Category Archives: Scholars

Muslim Journeys

Film and Video, Folklore and Proverbs, Islam in America, Islam: Introduction, Islamic History, Miniatures, Scholars, Teaching Resources

The National Endowment for the Humanities has a fantastic website on Islam with a variety of resources, especially valuable for teaching about Islam, but also just for browsing. The outreach part of the project is “The Muslim Journeys Bookshelf,” a collection of 25 books and 3 films, noted as “a collection of resources carefully curated to present to the American public new and diverse perspectives on the people, places, histories, beliefs, practices, and cultures of Muslims in the United States and around the world.” American libraries can apply for receipt of this collection. Available on the site are images, samples from texts, audio recordings and short film clips, web links and a bibliography.This website is worth spending a few hours on and coming back to; it is precisely what a virtual museum should be.

Here is a sample text excerpt to whet your appetite. This is from al-Jahiz, who died in 869 CE, on “The Disadvantages of Parchment”
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Qaradawi on Qaradawi

"Arab Spring", Egypt, Scholars

The following is a letter from Abd al-Rahman Qaradawi to his famous father, Shaykh Yusif Qaradawi, telling him to stay out of politics…

رسالة عبد الرحمن القرضاوي ابيه يوسف القرضاوي: آن لهذه الأمة أن تخوض الصعب، وأن ترسم الحدود بين ما هو ديني، وما هو سياسي، لكي نعرف متى يتحدث الفقهاء، ومتى يتحدث السياسيون!

وجه عبد الرحمن القرضاوي رسالة الى ابيه يوسف القرضاوي انتقد فيها اصداره فتوى يوم أمس بضرورة تأييد الرئيس المعزول محمد مرسي، واعادته الى منصبه، معرباً عن المه الشديد لتصرف والده ودعم الظلمة بدعوى حماية الشرعية والشريعة.

نص الرسالة كما وردت على موقع اليوم السابع:

أبي العظيم فضيلة الشيخ العلامة يوسف القرضاوى …
عرفتُكَ عالمًا جليلا وفقيهًا موسوعيًا متبحرا، تعرف أسرار الشريعة، وتقف عند مقاصدها، وتبحر في تراثها، ونحن اليوم في لحظات فاصلة في تاريخ مصر، مصر التي تحبُّها وتعتز بها، حتى إنك حين عنونت لمذكراتك اخترت لها عنوان “ابن القرية والكُتـَّــاب”ØŒ وأنا اليوم أخاطب فيك هذا المصري الذي ولد في القرية، وتربى في الكتّاب .
يا أبي الجليل العظيم … أنا تلميذك قبل أن أكون ابنك، ويبدو لي ولكثير من مريديك وتلامذتك أن اللحظة الراهنة بتعقيدها وارتباكاتها جديدة ومختلفة تماما عن تجربة جيلكم كله، ذلك الجيل الذي لم يعرف الثورات الشعبية الحقيقية، ولم يقترب من إرادة الشعوب وأفكار الشباب المتجاوزة، ولعل هذا هو السبب في أن يجري على قلمك ما لم أتعلمه أو أتربى عليه يوما من فضيلتكم .
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Bulliet on Religion and the State in Islam

Islam: Introduction, Islamic History, Scholars

The Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver has published its second Occasional Paper, “Religion and the State in Islam: From Medieval Caliphate to the Muslim Brotherhood.” Adapted from a lecture given by Richard Bulliet, Columbia University Professor of History, when he visited DU in February, the paper seeks to contextualize ongoing political changes in the Muslim world by providing a more nuanced reading of Islamic history. To read the pdf online, click here.

Islamic law in Syria: the Class of 1925-26

Islamic Law, Photography, Scholars, Syria


The graduating class surrounding their professors for the University of Syria’s Institute for Arabic Law in 1925-26; for a larger image, click here

The image above shows the graduating class from the University of Syria’s Institute for Arabic Law in 1925-26. Among the professors is Fath Allah ‘Ali Adibe (top row, second from right), a graduate of al-Azhar and the grandfather of Dr. Najwa Adra. He is in the minority of professors sporting beards, although the moustache was clearly a necessity and only one of the scholars has a bare head and he is one of the few with spectacles. What is fascinating is the representation of the students, who are dressed entirely in Western suit and tie. About half have their moustache intact, with one showing a handlebar worthy of a Viennese gentleman. School graduation pictures like these are priceless. Would it not be a worthy project for someone or some school to archive these for the Middle East? Any takers out there?


The professors for the University of Syria’s Institute for Arabic Law in 1925-26; for a larger image, click here

Farid Esack in New York

Conferences and Talks, Islam and Christianity, Islamophobia, Scholars, Terrorism Issue


Farid Esack

The Academic Study of Islam and/in/for the Wounded Empire
A Lecture by Dr. Farid Esack
Fri, 5 Apr, 2013 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Union Theological Seminary
3041 Broadway at 121st Street
New York, NY 10027

The September 11, 2001 attacks in the USA significantly impacted Islamicists (scholars in the Study of Islam). These events contributed immensely to the growth of irenic scholarship, in which Islamicists increasingly dove into the trenches in order to help save Muslims and the image of Islam from the attacks of different quarters—primarily Western governments and armies and the mass media. This defensive engagement of the Islamicist, described as ‘bunker scholarship’, raises significant questions about fidelity to the post-Enlightenment foundations of critical scholarship. What is more, such scholarship often plays a significantly accommodationist role in co-creating compliant Muslim subjects in a larger hegemonic project.
About Dr. Farid Esack

Professor Farid Esack is a South African Muslim theologian who cut his teeth in the South African struggle for liberation. He studied in Pakistan, the UK and Germany and is the author of Qur’an, Liberation and Pluralism, On Being a Muslim, An Introduction to the Qur’an, and Islam, HIV & AIDS –Between Scorn, Pity & Justice. He has published on Islam, Gender, Liberation Theology, Interfaith Relations, and Qur’anic Hermeneutics. Professor Esack served as a Commissioner for Gender Equality in South Africa and has taught at the University of Western Cape, University of Hamburg, the College of William & Mary, Union Theological Seminary, and Xavier University in Cincinnati. More recently he served as the Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islam at Harvard University. Farid Esack is now Professor in the Study of Islam and Head of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Johannesburg.

Registration is required. RSVP online.