From 20–28 July 2025, the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) participated in the Global Encounters (GE) Festival in Dubai, UAE. The week-long festival featured a dynamic blend of intellectual and cultural events, highlighting IIS’s commitment to heritage, dialogue, and education.
Keynote address
Tradition meets tomorrow: Reflections on heritage, knowledge, and change
Professor Zayn Kassam
In this keynote address, Professor Zayn Kassam, Director of The Institute of Ismaili Studies, reflects on the Institute’s mission to preserve, produce, and share knowledge about Muslim civilisation. She highlights new initiatives to digitise heritage materials, create accessible learning resources, and adapt education to modern audiences. Her address calls for building bridges across communities and embracing innovation while staying rooted in shared values and heritage.
Explore the key sessions
Play Games! Play them joyfully, vehemently, with all your heart
The Aga Khans & Sports – A Special Exhibition for Global Encounters Festival 2025
This exhibition at the AKDNThe Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a contemporary endeavour of the Ismaili Imamat to realise the ethics and social conscience of Islam through institutional action. More Pavilion from 20-26 July 2025 highlighted the vision of His Highness Aga KhanA title granted by the Shah of Persia to the then Ismaili Imam in 1818 and inherited by each of his successors to the Imamate. III and Aga Khan IV on the importance of sports in community life. Through photos, footage, and stories, the exhibit explored how physical activity fosters discipline, wellbeing, and joy.
In Conversation With
Professor Nacim Pak-Shiraz and Dr Farhad Daftary
Dr Farhad Daftary, Director Emeritus of IIS, reflects on the long journey of Ismaili studies, from centuries of misrepresentation to global recognition. He traces how early myths and polemics shaped western views of the IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 765), as his successor. and explains how access to original manuscripts and the work of scholars like Vladimir Ivanow transformed the field. Highlighting the Institute’s founding in 1977, he notes its role in publishing critical editions that reclaimed the Ismaili intellectual tradition. He concludes by framing Islam as a rich, pluralistic civilisation encompassing philosophy, literature, art, and science.
Tradition meets tomorrow
This special event brought together IIS leaders, supporters, and alumni to reflect on the future of knowledge, leadership, and service within the institutes work. The session featured opening remarks, a keynote, and a thought-provoking conversation on education and the arts.
- Opening remarks by Naguib Kheraj, OBE
In his address, Mr Kheraj praised the alumni community as IIS’s greatest ambassadors and expressed deep gratitude to all supporters.Watch opening remarks
- Keynote address by Professor Zayn Kassam
Professor Zayn shared reflections on IIS’s mission to produce, preserve, and propagate knowledge — and the urgent relevance of these values in our changing world.Watch keynote address
- A conversation with Shehzad Roy and Jazzmin Jiwa
Singer and activist Shehzad Roy shares his journey of educational reform and using the arts to foster social justice, moderated by Jazzmin Jiwa.Watch full conversation
Contours of Continuity and Change
In this panel discussion, Dr. Ulrike Al-Khamis (Aga Khan Museum), Shiraz Allibhai (Deputy Director, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and Director, Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme), and Dr Fayaz Alibhai (IIS) discuss how shared spaces from Djenné Mosque to Aleppo’s souk and Delhi’s Humayun’s Tomb renew community ties, drive purpose through restoration and cultural diplomacy, and embrace plural, evolving identities to sustain continuity through change.
