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A new vision for Islamic pasts and futures

Shahzad Bashir

This groundbreaking, born-digital work invites readers to imagine Islam anew. Moving beyond conventional theological, nativist, and orientalist approaches, Shahzad Bashir decenters Islam from a geographical identification with the Middle East, an articulation through men's authority alone, and the assumption that premodern expressions are more authentically Islamic than modern ones. Focusing on time as a human construct, A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures interprets stories and images, paying attention to evidence and methods of interpretation. Islam, in Bashir's telling, is a vast net of interconnected traces that appear to be different depending on the vantage from which they are seen. Complementing narrative with extensive visual evidence, the multimodal digital form enacts the multiplicity of the project's analyses and perspectives, conferring a shape-shifting quality that bridges the gap between sensing Islam and understanding it, between feeling it as a powerful presence and analyzing it through intellectual means. This interactive, open-access edition allows readers to enter Islam through a diverse set of doorways, each leading to different time periods across different parts of the world. Bashir discusses Islam as phenomenon and as discourse-observed in the built environment, material objects, paintings, linguistic traces, narratives, and social situations. He draws on literary genres, including epics, devotional poetry and prayers, and modern novels; art and architecture in varied forms; material culture, from luxury objects to cheap trinkets; and such forms of media as photographs, graffiti, and films. The book's layered digital interface allows for an exploration of and engagement with this rich visual material and multimedia evidence not possible in a printed volume. A collaboration between the MIT Press and the Digital Publications Initiative of Brown University. Supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the MIT Press, and the Digital Publications Initiative of Brown University. The URL for this project will be islamic-pasts-futures.org.
Football as Soft Power: The Political Use of Football in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Vitas Rafael Carosella

In November 2022 Qatar hosts the first Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region FIFA World Cup. This paper seeks to understand the use of football as a soft power political tool in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Based on culture, values and policies, soft power is power through attraction as opposed to coercion. The stronger one player’s values, culture and policies are, the more soft power that player has. Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, traditional fossil fuel-based states, suffer from a lack of attraction. By investing in football, each nation hopes to project a new image and ensure future relevance. Qatar uses football to increase its standing in the international community, helping to ensure its own protection in case of regional disputes. The UAE uses football to help convert itself into an international travel and business centre, while Saudi Arabia invests in football to help project a progressive image of itself to the world and ensure regime security
Pakistan left review: Then and now

Nadir Cheema and Stephen M. Lyon

This volume places the spotlight on an important moment in history. The late 1960s was a time of profound change around the world, and the contributions included here from Pakistan’s leftist intellectuals based in London, speak volumes about the implications of the turbulence and the promise for a better future in relation to Pakistan. More than five decades on, the promise of a better tomorrow looks as far away as ever, but the turbulence has returned with a vengeance. The newly written contributions reflect on the significance of this leftist journal at the time and the impact of those ideas and discourses on the politics that came to be.
Non Sola Scriptura: Essays on the Qur’an and Islam in Honour of William A. Graham

Bruce Fudge, Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, Christian Lange, and Sarah Savant

William A. Graham is an influential and pioneering scholar of Islamic Studies at Harvard University. This volume brings together 17 contributions to the study of the Qur’an and Islam, all influenced by his work.

Contributions to this collection, by his colleagues and students, treat many different aspects of Islamic scripture, from textual interpretation and hermeneutics to recitation and parallels with the Bible. Other chapters tackle in diverse ways the question of what it means to be "Islamic" and how such an identity may be constituted and maintained in history, thought, and learning. A final section reflects on the career of William Graham and the relation of scholarship to the undervalued tasks of academic administration, especially where the study of religion is concerned.
Rethinking teacher education: Improvement, innovation and change

Joe Lugalla, Fredrick Mtenzi, and Samuel Andema

Rethinking Teacher Education: Improvement, Innovation and Change is the result of the conference organised by The Aga Khan University - Institute for Educational Development, East Africa (AKU-IED, EA) on education, in Uganda in 2017. The Conference, gathered participants from nine countries, to deliberate on a cross section of factors regarding teacher education in the region and landscaping the same on global perspectives. The choice of the conference theme was inspired by a need to consider new systems, policies, structures and reforms to help drive sustainable education for the development of nations in the East African region.

A variety contributors participated from across the education landscape, and included researchers working in higher education, practitioners such as teachers in schools, tutors, instructors in colleges, and lecturers and professors at universities. Also contributing were non-governmental organisations with interests in education and student learning outcomes, civil society organisations whose interests navigate the role education plays in social and national development, policy makers and curriculum developers, librarians, publishers, booksellers and teacher trainees, all of who shared their rich experiences and perspectives on teacher education in the 21st century in East Africa and globally.
A personal journey: At the Aga khan education service, Pakistan

Sadrudin Pardhan

This book is about Dr Pardhan`s journey with the Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan where he served the organization as its Chief Executive Officer on three different occasions, and a member of its Board for six years. In this book, he shares his experiences about how the organization and his own life evolved during during 32 plus years of association.
My AKU-IED journey

Sadrudin Pardhan

This book is about how a teacher education institution developed as a part of the Aga Khan University and Aga Khan Development Network. In the 1980s concern was expressed at the highest levels of AKDN about the deteriorating quality of education in the developing countries. AKDN which operated over 300 schools in East Africa, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh was obviously concerned about this. It was decided that AKDN should experiment with School Improvement Programmes to test whether specific interventions would improve the situation at school level. There was developing consensus at AKDN leadership level that instead of one off programmes if an institution could be developed that supported school improvement efforts and gave credible certification the quality id education would improve substantially. In 1989 AKDN appointed a task Force to look into posibilities of developing a teacher educationinstitution to support quality improvement of education in countries where AKDN operates.
Climate change and environmental sustainability module: Activity booklet

Fozia Parveen, Sara Hassan, and Subhan Khan

Dear readers (teachers, parents, and students), Thank you for accessing our activity booklet. The information booklet introduced concepts relating to climate change and environmental sustainability. In this booklet several cross cutting activities on various themes have been presented. The booklet contains ready-made activities containing but not limited to comic strips, experiments, conversations, writing, simple tag, cut and paste as well as research activities. We hope you enjoy, adapt and implement these activities in your community.
Climate change and environmental sustainability module: Information booklet

Fozia Parveen, Sara Hassan, and Subhan Khan
Historic Mosques in Sub-Saharan Africa, from Timbuktu to Zanzibar

Stephane Pradines

This book is the first comprehensive synthesis on mosques in sub-Saharan Africa, bringing together sites from more than twenty states from sub-Saharan Africa; and more than 285 monuments, from the IXth to the XIXth centuries. This monograph is divided into three large geographical areas, from the earthen mosques of West Africa, to the Nile Valleys and the Horn of Africa, and to the Indian Ocean shores and Swahili coral stone mosques. This book is a statement that African mosques are unique in the history of Islamic architecture, and they belong to our World Heritage; and these monuments demonstrate cultural links with North Africa, Arabia, Persia and India.
Clinical case orientation with basic physiological concepts of endorcine reproductive physiology

Rehana Rehman and Syeda Sadia Fatima

Clinical Case Orientation with Basic Physiological Concepts of Endocrine Reproductive Physiology covers all the physiology topics related to the endocrine reproductive system covered in undergraduate medical education that need to be recalled for application in clinical sessions. They are presented as clinical cases to take the readers to the bench side, and challenge them to recall the interplay of physiological aspects with the identification of learning objectives. Students may use this book as a guide to develop understanding and critical thinking, while also reflecting on the acquired knowledge regarding endocrine reproductive physiology, and pathophysiology.
Making health systems work in low and middle income countries: Textbook for public health practitioners

Sameen Siddiqi, Awad Mataria, Katherine D. Rouleau, and Meesha Iqbal

The importance of health systems has been reinforced by the commitment of Low- and Middle-Income Countries (L&MICs) to pursue the targets of Universal Health Coverage, Health Security, and to achieve Health-related Sustainable Development Goals. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the fragility of health systems in countries of all income groups. Authored by international experts across five continents, this book demonstrates how health systems can be strengthened in L&MICs by unravelling their complexities and by offering a comprehensive overview of fundamental concepts, performance assessment approaches and improvement strategies to address health system challenges in L&MICs. Centred on evidence and advocacy this unique resource on health systems in L&MICs will benefit a wide range of audiences including, readers engaged in public health practice, educational programs and research initiatives; faculties of public health and population sciences; policymakers, managers and health professionals working for governments, civil society organizations and development agencies in health.
Poet and businessman: Abd al-Aziz al-Babtain and the formation of modern Kuwait

Leif Stenberg

A history of contemporary Kuwait as seen through the life of an individual Kuwaiti. This book reviews and analyzes the modern history of Kuwait through the life of Abd al-Aziz Sa'ud al-Babtain, a wealthy businessman, philanthropist, and poet. He is the head of a large, influential international cultural foundation based in Kuwait City. Abd al-Aziz's life story tightly interweaves with modern discussions on the history of the state of Kuwait. There are very few books taking a collective grip on the history of the state of Kuwait. Likewise, there are very few studies about the generation of Gulf individuals who experienced, benefitted from, and even suffered from the discovery of oil, and who has been a crucial part of socioeconomic and cultural developments in countries like Kuwait in recent history. By constructing a cohesive overview of the modern history of Kuwait enriched by the life of an individual that has lived through the better part of that particular history, this book fills a lacuna in contemporary scholarship on the Middle East, and especially the Arabian or the Persian Gulf.
Volume 9: What is Islamic Studies?: European and North American Approaches to a Contested Field

Leif Stenberg and Philip Wood

The study of Islam and Muslims in Europe and North America has expanded greatly in recent decades, becoming a passionately debated and divided field. This collection critically assesses the development of the field of Islamic Studies and its place in society. Featuring contributions from anthropologists, historians and scholars of religion, each chapter contains new empirical material and discusses approaches to the study of Islam, past and present.

Key Features
- Covers topics ranging from gender and secularism to pop music and modern science
- Discusses contemporary and historical approaches in Islamic Studies
- Features contributions from leading scholars studying Islam and Muslims, including Shahzad Bashir, Hadi Enayat, Juliane Hammer, Aaron Hughes, Carool Kersten, Susanne Olsson and Jonas Otterbeck
- Addresses the role of both Muslims and non-Muslims in the ongoing construction of Islam
What is Islamic studies?: European and north American approaches to a contested field

Leif Stenberg and Philip Wood

Explores the vibrant, divided and evolving field of Islamic studies in Europe and North America
Covers topics ranging from gender and secularism to pop music and modern science

Discusses contemporary and historical approaches in Islamic Studies

Features contributions from leading scholars studying Islam and Muslims, including Shahzad Bashir, Hadi Enayat, Juliane Hammer, Aaron Hughes, Carool Kersten, Susanne Olsson and Jonas Otterbeck

Addresses the role of both Muslims and non-Muslims in the ongoing construction of Islam
The study of Islam and Muslims in Europe and North America has expanded greatly in recent decades, becoming a passionately debated and divided field. This collection critically assesses the development of the field of Islamic Studies and its place in society. Featuring contributions from anthropologists, historians and scholars of religion, each chapter contains new empirical material and discusses approaches to the study of Islam, past and present. The book situates Islamic Studies within broader discussions of the construction of identity and its political implications in Europe and North America. Authors also address tensions between normative and non-normative approaches to the study of Islam and Muslims and consider how these might be reconciled.
Signature pedagogies of teacher education in Pakistan

Ayesha Bashiruddin and Nusrat Fatima Rizvi

This book presents signature pedagogies in teacher education. It presents a very comprehensive framework of creative and innovative pedagogies. The examples that it presents were conceptualized and implemented in the M.Ed. programme and other professional development programmes at the Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED). Karachi, Pakistan. In this book, we have taken up the challenge of showcasing evolving and creative pedagogies used by faculty members at the AKU-IED in the teaching and learning processes. Each chapter is unique because each describes a pedagogy which is intricately linked to a subject area and is an example of a lived experienced of a faculty member teaching a course at the M.Ed. level and in other professional development programmes at the AKU-IED. The book is a pioneer in presenting a consolidated collection of signature pedagogies in teacher education. The hope is that these examples will be useful for other teachers and teacher educators not only in Pakistan but also in other developing country contexts and will contribute to the changing scenario of teacher education across the world.
Legal Translation in a Political Context: The Trick of Choosing between Alternatives in Translating Electoral Terms

Zakia Deeb

Legal electoral terminology is a specialist subject within the broader legal language discourse. When translating into Arabic, even basic electoral terms can be translated differently in different Arab countries for various reasons due to different sources of inspiration. Most legal electoral terms have a variety of alternative equivalents within the relevant linguistic field or semi-legal domain. This paper discusses such alternatives while presenting problems related to the existing resources in the field. Data collected from the 2012 election of members of the Libyan General National Congress are analysed to test the consistency in selecting from these alternatives. Furthermore, material presented in various recently compiled dictionaries, glossaries and manuals of electoral terms are used as examples. The hypothesis drawn from working on a large body of material translated from English into Arabic is that the consistency in selecting equivalents for electoral legal terms is only partial. Consistency is more apparent when terms are law proper but not otherwise. Also, material from different sources indicates problems concerning standardisation, abbreviations and acronyms as well as cultural and linguistic problems.
Touching Sound: Passion and Global Politics

Maria Frederika Malmström and Mark Levine

How does sound shape and/or constrain the actions of individuals and groups? In what ways does 'touching sound' constitute important stimuli within everyday experiences and how/why does sound induce strong affective states? How does listening to noise as well as to silences, screeches and songs, clicks and pops, affect us? By focusing on the under-studied realm of sound we increase our understanding of the politics of the sonic. This text opens an interdisciplinary conduit that should enable cross-fertilizations between the disciplines of anthropology, ethnomusicology, history, cultural studies, religious studies and political sociology, bringing together studies of aesthetic production, the environment, sub- and counter-cultures and technologies and affective dimensions of state as well as societal power and contestation problems.
MEDJACK: The extraordinary journey of an ordinary hack

Asad Mian

Based on our experience of founding a healthcare innovation/incubation hub, Medjack is about clever ways of hacking healthcare and biomedical problems to create sustainable solutions. We bring you the distillation of over a decade of multi-disciplinary experience at the Aga Khan University, a premier academic healthcare institution with global recognition. Although dedicated primarily to students interested in low cost healthcare-related innovation and entrepreneurship, delving further will reveal the general principles for solving systemic problems around innovation that exist in every organisation. You can learn to change mindsets from academic to entrepreneurial reliance, from systemic to individual efforts (or vice versa) and from grant funding to seed funding by involving investors. Incidentally, you can also learn how to build and maintain a healthcare-centric innovation/incubation hub using Jugaar (low cost and frugal) means. Medjack is different from other books in this space - it tries to get across a certain innovation ethos through multiple, simple case studies. If you're passionate about embedding innovative, creative and entrepreneurial thinking into your healthcare (or other) organisation's DNA, at very low (or no) cost, then this book is for you!
Molecular biology

Saara Muddasir

Molecular Biology is written to strengthen the links between molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry. The content is related to the composition, structure, and interaction of the various cellular molecules. A direct approach has been taken to clarify the importance of genes and preservation of the main code- the basis of every evolution since the beginning of the world. The book encompasses in-depth information about vital processing in organisms, starting from scratch and leading to the final arenas of genetic engineering, the formation of new biotechnologies, new feature complexes for treatment and cures for various disorders. Thus, it aims to cover the whole theory of molecular biology.
Homeless youth of Pakistan: Survival sex and HIV risk

Muhammad Naveed Noor

While homeless young people (HYP) are typically perceived as irresponsible and morally suspect individuals who lack essential social skills to navigate their lives, this book offers an alternative and more positive perspective. It demonstrates that HYP improvise with resources available on the streets to improve their social and financial status, although they experience significant social structural constraints. This ground-breaking text provides an analysis of social processes that contribute to young people's homelessness, their engagement in sex work, their establishment of intimate partnerships, and sexual practices which may increase their risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The book demonstrates how the ongoing social and financial instability and insecurity neutralises HYP's knowledge of HIV/STIs, and how financial considerations, fear of violence by clients, and social obligations in intimate partnerships contribute to their sexual risk-taking. The author argues that the conventional approach of promoting health through raising awareness regarding HIV/STI prevention may continue to bring less than promising outcomes unless we focus on how structural and contextual conditions operate in the backdrop and produce conditions less conducive for young people. Included in the coverage: factors that contribute to youth homelessness factors that shape sexual practice a Bourdieusian analysis of youth homelessness and sexual risk-taking a health promotion approach that can potentially reduce youth homelessness and their risk of HIV/STIs Homeless Youth of Pakistan: Survival Sex and HIV Risk will attract undergraduate and postgraduate students, and researchers interested in exploring issues such as youth homelessness, sexual risk-taking, and HIV/STIs.
The Awakening of Islamic Pop Music

Jonas Otterbeck
One Hundred Years of Family Law Reform in Parliament, in Court, and on Screen

Gianluca Parolin, Nadia Sonnevald, Nathalie Bernard- Maugiron, and Enas Lofti

This paper interrogates the very form of collective decision making that legislation signifies, its operationalisation in adjudication, and its interrelation with popular culture. Through the lens of the Egyptian legal system, the paper offers case-studies of collective decision making on matters of personal status, it focuses on the state's different approach towards the regulation of personal status for its Muslim and non-Muslim citizens; in the legal context of the ‘best interests of the child’ it looks at the multiple entanglements of legislation and its eventual actualisation in Egyptian courts; and it uses classical examples of Egyptian cinema popularly associated with changes in legislation – underlining how the big screen in Egypt has often been the place where some of the most contentious and divisive matters of personal status have been discussed.
Subfertility: Recent advances for management and prevention

Rehana Rehman and Aisha Sheikh

With the increased prevalence of subfertility (any form of reduced fertility with prolonged time of unwanted non-conception) and the number of subfertile patients turning to assisted reproductive clinics for help, Subfertility: Recent Advances for Management and Prevention is a much-needed resource for today's health care providers. Written by doctors with extensive expertise in the areas of reproductive physiology and endocrinology, it provides a description of the methods for achieving conception, an overview of the causes of subfertility and how to detect them, a review of the psychological impact of subfertility, guidelines for the treatment of subfertility, and a look at assisted reproductive technologies"--Publisher's description
An examination of the stratigraphy and neolithic-iron age pottery from Tel Jezreel, area A

Charlotte Whiting and Gloria London

This volume presents the results of the Tel Jezreel Post-Excavation and Publication Project, directed by Charlotte Whiting on behalf of the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL). The project analyzed the Tel Jezreel excavation archive stored at the CBRLs Kenyon Institute in Jerusalem. The current volume presents the stratigraphic sequence (by Charlotte Whiting) and the Neolithic to Iron Age pottery (by Gloria London) excavated during the 19951996 seasons. The Tel Jezreel stratigraphy and ceramics have been deemed relevant to determining Iron Age chronological and social issues, two topics that are highly debated in the literature. Despite the fragmentary nature of the deposits, they are published here in order to address these questions. In addition, the study of the ceramics revealed an unanticipated abundance of highly varied pre-Iron Age pottery. Social and technological aspects of the manufacturing techniques, including burnish practices, are discussed.