Δρ΄σ΄σΣ°ΤΊ

Nuha Al-Shaβ€˜ar is an Δρ΄σ΄σΣ°ΤΊ Alumna, having joined the Δρ΄σ΄σӰԺ’ Graduate Programmes in. Islamic Studies and Humanities (GPISH) in 2002. She went on to study for an MPhil in Education Research from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, which she received in 2004. Ms Al-Shaβ€˜ar stayed at Fitzwilliam College to study for a PhD on Islamic ethics and political thought. Her dissertation is entitled β€œAbu Hayyan al-Tawhidi and Ethical Thought in the Fourth Century of Islam”.

Ms Al-Shaβ€˜ar’s current research interests include the social and intellectual history of Muslim political thought, particularly in the 9th – 10th centuries CE. She is interested in how udaba’ or litterateurs used the Holy ²Ο³ά°ω’a²ΤMuslims believe that the Holy ²Ο³ά°ω’a²Τ contains divine revelations to the Prophet Muhammed received in Mecca and Medina over a period of 23 years in the early 7th century CE. More to develop certain cultural concepts, which were later to dominate Arabic linguistic and literary-theoretical thinking. Her forthcoming publications include Love as Social Aspiration: The Influence of Sufi and Greek Concepts of Love on the Socio-Political Thought of the Ikhwan al-Safa’, Miskawayh and al-Tawhidi, in Klemm, Verena and Nuha al-Shaar, et al. (eds.). Proceedings of the 24th Congress of the Union EuropΓ©enne des Arabisants et Islamisants (UAEI), Peeters, Leuven (forthcoming 2010).

Stephen Burge is completing his PhD in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh. His doctoral thesis is a translation and commentary of Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti’s Al-Haba’ik fi akhbar al-mala’ik (The Arrangement of the Traditions about Angels). Stephen Burge specialises in the study of angels in Islam, looking at the angelology of the Holy ²Ο³ά°ω’a²Τ and more widely in the Muslim tradition. His wide-ranging research interests encompass angelology, Islamic exegesis, Hadith Studies, popular religion, and the works of Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti. He is also interested in comparative Semitic philology and lexicography, Islamic codicology and relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam – especially in popular religion. Mr Burge’s publications include β€˜The Angels in Surat al-Mala’ika: Exegeses of Q. 35:1’ Journal of ²Ο³ά°ω’a²Τic Studies 10 (2009) pp. 50 – 70.

The ²Ο³ά°ω’a²Τic Studies Unit aims to advance the general understanding of the plurality of interpretations that have been produced by Muslims throughout history and of the various contexts, methodologies and intellectual tools that have shaped those interpretations.