CSI / DAME Workshop : The Secret Leaven of Sufism: Locating New Approaches to the Study of Islamic Visual Cultures

Please join us for this symposium Convened by Nur Sobers Khan, Honorary Senior Research Fellow Exeter, and William Gallois,  Professor of the Islamic Mediterranean 

This event will be hosted in conjunction with the Centre for the Study of Islam and the Digital Archive of the Middle East at IAIS LT1 on Tuesday May 20th 10am – 5.30 pm

Refreshments and a buffet lunch will be provided. All are welcome but please do drop me note if you are attending so we can manage the catering.

Please see an overview of the symposium below: A full programme will be available and circulated before the event

At the close of The Venture of Islam, Marshall Hodgson famously wrote that “It is possible that eventually Islam (like Christianity already in some circles) will prove to have its most creative thrust by way of the great ‘secular’ literature in which its challenge has been embedded, and will move among its heirs like a secret leaven.”  

This workshop constitutes one of the first collective attempts to map the spiritual and mystical challenges which lie embedded within Sufi art forms, connecting specialised philosophical and theological literatures to the study of a set of emblematic visual texts from the Balkans, South Asia and the Maghreb. 

The symposium also provides a training opportunity in visual methodologies for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in Islamic Studies, as well as exploring the archival resources of Exeter’s Special Collections,  Arab World Documentation Unit and the Digital Archive of the Middle East.