The Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS was established in 1995, and aims to promote scholarship and research in all areas of Islamic Studies, past and present. The study of the Qur’an and Hadith from the Arabic texts, and the analysis and translation of Islamic texts from Arabic into English form the core activities of the Centre.

The Centre also deals with Islamic thought in European, African and Asian languages and promotes the study of Islamic culture and relations between Muslims and the wider world.

The Centre runs an MA Islamic Studies program and encourages the study and understanding of Islam by means of lectures, seminars, conferences and publications. It also provides academic links and exchanges between institutions and scholars of Islam in Muslim countries, Europe and the rest of the world.

Research

The Centre has an active research program, and a number of doctorate and MPhil degree students. Students benefit from our staff’s wide-ranging expertise within the field of Islamic Studies, and our commitment to the creation of a supportive research environment. Theses recently completed or in their final stages include:

• The Concept of I’jaz al-Qur’an
• Rhetoric in Qur’anic Exegesis
• Contemporary Islamic Thought
• Religious Orthodoxy and the Formation of the Arabic Linguistic Tradition
• Editions and Studies of Islamic Manuscripts

Dictionary of the Qur’an Project

The Centre is compiling the first comprehensive, fully researched and fully contextualized Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, intended to help translators and scholars of Qur’anic Studies alike. The dictionary is being compiled in accordance with modern lexicographical methods.

Director

Professor MAS Abdel Haleem, King Fahd Professor of Islamic Studies in the University of London

Contacts

• Address: Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, UK
• Phone: +44 20 7898 4325
• Fax: +44 20 7898 4009
• Email: cis@soas.ac.uk
• Website: https://www.soas.ac.uk/islamicstudies/