Arabic program offers language courses and much more

When Amira Halabi recently became the Arab language instructor at 黑料吃瓜资源, she came up with a new name for the Arab program to reflect her approach and philosophy.

鈥淪uffana is the Arabic word for 鈥榦ur class.鈥 I chose it because the program brings people together into a common unit. Suffana also fits with a lot of the goals that I have in mind for the program,鈥 Ms Halabi says.

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Dr. Adnan Husain featured in PBS Documentary Ornament of the World

Dr. Adnan Husain, MSGP Director, appeared as a scholarly expert in the documentary "Ornament of the World" which aired on December 17 on PBS. This two-hour documentary focuses on the history of Medieval Spain and the cultural, political, and religious interactions among Muslims, Christians, and Jews over the course of over 800 years of their co-existence. 

As PBS describes, 

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"Explaining the Wars and Conflicts in the Middle East: A Public Teach-In," with Dr. Salzmann, Dr. Husain, C. Sahin

Date

Tuesday January 28, 2020
6:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Location

Middle East and Islamic World Update: Dr. Ariel Salzmann, Dr. Adnan Husain, Canan Sahin.  

 

"The Traffic in Iranian Pilgrims: Historicity and聽Sociality of Saint Visitation across the Middle East," with Dr. Emrah Yildiz

Date

Thursday February 6, 2020
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Location

Emrah Y谋ld谋z is Crown Junior Chair in Middle East Studies and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University. He is a historically attuned cultural anthropologist, studying routes of religious, commercial and political mobility between Iran, Turkey and Syria. 

His book project, The Traffic in Iranian Pilgrims: Religion, Economy and Territory across Borders, synthesizes these areas of scholarship to chronicle the pathways of a ziyarat (visitation) route. Often referred to as Hajj-e Fuqara鈥 (pilgrimage of the poor) in Iran, this route has shuttled Iranian pilgrims as well as contraband goods such as oil, sugar and tobacco, among bus stations in Iran, informal bazaars in Turkey, and the Sayyida Zaynab shrine in Syria. 

"The Friday Mosque: Architectural Splendor and the Polemics of Representation in Pre-Modern Muslim Societies" with Dr. Ruba Kana-an

Date

Tuesday February 25, 2020
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Location

Abstract:  This paper re-thinks the common perception of the Friday mosque as the 鈥渁rchitectural monument par excellence.鈥 The talk discusses the historical development of Friday mosques in the pre-modern Muslim world and the relationship between these architectural monuments and the ways in which contemporaneous Muslim jurists discussed and legislated for Friday prayer. By so doing, it questions the current art historical approach that mainly focuses on materiality and patronage while failing to take due consideration of the legal understanding of the functional as well as symbolic nature of the Friday mosque.

Ruba Kana鈥檃n (DPhil, Oxford) teaches Islamic art and architecture at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Her research and publications focus on the intersections between art, artists, art production, and law in Muslim contexts. Her experience spans the worlds of academia, museums, architectural practice, and community-based art education.

Becoming Allies: Muslim-Jewish Solidarity in the Face of Islamophobia and Antisemitism

Start Date

Friday February 28, 2020

End Date

Saturday February 29, 2020

Time

4:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Location

February 28th-29th - Becoming Allies: Muslim-Jewish Solidarity in the Face of Islamophobia and Antisemitism 
 

Co-sponsored with Department of History, Muslim Societies, Global Perspectives, and Jewish Studies Program

  • Feb 28th - "Confronting the Pushback Against Muslim-Jewish Solidarity
    • Professor Rabab Abdulhadi, San Francisco State University & Professor Barry Trachtenberg, Wake Forest University
    • Robert Sutherland Hall @ 4:00 pm
       
  • Feb 29th - Symposium: Islamophobia & Antisemitism, Past and Present
  • Professor Ivan Kalmar (University of Toronto); Dr. Monia Mazigh (writer, Rights Advocate); Professor Moustafa Bayoumi (Brooklyn College); Lia Tarachansky (Filmmaker, Journalist); Azeezah Kanji, JD, LLM (Writer, Programming Director, Noor Culture Centre)
  • Donald Gordon Centre @ 9:30 am - 4:00 pm