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The Centre for Islamic Shi‘a Studies (CISS), London, U.K.
Our Mission
Vision statement:
Inspiring humanity and innovating research with the values of the Shi’a Islamic tradition.
Mission statement:
The Centre for Islamic Shi‘a Studies (CISS) is a research centre that specialises in the Shi’a Muslim faith. It aims to offer a scholarly Shi’a perspective on traditional and contemporary issues that affect Muslims and humanity as a whole.
By contextualising the Shi’a tradition and valuing both seminary and wider academic thinking, the CISS endeavours to offer original analysis on a wide range of fields from religious heritage and philosophy to politics and bioethics.
The ethos of the CISS is to highlight the various aspects of the Shi’a faith and its peoples to academic, civil society and international communities.
Our research is decidedly practical and as part of our centre, we assist educational and charitable causes that benefit grassroots communities worldwide. We produce research reports on disenfranchised communities, assist teaching of religious education, support the donation of books and help relief agencies that focus on improving the literacy of societies that are impoverished and oppressed.
The centre hopes its research and activities contribute to the betterment of Muslims and humanity at large.
Our goals:
• To produce research on traditional and contemporary issues specifically from the Shi’a perspective
• To promote a greater understanding of the Shi’a faith, its people and heritage in academia and society
• To encourage originality and diversity within Shi’a scholarship
• To support educational and charitable causes for the benefit of grassroots communities
• To raise awareness of the rights of oppressed and disenfranchised communities
• To work with fellow faiths and organisations on mutual research projects
Sayed Fadhil Bahrululum [BEng, MSc, PhD Candidate]
Position: Director
Interests: Jurisprudence (Fiqh), Theology, Political History
Born in Baghdad to a family of renowned religious scholars, Sayed Fadhil is the current Director of the Board. He obtained a BEng from KingstonUniversity in Civil Engineering in 1990 and completed his MSc in Transport Engineering at ImperialCollege in 1997. He is currently writing his PhD in '20th Century Political Thought in Twelver Shi'ism' at The School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS]. Since 2003, Sayed Fadhil has been pursuing higher studies at the Islamic Seminary in Qum. He also serves as the Director for the Alulbayt Foundation in London.
Hadia Saad: Office Manager
Hadia’s work mainly focuses on:
• Running the day-to-day office
• Events manager and coordinator
• Human Resources Desk Manager
• General Administrative Work
Tel: +44 (0) 208451 3322
Email: h.saad@shiastudies.org.uk
Prior to joining CISS, Hadia was head of the English department at the International School of Choueifat, Lebanon.
Hadia holds a BA (Hons) in Humanities from the University of Greenwich and an Adult English Language Teaching certificate from Cambridge University.
Current projects:
• Organising the Second Advisory Board Meeting for 2011;
• Organising the CISS international annual conference in March 2011.
Sajad Jiyad: Head of Research
Sajad’s work mainly focuses on:
• Politics of the Middle East
• The formative period of Shi’a Islam
• Islamic jurisprudence and theology
• Contemporary Iraq
Tel: +44 (0) 208451 3322
Email: s.jiyad@shiastudies.org.uk
In his role as head of research at CISS, Sajad has helped build the centre’s resources, especially the library, and contribute to the portfolio of CISS. He regularly attends and presents at conferences and is aiming to increase the public’s awareness of the centre’s work.
Previously studying at medical school in King’s College London, Sajad moved onto Hawza studies at Qum before returning to Queen Mary, University of London to read Economics and Politics. He completed his MA in Islamic Studies at the Islamic College, London and is looking to continue onto a PhD. Sajad is fluent in Arabic and English.
Current projects:
• Compiling entries in a new encyclopaedia on Shi’a Islam
• Preparing a monograph on Shaykh Tusi and the Hawza of Najaf
Selected Publications:
• ‘Samarra: Shi’i Heritage and Culture’ in Imranali Panjwani (ed.), The Shi’a of Samarra: The Heritage and Politics of a Community in Iraq Samarra, London: I.B. Tauris, 2011).
Yahya Seymour: Researcher
Yahya’s work mainly focuses on:
• Early Imami Hadith Literature
• Classical and Contemporary discussions on Imamology
• The Development of The Science of the Narrators of Hadith in Imami Shi'ism
• Islamic jurisprudence
Tel: +44 (0) 208451 3322
Email: y.seymour@shiastudies.org.uk
Prior to joining CISS, Yahya was a student at the Islamic College, London, where he studied for his bachelor's degree in Islamic Studies, as well as at the Hawza 'Ilmiyyah in London. Yahya is fluent in Arabic, both classical and modern standard.
Yahya holds a BA degree in Islamic Studies and a Diploma in Arabic Language. He is preparing to start his MA degree in Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
Current projects:
• Contributor, Online Shi’i Encyclopaedia;
• Preparing a translation of Fihrist al-Najashi.
Dr Andrew Newman of the University of Edinburgh.
Dr Andrew J. Newman is a reader in Islamic Studies and Persian at the University of Edinburgh. He holds a BA in History, summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA, and an MA and PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Dr Newman joined Edinburgh University in 1996, having been a Research Fellow at both the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, Oxford and Green College, Oxford, whilst researching topics in the history of Islamic medicine.
As well as a large number of academic articles on Islamic Studies and Persian History, he has authored two books: The Formative Period of Shi'i Law: Hadith as Discourse Between Qum and Baghdad (2000) and Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire (2006) (Reviews:[1][2])
His work on Safavid Iran won Iran's book of the year prize for 2007 in the category of Iranian Studies. [3]
Dr Andrew J NewmanBA MA PhD
Reader in Islamic Studies and Persian
Email: a.newman@ed.ac.uk
Dr Newman holds a BA in History, summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA, and an MA and PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Dr Newman joined IMES in 1996, having been a Research Fellow at both the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, Oxford and Green College, Oxford, whilst researching topics in the history of Islamic medicine.
Dr Newman's interests include the history of Twelver Shi'ism, the history of Islamic law, hadith studies, the evolution of the legal bases of Islamic medical theory and practice, the history of Iran and Persian language and literature, and modern Arabic literature.
Publications
Books
Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire (London: I B Tauris, 2006), ISBN 86064 6670 (hardcover); (London: I B Tauris, 2008) ISBN 9781845118303 (softcover)
The Formative Period of Shi'i Law: Hadith as Discourse Between Qum and Baghdad (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000), ISBN 0 7007 1277 1 (hardcover); (London: Routledge, 2010) ISBN 978-0-415-61636-2 (softcover)
Edited Volumes
Islamic Medical Wisdom: the Tibb al-A'imma, Batool Ispahany, transl., (London: Muhammadi Trust, 1991), ISBN 0 946 079 86 2
Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East, Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period (Leiden: Brill, 2003), ISBN 90 04 12774 7
Articles/Chapters in Books
'Towards a Reconsideration of the Isfahan School of Philosophy: Shaykh Baha'i and the Role of the Safawid Ulama', Studia Iranica (Paris), Tome 15, fasc. 2 (1986), 165-199;
'The Nature of the Akhbari/Usuli Dispute in Late-Safawid Iran. Part One: 'Abdallah al-Samahiji's "Munyat al-Mumarisin" ', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 55, i (1992), 22-51;
'The Nature of the Akhbari/Usuli Dispute in Late-Safawid Iran. Part Two: The Conflict Reassessed', BSOAS, Vol. 55, ii (1992), 250-261;
'The Myth of the Clerical Migration to Safawid Iran: Arab Shi'ite Opposition to Ali al-Karaki and Safawid Shi'ism', Die Welt des Islams, Vol. 33 (1993), 66-112;
'Safavids - religion, philosophy and science', Encyclopedia of Islam, series 2, VIII: 777-787;
"Tashrih-e Mansuri': Human Anatomy Between the Galenic and Prophetic Medical Traditions", in La Science dans le Monde Iranien, ed. Z. Vesel, et. al. (Tehran: Institut Francais de Recherche en Iran, 1998), 253-71;
'Sufism and Anti-Sufism in Safavid Iran: The Authorship of the "Hadiqat al-Shi'a" Revisited ', IRAN, XXXVII (1999), 95-108;
'Clerical Perceptions of Sufi Practices in Late Seventeenth-Century Persia: Arguments Over the Permissibility of Singing (Ghina)', in L. Lewisohn and D. Morgan, eds., The Heritage of Sufism, Vol. III: Late Classical Persianate Sufism: the Safavid and Mughal Period (1501-1750) (Oxford: Oneworld, 1999), 135-64;
'Fayd al-Kashani and the Rejection of the Clergy/State Alliance: Friday Prayer as Politics in the Safavid Period', in Linda Walbridge, ed.,The Most Learned of the Shi'a, The Institution of the Marja' Taqlid (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 34-52;
'Baqir al-Majlisi and Islamicate Medicine: Safavid Medical Theory and Practice Re-examined', in Newman, ed., Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East, Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 371-96;
'Between Qum and the West: The Occultation According to al-Kulayni and al-Katib al-Nu`mani' in F. Daftary, ed., Culture and Memory in Medieval Islam: Essays in Honour of Wilferd Madelung (London: I.B. Tauris, 2003), 94-108;
'Anti-Akhbari Sentiments among the Qajar `Ulama: The Case of Muhammad Baqir al-Khwansari (d. 1313/1895)', in R. Gleave, ed., Religion and Society in Qajar Iran (London: Routledge/Curzon: 2005), 155-73;
'The Vezir and the Mulla: a late Safavid period debate on Friday prayer', in M. Bernardini, M. Haneda and M. Szuppe, eds., Études sur L'Iran Médiéval et Moderne Offertes à Jean Calmard, Eurasian Studies, v. 1-2 (2006), 237-69;
‘Baqir al-Majilisi and Islamicate Medicine II: "al-Risala al-dhahabiyya" in Bihar al-anwar’ in Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, et al., eds., Le Shiisme Imamite Quarante Ans Apres (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009), 349-361;
'Clerical Perceptions of Sufi Practices in Late 17th Century Persia, II: al-Hurr al-Amili (d. 1693) and the Debates on the Permissability of Ghina' in Y. Suleiman, ed., Living Islamic History: Studies in Honour of Professor Carole Hillenbrand (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010), 192-207;
'Monolithic or Dynamic: The Safavid Court and the Subaltern in the Late Seventeenth Century' in Albrecht Fuess and Jan-Peter Hartung, eds., Court Cultures in the Muslim World, Seventh to Nineteenth Centuries (London: Routledge, 2011), 185-201.
Other
Dr Newman is the founder and moderator of 'Shii News', an e-mail list started in 2009 that now serves more than 245 academics and non-academics across the world who are interested in all forms of Shi`ism and Shi`i expression and their study both past and present. For further information and to be added to the list, contact Dr Newman at the above email address. An associated website, 'The Shi`i Studies Network', is under development.
Dr Newman is a Member of the Founding Editorial Board of the 'Islamic Studies' section of Oxford Bibliographies Online.
In August 1998 Dr Newman organised 'The Third International Round Table on Safavid Persia'. Over three days forty-one speakers drawn from a variety of sub-disciplines within the field of Safavid studies delivered papers. Selected papers from the Round Table have been published as Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East, Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period (Leiden: Brill, 2003), as listed herein.
Address:
The Centre for Islamic Shi‘a Studies (CISS),
Unit 5
Central Business Centre
Great Central Way
London
NW10 0UR
United Kingdom
Tel: (+44) 20 8451 3322
Fax: (+44) 20 3556 6964
Email: info@shiastudies.org.uk
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