Online Short Course: Education and Networks of Learning in Islamic History

Date: September 22-24, 2021

Venue: Online (via Zoom)

Organizer: Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, The Aga Khan University

This three-day course is an introduction to the study of pre-modern Islamicate education practices. The course will introduce historical sources and archival material on which our knowledge of pre-modern learning and knowledge transmission is based. In addition, participants will be introduced to innovative digital humanities approaches to the study of classical texts, such as social network analysis and the interpretation of text reuse data. Over the course of three sessions, participants will engage with the following:

a) The basic historical trajectory of educational practices in the Islamic world: origins, developments, and processes of formalization.

b) The role of knowledge networks and institutions of education in the formation of the Muslim world as we know it today.

c) The interpretation of primary sources (in English translation) related to practices of education and knowledge transmission.

d) How digital methods can complement our reading of narrative sources, with a particular focus on Muslim knowledge transmission.

Convenors

Aslisho Qurboniev is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at AKU-ISMC’s KITAB Project working on the Islamic West, including medieval Maghrib, al-Andalus, and Sicily. He has a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Cambridge (2020) and an MPhil in Islamic Studies and History from the University of Oxford (2014).

Gowaart Van Den Bossche is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at AKU-ISMC’s KITAB Project.

Source: The Aga Khan University