SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP
On Islamic Law
- In Goals and Purposes of Shariah: Maqasid in Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press), Mohammad Hashim Kamali (International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, Malaysia) “offers a detailed exposition of the theory of maqasid” and “expounds the application of maqasid to a number of selected subjects of contemporary concern to human life and welfare.”
- In “‘There is no compulsion in marriage’. Divorce and gendered change in Afghanistan during the Islamic Republic” (British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies), Torunn Wimpelmanna (Chr. Michelsen institute) and Masooma Saadat (Lille University) explore “the subject of gendered change during the Islamic Republic (2001– 2021) through the growing phenomenon of divorce.”
- In “Is Going to the Moon Possible? Manuscript ifan-Kolda 331 and the Fatwā by the West African Muslim Scholar Sīdiyya Diaby (d. 1444/2023)” (Die Welt des Islams), Seydi Diamil Niane (Université Cheikh Anta Diop) “demonstrates that beyond a simple West African author’s position, the Fatwā is a significant contribution to the theological debates that have marked the twentieth-century Muslim world.” [login required]
On Islam and AI/Data Science
- In “Text Mining Tafsir: Compilation and Preliminary Explorations of a Curated Corpus of 80 Qurʾanic Commentaries” (Journal of Digital Islamicate Research), Thomas Jurczyk (Ruhr University Bochum) and others “demonstrate the potential of computer-driven analyses” with “a curated corpus of 80 Arabic tafsīr works.”
FIELD GUIDE TO ISLAMIC LAW ONLINE: RECENT SOURCES
The Field Guide to Islamic Law Online is an ever-growing collection of links to hundreds of primary sources and archival collections around the world, online. We recently added a new resource to this list:
- “Cambridge University Library’s collection of Islamic manuscripts dates from the origins of Arabic scholarship in Cambridge in the 1630s when the University founded a Professorship in Arabic and William Bedwell donated a Qurʼān to the Library. Since that time the collection has grown in size and diversity to over 5,000 works….Now we hope to draw better attention to its treasures through cataloguing and digitisation. We have collaborated with the Bodleian at Oxford and other research libraries to provide an online catalogue of the collection. We will be offering a selection of digitised manuscripts through the Foundations project.”
UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
PIL & Harvard Events:
- Workshop: Middle East Beyond Borders—Omar Abdel Ghaffar (Harvard University), “Canonizing Assent: Legal Canons in Action in late Medieval Jerusalem,” September 22, 2025 @6:15pm
- Talk: “The Taliban Courts in Afghanistan, Waging War by Law,” Adam Baczko, October 9, 2025 @ 4:30pm
- Workshop: Middle East Beyond Borders—Ozkan Karabulut (Harvard University), “Scripturalization of the Alevi Mystical Poetry,” November 3, 2025 @6:15pm
- Workshop: Middle East Beyond Borders—Prof. Houssem Chachia (University of Tunis), “The Conquest of Tunis (1535): Memory, Defeat, and Celebration Across Cultures,” October 20, 2025 @6:15pm
- Workshop: Middle East Beyond Borders—Cem Turkoz (Harvard University), “Ottoman Natural Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century Context: The Evolution of the Canon,” November 17, 2025 @6:15pm
Other Events:
- Conference: Paris Congress at 125—Comparative Law’s Entanglement with Power from Paris to Today, McGill University, Canada, October 16–18, 2025
- Conference: 5th ACM Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization, University of Pittsburgh, November 5–7, 2025
- Conference: ASLH 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, MI, November 13–15, 2025
- Conference: “Islam and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities,” North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies, November 20, 202
- Conference: International Conference “Poetry and Knowledge,” University of Münster, November 20–22, 2025
- Conference: MESA 2025, Westin Downtown, Washington DC, November 22–25, 2025
- Conference: Faith, Values, and the Rule of Law—An Interdisciplinary Conference, Seton Hall University School of Law, February February 4–5, 2026
- Conference: American Society for Premodern Asia Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, April 24–27, 2026
PIL & Harvard Opportunities:
- Call for Submissions: Journal of Islamic Law, October 15, 2025
Other Opportunities:
- Call for Panels: International Medieval Congress, September 30, 2025
- Position Opening: Research Associate (PhD Position) for the history, economy and law of the early Islamic empire, Universität Hamburg, October 3, 2026
- Call for Papers: American Society for Premodern Asia Annual Meeting, October 31, 2025
- Call for Papers: Faith, Values, and the Rule of Law—An Interdisciplinary Conference, Seton Hall University School of Law, November 1, 2025
- Call for Submissions: Journal of Trends in Intellectual Property Research, Volume 3, Issue 2, December 29, 2025
- Call for Submissions: Journal of Legal Research & Analysis, Volume 3, Issue 2, December 29, 2025