SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Reform (Oxford University Press), edited by Emad Hamdeh (Embry-Riddle University) and Natana J. DeLong-Bas (Boston College), "provides a comprehensive examination of Islamic reform…
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP
On Islamic Law
- The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Reform (Oxford University Press), edited by Emad Hamdeh (Embry-Riddle University) and Natana J. DeLong-Bas (Boston College), "provides a comprehensive examination of Islamic reform movements and reformist thought across different regions and time periods. Drawing on the expertise of leading scholars from around the world, it offers a rigorous and nuanced analysis of the conceptual underpinnings of reform and renewal in Islam, tracing the intellectual traditions and historical currents that have shaped Muslim thought from the premodern era to the present day. Organized into five thematic parts, the volume addresses contemporary issues in Islamic reform, including the reinterpretation of scripture, hadith, and jurisprudence, as well as the complexities of ijtihād in an increasingly interconnected world. It examines how Muslim thinkers and communities have engaged with modernity, colonialism, democracy, human rights, gender justice, and political violence, while also exploring emerging frontiers such as cyber-Islam and digital religious discourse."
- In Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Rivalry That Unravelled the Middle East (Henry Holt and Co.), Kim Ghattas (Financial Times) tells the "story of the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a conflict born from the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution, fueled by American policy" that she argues "led to Iran’s fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, the assassination of countless intellectuals, the birth of groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the rise of ISIS."
On Islam and AI/Data Science
- In "OpenITI MAKHZAN: An Open Annotated Dataset of Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and Urdu Print and Manuscript Data" (Journal of Open Humanities Data), Jonathan Parkes Allen (University of Maryland) and others introduce OpenITI MAKHZAN, a "large aggregation of Arabic-script ground truth and evaluation data drawn from a wide variety of Persian, Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and Urdu scribal print and handwritten (manuscript) documents." Their article "explains the different types of data in this large dataset and how this data was compiled and verified and suggests potential use cases for it, such as the training and evaluation of new print and handwritten transcription models."
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:
- OpenITI MAKHZAN is a "large aggregation of Arabic-script ground truth and evaluation data drawn from a wide variety of Persian, Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and Urdu print and handwritten (manuscript) documents." "Comprising nearly 1,500 page images across 208 documents sourced from 30 repositories worldwide, the dataset spans seven languages, around 20 unique and mixed script types, and a chronological range from the 10th to the 20th century."
UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
Events:
- Workshop: The Law and Humanities Workshop for Junior Scholars, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, June 8–9, 2026
- Conference: Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities Annual Conference, Chicago, June 17–18, 2026
- 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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