ONLINE SEMINAR SERIES: The Virtual/Online 'Muzlamic' Series
All programmes are FREE - REGISTRATION IS COMPULSORY - ALL WELCOME! REGISTER HERE: https://bit.ly/2Xv72SJ or https://IslamicCoursesVirtual.eventbrite.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. [ It's our Time ]: A discussion series exploring a variety of Islamicate topics related to the specific historical, theological, philosophical, scientific or cultural development of the ummah through the ages. 2. [ This is Their Life ] - A programme that explores the thoughts, works, and practices of past and contemporary Muslim scholars, academics and leaders from all sectors of society. 3. [ The Garam Masala Discussion Forum ] - In this programme we hope to explore and address contemporary heated debates/events/topics in the 'ummahatic', in a way which is rooted in the spirit of faith and ethics with an eye towards practical utility. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please adjust the timings for your timezone. All times are stated as British Time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION - GOD'S SHADOW: SULTAN SELIM, HIS OTTOMAN EMPIRE, AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD With author Professor Alan Mikhail [Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History, Yale University, USA] and hosted by Dr Yakoob Ahmed [Young Ottomans Foundation - theyoungottomans.com] The Ottoman Empire was a hub of flourishing intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. At the helm of its ascent was the omnipotent Sultan Selim I (1470-1520), who, with the aid of his extraordinarily gifted mother, Gulbahar, hugely expanded the empire, propelling it onto the world stage. Aware of centuries of European suppression of Islamic history, Alan Mikhail centers Selim's Ottoman Empire and Islam as the very pivots of global history, redefining such world-changing events as Christopher Columbus's voyages - which originated, in fact, as a Catholic jihad that would come to view Native Americans as somehow "Moorish" - the Protestant Reformation, the transatlantic slave trade, and the dramatic Ottoman seizure of the Middle East and North Africa. Drawing on previously unexamined sources and written in gripping detail, Mikhail's groundbreaking account vividly recaptures Selim's life and world. An historical masterwork, God's Shadow radically reshapes our understanding of a world we thought we knew. A leading historian of his generation, Professor Alan has reforged our understandings of the past through his previous three prize-winning books on the history of Middle East.. Date and time: Friday 29th January 2021 @3pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. PANEL DISCUSSION - APPLYING IBN KHALDUN IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND POLICY MAKING With Professor Syed Farid Alatas [National University of Singapore] The writings of Ibn Khaldūn, particularly the Muqaddimah (Prolegomenon) have rightly been regarded as being sociological in nature. For this reason, Ibn Khaldūn has been widely regarded as the founder of sociology, or at least a precursor of modern sociology. While he was given this recognition, however, few works went beyond proclaiming him as a founder or precursor to the systematic application of his theoretical perspective to specific historical and contemporary aspects of Muslim societies in North Africa and the Middle East. The continuing presence of Eurocentrism in the social sciences has not helped in this regard: it often stands in the way of the consideration of non-Western sources of theories and concepts. This discussion will suggests ways to bring Ibn Khaldūn into the mainstream through the systematic application of his theory. It moves beyond works that simply state that Ibn Khaldūn was a founder of sociology or provide descriptive accounts of his works. Instead it systematically applies Khaldūn’s theoretical perspective to specific historical aspects of Muslim societies in North Africa and the Middle East, successfully integrating concepts and frameworks from Khaldūnian sociology into modern social science theories. Applying Ibn Khaldūn will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology and social theory. Date and time: Sunday 31st January 2021 @2pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION: RECTIFYING GOD’S NAME: LIU ZHI’S CONFUCIAN TRANSLATION OF MONOTHEISM AND ISLAMIC LAW With author Professor James D. Frankel [The Chinese University of Hong Kong] Islam first arrived in China more than 1,200 years ago, but for more than a millennium it was perceived as a foreign presence. The restoration of native Chinese rule by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), after nearly a century of Mongol domination, helped transform Chinese intellectual discourse on ideological, social, political, religious, and ethnic identity. This led to the creation of a burgeoning network of Sinicized Muslim scholars who wrote about Islam in classical Chinese and developed a body of literature known as the Han Kitab. Rectifying God’s Name examines the life and work of one of the most important of the Qing Chinese Muslim literati, Liu Zhi (ca. 1660–ca. 1730), and places his writings in their historical, cultural, social, and religio-philosophical context. His Tianfang danli (Ritual law of Islam) represents the most systematic and sophisticated attempt within the Han Kitab corpus to harmonize Islam with Chinese thought. The volume begins by situating Liu Zhi in the historical development of the Chinese Muslim intellectual tradition, examining his sources and influences as well as his legacy. Delving into the contents of Liu Zhi’s work, it focuses on his use of specific Chinese terms and concepts, their origins and meanings in Chinese thought, and their correspondence to Islamic principles. A close examination of the Tianfang dianli reveals Liu Zhi’s specific usage of the concept of Ritual as a common foundation of both Confucian morality and social order and Islamic piety. The challenge of expressing such concepts in a context devoid of any clear monotheistic principle tested the limits of his scholarship and linguistic finesse. Liu Zhi's theological discussion in the Tianfang dianli engages not only the ancient Confucian tradition, but also Daoism, Buddhism, and even non-Chinese traditions. His methodology reveals an erudite and cosmopolitan scholar who synthesized diverse influences, from Sufism to Neo-Confucianism, and possibly even Jesuit and Jewish sources, into a body of work that was both steeped in tradition and, yet, exceedingly original, epitomizing the phenomenon of Chinese Muslim simultaneity. A compelling and multidimensional study, Rectifying God’s Name will be eagerly welcomed by interested readers of Chinese and Islamic religious and social history, as well as students and scholars of comparative religion. Date and time: Saturday 6th February 2021 @2pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION: THE SECOND OTTOMAN EMPIRE: POLITICAL AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE EARLY MODERN WORLD With author Professor Baki Tezcan [University of California, USA] and hosted by Dr Yakoob Ahmed [Young Ottomans Foundation - theyoungottomans.com] Although scholars have begun to revise the traditional view that the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries marked a decline in the fortunes of the Ottoman Empire, Baki Tezcan's book proposes a radical approach to this period. While he concurs that decline did take place in certain areas, he constructs a new framework by foregrounding the proto-democratization of the Ottoman polity in this era. Focusing on the background and the aftermath of the regicide of Osman II, he shows how the empire embarked on a period of seismic change in the political, economic, military, and social spheres. It is this period - from roughly 1580 to 1826 - that the author labels 'The Second Empire', and that he sees as no less than the transformation of the patrimonial, medieval, dynastic institution into a fledgling limited monarchy. The book is essentially a post-revisionist history of the early modern Ottoman Empire that will make a major contribution not only to Ottoman scholarship but also to comparable trends in world history. Date and time: Friday 5th February 2021 @5.30pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. AN INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR EKMELEDDIN İHSANOĞLU : LIFE, WORK AND THOUGHT - Reflections by the Former Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Hosted by Yahya Birt [Ayaan Institute, UK; www.ayaaninstitute.com ] Join us for a wide-ranging interview and discussion with a leading intellectual and diplomat on the recent past, present and future of intra-Muslim co-operation, its challenges and its prospects. Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), 2005-14, heading the second largest intergovernmental organisation in the world, and a distinguished professor at several universities in the history of science. His association with the OIC began in 1980 as the founding Director General of the Research Centre for Islamic History, Culture and Arts (IRCICA) in Istanbul, Prof. Dr. Ihsanoglu has pioneered activities towards creating awareness about Islamic culture across the world through research, publishing, and organizing congresses in various fields, including history of arts and sciences, and intercultural relations. Furthermore, he has initiated and supervised programs for the protection and promotion of the written and the architectural heritage of Islamic civilization in various countries. He has also contributed to scholarly debates on intercultural dialogues. With his institutional and personal initiatives, he has earned recognition at intellectual circles as a leading contributor to rapprochement between cultures, particularly between the Muslim and Western worlds. On taking office at the OIC, he undertook a ten-year reform programme and oversaw the signing of a new charter in 2008. An independent Permanent Commission on Human Rights was established within the OIC to promote civil, political, social and economic rights. A focus was given to development, including science and technology, transport and communications, tourism, and fostering trade among Member States, particularly the least developed countries (LDCs) among them. This was crystallized in the OIC's "Trade Preferential System" with a focus on cotton and infrastructure. Professor Ihsanoglu has consistently supported the rights of Muslim minorities and respect for human rights globally, and while at the OIC worked for conflict resolution in the Muslim world as well as intercultural dialogue. He has been conferred with numerous state civic honours and honorary doctorates by a number of universities around the world. Date and time: Sunday 7th February 2021 @5.30pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION: SCHOLARS AND SULTANS IN THE EARLY MODERN OTTOMAN EMPIRE With author Professor Abdurrahman Atçıl [Sabancı University, Turkey] and hosted by Dr Yakoob Ahmed [Young Ottomans Foundation - theyoungottomans.com] During the early Ottoman period (1300–1453), scholars in the empire carefully kept their distance from the ruling class. This changed with the capture of Constantinople. From 1453 onwards, the Ottoman government co-opted large groups of scholars, usually over a thousand at a time, and employed them in a hierarchical bureaucracy to fulfill educational, legal and administrative tasks. Abdurrahman Atçıl explores the factors that brought about this gradual transformation of scholars into scholar-bureaucrats, including the deliberate legal, bureaucratic and architectural actions of the Ottoman sultans and their representatives, scholars' own participation in shaping the rules governing their status and careers, and domestic and international events beyond the control of either group. Date and time: Friday 12th February 2021 @ 4pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION - EMPRESS: THE ASTONISHING REIGN OF NUR JAHAN With author Professor Ruby Lal [Professor of South Asian Studies, Emory University] and hosted by Dr Lubaaba Al-Azami [Founder of Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMOs) & Liverpool University] Less than a decade after Queen Elizabeth I, a Muslim woman ruled an empire more than twenty- five times the size of Elizabethan England and vastly more diverse, spanning almost all of modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and large chunks of Afghanistan. In 1611, Nur Jahan became the twentieth wife of Mughal emperor Jahangir–and while other royal wives were secluded behind walls, she wielded unprecedented power, strategizing with senior counselors, minting currency, addressing the public, leading troops into battle, shooting tigers, and designing clothing and architecture (her design influenced the Taj Mahal). Acclaimed historian Ruby Lal uncovers the rich life and world of Nur Jahan, rescuing this dazzling figure from patriarchal and orientalist cliches of romance and intrigue, while giving a new insight into the lives of the women and the girls during the Mughal Empire, even where scholars claim there are no sources. Nur’s confident assertion of authority and talent is revelatory. In Empress, she finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography that awakens us to a fascinating history. Date and time: Wednesday 17th February 2021 @4pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION: STATE, FAITH, AND NATION IN OTTOMAN AND POST-OTTOMAN LANDS With author Dr Frederick Anscombe [University of London] and hosted by Dr Yakoob Ahmed [Young Ottomans Foundation - theyoungottomans.com] Current standard narratives of Ottoman, Balkan, and Middle East history overemphasise the role of nationalism in the transformation of the region. Challenging these accounts, this book argues that religious affiliation was in fact the most influential shaper of communal identity in the Ottoman era, that religion moulded the relationship between state and society, and that it continues to do so today in lands once occupied by the Ottomans. The book examines the major transformations of the past 250 years to illustrate this argument, traversing the nineteenth century, the early decades of post-Ottoman independence, and the recent past. In this way, the book affords unusual insights not only into the historical patterns of political development but also into the forces shaping contemporary crises, from the dissolution of Yugoslavia to the rise of political Islam. Date and time: Thursday 18th February 2021 @4pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION: EMPIRE OF DIFFERENCE - WHY DID THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE LAST SO LONG? With author Professor Karen Barkey [The University of California, Berkeley, USA] and hosted by Dr Yakoob Ahmed [Young Ottomans Foundation - theyoungottomans.com] Her work Empire of Difference was a comparative study of the flexibility and longevity of imperial systems. In different chapters, the book explored the key organizational and state society related dynamics of imperial longevity. In contrast to a Gibsonian concern with imperial rise and decline, a common feature of conventional analyses, this book demonstrated that the flexible techniques by which the Ottomans maintained their legitimacy, the cooperation of their diverse elites both at the center and in the provinces, as well as the control over the economic and human resources were responsible for the longevity of this particular “negotiated empire.” In the process, it explores important issues such as diversity, the role of religion in politics, Islam and the state as well as the manner in which the Sunni-Shi’a divide operated during the tenure of the Ottoman Empire. Such topics are relevant to the contemporary setting and the conflicts we endure today. Date and time: Friday 19th February 2021 @6pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION: AL-GHAZALI'S PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY With author Professor Frank Griffel [Yale University, USA] and hosted by Imran Iqbal [Whitethread Institute, UK] The Muslim theologian al-Ghazali, who was active at the turn of the 12th century in Iran, Iraq, and Syria, was one of the most influential theologians of Islam. In this book, Frank Griffel will present the most comprehensive examination to date of the life and thought of this important figure. The book is divided into two parts. In the first, Griffel gives an account of what it known about al-Ghazali's life, offers brief discussions of his major works, and examines the legacy of his thought by tracing the lineage of his students and followers. In the second part, he provides a systematic exploration of al-Ghazali's theology. He explicates al-Ghazali's views on epistemology, cosmology, physical theory, creation, ethics, theodicy, and a host of other topics. Throughout, he offers a serious revision to traditional views of al-Ghazali, showing that his most important achievement was the creation of a new rationalist theology in which he transformed the Aristotelian views of thinkers such as Avicenna to accord with motives that were well-established within Muslim theological discourse. The result is the most thorough available examination of a major thinker. Date and time: Thursday 25th February 2021 @ 4pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION: THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR ON PALESTINE: A HISTORY OF SETTLER COLONIALISM AND RESISTANCE, 1917-2017 With author Professor Rashid Khalidi [Columbia University, USA] and hosted by Ismail Patel [Founder of Friends of Al-Aqsa] A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, "in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone." Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi's great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective. Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members--mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists--The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process. Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day. Date and time: Friday 26th February 2021 @ 4pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION: THE EMPEROR WHO NEVER WAS - DARA SHUKOH IN MUGHAL INDIA With author Dr Supriya Gandhi [Yale University, USA] The definitive biography of the eldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan, whose death at the hands of his younger brother Aurangzeb changed the course of South Asian history. Dara Shukoh was the eldest son of Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor, best known for commissioning the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Although the Mughals did not practice primogeniture, Dara, a Sufi who studied Hindu thought, was the presumed heir to the throne and prepared himself to be India’s next ruler. In this exquisite narrative biography, the most comprehensive ever written, Supriya Gandhi draws on archival sources to tell the story of the four brothers―Dara, Shuja, Murad, and Aurangzeb―who with their older sister Jahanara Begum clashed during a war of succession. Emerging victorious, Aurangzeb executed his brothers, jailed his father, and became the sixth and last great Mughal. After Aurangzeb’s reign, the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate. Endless battles with rival rulers depleted the royal coffers, until by the end of the seventeenth century Europeans would start gaining a foothold along the edges of the subcontinent. Historians have long wondered whether the Mughal Empire would have crumbled when it did, allowing European traders to seize control of India, if Dara Shukoh had ascended the throne. To many in South Asia, Aurangzeb is the scholastic bigot who imposed a strict form of Islam and alienated his non-Muslim subjects. Dara, by contrast, is mythologized as a poet and mystic. Gandhi’s nuanced biography gives us a more complex and revealing portrait of this Mughal prince than we have ever had. Date and time: Friday 5th March 2021 @4pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13. BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION: HOW THE WEST STOLE DEMOCRACY FROM THE ARABS: THE SYRIAN ARAB CONGRESS OF 1920 AND THE DESTRUCTION OF ITS LIBERAL-ISLAMIC ALLIANCE With author Professor Elizabeth F. Thompson [American University Washington, DC, USA] and hosted by Nasim Ahmed [ Middle East Monitor [MEMO], UK] When Europe’s Great War engulfed the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalists rose in revolt against their Turkish rulers and allied with the British on the promise of an independent Arab state. In October 1918, the Arabs’ military leader, Prince Faisal, victoriously entered Damascus and proclaimed a constitutional government in an independent Greater Syria. Faisal won American support for self-determination at the Paris Peace Conference, but other Entente powers plotted to protect their colonial interests. Under threat of European occupation, the Syrian-Arab Congress declared independence on March 8, 1920 and crowned Faisal king of a “civil representative monarchy.” Sheikh Rashid Rida, the most prominent Islamic thinker of the day, became Congress president and supervised the drafting of a constitution that established the world’s first Arab democracy and guaranteed equal rights for all citizens, including non-Muslims. But France and Britain refused to recognize the Damascus government and instead imposed a system of mandates on the pretext that Arabs were not yet ready for self-government. In July 1920, the French invaded and crushed the Syrian state. The fragile coalition of secular modernizers and Islamic reformers that had established democracy was destroyed, with profound consequences that reverberate still. Using previously untapped primary sources, including contemporary newspaper accounts, reports of the Syrian-Arab Congress, and letters and diaries from participants, How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs is a groundbreaking account of an extraordinary, brief moment of unity and hope—and of its destruction. Date and time: Saturday 6th March 2021 @5pm UK/London ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All programmes are FREE - REGISTRATION IS COMPULSORY - ALL WELCOME! REGISTER HERE: https://bit.ly/2Xv72SJ or https://IslamicCoursesVirtual.eventbrite.co.uk |