Visiting Speaker - Noah Gardner, New Research on Aḥmad al-Būnī and the Rise of Sufi Lettrism
Emily Selove in association with her Centre for Magic and Esotericism, is delighted to be able to confirm the visiting speaker Noah Gardner – please note that, for scheduling reasons, this event will be held on a Tuesday rather than the usual Wednesday
| An Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies seminar | |
|---|---|
| Speaker(s) | Noah Gardner |
| Date | 21 November 2023 |
| Time | 17:00 to 19:00 |
| Place | IAIS Building/LT1 |
Event details
Date: Tuesday November 21st
Time: 5-7pm
Speaker: Dr Noah Gardiner
Position: Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Affiliation: University of South Carolina
Title of lecture: New Research on Aḥmad al-Būnī and the Rise of Sufi Lettrism
Abstract: Aḥmad al-BÅ«nÄ« (d. 622/1225 or 630/1232-3), the subject of my current book project, was among of handful of western-Islamicate Sufis of the seventh/thirteenth century whose writings on the science of letters and names (*Ê¿ilm al-ḥurÅ«f wa-al-asmÄʾ*)—known in recent scholarship as
“lettrism”—helped unleash a wave of creative cosmological and occult-scientific thought and practice across the Islamicate world that endured for centuries after his death. His contributions to this emergent science included sophisticated fusions of eastern Sufi thought with emanationist-cosmological and astral-magical discourses long cultivated in al-Andalus, ideas he likely encountered during his time as a Sufi neophyte in Tunis. In this talk, I will discuss his indebtedness
to such Andalusian thinkers as Ibn Masarrah, Ibn al-SÄ«d al-Baá¹alyawsÄ«, Ibn BarrajÄn, and possibly elements of Jewish Kabbalah, and how he succeeded in bringing such ideas east under the banner of lettrism.
Location:
IAIS Building/LT1
