What do “folk” tales have in common with mystical treatises and advice literature for rulers? And why did a learned author at a medieval royal court decide to compile these seemingly unrelated literatures in one work for his educated, elite audience? The themes and linguistic styles of what is generally known as folk tales, at least in an Iranian context, are generally understood to be suitable for the taste and understanding of the uneducated people, not the members of the elite, who are usually presented as advocates of high culture. If these tales were meant for...

What do we mean when we say that classical Persianate poetry is highly conventional? Can we find traces of classical poets’ encounters with the real world in their beautiful but cliché-filled descriptions of ruby wine, idol-beloveds, and the multicolored silk garments of springtime? Through a few short case studies drawn from the most famous verse of Rūdakī, Farrukhī, and Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib, I will suggest some ways that the material history of the Silk Road and the ecological study of seasonal cycles might help us to reconsider the mimetic functions and the operations of vaṣf, or...

The Harvard Undergraduate Theologos Society, in partnership with The Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program and The Department for Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations is delighted to invite you to this year’s Inaugural Symposium lecture offered by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, President of Zaytuna College. 

Please purchase a ticket to confirm your attendance: ...

Lecture by Mary Elston, Alwaleed Bin Talal Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University

Co-sponsored by the Alwaleed Bin Talal Seminar in Islamic Studies, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Lecture by Ayesha Irani, Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of Massachusetts in Boston

Co-sponsored by the Alwaleed Bin Talal Seminar in Islamic Studies, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the Department of Asian Studies

Lecture by Mohammad Fadel, Professor of Law, University of Toronto

Co-sponsored by the Alwaleed Bin Talal Seminar in Islamic Studies and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations