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Papers Presented at the Fourth International Conference on Shi'i Studies 5-6 May 2018
| Refreshments and registration (8:30-9:00) | |
| Introductory address (9:00-9:30) | |
| Mohammed Ali Ismail Director of Research and Publications The Islamic College, London, UKIsa Jahangir Chair of Board of Trustees The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Qur’an Studies (9:30-10:50) Chair: Muhammad Zakaria, The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Oliver Leaman University of Kentucky, USA | How important is the Qur’an really in Islam? Some observations from Islamic philosophy |
| Yahya Baiza The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK | The Qur’an between the past and the present: A search for response to modern social realities |
| Mohammed Ali Ismail The Islamic College, London, UK | A comparative study of Biblical and Qur’anic methods of exegesis |
| Coffee break (10:50-11:10) | |
| Texts: Past and Present (11:10-1:00) Chair: Amina Inloes, The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Ismail Poonawala University of California, Los Angeles, USA | Was ʿĀmir b. ʿĀmir al-Baṣrī an Ismāʿīlī as claimed by some scholars, or was he an unorthodox Twelver Shīʿī Ṣūfī who had gone through a phase of mystical union with the Divine? |
| Dominique Sirgy Yale University, USA | Formulations of Imami scriptural knowledge in Shi‘i texts before and after the ghaybah |
| Christopher Clohessy Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome, Italy | The Zaynab-Ziyād dialogues: Constructing a Zaynabian theology at the level of the texts |
| Sayed Hossein Al Qazwini Karbala, Iraq | Shi‘i fiqh manuals (risālah ʿamaliyyah): Past and present |
| Lunch (1:00-2:30) | |
| Shi‘i ritual practice: Ashura and Arbaʿīn (2:30-3:50) Chair: Amir De Martino, The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Jafar Ahmad Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK | The nature of the commemoration of Ashura in Iraq pre- and post-2003 |
| Mohammad Nasravi Royal Holloway University of London, UK | The Arbaʿīn pilgrimage as a liminal and heterotopian practice: A study of alternative mode of living throughout the pilgrimage process |
| Zeinab Ghasemi Tari University of Tehran, Iran & Hossein Nazari University of Canterbury, UK | Of blood and blades: How the Western press (mis-) represent the Ashura rituals |
| Coffee break (3:50-4:00) | |
| Shi‘i ritual practice: Iranian and Turkish (4:00-5:00) Chair: Hamid Tehrani, The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Stefan Fa University College, London, UK & Abbas Fanniasl University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Iran | The city of Ardabil and its influence in Turkish Shi‘i devotion |
| Babak Rahimi University of California, San Diego, USA | Techno-Muḥarram: The mourning soundscape and the Shi‘a public in post-revolutionary Iran |
| Art, architecture, and literature (5:00-6:20) Chair: Amina Inloes, The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Frank Julian Gelli London, UK | Intimations of the hidden Imam in the literary work of Jorge Luis Borges |
| Ali Faraj University of Milan, Bicocca, Italy | A new Arabic amulet bowl from Eṣfahān with Persian inscriptions, Ali Reza Sedighifard Collection |
| Mohamed Ahmed Abd Elrahman Fayoum University, Egypt | Turkish influences on architecture in the Zaydī Qāsimid state in Yemen |
| Research and Publications at The Islamic College (6:20-6:30) | |
| Amina Inloes The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Refreshments and registration (8:30-9:00) | |
| Authority in Shi‘ism (9:00-10:50) Chair: Mohammed Ali Ismail, The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Cameron Zargar University of California, Los Angeles, USA | The authority of the Imāmi marājiʿ |
| Mohammadreza Kalantari Royal Holloway University of London, UK | The 1080-year-old person: The clergy and the Shiʿi community |
| Syamsuddin Arif Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought and Civilizations, Jakarta, Indonesia | Al-Azhar and Shi‘ism: Tolerance, opposition or ambivalence? |
| Coffee break (10:50-11:10) | |
| Political theory and contemporary thought (11:10-1:00) Chair: Amir Dastmalchian, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Liyakat Takim McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada | Shi‘ism and democracy |
| Ezra Tzfadya Otto Friedrich University, Bamberg, Germany | Developing the political concept of theocracy: The case of velāyat-e faqīh and the Islamic Republic of Iran |
| Sayyid Fadhil Bahrululoom London, UK | Al-Ākhūnd al-Khurāsānī and al-mashrūṭah (the Constitutionalist Movement) |
| Ali Paya The Islamic College, London, UK | Justice and ethics as totipotent emergent properties: A critical rationalist perspective |
| Lunch (1:00-2:30) | |
| Shi‘ism in South Asia (2:30-4:00) Chair: Muhammad Zakaria, The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Khurshid Sana Khan London, UK | Residential choice, collective action and identity affirmation of migrants in a metropolis: The case of Gilgit-Baltistan Ismailis in Karachi, Pakistan |
| Tayyaba Fatima Govt. College Women University, Faisalabad, Pakistan & Mohammad Obaid Aslam Allama Iqbal Open University, Faisalabad, Pakistan | Mystical philosophy in the light of Sufism and Vedantism |
| Mirza Abbas The Islamic College, London, UK | The Quṭb Shāhī era and the contributions of Mīr Momin Astrābādī in the spread of Shi‘a Islam in the Deccan |
| Coffee break (4:00-4:20) | |
| Shi‘ism worldwide (4:20-6:00) Chair: Amina Inloes, The Islamic College, London, UK | |
| Omar Bortolazzi American University in Dubai, UAE | From disenfranchisement to wealth: The invention of a Shi‘i bourgeoisie in Lebanon between education, diaspora, remittances and neoliberal practices |
| Rabia Latif Khan SOAS University of London, UK | Navigating identity: An overview of the Shi‘a Hazara community in London and the Midlands |
| Nour Tessie Jorgensen University of Copenhagen, Denmark | The study of Shi‘ism in Denmark |
| Karar Alsalemi The Islamic College, London, UK & Mohammad Mesbahi The Islamic College, London, UK | The role of supplementary schools in shaping the Islamic identity of Muslim youth |
| Closing address (6:00-6:30) | |
| Mohammad Ali Shomali Director of the Islamic Centre of England | |
