Series Editors: Walid Ghali, Jeff Tan and Sarah Bowen Savant
The Abdou Filali-Ansary Occasional Paper Series is in honour of the Founding Director of AKU-ISMC, Abdou Filali-Ansary, a renowned scholar and well-known public figure whose work closely aligns to the vision and mission of AKU-ISMC. In this Series, we publish progressive, innovative research to generate discussion and contribute to the advancement of knowledge. The papers represent work from affiliated faculty, fellows, researchers, and doctoral students across a wide range of research areas, demonstrating both the depth and breadth of research being undertaken at the Institute. We also offer the opportunity for our Masters students who have won the best thesis award to publish an abridged version of their thesis with us. We welcome submissions from external researchers that address current AKU-ISMC research priorities. The views expressed in the Series are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of AKU-ISMC. Although occasional papers are not formally peer reviewed, they are thoroughly researched and are reviewed by members of our research team. Copyright rests with the authors.
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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.
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UK Think-Tanks, the War on Terror and the Radicalisation Debate
Hadi Enayat
This paper maps the discursive and ideological habitus in which UK think-tanks operate in connection with the ‘war on terror’. It discusses how UK think-tanks have both shaped and been shaped by this habitus and the impact their work has had on counter-terrorism policy in the UK. It begins by discussing the concept of think-tanks and their role and input into politics. It then sketches the rise of ‘terrorism’ as both an academic object of study, from the mid-1970s onwards, and as an increasingly vital policy area for governments and the military-security establishment, especially after 9/11. The paper then focuses on UK think-tanks dividing them into three broad categories: conservative-orthodox think-tanks, establishment think-tanks and alternative-radical think-tanks.
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Islamic and Middle East Area Studies Librarianship
Walid Ghali, Waseem Farooq, Paul Auchterlonie, and Arnoud Vrolijk
The three papers collected here are based on a seminar on Islamic Studies Librarianship held on 31 January 2019 at the Aga Khan Library (AKL), in conjunction with the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC). Curators, area studies directors, and collection librarians, who are currently involved in this field, gathered to discuss common challenges and to identify strategic areas for collaboration.
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Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Syria, Iran and Pakistan
Maryam Ghadyani, Hinna Hussain, Wael Odeh, and Philip Wood
This paper describes the reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak on social media in Iran, Syria and Pakistan. In particular, we focus on issues of the place of religion in society, on international relations and on trust between society and government, where these issues have been invoked in the discussion of the epidemic. We conclude with timelines for the early phases of the epidemic in the three countries.
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40 Years On: Reflections on the Iranian Revolution
Sevgi Adak, Touraj Atabaki, Kamran Matin, and Valentine M. Moghadam
The three articles compiled here are based on a panel discussion held at the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC) on 23 May 2019.
Marking the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, its aim was to revisit the debate on the causes and impact of the revolution for Iran and beyond.
Three questions in particular guided the interdisciplinary dialogue and political reflections on this world historical event: How should we analyse the conditions underpinning the revolutionary dynamics in Iran in the global context of the 1970s? How should the Iranian Revolution be analysed in an historical-comparative perspective? And, what is the legacy, or rather, the multiple legacies, of the revolution for the political struggles in Iran and the Middle East today