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The project’s first funding tranche was made available in January 2009, and a payments schedule has been established.  Funding is channelled through BRISMES, as the lead organisation in the collaboration, and administered by the institution of the project director, Rob Gleave (the University of Exeter).  The University of Exeter Research and Development department ensures that the expenditure is within British Academy rules, hence reducing the administrative burden on BRISMES).  On completion of each year of the grant the University of Exeter will provide the councils of both BIPS and BRISMES a summary of that year’s financial expenditure.  
 

(1) Announcement of Research Programme Grants and Call for Workshop Paper Proposals

In January 2009, an e-mail list of scholars and researchers with interested in Shiite clerical authority and the operations of the Hawza was established.  This list continues to grow and currently totals over 100 individuals from all over the world, with a significant proportion of members working in the Hawzas of Iraq and Iran.

 

On this e-mail list, and through different channels of communication, the call for paper proposals for the project inaugural workshop (held on 2nd June) and the invitation for research programme grants (to be spent during the first year of the project, the financial year 2009-2010) was announced.  The closing date for both was 20th March 2009.

 

There were 9 applications for Research Programme Grants, and 11 paper proposals for the inaugural workshop.

 

Formation and meeting of Project Steering Committee

The steering committee was formed in January 2009 in response to the British Academy’s request for such a body to oversee the project.  The committee consists of Dr Barbara Roberson and Professor Charles Tripp (formally representing BRISMES interests) and Dr Paul Luft and Professor Vanessa Martin (formally representing BIPS interests) and Rob Gleave as Project director.  The committee met on 24th March 2009 at the British Academy and awarded four Research Programme Grants and 6 Paper proposals.

 

First Research Programme Grant

The awarded research Programme Grants were:
1. Cancian, Alessandro and Fusari, Massimiliano: “Representing the Iconography of Knowledge within Iranian Hawzas: Interaction between the Visual and the Textual in the case of Qom and Mashhad” (£5000)

2. Hainy- Khaleel, Alexander and Bahmanpour, Muhammd Saeed “Philosophy in the “state-funded” Hawzas of Qom post-1979” (£2820)

3. Künkler, Mirjam and Fazaeli, Roja, “Training female ulama in Jama’at al-Zahra – New Opportunities for Old Role Models?” (£5000)

4. Samiei, Mohammad “A Critical Appraisal of Two Important Channels for Disseminating Modern Knowledge in  the Hawza (Qum and Mashhad): Hybrid Students and Research Institutes” (£5000)

 

In addition there were two “seed awards” for projects which were very promising, but not yet ready for full funding.  The applicants for these awards were given limited funding to develop their projects over the next year in anticipation of a full application in future years of the project:

  1. £1650 to Dr Sayyid Ali Mir Moosavi of Mofid University, Qum, to carry out a preliminary visit to the UK for two weeks, to visit academics in UK universities and to discuss his project entitled “Reconstruction of Ijtihad in the Contemporary Hawza of Qom: Prospects and Challenges” with a view to refining it for re-application.
  2. £500 to Mr Sajad Jiyad of the Ahl al-Bat Foundation in London in connection with project “Bahth Al-Kharij in the Hawza of Najaf: Mujtahids and the Curriculum”

 

Inaugural Workshop and Lecture

 

The six paper proposals selected by the Steering Committee were:

 

Clarke, Morgan

(university of Cambridge)

Contemporaneity and Tradition

in the Hawza of Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah

 

Edalatnejad, Saeid

(Islamic Encyclopaedia, Tehran)

Islamizing Humanities or Modernizing Islamic Studies?

 

Heern, Zachary (University of Utah)

“The Death of Intuitive Knowledge and the Triumph of Rationalism in the Hawza at the Turn of the 19th Century”

 

Hosseinizadeh, Sayyed Muhammad Ali

(Hawza Ilmiyya, Qum

Modern Science, Traditional Authority: The influence of modern social science on the Shiite seminary

Riggs, Robert (University of Pennsylvania)

The Role of the Khums in Spurring Intellectual Innovation and Uniformity

Visser, Reidar (NOPI, Oslo)

 

On the Margins of the Hawza: The Shaykhis and the Akhbaris and Their Relationships with the Shiite Centres of Learning

 

 

All were invited to the workshop on 2nd June 2009 at the British Academy (expenses paid).  Also present at the workshop were those awarded project grants to give summaries of the work projected in their projects (also expenses paid).

Unfortunately, Edalatnejad and Hosseinizadeh were unable to attend the workshop.  The British Embassy in Tehran failed to give them visas in time.  It is hoped that they will attend the second workshop to be held in November 2009.  Reidar Vissar was also unable to attend due to illness.  He will also attend the second workshop in November.

The programme for the day was, therefore, somewhat altered – with recipients of Research Programme Grants having not 15 minutes but 30 to present and discuss their research.  This was something of a relief, on reflection, as the discussion after papers and the networking during coffee and lunch breaks was more productive from being elongated.

The Inaugural Lecture was held in the evening of 2nd June at the British Academy, and was given by Professor Roy Mottahedeh of Harvard University entitled “The Hawza in Contemporary Iraq”.

Attendance at the workshop and lecture totalled around 70 people.

Panel at BRISMES 2009

The Project is held (and partially funded) a panel at this year’s BRISMES conference in Manchester (Monday, 6th July, 3-5pm):

 

Brockett

Adrian

Contemporary Bahraini Shi’i Thought as a Bridge between the Islam of Iran and of the Arab Middle East: A Case Study of a Collection of Articles By Shaykh Hameed Al-Mubarak Entitled Essays in Understanding Religion, published in Beirut 2007 [in Arabic]

Gleave

Robert

Legal Theory (usul al-fiqh) and Clerical Authority in Modern Shi’i Thought

Matthiesen

Toby

Shi'ite Clerics from al-Ahsa and al-Qatif between the Hawza, the Ja'afari Courts and the Politics of Notables

 

Summary of Activities

The project held two additional workshops in 2009 – one in November and one in March.  The aim of these follow up workshops was for participants to present their research progress to date, and to re-present their findings following feedback from the first workshop.  Some scholars, particularly those who failed to gain visas initially presented their research for the first time.  These workshops were smaller, more intimate affairs – the aim being to hone and develop papers in preparation for publication.  It was anticipated that by the end of the first year of the project we will have a collection of papers which is near publication quality.  IB Tauris have expressed an interest in publishing this collection (and the papers of the following years of the project).

In January 2010, the call for paper proposals and the call for research programme proposals was made through the usual networks for the sponsoring of projects in year 2 of the project entitled “The History and Development of the Hawza” – in year 2, the workshops will be held at the British Academy (in June) and Royal Holloway in December 2010 and march 2011.

Publications from year 1 projects and workshops will hopefully take place in 2011.  IB Tauris has already expressed an interest in a collected volume.