Tuesday, 19 November – ‘Sacred Misinterpretation: Reaching Across the Christian-Muslim Divide’


Seminar by Dr Martin Accad, Arab Baptist Theological Seminary    This is jointly sponsored with Theology and Ethics and the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, as well as the Christian-Muslim Studies Network  

** Meeting in the Elizabeth Templeton Lecture Room at 16:10 **

A light reception will follow in Rainy Hall. 

Thursday, 28 November – ‘Islam Without Liberalism’

** Meeting in the Elizabeth Templeton Lecture Room at 16:10 **
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​Seminar by Dr Amal Ghazal​, Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies​, Simon Fraser University

Modern Arab-Islamic thought has been defined in relationship to liberalism. Islam and liberalism have been so analytically and conceptually intertwined that they have now become understood to be constitutive to each other. There is Islam and liberalism, Islam in liberalism and Islam after liberalism. But is there an Islam without liberalism? I present here a strand of religious thought during the “liberal age” that refused to engage with liberal values and both defended and defined Islam against them. It neither accepted the premises of liberalism nor did it seek to define Islam in relationship to them. To the proponents of this thought, liberalism was a set of social, cultural and religious values alien to Islam, and a political project aimed to destroy Islam and supplant it. I focus on both Sufi and Wahhabi polemics against liberalism, highlighting the regional identities embedded in Wahhabi polemics in particular. ​

A light reception will follow. 

Friday and Saturday, 22-23 November
Annual International Graduate Conference in Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies: ‘Historical inertia: Continuity in the face of change 500-1500 CE’


Appleton Tower, Lecture Theatre 3

Hosted by the Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Society of the University of Edinburgh, this highly-anticipated conference will tackle the notion of inertia and the implications accompanying it for Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine history from 500-1500 CE. This conference is open to anyone with an interest in the subject, not just graduates. For the full programme and to book your place, click HERE.