Annual Conference of the British Association for Islamic Studies
Monday 20 - Tuesday 21 May 2024
University of Leeds, Cloth Hall Court, Quebec Street, Leeds LS1 2HA
Provisional Programme
The British Association for Islamic Studies is delighted to announce the provisional programme for its 2024 Annual Conference taking place in the stunning Cloth Hall Court at the University of Leeds.
The conference is open to anyone with an interest in Islamic Studies and registration is possible online by CLICKING HERE.
Day 1: Monday 20 May
09:15 - 10:00: Arrival, Registration and Refreshments
10.00 - 10.10: Words of Welcome
10.10 - 11.20: Opening Keynote
Professor Tahera Qutbuddin (Abdulaziz Saud AlBabtain Laudian Professor of Arabic, University of Oxford)
11.20-11.30: BRAIS Prize Announcement
11.30 – 12.00: Refreshments
12.00-13.30: Panel Session 1
Revisiting Exegetical Traditions of the Quran
Chair: Omar Anchassi (University of Bern)
Marina Pyrovolaki (Aristotle University) Illness, death, and free will in Quran, Sunna, and early historiography in the second Islamic century
Ali Aghaei (Humboldt University of Berlin) He is a ‘Sign’ of the Hour: An ‘Interpretive Alternative’ to the Canonical Reading of Q43:61 in Muslim Exegetical Literature
Taira Amin (Independent Scholar), Women’s Great Guile in the Muslim Exegetical Tradition
Azhari Andi (Indonesian International Islamic University), Before Orthodoxy; Revisiting Abraham's Sacrifice Narrative in Muslim Commentaries
Digital Islam Across Europe 1: The interaction between content “producers” and Online Islamic Environments (OIEs): Preliminary qualitative results
Chair: Anna Grasso (University of Wales Trinity St David)
Arvydas Kumpis (Vytautas Magnus University) and Egdūnas Račius (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania), Unforgivable negligence? Reluctance by Lithuanian Islamic collectivities to engage in Online Islamic Environments
Katarzyna Górak-Sosnowska (SGH Warsaw School of Economics), Mateusz Chudziak (SGH Warsaw School of Economics), Joanna Krotofil (Jagiellonian University in Cracow), The educational role of khutbas in Polish mosques: between Polishness and Muslimness
Rosa Martínez-Cuadros (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) & Avi Astor (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Spanish Muslim Producers: Identity and Authority in Online Islamic Environments
Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University) & Anna Grasso (University of Wales Trinity Saint David), Muslim online producers: navigating the ambivalent visions around digital “influence”
Challenging Power Relations in Minority Contexts: Responses to Marginalisation
Chair: Hadiza Kere Abdulrahman (University of Lincoln)
Maryam Kashani (University of Illinois) Zakat, Medina, and Colonial Racial Capitalism
Enrico Maria la Forgia (University of Padua), Muslims and Protests: the role of Islamic Civil Society Organizations in mobilizing the French Muslim community
Christina Verousi (Northumbria University), ‘They consider us lesser, unworthy, uneducated and obtuse’: Insights into gendered Islamophobia in contemporary Greece
Samira Musleh (University of the Ozarks), Islamophobia or Anti-Muslim Racism?: Thoughts on Choice, Corporeality, and Culpability in Contemporary Social Justice Rhetoric
Being a Muslim in Britain: Food, Healthcare and Education
Chair: Sharaiz Chaudhry (University of Edinburgh)
Majdi Faleh (Nottingham Trent University), Khairi Abdulla (Nottingham Trent University), Ethnic aesthetics and Nomenclature of Muslim Spaces in the UK: Restaurants and Shops in Birmingham, Leicester, and Manchester
Ghazala Mir (University of Leeds), Transforming healthcare for Muslims: legitimacy, engagement and improved health outcomes
Hanan Fara (Al Quds Academy), Exploring education among British Muslims
Aisha Ijaz (Edge Hill University), Religiosity and information search behaviour: A two-step cluster analysis profiling Muslim consumers’ convenience food product choices
Women and Constitutions in Muslim Contexts: Publishing a Special Issue of the Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law & Practice
Chair: Varinda Narain (McGill University)
Ahmad Ghouri (University of Sussex), Transnational Forms of Islamic Law: An Editor’s Mandate
Homa Hoodfar (Concordia University), Women and the Making of the 2004 Afghanistan Constitution
Vrinda Narain (McGill University), Constitutionalizing Muslim Women’s Rights: A Perspective from India
Fatemeh Sadeghi (University College London), Vali-e Faqih and his Female Subjects: Women in the Iranian Constitution
13.30-14.30: Lunch
14.30-16.00: Panel Session 2
Architectural Heritage in the New Age
Chair: Hossam Mahdi (University of Oxford/ICCROM
Samie I. Kayani (University of Liverpool), Saving the Heritage of Makkah al-Mukarramah: The Riwaqs of Masjid al Haram
Mehdi Elouati and Majdi Faleh (Nottingham Trent University), Challenges of Amazigh Heritage in Southern Tunisia: A Survey of a few Villages
Idris Bedirhanoglu (University of Oxford/Dicle University), Understanding Challenges and Opportunities in Analysis of Historic Mosques in East Turkey; Post 2023 Earthquake
Addressing Contemporary Issues: The Role of Islamic Law and Authority
Chair: Usaama Al-Azami (Vrije University Amsterdam)
Dominik Krell (University of Oxford), The Redefinition of the Public and the Private in Islamic Law: Forensic Technology and Criminal Evidence in Saudi Arabia
Gary Bunt (University of Wales TSD), From Sheikh Google to ImamAI? Evolving Islamic Influence and Authority in Muslim Digital Worlds
Saleema Burney (University of Birmingham), Is the science vs religion conflict a 'Western problem'? The engagement of Muslim religious leaders with science.
S. Moustafa Kassem (Umm Al Qura University), Vaping in Islamic Law: An Exploration of the Permissibility of a Prevalent Habit
Interrogating Decolonial Discourse on Islamic Ethics, Power, and the State: Theories and Practices
Chair: Mira Al-Hussein (University of Edinburgh)
Muhamad Rofiq Muzakkir (Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta/University of Edinburgh) and Siti Sarah Muwahidah (University of Edinburgh), Decolonial Critiques on the Modernization of Islamic Juristic Theories
Mira Al Hussein (University of Edinburgh), Minoritising Islam in the Homeland: The UAE’s Quest to Circulate a Quietist Theology
Talal Alkhader (University of Edinburgh), Decolonising Resistance: An Islamic Perspective
The Science of Hadith Across Time and Tradition
Chair: Haroon Sidat (Cardiff University)
Ahmed Ragab Abu Zayd (University of Wales TSD), The Historicity of Biographical Sources on Ḥadīth Narrators: Why Al-Mizzī’s Tahdhīb Al-Kamāl Is Larger than Its Source?
Zachary Wright (Northwestern University), Sufism and Hadith Scholarship in the Eighteenth Century: the Writings of Muḥammad Ḥayāt al-Sindī
Haider Hobballah (Al-Mahdi Institute), The Emergence of the Hadith Critique Movement in the Twentieth Century Shīʿī Context: The Case of Abū al-Faḍl al-Burqaʾī
Amina Inloes (The Islamic College), Eclipses and Lament in Twelver Shīʿī Ḥadīth
Global Perspectives on Gender, Identity and Society
Chair: Alyaa Ebbiary (University of Lancaster)
Giammarco Mancinelli (École pratique des hautes études), Second generations and the mosque in Italy: Feminisation without feminism
Muhammad Tajri (Al-Mahdi Institute), Denying Dichotomy?: The Intersection of LGB Shīʿa Muslims
Ummul Fayiza Puthiya Peedikayil (University of Warwick), Muslim Women's Rights and the Codification of Muslim Personal Law in India: Revisiting the Enactment of Muslim Women Act 1986
Ayesha Ulhaq (University of Cambridge) A qualitative study of Muslim women’s safety and resilience in the face of individual and cultural trauma in Britain
16.00-16.30: Refreshments
16.30-18.00: Panel Session 3
Digital Islam Across Europe 2: Quantitative approaches to Digital Islam Across Europe
Chair: Sariya Contractor (Coventry University)
Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (Coventry University) & Anna Grasso (University of Wales TSD), Measuring Muslims’ social and religious practices online: Gender and Generational specificities in the United Kingdom
Göran Larsson (University of Gothenburg) & Erika Willander (Umeå University), Measuring Swedish Muslims’ social and religious practices online
Avi Astor, Rosa Martinez-Cuadros & Ghufran Khir Allah (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Religious Practices among Muslims in Spain: Preliminary Results of a Survey
Discussant: Sean McLoughlin (University of Leeds)
Fiqh Across Time: Medieval and Modern Perspectives
Chair: Haroon Sidat (Cardiff University)
Emine Bal Dereli (Queen Mary University), The Evolution of Maqasid Theory in the Modern Era: Mohammad Hashim Kamali
Sahanaz Begum (University of Exeter), Rationalised rulings: al-Shaybānī’s approach to qiyās
Rezart Beka (Hammad Bin Khalifa University), The Jurisprudence of Reality (fiqh al-wāqiʿ) in Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī’s Thought
Hassan Alrumaihi (SOAS), Codifying Waqf law: An Overlooked Process
Interfaith Perspectives in Theory and Practice
Chair: Sarah Muwahidah (University of Edinburgh)
Wafya Hamouda (Tanta University), Tracking Tannaim and Amoraim Torah Legislations in Sharia Court Records: a cluster analysis study
Yazid Said (Liverpool Hope University), The concept of taste, dhawq, in Islamic and Christian thought: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and St Diadochos of Photiki
Martin Whittingham (University of Oxford), Contrasting Styles: Three Indian Muslims on the Bible – Shah Wali Allah, Rahmatullah Kairanawi and Sayyid Ahmad Khan
Nazmin Halani (The Institute of Ismaili Studies), Religious nurture of Muslim children in Multi-Faith families
Religion, Law and Politics in the Muslim-Majority World
Chair: Jaan Islam (University College London)
Mariam Abdulla (University of Birmingham), Beyond the state: an alternative religious-political approach to politics
Andreas Nabil Younan (University of Cambridge) Untangling Legal Identity: Application of the Sharīʿa and the Struggle Against Legal Colonialism in 1970s and 1980s Egypt
Caglar Ezikoglu (University of Birmingham), Divine Discourse, Earthly Politics: The Dual Use of Sunni Theology in Turkish Political Narratives
Fatima Dhanani (SOAS), Legal pluralism in Lebanon: A failure or a constant power struggle?
Kalam: Revisiting Classical Perspectives in Islamic Theology
Chair: Jon Hoover (University of Nottingham)
Takahiro Hirano (University of Tsukuba), Early Twelver Imami Views on Zaydiyya
Abdulla Galadari (Khalifa University of Science and Technology), Interpeting Yhwh: A Qur'anic Discourse with Late Antique Jewish Traditions
Ramon Harvey (Cambridge Muslim College), A Reconstruction of al-Māturīdī’s ‘Missing’ Physical Ontology from his Kitāb al-tawḥīd
William Stevenson (Saint Paul Seminary), “Classical Political Rationalism and Qur’anic Revelation in al-Farabi’s The Attainment of Happiness”
Day 2: Tuesday 21 May
10.00-11.30: Panel Session 4
Contemporary Dialogues with Qur’an and Sharia
Chair: Usaama Al-Azami (Vrije University Amsterdam)
Davide Pettinato (University of Cambridge), The ecological dimension of fiṭra in environmentalist, traditionalist, and neo-traditionalist Muslim discourse in English
Muhammad Abbasi (Oxford Brookes University), In the Shadow of the Law: Non-Qualifying Ceremonies of Marriages in England and Wales
Yusuf Ahmed (University of Oxford), Tadabbur (Quranic contemplation) as a form of ‘therapeutic pedagogy’ in pastoral care at Muslim schools: A case for Surah Yusuf
Sheam Khan (Cardiff University), Lost in Trauma? Exploring Ideological Influences Present in Qur’an Translations Through the Lens of Trauma Theory
Digital Islam in Indonesia
Chair: Muhamad Rofiq Muzakkir (Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta/University of Edinburgh)
Bhirawa Anoraga (Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia), The (Im)possible Umma: Muslim Philanthropy Organizations and Their Online Campaigns in Contemporary Indonesia
Muhammad Itsbatul Haq (Indonesian International Islamic University), Revitalizing the Authority of Religion in Shifting Times: How Indonesian Muslim Youtubers Deal with “Disruptive” References
Bahana Jaal Haq Taqwallah (Institut Ilmu Al-Qur'an) and Haryani Santo Hartono (International Open University), Restoring Wisdom and Tolerance Through Digital Dawah in Indonesia
Moch Dimas Maulana (Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia), Obsessional Actualization: Media Influence on Tafsir: A Case Study of Tafsir al-Qur’an Aktual
Islamic Art and Architecture Across Time and Space
Chair: Stefan Weber (Museum of ISlamic Art, Berlin)
Yahya Nurgat (Sabanci University), To rebuild or renew? A sociolegal analysis of constructions at the Kaʿba between Ibn al-Zubayr and Süleyman the Magnificent
Noha Hussein (Nottingham Trent University), The Shifting References of Mosque Architecture: From “the booth of Moses” to Le Corbusier
Nourelhoda Hussein (Nottingham Trent University), Learning From the Craftsman: An Attempt to Reconstructing the Tradition of Mosque Aesthetics
Said Mahathir (University College London), Religious Territoriality: Mapping Muslim Religious Spaces in Multicultural London
Of Coming and Becoming: Muslim Identities in Europe
Chair: Alyaa Ebbiary (University of Lancaster)
Jaffer A Mirza (King’s College London), The early Shi’a religious spaces in Britain (1960s-1970s)
Sayed Mahdi Mosawi (University of Edinburgh), Religious Dynamics in Transition: A Study of Hazara Migrants in Scotland
Akif Tahiiev (Goethe University Frankfurt), Becoming a Shia in Russia: understanding the reasons of Conversion to Shi’ism in Russia
Thijl Sunier (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Branding Islam: Claims-Making, Knowledge Production and Academic legitimation
Manuscripts and Literature in the Islamic Past and Present
Chair: Fozia Bora (University of Leeds)
Farzaneh Farrokhfar (University of Neyshabur), An analysis of the visual quality of the oldest Qurans in the Astan Quds Razavi treasure
Samuel Bartlett (Royal Holloway University), Translation in an Age of Empire; Pickthall's Meanings of the Glorious Quran Reassessed
Kianna Mahony (Harvard University) The Role of Poetry in Furthering Tajikistan’s Efforts of Nation-Building and Identity Consolidation
Mai Zaki (American University of Sharjah), Islamic symbolism in modern Arabic literature: A digital humanities approach
11.30-12.00: Refreshments
12.00-13.30: Panel Session 5
Sufi Knowledge Production in Pre-Modern Islam
Chair: Saeko Yazaki (University of Glasgow)
Faris Abdel-hadi (University of Exeter), The Aporia of Interpreting a Premodern Andalusian Mystic: Ibn ʿArabī’s Religious Pluralism
Eyad Abuali (Cardiff University), Space, Affect, and Imagination in the Transmission of Knowledge in medieval Sufism
Zoheir Esmail (Al-Mahdi Institute), Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī and the Oneness of Being in al-Muḥīṭ al-Aʿẓam
Bronislav Ostřanský (Czech Academy of Sciences), Sufi Dreams as a Tool of Spiritual Guidance: The Example of al-Risāla al-Qushayrīya
Muslim Religious Leadership and Chaplaincy in Europe
Chair: Sahmim Miah (University of Huddersfield)
Sophie Gilliat-Ray (Cardiff University), Mapping Muslim Chaplaincy Literature: An Analytic Review of Publications Between 1989 and 2023
Hafza Iqbal (Coventry University), The ever-expanding role of the contemporary British Imam.
Noemi Trucco (University of Fribourg), Between Ideal and Threat? The Subjectivation of Imams in Switzerland
Riyaz Timol (Cardiff University) Between the Prayer Mat, the Pulpit and the People: Lived Experiences of British Imams
Diachronic Debates in Islamic Law
Chair: Mansur Ali (Cardiff University)
Muhammad Almarakeby (Indonesian International Islamic University), ‘You May Endow Your Fortune to Daughters but Not Sons’: Reconsidering Equality, Justice, and Structuralism in Islamic Succession
Ali Khaki (Al-Mahdi Institute), Taqiyya in Shia Jurisprudence: A Critical Analysis of Legal Theories and Modern Implications
Ahmed Janahi (University of Birmingham), Changing Madhhab in the Mamluk context
The Future of Islamic Liberation Theology
Chair and Discussant: Shadaab Rahemtullah (University of Edinburgh)
Walaa Quisay (University of Edinburgh), Locating ‘Praxis’ in Islamic Liberation Theology: God, Scripture, and the Problem of Suffering in Egyptian Prisons
Ashraf Kunnummal (University of Johannesburg), Islamic Liberation Theology and Decolonial Studies: The Case of Hindutva Extractivism
Sharaiz Chaudhry (University of Edinburgh), Towards an Islamic Theology of Class Struggle: The Case of Nijjor Manush in London
Political Islam: Perspectives from West Asia and North Africa
Chair: Jaan Islam (University College London)
Aseel Azab (Brown University), (Extra)ordinary Muslims: Islamic politics, traumatic loss, and the heroic turn
Doha Abdelgawad (University of Leeds), The Transcendental and the Political: The Secular Dilemma in Narratives of the Muslim Brotherhood Members
Antonella Acinapura (University of Oxford), Violence, Nonviolence, and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine during the Second Intifada.
Taha Ahmadi Vostak (University of British Columbia), Inter-religiosity, Cultural Thickness, and Decolonial De-alienation: Revisiting 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran
13.30-14.30: Lunch
14.30-16.00: Panel Session 6
Navigating Power in the Pre-Modern Islamic World
Chair: Aliya Ali (University of Cambridge)
Yusuf Chaudhary (University of Cambridge), Navigating Power: Muslim Intellectuals and Patrons in Ilkhanid Tabriz (1258-1334)
Aliya Ali (University of Cambridge), Networks of Power under ʿUthmān and ʿAlī
Mohammed Ibraheem (University of Cambridge), The Literary Roles of Jews in Tafsir
Paulius Bergaudas (University of Cambridge), Yazīd in al-Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya: A Study of Method and Compilation in Mamluk Historiography
Family Law in Times of Change: New Challenges and Debates
Chair: Adam Ramadhan (Leiden University)
Fouzia Azzouz (University of Algiers II), Sharia councils and Islamic divorce in Britain: The Shia Experience
Fatima Barkatulla (SOAS), Changes of Heart: Shifts in the Impact of Wife-First Conversion on Marriage Validity in Islamic Law
Hakan Karpuzcu (Princeton University), Regulating the Islamic Marriages In the Time of War in the Ottoman Empire (1914-1918)
Guilherme Lira (Corvinus University), Discussing the establishment of “Sha’ria Councils”: examining the resilience of the British faith-arbitration model
Islamic Encounters with Modernity
Chair: Omar Anchassi (University of Bern)
Safaruk Chowdhury (Whitethread Institute, London), “Between God’s Gavel and His Gaze”: How Islamic is Sherman Jackson’s Idea of the ‘Islamic Secular?’
Naz Yücel, The Sultan's Rule of Property in the Late Ottoman Empire
Mohammad Rasekh (Insitute of Ismaili Studies), Religion and Sharia: An Intrinsic Relation? The Implication for the Constitution of the State?
Jaan Islam (University of Oxford), What is Salafism? An Intellectual History of Salafī Hermeneutics
Gendered Identities of Muslims in Britain
Chair: Sayed Mahdi Mosawi (University of Edinburgh)
Hengameh Ashraf-Emami (University of Nottingham), Unveiling Identities: Navigating Generational Complexity, Agency, and Recognition among British Muslim Women
Rabiha Hannan (University of Leeds), Lived Islam, Discursive Tradition, and the Epistemological Foundations Shaping the Lives of British Muslim Women
Nayyab Khan (Lancaster University), Navigating Change: Unravelling the Narrative of Female Islamic Scholars in the UK
Fatima Rajina (De Montford University), The Lungi, Funjabi and Thobe: British Bengali Men's Re(configuring) of Meaning Through Sartorial Choices: A Qualitative Study of the Emotional Geographies of British Muslim Women’s Safety at Home, in Public, and Third Spaces.
New Approaches and Debates in Qur’anic Exegesis
Chair: Haroon Sidat (Cardiff University)
Emad Mohamed (University of Bradford), Sentiment Analysis of the Qur’an
Hatice Kubra Memis (University of Exeter), Reconciling Religion and Science: Tafsīrs on the Beginning of Human Life
Mohamud Mohamed (University of Pennsylvania), Reframing the Master Work: The Enduring Legacy of Minhāj al-Ṭālibīn in the Somali Peninsula
16.00-16.30: Refreshments
16.30-18.00: Closing Keynote - Pulling the Past Into the Present: Islamic Art and the Museum Today
Professor Dr Stefan Weber (Director of the Museum for Islamic Art in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin)