A list of our scholarship award alumni and their research areas
2020
Imran Visram (Theology and Religion, the University of Oxford)
Thesis: Preservation and Migration of the Indo-Ismaili Ginān Tradition
Karam Alkatlabe ( Architecture, Cambridge University)
Thesis: Rebuilding Syria: What is the Future of Housing and Informal Settlements in Post-war Damascus in light of the Current Reconstruction Process?
2019
Qurratulain Faheem (Anthropology, University of Sussex)
Thesis: Exploring the Variant Perceptions of the Human Body in Muslim Diverse Communities and its Impact on their Approaches Towards Organ Transplantation Exploring the Variant Perceptions of the Human Body in Muslim Diverse Communities and its Impact on their Approaches Towards Organ Transplantation
2018
Sadiq S. Habib (Religious Studies, SOAS)
Thesis: Identity Processes Among Emerging Adult 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. in Europe and North America – A Study in Integral Anthropology
2017
Taushif Kara (History, University of Cambridge)
Thesis: Colonial Born?: Migration, Memory, and Islam for the Khoja of East Africa
2016
Amaan Merali (Oriental Studies, University of Oxford)
Thesis: The Ottomans and the Ismailis (1887-1914): Imperial Perceptions of an Inter-Imperial Community
Azzam Al-Kassir (Politics, Birkbeck, University of London)
Thesis: Continuity and Change in the Thought and Praxis of Salafi-Jihadism: Reading into the writings of the ideologues and Strategists of Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria
Muhammad Dost Khan (History, Royal Holloway, University of London)
Thesis: Historicising Perceptions Of The West In Pakistan’s Political Discourse
2015
Aslisho Qurboniev (Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge)
Thesis: The Organisation of Learning and Knowledge Transmission in Egypt and Ifrīqiyya under the Fāṯimids: Institutions, Patronage, Networks and Practices
2014
Karim Javan (Religious Studies, SOAS)
Thesis: Qiyama in Ismaili Histories
2013
Rahim Gholami (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter)
Thesis: Ismaili Neoplatinism in two Fatimid texts: A comparative study of al-Sijistani’s al-Yanabi and Nasir Khusraw’s Khwan al-ikhwan with an annotated English translation of Khwan al-ikhwan
Shumaila Hemani (Ethnomusicology, University of Alberta)
Thesis: Singing the Shah-jo-Raag in Pakistan and India
2012
Zulfiqar Khimani (Sociology, University of Cambridge)
Thesis: Transnational Religious Belonging: The Case of Nizari Ismaili Muslims
2011
Zarangez Karimova (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter)
Thesis: The Structure and Content Analysis of the Three Shīʽī Ḥadīth Works: Kitāb al-jami` al-Wāfī, Wasā’il al- Shīʻa ilā ahādīth al-sharīʻa and Bihār al-Anwār
Ula Zeir (Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Edinburgh)
Thesis: SalamiyyaA city in central Syria, which was the residence of several early Ismaili imams in the pre-Fatimid period.: A City of the Ismailis in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century Ottoman Syria (1839-1918)
2010
Laila Kadiwal (Sociology, University of Sussex)
Thesis: Religious Pluralism in Ismaili Muslim Religious Education: From difference to diversity
Sorbon Mavlonazarov (Anthropology, Durham University)
Thesis: Changes and Continuity in Shrines Visitation in Badakhshan: A Case Study of Wakhan Valley
2009
Zamira Dildorbekova (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter)
Thesis: The Dynamics of Islam and Modernity in Tajikistan: Contemporary Ismaili Discourse
Shayesteh Ghofrani (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter)
Thesis: Comparative analysis of the Concept of Wilaya in Shi’ism and Sufism in the Formative Period
2008
Sultonbek Aksakolov (History, SOAS)
Thesis: Islam in Soviet Tajikistan: State Policy and the Practice of Religion from 1950-1985
Shaftolu Gulamadov (Religious Studies, University of Toronto)
Thesis: The Ethical Dimension of the Ismaili Tradition of Badakhshan
Amier Saidula (Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh)
Thesis: A Last Refuge: National Law, Traditional Dispute Resolution and Tajik Survival in Xinjiang Today
2007
Zouhal Avzalshoeva (Law, University of Sussex)
Thesis: Nobody beats an obedient woman’: state and non-state responses to violence against women in Tajikistan
Rafiq Rahim Ajani (Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter)
Thesis: The Development of the Mystical Theology and Ethics of Rindi in Persian Poetry from the Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries
Sharaf Oshurbekov (Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of York, Toronto)
Thesis: Contested Spaces and Contested Meanings: Isma’ili Muslim Places of worship in Badakhshan region
Sabrina Datoo (History, University of Chicago)
Thesis: Fashioning Muslim Life: Yunani Medicine and Muslim Liberalism in Colonial India c. 1880 – 1930
Aly Kassam-Remtulla (Education, University of Oxford)
Thesis: Muslim Chaplaincy on Campus: Institutional intent and implications
2006
Shiraz Hajani (South Asian Languages and Civilisations, University of Chicago)
Thesis: The Great Resurrection – Reconstructing AlamutFortress of the Nizari Ismailis in northern Iran, which fell to the Mongols in 654 AH/1256 CE.
Wafi Momin (South Asian Languages and Civilisations, University of Chicago)
Thesis: The Formation of Satpanth Ismaili Tradition in South Asia
2005
Zulfiya Ashurmamadova (Education, University of London)
Thesis: Financing Education in Tajikistan: Tradition and Transition
Jamil Kassam (Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations, University of Chicago)
Thesis: The Nizaris during the Safavid Period
Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev (History, SOAS)
Thesis: The Ismailis of Badakhshan: History, Politics and Religion from 1500 to 1750
2004
Maryam Rezaee (Politics, University of York)
Thesis: Women and Higher Education: An Analysis of Women’s Development, Empowerment, and Class Position with Special Reference to the Ismaili Women of Iran
Karim Gillani (Music and Religious Studies, University of Alberta)
Thesis: Sound and Recitation of Khoja Ismaili Ginans: Tradition and Transformation
Otambek Mastibekov (Near and Middle Eastern Studies, SOAS)
Thesis: Leadership and Authority of Ismailis: A Case Study of Badakhshani Community in Tajikistan
2003
Arif Jamal (Law, University College London)
Thesis: Liberal Theory and Islam: (Re) Imagining a Muslim Public Square
Marodsilton Mubarokshoeva (Education, University of Oxford)
Thesis: Universities in Muslim Context: Concepts, Challenges, and Opportunities
Nacim Pak (Anthropology of Media, SOAS)
Thesis: Shi’i Expressions of Religion and Spirituality in Iranian Cinema
2002
Yahia Baiza (Education, University of Oxford)
Thesis: Education in Afghanistan, 1901-2006: Developments, Influences and Legacies
Abdulmamad Iloliev (Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge)
Thesis: Poetic Expression of Pamiri Ismalism: The Life and Thought of Mubarak-i Wakhani, a Nineteenth-century Mystic Poet and Religious Scholar
Vafo Navkarov (Philosophy, University College London)
Thesis: Justice, Persons & Institutions
2001
Amin Mahdavi (Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh)
Thesis: An Event-Driven Distribution Model for Automatic Insertion of Illustrations in Narrative Discourse: A Study Based on the Shahnama Narrative
Gurdofarid Miskinzoda (Islamic Studies, SOAS)
Thesis: On the Margins of SiraFrom Arabic, lit. way of life, way of acting, conduct; as a literary genre, sira means a biography and times of an individual. In the Muslim context, the sira typically…: Mughulta’i (689-762/1290-1361) and His Place in the Development of Sira Literature
Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad (Social Anthropology and Media Studies, SOAS)
Thesis: Post Revolutionary Iranian Cinema: Ideology and Cinematic Critique
2000
Miriam Ali-de-Unzaga (Material Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford)
Thesis: Weaving social life. Moroccan Rural Textiles, People and Changing Values
1999
Omar Ali-de-Unzaga (Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge)
Thesis: The Use of the Qur’an in the Epistles of the Ikhwan al-Safa
1998
Laila Halani (Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford)
Thesis: Discourses of Religion and Development: Agency, Empowerment and Choices for Muslim Women in Gujerat, India
Fahmida Suleman (Islamic Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford)
Thesis: The Lion, the Hare and Lustre Ware: Studies in the Iconography of Lustre Ceramics from Fāṭimid Egypt (969 – 1171 CE)
1997
Zulfikar Hirji (Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford)
Thesis: The Co construction of Space and Relatedness Amongst Swahili speaking Muslims of the Indian Ocean: Zanzibar, Mombasa and Muscat