Workshop: What is an Imam?

‘What is an Imam?’ is a workshop organised by the ERC Horizon STG Project ‘Embodied Imamate: Mapping the Development of the Early Shiʿi Community 700-900 CE’.

The term ‘imām’ is used in numerous senses in early Islam. The Quran uses the term in several instances, influential scholars and political leaders are referred to as imāms, a prayer leader is termed an imām, and, of course, the Shiʿa referred to the leaders of their communities – whether interpreted esoterically or more politically – as imāms. This workshop, organised by the ERC Horizon STG project ‘Embodied Imamate: Mapping the Development of the Early Shiʿi Community 700-900 CE’, will provide an opportunity for scholars to come together to discuss the philology of the term and near synonyms from these numerous perspectives in an effort to highlight the way different uses of the term have influenced or been influenced by one another. The workshop aims to include contributions which utilise a range of documentary and material sources to provide a holistic understanding of the term.

Important Data

Date: Friday 15 November 2024

Time: 11:15 – 17:30

Venue: Lipsius, Leiden University

Program

11:00–11:15  Welcome and Opening Remarks (Edmund Hayes, Leiden University)

11:15–12:30  Panel 1

What is an Imam? Remarks on the Comparative Development of Divergent Forms of Religious or Political Authority (Edmund Hayes, Leiden University)

Identifying the Authority of the Imam: “Naṣṣ” Between Historical and Revelatory Hermeneutics (Rodrigo Adem, Georgetown University)

12:30–13:30  Lunch

13:30–15:00  Panel 2

Imām al-muqriʾīn: Digital Approaches to Describing the Career of Ibn Muǧāhid (d. 324/936) (Jeremy Farrell, Leiden University)

“We Have an imām Who Opposes Us and Hates Our People”: On Prayer Leadership in Shiʿi Hadith (Adam Ramadhan, Leiden University)

References to Imams in Coins, Inscriptions, and Papyrus (Nasser Al-Ajmi, Leiden University)

15:00–15:30  Break

15:30–16:30  Panel 3

Were the Caliphs Imams? The bayʿa, ḥajj Leadership and Poetical Discourse (Leone Pecorini Goodall, Leiden University)

The Caliph as Imam: An Architectural Perspective (Aila Santi, Leiden University)

16:30–16:45  Break

16:45–17:45  Panel 4

Paraphernalia of Power: Caliphal Titulature and Its Significance in the First Two Islamic Centuries (May Shaddel, Aga Khan University/Utrecht University) (Online)

The Making of an Imam: Maternal Influence in the Birth Stories of the Twelve Shiʿa Imams (Zahra Azhar, Leiden University).

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