SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law In Ethnographic Reflections on Marriage in Dhofar, Oman (Anthem Press), Marielle Risse (Dhofar University) "examines how middle-class Muslim men and women in Dhofar, Oman, make and negotiate marital choices, tra…
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP
On Islamic Law
- In Ethnographic Reflections on Marriage in Dhofar, Oman (Anthem Press), Marielle Risse (Dhofar University) "examines how middle-class Muslim men and women in Dhofar, Oman, make and negotiate marital choices, tracing every stage of marriage through their own personal accounts."
- In "Echoes of Empire: Persian Kingship in the Medieval Islamic World" (The Multicultural Middle Ages Podcast), Natasha Parnian (Macquarie University) "revisits the centuries after the fall of the Sasanian Empire to uncover the surprising afterlife of Persian kingship. Far from vanishing under Arab rule, ideas of sacred monarchy, justice, and divine glory were translated, adapted, and woven into Islamic political thought. Through figures like Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ and evolving genealogies linking caliphs to Sasanian royalty, this episode reveals how Persian imperial memory became a powerful language of legitimacy in the medieval Islamic world."
- In The Politics of Islamic Ethics (Cambridge University Press), Raissa A Von Doetinchem de Rande (University of Chicago Divinity School) argues that "fundamental to Islamic thought is the idea that there is a way that human beings simply are, by nature or creation. This concept is called fiṭra. Rooting her investigation in the two central passages in the Qur'an and Hadith literature, where it is asserted that God created human beings in a certain way, the author moves beyond discussion of the usual figures who have commented on those texts to look instead at a group of classical Islamic philosophers rarely discussed in conjunction with ethical matters. Tracing the development of fiṭra through this overlooked strand of medieval thinking, von Doetinchem de Rande uses fiṭra as an entrée to wider topics in Islamic ethics. She shows that the notion of fiṭra articulated by al-Farabi, Ibn Bajja, Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushd highlights important issues about organizational hierachies of human nature." This, she argues, has major implications for contemporary political and legal debates.
On Islam and AI/Data Science
- In "AI and Qur’anic Interpretation: Exploring the Ethical and Epistemological Boundaries of Artificial Intelligence in Understanding the Qur’an" (Al-Furqan), Safa Alrumayh (University of Zawia) "critically examines the role of AI in Qur’anic interpretation by addressing its epistemic capabilities, ethical limitations, and claims to interpretive authority. Employing a qualitative, literature-based research design, this study analyzes peer-reviewed scholarship on AI and religion, computational hermeneutics, natural language processing of sacred texts, and algorithmic bias, alongside classical and contemporary works in Islamic epistemology and Qur’anic exegesis. The findings indicate that while AI demonstrates high proficiency in linguistic processing, semantic consistency, and structural analysis of religious texts, it lacks epistemic understanding, moral intentionality, and ontological subjectivity."
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:
- "SaudiLegalAI-8B is a specialized legal artificial intelligence model developed by Abdul Wasey specifically for the Saudi Arabian legal system. Built upon the advanced Qwen3-8B architecture and optimized with Apple MLX framework, this model provides expert-level assistance in Saudi legal matters, combining modern commercial law with traditional Islamic jurisprudence." The model integrates Saudi commercial law, Islamic jurisprudence, and Vision 2030 reforms.
UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
Events:
- Workshop: Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Graduate Student Workshop, July 25–26, 2026
- Workshop: Archival Abundances and Silences in Islamic Studies, Princeton University, October 2–3, 2026
- Conference: Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, November 21–24, 2026
- Conference: The Institutional Embedding of Shiʿi Imams: Kinship, Caliphs, Courts and Companions (700-900), University of Leiden, January 13–15, 2027
Opportunities:
- Call for Papers: The Institutional Embedding of Shiʿi Imams: Kinship, Caliphs, Courts and Companions (700-900), University of Leiden, June 20, 2026
- Position Opening: Visiting Assistant Professor of Medieval Middle East, Colby College, July 1, 2026
- Call for Participation: Digital Medieval Studies Institute, International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK, July 10, 2026
- Award: Gwenn Okruhlik Dissertation Award, Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies, July 15, 2026
- Award: Graduate Paper Prize, Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies, July 15, 2026
- Award: Student Travel Award, Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies, September 1, 2026
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