By Marina Komarovsky, "Mid-East Lecture Series Focuses on Islamic Understanding of the Human Body" - Carleton College News - MN, USAThursday, May 8, 2008
As part of Carleton’s ongoing Mid-East Connections speaker series, associate professor of religion Shahzad Bashir will present a lecture entitled “Between God’s Image and Satan’s Workshop: The Human Body in Islamic Thought and Practice” on Monday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. [today] in the Gould Library Athenaeum. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
Today, more than ever, it is essential to develop an understanding of the various ideologies shaping the societies and politics of our neighbors around the globe.
The Mid-East Connections Series provides Carleton students and the Northfield community with a unique opportunity to focus on this particular region by learning from experts in a number of disciplines.
Bashir’s premise is that “the body … is a mediator between the symbolic world of ideas on the one hand and concrete historical conditions on the other,” he explains.
During the talk, he will describe how we can better understand the development of Islamic thought and practice vis-à-vis Islamic understandings of the human body.
Bashir’s in-depth exploration of the lecture topic began with research for “Bodies of God's Friends: Sufism and Society in Medieval Islam,” a book that he is currently finishing and which prompted him to look at the history of Muslim discourse on the body.
“Baha’ ad-Din Naqshband: Hagiographic Portraits of a Sufi Saint from Bukhara,” a study of fifteenth-century narratives about a Sufi master, is the title of another publication that is in the works.
Bashir is the author of “Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions: The Nurbakhshiya Between Medieval and Modern Islam” (University of South Carolina Press, 2003), which traces an Islamic messianic movement through five centuries of development to demonstrate the essential role of messianism in the Muslim religion, and “Fazlallah Astarabadi and the Hurufis” (Oneworld Publications, 2005) about the founder of the Hurufi sect of Sufism.
Sufism Shi’ism and the intellectual and social history of the Middle East constitute Bashir’s multiple-perspective approach to religion. Bashir has a BA from Amherst College and a PhD from Yale University.
Today, more than ever, it is essential to develop an understanding of the various ideologies shaping the societies and politics of our neighbors around the globe.
The Mid-East Connections Series provides Carleton students and the Northfield community with a unique opportunity to focus on this particular region by learning from experts in a number of disciplines.
Bashir’s premise is that “the body … is a mediator between the symbolic world of ideas on the one hand and concrete historical conditions on the other,” he explains.
During the talk, he will describe how we can better understand the development of Islamic thought and practice vis-à-vis Islamic understandings of the human body.
Bashir’s in-depth exploration of the lecture topic began with research for “Bodies of God's Friends: Sufism and Society in Medieval Islam,” a book that he is currently finishing and which prompted him to look at the history of Muslim discourse on the body.
“Baha’ ad-Din Naqshband: Hagiographic Portraits of a Sufi Saint from Bukhara,” a study of fifteenth-century narratives about a Sufi master, is the title of another publication that is in the works.
Bashir is the author of “Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions: The Nurbakhshiya Between Medieval and Modern Islam” (University of South Carolina Press, 2003), which traces an Islamic messianic movement through five centuries of development to demonstrate the essential role of messianism in the Muslim religion, and “Fazlallah Astarabadi and the Hurufis” (Oneworld Publications, 2005) about the founder of the Hurufi sect of Sufism.
Sufism Shi’ism and the intellectual and social history of the Middle East constitute Bashir’s multiple-perspective approach to religion. Bashir has a BA from Amherst College and a PhD from Yale University.
The Mid-East Connections speaker series, sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College, brings to campus leading academics working broadly in the area of Middle Eastern history, society, religion, arts and literature. The objective of the series is to increase community understanding and appreciation of a critically important region of the world while providing a venue for broader community discussion.
For more information, including disability accommodations, contact Peggy Pfister at (507) 222-4303.
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