Events

• 08 Dec 2022
• Aga Khan Centre and online
• Lecture Series

The poet al-Sayyid al-Himyari and the Literary Development of the Epic Character of Imam Ali b. Abi Talib

In the literary traditions of Islamic literatures, Imam Ali b. Abi Talib has become the protagonist of narrative events that make him the heroic prototype of the struggle between Good and Evil. This lecture will try to trace the origins of this heroic model focusing on some verses dedicated to the first Shiite Imam by the poet al-Sayyid al-Himyari.

• 29 Oct 2022
• Online

STEP and GPISH Graduation Ceremony 2022

Please join us for the live webcast of the 2022 graduation ceremony for GPISH 2022, STEP C11, and STEP C12, taking place on Saturday 29 October 2022 at the Ismaili Centre, London. 

• 27 Oct 2022
• Online (Zoom)
• Talks and Lectures

Spiritual Education and the “Imaginary Master” in Ibn ʿArabī’s K. al-Ajwiba al-ʿarabiyya

This lecture will propose a brief overview of Ibn ʿArabī’s treatise K. al-Ajwiba al-ʿarabiyya, its originality, and the principles of spiritual education that are defined in it.

• 18 Oct 2022
• Aga Khan Centre and online
• Book launch

Book launch: "Texts, Scribes and Transmission: Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond"

• 29 Sep 2022
• Online
• Ismaili History

The Exoteric Tradition of the Fatimids: Sources, Reception, and Interpretation

Al-Qadi al-Nuʿman, the most prolific Fatimid jurist, was tasked with the responsibility of compiling literature that would serve as an authoritative point of reference in the burgeoning Ismaili state. It is evident that he had to have recourse to earlier hadith collections. This talk will address the historicity of these sources, how they ended up in North Africa, and what factors dictated the selection and interpretation of their material for Ismaili law and belief systems.

• 22 Jul 2022
• Aga Khan Centre and Online
• Conference

Mu’tazilism and the Qur’an Conference

This conference will focus on the influence of Mu`tazilism on all aspects of the Qur’an, its status, interpretation, and relationship to the Prophet. The speakers will address Mu`tazilite thought and the influence it had on Islamic theology in other schools.

• 14 Jul 2022
• Aga Khan Centre and Online

Pre-Existence: a Myth and its Implications in Imami-Shiʿi Thought

The notion that events bearing far-reaching consequences for the human condition took place prior to the creation of the world and of man has been a central theme in the Islamic literary tradition. This lecture seeks to demonstrate how the raw materials of this notion in Imami-Shiʿi thought were addressed, creatively interpreted and elaborated upon by thinkers of two periods: the Buwayhid (945-1055 CE) and Safavid (1501-1722 CE).

• 09 Jun 2022
• Online
• Webinar

A Fatimid Text on the Necessity of the Imamate: The Book of Interim Times and Planetary Conjunctions (Kitāb al-Fatarāt wa-l-qirānāt)

This lecture will discuss the contents and context of The Book of Interim Times and Planetary Conjunctions as well as the state of current scholarship on it.

• 26 May 2022
• Aga Khan Centre
• Book launch

Book launch: “Patterns of Wisdom in Safavid Iran”

Join us for this special event celebrating the scholarship and academic achievements of our late esteemed colleague, Dr Janis Esots, and to mark the launch of his latest publication, Patterns of Wisdom is Safavid Iran: The Philosophical School of Isfahan and the Gnostic of Shiraz.

• 28 Apr 2022
• Online
• Webinar

Soul’s Imaginal Motion in Abū Ya‘qūb al-Sijistānī’s (fl. 10th CE) Kitāb al-Maqālīd and Risālah al-Bāhirah

This lecture will focus on what Abū Ya‘qūb al-Sijistānī (d.ca. 361 AH/972 CE) presents in Kitāb al-Maqālīd and Risālah al-Bāhirah on imaginal motion as the domain of Soul and Soul World. Just as much as Soul’s movement is determining how natural time and natural motion arise, Soul’s activities shape and condition what is- what is existing and coming into existence.