Day 1: Thursday 16 October 2014
09:00 Welcome
Shiraz Hajiani (Chicago) Michael J. Bechtel (Chicago)
Tahera Qutbuddin (Chicago)
Associate Professor of Arabic Literature
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the College
Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities
10:00 Sources and Approaches
Chair: Professor Franklin Lewis (Chicago)
Shumaila Hemani (Alberta): The Aga Khan Bands as a ‘Source’ for Ismaili History-Who Narrates? -- Towards A Post-Structuralist/Post-Orientalist Turn in the Historiography of the Ismailis
Karim Tharani (Saskatchewan): The Protector-Researcher Conundrum: Sharing Sources and Reconciling Approaches in the Digital Age
Professor Samer Traboulsi (UNC-A): Sources for the History of the Ṭayyibī Ismāʿīlī Daʿwa in Yemen and its Relocation to India
Dr. Paul Walker (Chicago): Where are We in the Recovery of Ismaili Texts from the Fatimid Period: Manuscripts, Editions and Translations
12:00 Lunch Break
13:00 Texts, Literatures and Their Uses
Chair: Professor Regula Qureshi (Alberta)
Dr. Mir Baiz Khan (ITREB-Canada): Texts and contexts of Ismaili Religious Practices in Afghanistan
Dr. Karim Gillani (Alberta): Exploring ‘ginan’ within the Indo-Muslim Cultural Context
Professor Jo-Ann Gross (College of NJ): Ethnographic Research, Textual Scholarship and Material Culture: Approaches to Study of Confessional and Communal Identity among the Ismāʿīlīs of Badakhshan
Karim Javan (IIS): Dīwān-i Qāʾimiyyāt, a Resonance of Glory and Chivalry
Dr. Aziz Qutbuddin (AASSIA, SOAS): A Methodology for the Analysis of Taḥmīd in Fatimid Texts: The Relational Approach
15:00 Break
15:30 Thought
Chair: Dr. Paul Walker (Chicago)
Khalil Andani (Harvard): From Divine Word to Prophetic Word: Revelation in the thought of Nasir-i Khusraw
Dr. Jalal Badakhchani (IIS): In the light of Resurrection: A glance into the main sources of Ismaili Thought during Alamut Period.
Dr. Alnoor Dhanani (Independent Scholar): A Fāṭimid response to the question of the integrity of the Qur’an. Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s interpretive strategy in the Kitāb al-walāya of al-Daʾāʿim fī l-islām
Professor David Hollenburg (Oregon): Fāṭimid taʾwīl and daʿwa knowledge
Professor Shin Nomoto (Keio U., Tokyo): Did the “Night Journey” lead the Prophet to eschatological visions? — Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī’s (d. ca. 322/934) interpretation of the Qurʾanic Verses Related to the Prophet’s “Night Journey”
17:30 Adjourn to Day 2
Day 2: Friday 17 October 2014
09:00 Histories
Chair: Professor Robert Gleave (Exeter)
Daniel Beben (Indiana): Between Orality and Textuality: Ismāʿīlī Conversion Narratives from Badakhshān
Professor Rachel Howes (UC-Northridge): The Intellectual Community of Cairo and the ‘Great Crisis’: a Collective Response to Trauma?
Dr. Shainool Jiwa (IIS): Religious Pluralism and Pragmatic Governance: The Fatimid Mediterranean Experience (10th-11th Centuries)
Dr. Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev (IIS): The Politics of Rule in Badakhshan and the Place of Ismāʿīlīs
Aslisho Qurboniev (Oxford): The Living Imam: Religious and Political Authority in al-Shahrastānīʾs thought.
11:00 Break
11:30 Communities and Boundaries
Chair: Professor Ali Asani (Harvard)
Professor Iqbal Akhtar (FIU): The Woodcutter’s Tale (Kaṭhiyārōnī Kahāṇī): Historicizing the Indic Narrative Prayers of the Khōjā Caste
Professor Sumaiya Hamdani (George Mason): TBD
Professor Karim Karim (Carleton): Historiographic Asymmetries: The Contemporary Study of the Nizari Ismaili Past
Dr. Amier Saidula (IIS): The Ismailis of Xinjiang China: in the age of Transition
13:30 Lunch Break
14:30 Plenary Round Table
Future Pathways of Ismaili Studies
Chair: Dr. Alnoor Dhanani (Independent Scholar)
Panelists:
Professor Ali Asani (Harvard)
Professor Sumaiya Hamdani (George Mason)
Professor Azim Nanji (Stanford & AKU)
Dr. Paul Walker (Chicago)
16:30 Closing Address
Professor Karim Karim (Carleton)
Shiraz Hajiani (Chicago)
