The Institute of Islamic Studies is celebrating 60 years of excellence (1952-2012). Please scroll down for more information about upcoming events to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Institute in 1952.
The Institute of Islamic Studies gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the State of Qatar for these events.
For further details on any upcoming event, or to be added to our email distribution list, please contact:
Karen Moore, Outreach Administrator, at 514-398-6044 or by email.
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Upcoming Events: April - June 2013
MIISSC Symposium |
May 3rd & 4th, 2013 |
Islamic Manuscripts
|
February 2013 - June 30, 2013 |
Tehran Branch Website and Publications
This week, we were honoured to have Prof. Mehdi Mohaghegh, the current director of the Institute of Islamic Studies’ Tehran Branch, launch the new Tehran Branch and Tehran Branch Publications pages on the Institute site. These pages contain a history of the Tehran Branch, and also house 10 of their publications which have been digitized by the Islamic Studies Library at McGill.
We are proud to share that Emeritus Professor Issa J. Boullata will be presenting the 2013 Arab Prize at this year’s Blue Metropolis Festival.
Professor Boullata has been a Programming Consultant for Arabic at the Blue Metropolis Foundation since 2006, and will be presenting the 2013 Arab Prize to Libyan novelist Hisham Matar.
More information about this event, taking place on April 26th, can be found on the Blue Metropolis website.
Congratulations to Professor Ahmed F. Ibrahim on his most recent publication!
“Al-Shaʿrānī’s Response to Legal Purism: A Theory of Legal Pluralism” Islamic Law and Society, April, 2013.
This publication can be found in PDF form on Professor Ahmed F. Ibrahim's faculty page.
3rd Annual MIISSC Graduate Symposium
Tracing Encounters
May 3rd and May 4th 2013
Tracing an encounter is central to any academic enterprise. This can be an overt aspect of inquiry: historical encounters between peoples, ideas, cultures, traditions, moments, and any combination thereof. The encounter can also be more subtly involved through reflexive attention to the encounter between the investigator and their object of study. The myriad forms of inquiry that have come to make up the field of Islamic Studies are, like virtually all branches of the humanities, united by the centrality of the encounter in analyses. The Third Annual McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Graduate Student Symposium will focus on graduate students’ and junior scholars’ academic work that deals with their own attempts in tracing encounters through their research in Islamic Studies.
Islamic Manuscripts Exhibition
February 2013 - June 30, 2013
McGill University
McLennan Library Lobby
3459 McTavish Street
Montreal, Quebec
Drawing on the rich manuscript collections of the McGill Library, this exhibition explores the beauty of handwritten specimens in Arabic script from a vast area, stretching from the Maghreb to India, and covers various historical periods. Selected exhibits include parchment leaves from Qur’ans produced in the early Abbasid period (9-10 centuries), pieces of calligraphy from the Arab world, Iran, and India, diplomas granted to Ottoman calligraphers, writing implements, such as reed pens and pen boxes, and much more.
To see photos of a few of the manuscripts, please see our photo gallery on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/mcgillislamicstudies
Congratulations to all of our recent PhD candidates who passed their oral defenses!
Selim Argun successfully defended his thesis, entitled “Elite configurations and clusters of power: the Ulema, Waqf and Ottoman State 1789-1839”, on March 21, 2013.
Gregory Mack successfully defended his thesis, entitled “The Modern Muhtasib: Religious Policing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, on January 24, 2013.
Bilal Ibrahim successfully defended his thesis, entitled “Freeing Philosophy from Metaphysics: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s Philosophical Approach to the Study of Natural Phenomena” on December 4, 2012.
Prof. A.J. Racy has been featured in the McGill Reporters Four Burning Questions
Please see the complete article: Four Burning Questions for A.J. Racy, visiting Musician-in-Residence, McGill Institute of Islamic Studies.
March 26, 2012
State of Qatar donates $1.25 million to the Institute of Islamic Studies
On March 26, 2012, it was announced by His Excellency Salem Al-Shafi, the first Ambassador from Qatar to Canada, that the Institute of Islamic Studies would receive a generous gift of $1.25 million from the State of Qatar, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Institute. As part of the 60th anniversary, this gift will be used towards a series of lectures, visiting scholars, conferences, and exhibits. “We believe this contribution will further assist the Institute in carrying on the distinguished role it has played, since its establishment in 1952, in advancing research related to Islam and the history and civilization of the Islamic world,” said His Excellency Al-Shafi. “We also believe that the Institute shares our vision that knowledge and education are key to meet the challenges of our changing world and provide the tools to better understand the ever-evolving relationship between religion and mankind and how it has contributed to our well-being and the coexistence of peoples.”
Professor Robert Wisnovsky on al-Jazeera news
Institute of Islamic Studies Professor Robert Wisnovsky can be found on episode 8 of the 2012 season (released 03/14/12).