Alwaleed Bin Talal Seminar in Islamic Studies
The Alwaleed Bin Talal Seminar in Islamic Studies brings experts from an array of disciplines within the field of Islamic studies to Harvard. These seminars are meant to bolster intellectual engagement within the field of Islamic studies more broadly on the Harvard campus, and to allow students to engage with cutting-edge insights and scholarship on Islam and Islamic studies. The seminar series serves as an educational opportunity for students, researchers, and faculty to interact and learn in a seminar-style setting from world class experts on topics ranging from Islamic philosophy, Islamic history, Islamic law, Sufism, Arabic and Qur'anic studies and modern Islamic thought.
Spring 2026
Editing Early Sufism: From Manuscript Discovery to Digital Corpus
Thursday, March 12, 2026 | 5-6:30pm
Riccardo Paredi, MSCA Global Postdoctoral Fellow, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano and NYU Abu Dhabi
Co-sponsors: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Mahindra Humanities Center Persian and Persianate Studies Seminar
A Book Talk on Language and Being in al-Fārābī: The Philosophy of Taškīk
Wednesday, March 25, 2026 | 4-5:30pm
Rosabel Ansari, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Stony Brook University
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
A Book Talk on An Islamic Legal Philosophy: Ibn ʿAbd al-Salam and the Ethical Turn in Islamic Law
Wednesday, April 1, 2026 | 4-5:30pm
Mariam Sheibani, Assistant Professor of Islamic thought, Brandeis University
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
A Book Talk on Pious Labor: Islam, Artisanship and Technology in Colonial India
Thursday, April 16, 2026 | 4-5:30pm
Amanda Lanzillo, Assistant Professor of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
Co-sponsors: Department of South Asian Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and Mahindra Humanities Center Persian and Persianate Studies Seminar
A Berber Sufi Scholar who Spoke Truth to Power in Arabic: The Remarkable Life of al-Hasan al-Yusi
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 | 4-5:30pm
Justin Stearns, Professor of Arab Crossroads, NYU Abu Dhabi
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Fall 2025
Ambassadors of a Lost Homeland: The Diplomacy of Survival in the Andalusian–Morisco Experience (13th–17th Centuries)
Thursday, September 25, 2025
Houssem Eddine Chachia, Shawwaf Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Co-sponsor: Center for Middle Eastern Studies
The Making of Classical Islamic Pedagogy: From Prophetic Traditions to Philosophical Ethics
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Sebastian Güenther, Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Göettingen
Co-sponsors: Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Marrying Jinn: Haunted Memories and Supernatural Genealogies in the 19th Century
Monday, November 10
Beeta Baghoolizadeh, Associate Research Scholar, Middle East Institute at Columbia University
Co-sponsor: Mahindra Humanities Center Persian and Persianate Studies Seminar
Spring 2025
Debating Veganism in the Medieval Islamic World: al-Maʿarrī and al-Muʾayyad al-Shīrāzī
Thursday, February 13, 2025 | 12-1:30pm | CMES 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 | RSVP Here
Kevin Blankinship, Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Brigham Young University
Co-sponsor: Center for Middle Eastern Studies
On Theocratic Criminal Law: The Rule of Religion and Punishment in Iran
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Bahman Khodadadi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Program in Islamic Law, Harvard Law School
Co-sponsor: Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School
Angels Tapping at the Wine Shop's Door: A History of Alcohol in the Islamic Middle East
Thursday, April 3, 2025
Rudolph Matthee, John A. Munroe and Dorothy L. Munroe Chair of History, University of Delaware
Co-sponsor: Mahindra Humanities Center Persian and Persianate Studies Seminar
Fall 2024
A Book Talk on Nahj al-Balaghah, The Wisdom and Eloquence of Ali: Ethics, Aesthetics, Faith, and Politics in Early Islam
Wednesday, September 11, 2024 | 12-1:30pm | Room 110 (Thompson Room), Barker Center
Tahera Qutbuddin, Abdulaziz Saud Albabtain Laudian Professor of Arabic, University of Oxford
Co-sponsors: Committee on the Study of Religion, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, and Project on Shi'ism and Global Affairs
Islam and Citizenship in Indonesia: Nahdlatul Ulama and the Quest for an Inclusive Public Ethics
Monday, October 7, 2024 | 12-1:30pm | HMANE 201
Robert Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and International Relations, Boston University
Travel Writing and the Production of a Global Imagination in Muslim South Asia
Wednesday, November 6, 2024 | 5-6:30pm | Room 133 (Plimpton Room, Barker Center
Daniel Majchrowicz, Associate Professor of South Asian Literature and Culture, Northwestern University
Spring 2024
A Merchant of Knowledge at the Court of Bayezid II
Wednesday, February 7, 2024 | 12:30-2pm | CMES 102
Robert Morrison, George Lincoln Skolfield, Jr. Professor of Religion and Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Bowdoin College
Co-sponsors: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Rebuilding Community: Displaced Women and the Making of a Shia Ismaili Muslim Sociality
Thursday, February 22, 2024 | 12-1:30pm | HMANE 201
Shenila Khoja-Moolji, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani Associate Professor of Muslim Societies, Georgetown University
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Islam and Buddhism: Observations from an Emerging Field
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | 5-6:30pm | CGIS South S050
Anna Akasoy, Professor of Islamic Intellectual History, Graduate Center, The City University of New York
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Fall 2023
Lives and Miracles: Narratives of Medieval Coptic and Muslim Saints
Thursday, October 5, 2023 | 12-1:30pm | CMES 102
Amina Elbendary, Associate Professor of Middle East History, American University in Cairo and Shawwaf Visiting Professor
Co-sponsors: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies
Revisiting History: Nurullah Shushtari on Shīʿī Historiography, Taqiyya & the Pre-Safavid Era
Thursday, November 16, 2023 | 12-1:30pm | Plimpton Room, Barker Center
Shahrad Shahvand, Alwaleed Bin Talal Postdoctoral Fellow
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Persian and Persianate Studies Seminar, Mahindra Humanities Center
Ineffability and Adequation: Symmetries Between ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī’s Theory of Language, Ontology and Mystical Epistemology
Thursday, November 30, 2023 | 12-1:30pm | Thompson Room, Barker Center
Nicholas Boylston, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Persian and Persianate Studies Seminar, Mahindra Humanities Center
Spring 2023
Lives and Miracles: Narratives of Medieval Coptic and Muslim Saints
Thursday, October 5, 2023 | 12-1:30pm | CMES 102
Amina Elbendary, Associate Professor of Middle East History, American University in Cairo and Shawwaf Visiting Professor
Co-sponsors: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies
Revisiting History: Nurullah Shushtari on Shīʿī Historiography, Taqiyya & the Pre-Safavid Era
Thursday, November 16, 2023 | 12-1:30pm | Plimpton Room, Barker Center
Shahrad Shahvand, Alwaleed Bin Talal Postdoctoral Fellow
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Persian and Persianate Studies Seminar, Mahindra Humanities Center
Ineffability and Adequation: Symmetries Between ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī’s Theory of Language, Ontology and Mystical Epistemology
Thursday, November 30, 2023 | 12-1:30pm | Thompson Room, Barker Center
Nicholas Boylston, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Persian and Persianate Studies Seminar, Mahindra Humanities Center
Spring 2023
The Rule of Recognition and the Consolidation of the Maliki Madhhab in the 14th Century
Thursday, March 9, 2023 | 12-1:30pm | Barker Center 133 (Plimpton Room)
Mohammad Fadel, Professor of Law, University of Toronto
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Salvation History, Translation, and the Making of Bengali Islam
Thursday, March 23, 2023 | 4-5:30pm | Barker Center 133 (Plimpton Room)
Ayesha Irani, Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of Massachusetts in Boston
Co-sponsors: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Department of South Asian Studies
The ‘Ulamā’s Tradition: Reconceptualizing and Editing Turāth in Modern Egypt
Wednesday, April 5, 2023 | 12-1:30pm | CMES 102
Mary Elston, Alwaleed Bin Talal Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Fall 2022
The Ummah and the Arabs: Ethnicity and Ideology under the Umayyads
Thursday, October 6, 2022 | 4:00-5:30pm | Sackler Lecture Hall
Sean Anthony, Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, The Ohio State University
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Manifesto of the Great Resurrection (Qiyāmat-i buzurg): Examining a rare subaltern Nizari Ismaili Shi'i treatise from the 12th century
Thursday, November 10, 2022 | 4-5:30pm | CGIS South S354
Shiraz Hajiani, Alwaleed Bin Talal Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Research Associate in Transcendence and Transformation, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Spring 2022
Debating Muslim Legal Sovereignty in Colonial India
February 24, 2022 | 12-1:30pm ET
Sohaira Siddiqui, Associate Professor of Theology, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar
Co-sponsors: Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School and Department of South Asian Studies
Ibn ʿAsākir of Damascus (1105-1176) and His Many Legacies: Sunnī Revivalist, Jihād Advocate, & Syrian “Nationalist”
March 24, 2022 | 4-5:30pm ET
Suleiman Mourad, Professor of Religion, Smith College
Co-sponsors: Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
What is Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam and How is it Different from Philosophy in Islam’s Classical Period?
April 7, 2021 | 4-5:30pm ET
Frank Griffel, Louis M. Rabinowitz Professor of Islamic Studies, Yale University
Co-sponsors: Department of Philosophy and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Fall 2021
Reflections on Plantation Slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate
Thursday, September 30, 2021 | 4-5:30pm
Mohammed Bashir Salau, Professor of History, University of Mississippi
Co-sponsor: Department of African and African American Studies
Mimesis and Mythos in Aristotelian Arabic Poetics
Thursday, October 21, 2021 | 4-5:30pm
Lara Harb, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Being and Becoming Islamic: Traditions from the Islamic East
Tuesday, November 16, 2021 | 4-5:30pm
Teren Sevea, Alwaleed bin Talal Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, Harvard Divinity School
Co-sponsor: Harvard Asia Center
A Song Too Serious to Sing: Islam and the Licit Musics of the Arabian Peninsula
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 | 4-5:30pm
Bradford Garvey, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, Brandeis University
Co-sponsors: Department of Music and CMES Arabian Peninsula Studies Lecture Series
Spring 2021
Beyond Centers and Peripheries: Islam and Asia
Thursday, March 11, 2021 | 4-5:30pm
Chiara Formichi, Associate Professor in Southeast Asian Studies, Cornell University
Co-sponsor: Harvard University Asia Center
Rumi’s Ancestors on the Path of Radical Love (Mazhab-e ‘Eshq): Ahmad al-Ghazali and Kharaqani
Wednesday, April 7, 2021 | 4-5:30pm
Omid Safi, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Co-sponsors: Mahindra Humanities Center Medieval Studies Seminar, Mahindra Humanities Center Persian and Persianate Studies Seminar, and Aga Khan Fund for Iranian Studies
Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation
Thursday, April 29, 2021 | 4-5:30pm
Carl Sharif El-Tobgui, Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Brandeis University
Co-sponsor: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Fall 2020
After the Canon: A History of Post-Canonical Hadith Transmission
Tuesday, October 20, 2020 | 4-5:30pm
Garrett Davidson, Assistant Professor of Arabic and Muslim World Studies, College of Charleston
Co-sponsor: Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School
The Prophet as a 'Sacred Spring': Late Ottoman Hilye Bottles
Thursday, October 22, 2020 | 4-5:30pm
Christiane Gruber, Professor and Chair in the History of Art, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
Co-sponsors: Department of History of Art and Architecture and Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture
Mobility, Power, and Knowledge in the Mongol Empire
Tuesday, November 3, 2020 | 4-5:30pm
Ahmed al-Rahim, Associate Professor and Director of Islamic Studies, University of Virginia
Co-sponsor: Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies
Competing with the Saints: Dynastic Burial Practices and Cults in the Medieval Western Maghrib
Tuesday, December 1, 2020 | 3-4:30pm
Amira Bennison, Professor in the History and Culture of the Maghrib, University of Cambridge
Co-sponsors: Mahindra Humanities Center Medieval Studies Seminar, Department of History, and Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School
Spring 2020
Wonderfull Edirne: A Marvelous Ottoman Town
Wednesday, February 26, 2020 | 12-1:30pm | CGIS South, Room S030 (Lee Gathering Room)
Amy Singer, Hassenfeld Chair in Islamic Studies and Professor of History, Brandeis University
Co-sponsor: Department of History
Re-Thinking the History of Plague in the Time of Coronavirus
Thursday, April 30, 2020 | 3-4:30pm | via Zoom
Nükhet Varlık, Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University - Newark and the University of South Carolina
Fall 2019
Gender and Curriculum in the Islamic Studies Classroom
Thursday, September 26th | 4-5:30pm | William James Hall, 1550
Kecia Ali, Professor of Religion, Boston University
Co-sponsors: Studies in Women, Gender and Sexuality
Watch the video
Anglo-Persian Texts and the Colonial Understanding of Religion
Thursday, October 24th | 4-5:30pm | William James Hall, 1550
Carl Ernst, William R. Keenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Co-sponsors: The Aga Khan Fund for Iranian Studies
Early Shiite Law and the Construction of the Shari'a
Monday, November 25th | 1-2:30pm | Wasserstein Hall 3016
Robert Gleave, Professor of Arabic Studies, University of Exeter
Co-sponsors: The Law and Religion Lecture Series (The Committee on Study of Religion, The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish & Israeli Law at Harvard Law school, Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World at Harvard Law School) and Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School
Spring 2019
The Quran in the American Imagination
February 25, 2019 | 12:00-1:30pm | William James Hall 601
Zareena Grewal, Associate Professor of American Studies and Religious Studies, Yale University
Co-sponsors: The Warren Center for Studies in American History, the Department of Anthropology, the Program on American Studies, and the Committee on the Study of Religion
City and Countryside as Understood in Medieval Arabic-Persian Dictionaries
March 28, 2019 | 3:00-4:30pm | CMES 102
Roy Mottahedeh, Professor Emeritus of History, Harvard University
Co-sponsor: Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Al-Ghazālī and the Epistemology of Legal Analogy (Qiyās): How Greek Logic Ascertains Islamic Law
Thursday, April 11, 2019 | 2:00-3:30pm | William James Hall 1550
Felicitas Opwis, Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Georgetown University
Co-sponsor: Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School
Race, Religion, and Revolution in Islamic West Africa since 1770
Thursday, May 2, 2019 | 1:00-2:30pm | Barker 114 (Kresge Foundation Room)
Rudolph Ware, Associate Professor of History, University of California in Santa Barbara
Co-sponsors: Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School and the Islam in Africa Lecture Series
