The Rushdie affair brought the term fatwa into the Euro-American mainstream. But Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie was not the first modern controversy over a fatwa. According to one legal historian: “No fatwa had ever been the object of such a heated debate in the history of Islam.” Focusing on the sartorial object of European headgear, Dr. Youshaa Patel situates Abduh’s fatwa within a long tradition of inter-Muslim debates on imitating non-Muslims (tashabbuh) in public life, thus casting new light on contemporary debates in the West over visible expressions of Islam, from headscarves and beards to minarets and mosques. Three early career researchers from the University of Cambridge will present elements of their work and engage in a moderated discussion via Zoom. From Konkan to Coromandel – Sylvia Houghteling on “ The Qalamkari Textiles of Golconda: Searching for Histories of Production, Patronage, & Place‘‘

CIS-DHF Malabar series– Nicolas Roth on ‘ Balsam and Betel Nut Palm: Botanical Representation in the Early Modern Deccan‘ All nations are now judged according to their scientific progress, technological development and economic growth. And yet, humanity is now experiencing multiple crises that are threatening our very existence. Population explosion, financial, social and political instability, the alarming growth of mental illness, the threat of nuclear annihilation and climate change all loom over humanity like a dark cloud. Simultaneously, the world is witnessing a dangerous escalation in the polarisation between Islam and the West.This event will explore debates around the revival of the Caliphate and its relevance in contemporary Islamic politics. Dr Salman Sayyid from Leeds University, AbdoolKarim Vakil from King’s College London, and Dr Mahmood Chandia from the University of Central Lancashire bring their extensive research and knowledge to the discussion. Elizabeth Urban is an Associate Professor of History at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where she specializes in the first two centuries of Islamic history (7th–8th centuries CE). Her talk draws upon her award-winning first book, Conquered Populations in Early Islam (Edinburgh University Press, 2020) , which explores how new Muslims of slave origins entered early Islamic society and articulated their identities within it. Dr. Urban’s work brings together three groups—freedmen, enslaved women, and the children of enslaved mothers—to explore how Islam transformed from a small piety movement into the doctrine of an expansive empire. Throughout the talk, she will highlight the important role that enslaved and freed persons played in shaping the meaning of foundational terms such as Arab and Muslim. CIS-DHF Malabar series– Manu Pillai on ‘ Begums and Maids: A History of the Deccan through its Female Protagonists’ This presentation brings an anthropology of ethics to bear on a case of forced migration and displacement among Syrian refugee women in Jordan. This case reveals how projects of Islamic self-making in displacement become “emplacement” processes within the new state-mediated context. This case reveals that Syrian women in Jordan engage in Islamic self-making as part of their wider emplacement practices by operating more publicly in the material world through Islamically-inspired actions and rituals than in Syria. Using focus groups and interviews from urban Jordan and a Syrian refugee camp, this paper focuses on these practices of Islamic self-making that serve an important role in the projects of moral emplacement for Syrian women in the Jordanian context. Anand’s research and teaching focus on the religious and cultural traditions of South Asia, specializing in the anthropological study of contemporary Islam, Indian popular culture, and inter-religious relations between Muslims and Hindus.

Increasing use of the deep state concept by experts on the MENA suggests that it may be more than just an omnibus conspiracy theory employed by detractors of a particular government; that it may accurately describe political reality in at least some MENA and possibly non-MENA countries; and that it may be a useful concept with which better to understand politics and even economics in those countries. Robert Springborg will excavate under contemporary MENA political economies in search of their deep states and consequences. Mercedes Volait is CNRS Research professor at INHA (Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris) and heads its digital research unit on architecture, antiquarianism, and applied arts in the modern Mediterranean. Her education has been in architecture, Middle Eastern studies, and art history.CIS Public Talks – Dr. Edward Zychowicz-Coghill on “ Reconstructing the Earliest Islamic History Writing from the 2nd Hijrī Century: The Case of the First Arabic Annals’‘ On a visit to the celebrated Hoysaḷa temples at Belur and Halebid, it is near impossible to escape stories of twelfth-century queen Shantaladevi. Aware that inscriptions record her proficiency in dance, music, and dramaturgy, and familiar with the twentieth century novels that fictionalize her life as a romantic tragedy, tour guides identify the female forms that adorn the outside of the Channakeshava temple as her portraits. Very few people learn, however, that she commissioned the Kappe Channigaraya Temple that sits just to its left in a powerful political act. What we can learn about Shantaladevi by situating her in the systems and institutions of her own time instead of examining her in isolation? Was she truly different from other elite women of her time, and if so, was she exceptional for the reasons her mythos has long espoused? With regards to Economics, then once again if we were to remove Religion from the equation, then we end up with intense societal equality, overarched by financial systems which embed people in debt and general oppression. It isn’t hard to see that this too is where we find ourself in the world today. CIS Public Talks – Sadek Hamid on “ Contemporary British Muslim Arts and Cultural Production: Identity, Belonging and Social Change‘ For the last 200 years, the Islamic world has been trying to understand what went wrong. Have the madrasas become outdated? Did rulers wallow in luxury and debauchery? Or, was it bribery and corruption? For some, the main problem has been presented as being a false understanding of religion. For others, it is the religion itself. Religion occupies Muslims with dogma and promises of an afterlife that does not exist, inhibiting them from scientific and technological advancements. For yet others, the main problem has been the departure from religion. Muslims have corrupted or abandoned the divine teachings of the true religion. Why did the Islamic world fall behind the West? This question casts a shadow almost any discussion the Muslim world is having today.