As part of its efforts to bring together Muslim intellectuals to discuss issues of interest for contemporary Islam, the Institute organised a special symposium of Ismaili Muslim scholars in the summer of 1998. The main objective of this seminar was to facilitate the exchange of ideas on disciplinary approaches and boundaries of Islamic Studies, and how these affect individual scholars in their own specialised areas of research. The participants included a number of established scholars and doctoral candidates in the fields of Islamic Studies and Humanities from different universities, as well as the faculty and staff of The Institute of Ismaili Studies.

Introduction

Professor Azim Nanji, Director, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Keynote Address

Dr. Aziz Esmail, Governor, The Institute of Ismaili Studies

The Role of Literature and the Arts in Teaching Muslim Devotional Life

Dr. Ali A. Asani, Associate Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture, Harvard University, and Hussein Rashid, doctoral student, Harvard University

Celestial Intellects or Celestial Stones: The Encounter between Ibn Sina and 'Abd al-Jabbar

Dr. Alnoor Dhanani, Lecturer in Islamic Philosophy, Harvard University

The Aesthetic of the Arabesque

Mahnaz Fancy, PhD candidate, University of Chicago

The Sociology of Islam and Muslims in India

Dr. Nasreen Fazalbhoy, Reader, Department of Sociology, University of Mumbai

How to Read Islamic Philosophy

Tariq Jaffer, PhD student in Islamic Studies, Yale University

Nizari Quhistani and Post Alamut Ismailism

Dr. Nadia Eboo Jamal, PhD in Islamic Studies, University of New York

Fatimid Discourse with the Muslim Ummah

Dr. Shainool Jiwa, PhD in Islamic Studies, University of Edinburgh

Language and Reality: Some Problems with Teaching and Studying Islam as a Religion

Dr. Tazim Kassam, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and South Asian Religions, The Colorado College, Colorado

Discourses on Gender in the Islamic World

Dr. Zayn Kassam, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Pomona College, Claremont, California

Some Reflections on Ismaili Studies from the Perspective of the Humanities

Dr. Rafique H. Keshavjee, Director, Aga Khan Humanities Project for Central Asia, Aga Khan Trust for Culture

The Genesis of Shi'i Thought: Al-Baqir's Role

Dr. Arzina R. Lalani, PhD in Islamic Studies, University of Edinburgh

Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in Swahili Islam

Dr. Farouk Topan, Lecturer in Swahili Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Macaronic lyrical poetry in Jalaluddin Rumi's Diwan: idiosyncratic or subversive?

Nargis Virani, PhD candidate in Islamic Studies, Harvard University

The Gupti Ismailis of Bhavnagar: A Preliminary Study

Shafique N. Virani, PhD candidate in Islamic Studies, Harvard University