisis
On September 26, Dr Khalid Mustafa Medani participated in a panel at the Ontario Tech University, together with experts from humanitarian AID organizations. The discussion was titled: "The Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan: What Can Be Done?" This was a chance to shed light on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. Ìę
Einstein on Israel and Zionism Book Launch on October 22
Baraka Books, the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies, Independent Jewish Voices and Palestinian Jewish Unity present theÌęfor the launch of:
October 22, 5:30 - 8 pm
Morrice Hall 017 Institute of Islamic Studies, Ïăœ¶ÊÓÆ”
âFred Jeromeâs Einstein on Israel and Zionism is a valuable and timely contribution. Einsteinâs views of Zionism were prescient.âÌęSilvan Schweber, In the Shadow of the Bomb
Ussama Makdisi's Talk: Overwriting Palestine - October 28
âOverwriting Palestine: History, Genocide, and Denial Today"
October 28, 4:00-6:00
Leacock 232
Dr. Ussama Makdisi is Professor of History and Chancellor's Chair at the University of California, Berkeley. He was previously Professor of History and the first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice University in Houston. In 2012-2013, Makdisi was an invited Resident Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin).ÌęThe Carnegie Corporation named Makdisi a 2009 Carnegie Scholar as part of its effort to promote original scholarship regarding Muslim societies and communities, both in the United States and abroad. Makdisi was awarded the Berlin Prize by the American Academy of Berlin.
Professor Makdisi's most recent book, Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World, was published in 2019 by the University of California Press. He is also the author of, Faith Misplaced: the Broken Promise of U.S.-Arab Relations, 1820-2001 (Public Affairs, 2010). His previous books include: Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East (Cornell University Press, 2008), which was the winner of the 2008 Albert Hourani Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association, the 2009 John Hope Franklin Prize of the American Studies Association, and a co-winner of the 2009 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize, given by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. He is also the author of The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon (University of California Press, 2000). Makdisi co-hosts a new podcast called Makdisi Street.
This event is part of the ON GAZA series that started in Fall 2023.
It is co-sponsored by the Critical Media Lab (CML), the Research Group on Democracy, Space and Technology (RGDST) of the Yan P. Lin Centre, the Institute of Islamic Studies, and the Montreal Ottoman Turkish Studies (MOTS) Workshop at Ïăœ¶ÊÓÆ”.
Prof Michelle Hartman talks at Harvard University and Georgetown University
The Rethinking Translation seminar, together with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, is pleased to host , thanks to a tour organized by the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Ujayli and Hartman will read in Arabic and English, followed by a discussion and Q&A from the audience.
, Tuesday October 15, 2024 at Georgetown University â Writing in a World at War: A discussion with Syrian Novelist Shahla Ujayliâ
CANCELLED - Talk by M Shobhana Xavier on October 8
"Contemporary Expressions of Sufism in North America and Beyond"
Institute of Islamic Studies' Lecture Series for Fall 2024
Tuesday, October 8, Morrice Hall 017, from 2-4 PM.
Like all of our events, it is free and open to the public. All are welcome.
About the speaker:
Dr M. Shobhana Xavier is an Associate Professor of Religion and Diaspora at Queenâs Universityâs School of Religion. She thinks and writes on contemporary Sufism in Canada, the United States and Sri Lanka. She is the author of several books on these topics including the most recent, Dervishes of the North: Rumi, Whirling and the Making of Sufism in Canada (2023) and is the co-editor of the forthcoming volume Sufism in Canada: Weaving Islamic Mysticism and Contemporary Spirituality (UBC).
Description of the talk:
Sufism in Canada and the United States is a religious and spiritual expression that exists amongst Muslim and non-Muslim communities. In this talk, I trace these registers of Sufism as they overlap today, be it through pilgrimages to Sufi shrines in the United States or consumption of Rumi in public spaces in Canada and consider how such expressions of Sufism is further informing and is informed by transnational and global Islam.
We look forward to seeing you there!
The Old Women of Nishapur Initiative: Gender, Knowledge, Religion
Institute of Islamic Studies & Department of Anthropology &ÌęSSHRC
Engaging the Elders
A discussion seminar with Alice Bellagamba (UniversitĂ di Milano-Bicocca)
October 2nd
3:30pm - 5:50pm
Morrice Hall, Room 328
Together with Alice Bellagamba, we will discuss two of her essays on male elders in the Gambia.
Write to setrag.manoukian [at] mcgill.ca (Setrag Manoukian)Ìęto receive the texts.
Bellagamba describes her project, as such:
"Between 1992 and 2011, I had the privilege to engage with several generations of Gambian elderly men and women. I was fascinated by their willingness of sharing the richness of their experience in a social context where the youth seemed not having either time or interest for past life worlds. Visiting elderly peopleâs houses, listening to their recollections of colonial times, and then their struggles for decolonization, I learnt as much about ageing as about changing ideas of a good life and practices of social recognition in this context. In the early days of my fieldwork, I was struck by the gendered dimensions of oral history. Elderly menâs words had a public relevance; womenâs ones were confined to the household. Men were outspoken; to talk with women â and an all set of other marginal subjects- you had to share their daily lives. Then, all of a sudden, a precious piece of historical recollections would crop out. Drawn from Islam, the Mandinka notion of munoo â silence, reserve, patience â imbued with agency this particular way of dealing with memory and social life. I then followed the recollections of political engagement â and their attempts to be politically active â of a group of elderly men born between the end of the 1920s and the 1930s. The details of their intimate lives â marriage, love, adventure â brought me to think about the shifting balance of gender power across the life-cycle. Their life trajectories opened a window on the different models of manhood they tried to embody at different stages of their vital course. What comes immediately before and after death were the last step of this long â and indeed emotionally burdened â ethnographic engagement which has taught me that, besides contextual research interest, a large part of anthropological knowledge stems out spontaneously. Michael Jacksonâs existential anthropology â grasping the experience of being-in-the-world under specific historical circumstance â is a primary source of inspiration for this exercise of retrospective auto-ethnography."
Other Histories, Other Encounters
A discussion seminar with Mana Kia (Columbia University)
November 6th
3:30pm - 5:50pm
Morrice Hall, Room 328
Together with Mana Kia, we will discuss a selection from .
Write to setrag.manoukian [at] mcgill.ca (Setrag Manoukian)Ìęto receive the texts.
Mana KiaÌęwill also give a talk on Tuesday November 5th at 4pm. TITLE TBA
Dr Michelle Hartman at Amherst College on October 3
IIS Professor Michelle Hartman will join Syrian novelist Shahla Ujayli for an evening of Arabic literature and music as part of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction Tour.
Music will be performed by the Layaali Arabic Music Ensemble.
WIMESSA Celebrates the Life of Mahsa Amini
World Islamic and Middle East Studies Students' Association (WIMESSA) is inviting you to celebrate Mahsa Amini two years after her martyrdom and the rise of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
September 27,Ìę5:30-8:00 pm
Morrice Hall 017
Congratulations to Sherine Elbanhawy!
Congratulations to MA student Sherine Elbanhawy on successfully completing her MA thesis entitled: "AÌęCommunity Lifeline: Arab-Canadian Feminist Anthologies as a Source of Community Building & Knowledge Production".Ìę Her supervisor was Professor Michelle Hartman.
IIS Welcomes Professor Dale F. Eickelman
On September 24, professors and students gathered as the IIS celebrated the career and research of Dale and Christine Eickelman.
Anthropological Pathways to Islamic StudiesÌęon September 24
Anthropological Pathways to Islamic Studies: Celebrating the Research of Dale and Christine Eickelman
Dr Dale F Eickelman, Darmouth College
Islamic Studies 1964-2024: A Personal Odyssey
Introductory Remarks
Prof. Lisa Shapiro (Dean of Arts)
Prof. Khalid Medani (Director, Institute of Islamic Studies)
Prof. Armando Salvatore (Keenan Chair, School of Religious Studies)
Tuesday, September 24, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Arts 160 Council Room
Reception to Follow
Abstract: Understandings of âWhat is Islam?â and âWhat are Islamic Studies?â have changed dramatically since the mid-twentieth century. As in all fields of inquiryâand beliefâthe scope and depth of major transitions often become apparent only in retrospect. McGillâs Institute of Islamic Studies and the scholars nurtured through it have played a major role in shaping the field. Assessing where Islamic studies have been and are today, we suggest likely emerging trends.
Dale F. Eickelman is Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of Anthropology and Human Relations Emeritus at Dartmouth College, USA. His publications include Moroccan Islam: Tradition and Society in a Pilgrimage Center (1976), Muslim Politics (co-authored new ed., 2003), The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach, 4th ed. (2002), Knowledge and Power in Morocco (1985), Higher Education Investment in the Arab States of the Gulf (co-edited, 2017) and, most recently, his co-edited Islam, Christianity, and Secularism in Bulgaria and Eastern Europe: The Last Half Century (2022). A former President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), and of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Professor Eickelman currently is a trustee and senior advisor to Kuwaitâs first private liberal arts university, the American University of Kuwait. He was named a Carnegie Scholar (2009-2011), in 2011 he received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association, and in 2022 received an honorary Ph.D. from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohdridski, Bulgaria. He is also President of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM, ).
WIMESSA's First Coffee Hour of the Year
Join us for a Maghrebi Coffee Hour on Thursday, Sept. 26 at 4PM in Morrice Hall. As always, there will be food and drinks provided (but bring your own mug if youâd like!) See you there!
IIS Celebrates Fred Vardon
Last week, students, profs, and other friends gathered as the IIS celebrated the career of long-time worker Fred Vardon with retirement potluck.
Best of luck with whatâs next, Freddy!
MIISSC's First Smith's Tea of the Academic Year
McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Students' Council (MIISSC) is inviting you to reconnect and make new friends for the first Smith's Tea of the year. This tradition was revived a decade ago by the graduate students at the Institute.Ìę
September 13, 3:00-5:00 pm
Morrice Hall 321
Congratulations to Seyed Saleh Pezhman!
Congratulations to IIS doctoral student Saleh Pezhman on successfully defending his PhD thesis, "From ÊżAlidism to Spiritual ShÄ«Êżism: The Kubrawiyya Sufi Orderâs Creedal Evolution in Late Medieval Persia". His supervisor was Professor Rula Abisaab.
Congratulations to Aqsa Ijaz!
Congratulations to IIS doctoral student Aqsa Ijaz on successfully defending her PhD thesis, "Shaping the Language of Love: The Afterlives of NizÌ€ÄmÄ« GanjavÄ«âs ážČhusrau u ShÄ«rÄ«n in HindustÄn". Her supervisors were Professors Pasha M. Khan and Prashant Keshavmurthy.
New Publication : A Long Walk from Gaza
Congratulations to Prof Michelle Hartman and MA graduate Caline Nasrallah on their recent translation of Asmaa AlatawnaâsÌęA Long Walk from Gaza.ÌęThe novel details one young womanâs life between Gaza and Europe. This week, it was named best work of fiction of the week byÌę. That review notes that, âUnexpectedly, poignantly, Alatawna's intimate history becomes âa testament to a Gaza that will never be the same.ââ
McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Student Council (MIISSC)'s Symposium
We would like to express our collective congratulations to the IIS graduate students for organizing such .
Dr Khalid Medani's Op-ed in the Globe and MailÌę
Dr Michelle Hartman's Talk at George Mason University on April 22
Women's War Stories: Translation, Political Commitment, and Arab Women's Writing
Speaker: Michelle Hartman
Location: George Mason University and on zoom
Time: Mon., April 22, 3:00-4:30 pm
Michelle Hartman is Professor of Arabic Literature at the Institute of Islamic Studies, Ïăœ¶ÊÓÆ” and a literary translator. Her research interests are in the politics of Arabic to English translation, the engagement of politics and aesthetics in literature, particularly in women's writing. Her newest book, coauthored with Malek Abisaab (April 2024) is What the War Left Behind:
A glimpse back at Nowruz 1403 (ÙÙ۱ÙŰČ Û±ÛŽÛ°Ûł)
After snowstorms in April, Spring is FINALLY here in Montreal so let us take a look back at this yearâs Nowruz event (Nowruz 1403) held this semester by the Persian program.
On the evening of March 12, we gathered with students, faculty, and people from different communities in Montreal, from and beyond McGill, to celebrate and learn about Nowruz. Nowruz (literally meaning âNew Dayâ in Persian) marks the beginning of Spring and the new year for Iranians and is also celebrated in many other countries and regions such as Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
We had Persian food and some Nowruz-specific sweets, and of course(!) tea, around our traditional Nowruz table (beautifully decorated by our own Persian students), listening to Iranian music and playing games about this important cultural event. If you were there, thanks for coming and if you werenât, make sure to catch us next year!
Or better yet, come join our Persian courses with us!
Congratulations to Giovanni Carrera!
Congratulations to IIS doctoral student Carrera Giovanni on successfully defending his PhD thesis, "The Development of "ILM AL-WAD" (8th/14th â 15th/20th Century): Origins, Contexts and Canons of a Semantic Theory ". His supervisor was Professor Robert Wisnovsky.
Talk by Basit Iqbal on March 18
The Old Women of Nishapur Initiative on Gender, Knowledge, Religion
"To the Threshold of Capacity: Tribulation and Ambivalence in Zaatari Camp"
Dr. Basit Iqbal, McMaster University
Monday, March 18, 12:30 - 14:00
Peterson Hall 108 (Critical Media Lab), 3460 McTavish
Co-sponsored by The McGill Refuge Research Group, The Department of Anthropology and the Institute of Islamic Studies.
Abstract: Freed from the Assad regimeâs obsessive control of religion, displaced Syrians in Zaatari Refugee Camp pursue sharia studies. They refuse the lure of resettlement or restoration, developing instead an extensive program of study. These teachers and students relate their pursuit of religious knowledge to the existential question of their own individual and collective capacities. In doing so they underscore the essential opacity of human experience. This lesson, at once anthropological and theological, leads away from conventional affirmations of refugee agency or resilience. This lesson demands admitting the heteronomous conditions of existence. They call this: fate.
Basit Kareem Iqbal is assistant professor of anthropology (and associate member of religious studies) at McMaster University. Based on fieldwork in Jordan and Canada with refugees, relief workers, and religious scholars, his current book manuscript is titled âThe Dread Heights: Refuge and Tribulation after the Syrian Revolution.â His previous publications have appeared in Critical Times, diacritics, Political Theology, Muslim World, Anthropologie et sociĂ©tĂ©s, the Journal of Religion, Anthropological Theory, and Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, among others.
Prof. Iqbal will also hold a discussion seminar on Tuesday March 19, at 9am. If you are interested in participating in the seminar, please email setrag.manoukian [at] mcgill.ca (Setrag Manoukian).
Talk by Ajay Rao on March 21
From McGill's School of Religious Studies + Institute of Islamic Studies, part of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Winter 2024 .
Time and place: Tuesday March 12th , 5:30-7 pm â Morrice Hall, Room 017
"Historicizing Caste Exclusion"
Ajay Rao, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
March 21, 2024, 4:00 PM EDT
Birks Building, Rm. 100 Senior Common Room
3520 University Street
Ìę
The argument in VedÄnta interpretations of the apaĆĆ«drÄdhikaraáča (1.3.34-38) for a rigid hierarchy of knowledge represents perhaps the most extensive evidence available to us of premodern theoretical justifications for caste exclusion and the cultural oppression of ĆĆ«dras and Dalits. Taking these Sanskrit philosophical abstractions as socially symbolic acts, I examine how they give voice to brahminical anxieties about non-brahmin cultural power and knowledge at a time when "ĆĆ«dra" had undergone radical transformation as a social category.
Celebration (Event) of Nowruz 1403
Itâs that time of year again! Spring is around the corner and so is Nowruz (ÙÙ۱ÙŰČ), the new year celebrated by Iranians and several other nations and ethnicities! Continuing a long-lasting tradition, the Persian program at McGill is holding a Nowruz celebration event.
Come learn about Nowruz, see our Haftsin (ÙÙŰȘ ŰłÛÙ) table, enjoy some music, play games, and have some Persian food and pastries! Join us for a glimpse of ŰšÙۧ۱ (ČúČčłóČčÌ°ù, âSpringâ in Persian) on an ever-so-cold Montreal evening!
Time and place: Tuesday March 12th , 5:30-7 pm â Morrice Hall, Room 017
Talk by Alexander Jabbari on March 14
Please join us to this talk in person, part of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Winter 2024 .
"The Making of Persianate Modernity"
Alexander Jabbari, Assistant Professor, University of MinnesotaÌę
March 14, 2024, 5:00 PM GMT-5
Morrice Hall Rm. 328
3485 McTavish Street
Institute of Islamic Studies, Ïăœ¶ÊÓÆ”
From roughly the ninth to the nineteenth centuries, Persian was the pre-eminent language of learning far beyond Iran, stretching from the Balkans to China. In this talk on his recently published book, Alexander Jabbari explores what became of this vast Persian literary heritage in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Iran and South Asia, as nationalism took hold and the Persianate world fractured into nation-states. He shows how Iranians and South Asians drew from their shared past to produce a âPersianate modernity.â Drawing from both Persian and Urdu sources, he reveals how intellectual and literary exchange between South Asian Muslims and Iranians resulted in the modernization of literary history, sexuality, national identity, and print culture.
Prof Michelle Hartman: How I became a Translator
On Sunday February 25, 2024 IIS Prof Michelle Hartman joined fellow translators at the Muscat International Book Fair on a panel titled, âHow I became a Translator of Arabic Literature? A Journey Between Two Worldsâ.
Talk by Sara Grewal on March 15
Please join us to this talk in person, part of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Winter 2024 .
âWhatâs My F@cking Name?â: Partition, Diaspora, and Translation in Rap Versions of âToba Tek Singhâ
Sara Grewal,ÌęAssociate Professor, MacEwan University
March 15, 2024, 5:00 PM GMT-5
Morrice Hall Rm. 328
3485 McTavish Street
Institute of Islamic Studies, Ïăœ¶ÊÓÆ”
In 2020, actor and musician Riz Ahmed released the song âToba Tek Singh,â the title and content of which productively alludes to Saadat Hasan Mantoâs Urdu short story of the same name. Mantoâs âToba Tek Singh,â which has long been hailed as a paradigmatic example of Partition literature, tells the story of its titular character, who resides in an insane asylum, speaks only in gibberish except when obsessively asking after the fate of his village with whom he shares a name, and who ultimately dies in the no-manâs-land between the Indian and Pakistani borders. In his rap engagements with this story, Riz Ahmed recuperates Toba Tek Singh as the quintessential figure of the South Asian diaspora. In returning to Mantoâs âToba Tek Singhâ as the central allegory for the experience of diaspora, Riz Ahmed helps us see that Partition was not just or even primarily a moment of incipient nationhood, but rather a moment of diasporaâsuch that Partition itself becomes both metaphor and historical precedent for Rizâs experience of diaspora in the UK. By examining multiple versions of âToba Tek Singh,â I show that Partition and diaspora act as âmutually constitutiveâ (Gopinath 2005) moments of uprootedness.
Talk by Sayeh Meisami, âMulla Sadra on Causality and Freewillâ, on February 20
Please join us to this talk in person, part of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Winter 2024 .
"Mulla Sadra on Causality and Freewill: Between Ibn Sina and Ghazali"
Associate Professor, University of Dayton, Ohio
Feb 20, 2024, 4:00 PM GMT-5
Morrice Hall Rm. 328
3485 McTavish Street
Institute of Islamic Studies, Ïăœ¶ÊÓÆ”
MullÄ áčąadrÄ's position on human action and freewill is based on his reading of Avicenna through the lens of Muáž„ammad GhazÄlÄ«'s Sufi AshÊżarism. In his adaptation of causal necessity from Avicenna, MullÄ áčąadrÄ argues that "necessity" as a concept is as evident as "existence" and co-extensional with it because in reality all that is the case is necessarily so. On the other hand, all things including human will are only relatively existent. This talk is focused on how MullÄ áčąadrÄ's understanding of human action and freewill can be explained as an example of his indebtedness to both Avicenna's metaphysics and GhazÄlÄ«'s Sufi perspective of unity.
Talk by Afsar Mohammad, âFor the Love of Urduâ on February 16
Please join us to this talk in person, part of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Winter 2024Ìę.
"For the Love of Urdu: Relocating Urdu within Telugu Literary Culture"
Talk by Afsar Mohammad
Senior Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania
Feb 16, 2024, 2:00 PM GMT-5
Morrice Hall Rm. 328
3485 McTavish Street
Institute of Islamic Studies, Ïăœ¶ÊÓÆ”
This talk focuses on how Urdu became a model for the reconstruction of the Telangana-based Telugu writings in the late 1940s. Debating the rise of new prose genres including short fiction, autobiographical writings and personal essays, we learn about the shared literary patterns between these two languages and their incredible impact on the making of a local literary modernity.
IIS Annual Lecture on Islamophobia
On February 8, 2024 the IIS hosted Dr Arun Kundnaniâs talk, âHow to Hide a Genocide: Anti-Muslim Racism and the Vught Camp.â This event was our annual lecture on Islamophobia, commemorating the 2017 white supremacist attack in the CCIQ in Quebec City. A vigorous question and answer session followed a fascinating lecture.
Gaza Crisis Talk
On February 1, 2024, IIS Director Professor Khalid Medani was the moderator for a talk by Mouin Rabbani, âGaza Crisis, Background and Implications.â The seats were full at this important event, hosted by the Critical Media Lab and the Research Group on Democracy, Space, and Technology.Ìę
Talk by Nada Moumtaz on February 6
The Old Women of Nishapur Initiative on Gender, Knowledge, ReligionÌę
"Economy, Charity, Family"
Dr. Nada Moumtaz, University of Toronto
Tuesday, February 6, 9:00 - 11:30 am
Peterson Hall 108 (Critical Media Lab), 3460 McTavish
NADA MOUMTAZ is an Associate Professor in the Department for the Study of Religion and in the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Her fields of study intersect the Anthropology of Religion, Islamic Studies, and research on Culture & Politics. Her book, Godâs Property: Islam, Charity, and the Modern State (2021), examines the contemporary Islamic revival of a centuries-old charitable practice of pious endowment in Beirut to shed new light on the secularization of religion through the lens of its separation from âthe economy.â
To participate in the seminar please email setrag.manoukian [at] mcgill.ca (Setrag Manoukian)Ìę to receive the pre-circulated readings that constitute the ground for the seminar discussion.
Unpacking the Dynamics of Islamophobia in Canada, January 31
Amira Elghawaby
Unpacking the Dynamics of Islamophobia in Canada-Challenges and Opportunities
Wednesday, January 31, 4:30 - 5:30 PM, in Leacock 232
Ms. Elghawaby is an award-winning journalist and human rights advocate. In January 2023, she was appointed by the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Canadaâs Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. Ms.ÌęElghawabyÌęhas been actively involved in initiatives countering hate and promoting inclusion, such as a founding board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. During this public lecture, Ms.ÌęElghawaby will address her efforts to tackle Islamophobia in Canada and opportunities to create more inclusive environments on university campuses.
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Co-sponsored by Semaine de la sensibilisation musulmane/Muslim Awareness Week & Institute of Islamic Studies.
CANCELLED: Roundtable with Alessandro Cancian on January 30
The Institute of Islamic Studies and the Old Women of Nishapour Initiative present:
Roundtable on the book:
"The Emergence of Shi'i Sufism: Sultan 'Ali Shah Gunabadi and His Commentary on the Qur'an"
Alessandro Cancian, Author,ÌęInstitute of Ismaili Studies
Tuesday, January 30, 5 pm
Morrice Hall 328
Discussants:ÌęReza Tabandeh (Brock University) &ÌęSaleh Pezhman (Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill)
Chair of the panel: Setrag Manoukian (Institute of Islamic Studies and Anthropology, McGill)
Book description: The Bayan al-sa'ada fi maqamat al-'ibada (The Elucidation of Bliss concerning the Spiritual Stations of Worship) is a central work in the modern intellectual and religious history of Iran and Shi'i Islam. A Qur'anic commentary (tafsir) by Sultan 'Ali Shah Gunabadi (d. 1909), it represents a mature synthesis between Twelver Shi'ism and Sufism. In this first detailed study of Sultan 'Ali Shah's Bayan, Alessandro Cancian argues that this commentary represents the foundational act of modern Twelver Shi'i organised Sufism. Cancian first explores the intellectual contexts of Iranian Shi'ism and Sufism, before introducing the author and the text. The eponymous master of the largest branch of the Ni'matullahi Sufi order (the Gunabadiyya), Sultan 'Ali Shah was a religious scholar taught by some of the most authoritative Shi'i ulama of his time; a philosopher in the Akbarian/Sadrian tradition who studied with superstar Qajar philosopher Mulla Hadi Sabzawari (d. 1873); and a master of mysticism who drew from the classical tradition of Persian and Persianate Sufism. Cancian shows how these elements coalesced into the formation of a Shi'i Sufi tariqa, making a credible claim for Ni'matullahi Sufi legitimacy within the Twelver Shi'i establishment and influencing subsequent Qur'anic exegesis in Iran. Cancian then provides a thematic and genealogical analysis of the text alongside a study of its impact and legacy. A translation of Sultan 'Ali Shah's own introduction, outlining his hermeneutical approach and theological and philosophical principles, is provided in an appendix. This book will appeal to scholars in a range of disciplines within Islamic studies, including Qur'anic exegesis, Shi'i studies, Sufi studies, mysticism, and the intellectual history of Iran.
Dr Alessandro Cancian is Senior Research Associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, where he works on ShiÊżi Sufism, Qurâanic exegesis and the intellectual and religious history of pre-modern Iran. A historian of religions and anthropologist by formation, he has published books and articles on religious education in ShiÊżi Islam, ShiÊżi Sufism and Qurâanic exegesis.
Talk by Shireen Hamza, âThe Proximity of Masculinityâ - on January 24
Social Studies of Medicine (SSOM), the Department of Anthropology and the Institute of Islamic Studies present:
"The Proximity of Masculinity: Gender, Space, and Medical Authority in Medieval Islam"
Dr. Shireen Hamza, Northwestern University
Wednesday, January 24, 2:30 pm
SSoM Seminar Room 101, 3647 Peel Street
Masculinities shape intimacy, and vice versa. Across the medieval Islamic world, authors of medical texts could draw knowledge from multiple epistemic traditions. Often, their choices were shaped by which authorities they felt closest to and sought to emulate in their lives as well as their medical practice. Focusing on the regions surrounding the western Indian Ocean, I show how physicians and ulema were just as interested in how medical authorities lived as they were in what they knew. Their interest in these ancient and contemporary medical men helped them shape their own notion of an appropriate medical masculinity.
Shireen Hamza is a historian and artist, and an educator with the Prison & Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (PNAP). She continues her research on the history of medicine in the medieval Islamic world through a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University.
Dr. Hamza is also leading a discussion seminar on masculinity in the premodern Islamic World on Tuesday, January 23rd, 9:00-11:30am; write to setrag.manoukian [at] mcgill.ca (Setrag Manoukian) for the pre-circulated reading.
Journalist Haroon Siddiqui in Conversation with Political Science Professor Daniel Beland, on January 25
Join us at 4 pm on Thursday, January 25, in Leacock 232, for an event organized by the McGill Institute for Study of Canada and the Institute of Islamic Studies:
My Name Is Not Harry
The event is free, but.Ìę
About My Name Is Not Harry
Canada has no official culture. It follows that there's no standard way of being Canadian, beyond obeying the law. In My Name is Not Harry, Haroon Siddiqui shows how Canada let him succeed on his own terms. Haroon Siddiquiâs journey took him from a divided India to a welcoming Canada â until the cataclysm of 9/11 hardened attitudes to Muslims around the world. His personal story weaves through growing Islamophobia in both India and North America.
Read for Refaat, on January 16
Join us at 9 am on Tuesday, January 16, for an hour of poems reading in honor of the life, work and resistance of Refaat al-Areer.
If I Must Die, Let it Be a Tale
Talk by Arun Kundnani, âHow to Hide a Genocideâ on February 8
Please join us to this talk in person, part of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Winter 2024Ìę.
How to Hide a Genocide: Anti-Muslim Racism and the Vught Camp
Talk by Dr Arun Kundnani, Associate at the Transnational Institute
Thursday, February 8, 2024, 2:00âŻPM EST - Morrice Hall 017
The Vught concentration camp was built by the Nazis in the Dutch countryside in the 1940s. Today the same building hosts a high security prison where Muslims accused of extremism are subjected to solitary confinement. How does this site connect histories of anti-Semitism to the US prison system's response to Black rebellion? What conception of racism can encompass the multiple histories that run through this place? Is there a relationship between the Shoah and the War on Terror? How can we understand the new forms of racial domination and violence that have been generated by neoliberal capitalism?