2025 Alwaleed Bin Talal Dissertation Prize Announcement
After reviewing many excellent submissions, the Selection Committee has decided to award two prizes this year to Dr. Hacı Osman Gündüz (Ozzy) and Dr. Conor Dube.
Dr. Conor Dube is a winner of the 2025 Alwaleed Bin Talal Dissertation Prize in Islamic Studies for his dissertation, “Interpreting the Qurʾān in the Islamic West (7th – 11th c.): Tradition and Transformation in Tafsīr.” Conor conducts an ambitious study of the exegetical tradition of the Maghrib, the first comprehensive and systematic study of the subject in modern scholarship. While the dissertation’s primary focus is Qur’anic exegesis, Conor also incorporates extensive and insightful discussions on history, theology, and Arabic grammar. His research and analysis demonstrate a deep and nuanced understanding of the Islamic tradition and its sources, as well as the relevant secondary literature in several languages.
Dr. Hacı Osman Gündüz (Ozzy) is a winner of the 2025 Alwaleed Bin Talal Dissertation Prize in Islamic Studies for his dissertation, “A Rūmī in the Lands of Shām: Life, Poetry, and Legacy of a Janissary-Turned-Poet Māmayya al-Rūmī (d. 985–7/1577–9).” Ozzy studies the 16th century Damascene poet, Māmayya al-Rūmī, whose diwan enjoyed considerable popularity in his own time and in subsequent generations, but was written out of the Arabic literary canon constructed in the 20th century. Ozzy’s work challenges the prevailing view that Arabic poetry of Māmayya al-Rūmī’s period was stifled by a conservative ethos and lack of support by the non-Arabic speaking, Ottoman political elite. Through clear and accessible prose, Ozzy’s pioneering historical and philological study of the life and works of Māmayya al-Rūmī demonstrates his deep philological and prosodical knowledge of Arabic poetry.
Congratulations Ozzy and Conor!