In this presentation, Fouad Gehad Marei (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO)), co-editor of Religion That Matters: Shii Materiality Beyond Karbala (Brill, 2024) will introduce and discuss the recently published edited volume. The book features twelve chapters which explore the material media images, objects, clothes, food, incense, holy waters, spaces, and sounds that instantiate somatic, corporeal and visceral expressions and experiences of Shii Muslim devotion. Drawing on rich empirical material from Turkey, Syria, Iran, the Gulf, Albania, South Asia and the diaspora, the book examines how religious materialities make the praesentia and potentia of the Sacred tangible, how they cultivate intimate relations between human and more-than-human beings, and how they act as gateways and links to the Elsewhere and Otherworldly. The book makes several propositions that push the frontiers of the study of religion while also examining how materiality is integral to the politics of heritagization processes that are shaped by competing social and political actors involved in the construction and canonization of religious in this case Shii heritage. Shii Materiality Beyond Karbala: Religion That Matters [https://brill.com/display/title/69727] is now available from Brill

This lecture will focus on Ibn Arabs writings on the black light of the night. We will explore Ibn Arabs notions of the night serving as the source of knowledge, power and protection for the spiritual seekers known as the Nightfolk ( ahl al-layl ) and identify the possible origins and parallels of these teachings in Persianate Sufism. Dunja Rai is a Sufi scholar and the author of The Written World of God (Anqa Publishing, 2021), Bedeviled (State University of New York Press, 2024), The Nightfolk (University of California Press, 2025) and Azrael (Penn State University Press, 2027). Her research interests revolve around philosophical Sufism, philosophy of language, Sufi cosmology and the school of Ibn Arab.

Devotion to the Prophet Muhammad and his family (often referred to as theAhl al-Bayt) is a pervasive and enduring part of Islamic piety, both in history and as the lived reality of millions of Muslims. While such devotions have often been sidelined as non-canonical or as the prerogative of sectarianised minorities, this conference sets out to take them seriously as an object of study, examining their pivotal role in Islamic thought and practice, and reflecting upon the due place of Ahl al-Bayt-centred devotions within the broader academic study of Islam. Focussing on devotion to the Ahl al-Bayt as an immensely diverse phenomenon, expressed multifariously across different times and places, the conference brings together an international group of experts to share their research on the different facets and manifestations of Ahl al-Bayt-centred devotion, and to investigate the conceptual networks that connect them. Amongst other topics, the papers will explore devotion as expressed through narrative, material culture, music, architecture and ritual. A recurring concern, meanwhile, is the importance of devotional ideas and expressions in constructing different group identities and in mediating between them. The conference will close with a concert performed by the IIS student ensemble. Concert attendance will be included with conference registration. Please note filming and photography may take place during the event, and be used across our website, newsletters and social media accounts. These could include broad shots of the audience and lecture theatre, speakers during the talk, and of audience members participating in Q&A. Views expressed in this conference are those of the presenting scholars, not necessarily of IIS, the Ismaili community, or its leadership. Promotion of this conference is not an explicit endorsement of the ideas presented.

Please join us on Tuesday, 13 May 2025 for a Book Launch to celebrate with author Anders Ackfeldt and AKU-ISMC the publication of Islamic Themes in US Hip-Hop Culture [https://ecommons.aku.edu/uk ismc series music/4/]. Professor Philip Wood will engage the author in a discussion of the historical continuity of Islamic themes running through US musical culture themes also often connected to African American religious initiatives and empowerment politics. Exploring how Islam has been produced in American hip-hop culture by both Muslims and non-Muslims, the book is the most recent addition to AKU-ISMC's Music and Performance in Muslim Contexts series, published in association with Edinburgh University Press and the Aga Khan Music Programme (AKMP). Published Open Access. Download your free copyhere [https://ecommons.aku.edu/uk ismc series music/4/]. The event is free, but booking is essential. BOOK NOW!

Approximately one century ago, on 3 March 1924, the grand National Assembly of Ankara decided to abolish the Ottoman caliphate. While protests were limited and short-lived, the decision sparked a lively intellectual debate. This lecture addresses some of the controversies preceding and following the decision to abolish the caliphate, the debates within pan-Islamic congresses concerning the fate of the institution, and British policymakers perceptions of caliphal authority. These are some of the issues explored by the book The Abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate, 1924: Debates and Implications [https://www.routledge.com/The-Abolition-of-the-Ottoman-Caliphate-1924-Debates-and-Implications/Giunchi-Melis/p/book/9781032613376] (Routledge, 2024) edited by Elisa Giunchi and Nicola Melis.