beacon of knowledge 2001

7/28/2019 Beacon of Knowledge 2001

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BEACON OF

KNOWLEDGE: CONFERENCE IN HONOR OF

PROFESSOR SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR Friday and SaturdayNovember 2-3, 2001

Marvin Center

H and 21 st Streets

The George Washington University

Washington, D.C.


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CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Friday, November 2

8.00-:8:30 AM Registration and Coffee

8:30-8:45 Welcoming Remarks

8:45-9:00 Stephen TrachtenbergPresident, The George Washington University

9:00-9:30 Keynote Speech

John Esposito Director, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding

Georgetown University 9:30-11:00 Panel One: Testimonials From The Peddie School to

University Presidency

Chair: Mohammad Faghfoory

Peter Flesenthal

Sanford Nemitz

Azizah al-Hibri

Nasir Assar

Mohsen Shirazi David Burrell

11:00-12:30 Panel Two: The Sacred and Identity Crisisin the Modern World

Chair: David Cain


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David Cain Onenessand Oneness

Mary E. Tucker

The Growing Alliance of Religion and Ecology Mohammad H. Faghfoory

Iranian Identity: Seyyed Hossein Nasr and the Concepts of Iraniyyat and Islamiyyat

Gisela WebbThemes of Wisdom in Dialogue: Pedagogical Possibilities of

Metaphysics in Undergraduate Teaching

Discussant: Mary Tucker

12:30-2:00 Lunch Break Special Presentation

2.00-2:45 Keith CritchlowGeometry as the Symbol of "Permanence" in an

Impermanent World 2:45-4.00 Panel Three: Islamic and Perennial Philosophy

Chair: Mehdi Aminrazavi

Hossein Ziai Dialogue and Suhrawardi's Philosophical Allegories

Sachiko MurataOrigin and Return in the Islamic Philosophy of China Mehdi Aminrazavi

Mantiq al-Mashriqiyyin: Whose Logic and Which Orient? Patrick Laude

Seyyed Hossein Nasr in the Context of the Perennialist School: Esoterism and Tradition.

Discussant: Hossein Ziai


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4:00-4:15:00 Coffee Break

4:15-:5:45 Panel Four: Islamic Art and Spirituality Chair : Keith Critchlow

Emma Clark Symbolism of Traditional Islamic Dress

Amira el-Zein

Poetry as Unveiling the Sacred

Latimah-Parvin Peerwani Abu Htim al-Rzi on the Essential Unity of Religions

John VollUnderstanding Sufism: Nasr's Contribution

Beyond Orientalism and Area Studies

Discussant Keith Critchlow

Calligraphy by Muhammad Zakariya andPaintings by Vicente Pascual

Saturday, November 3

9.00-10:30 Panel Five: Philosophy and Science in the Islamic World Chair: Osman Bakar

Oliver Leaman Seyyed Hossein Nasr and the Defense of Traditional Science


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Osman Bakar

Seyyed Hossein Nasr as a Traditional Philosopher of Science

Laleh Bakhtiar Traditional Psychology and the Concept of the Self Ibrahim Kalin

Reading the Book of Nature: Science and Beyond Discussant: Oliver Leaman

10:30-10:45 Coffee Break

10:45-12:30 Panel Six: Sufism and Spirituality Chair: Mohammad H. Faghfoory

Luce Lopez-BaraltThe Philomene of St. John of the Cross: Virgils Sorrowful

Nightingale or the Sufis Singer of Ecstasy?

William Chittick The Real Shams-i Tabrizi Alan Godlas

Surrendering to God: The View of Ruzbihan and Early Sufi Qur'anic Commentators--And Its Importance Today

Mohiaddin Mesbahi and Farhang Rajai A Muslim Paradox in the New Millennium

Discussant: William Chittick

12:30-2.00 Lunch Break

2:00-3:30 Panel Seven: Philosophical Language and Culture


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Chair : Ramin Jahanbegloo

Ali GheissariFormalism and Substance in Modern Philosophical Persian

Ramin JahanbeglooThe Concept of Truth in the Thoughts of Rabindranath Tagoreand Seyyed Hossein Nasr: A Comparative Approach. Ibrahim Pourhadi

Public and Private Libraries in the Islamic World

Caner D agliOnthe Possibility of an Islamic Philosophical Tradition in

English

Discussant: Ali Gheissari

3:30-4:45 Panel Eight: Islam and Issues in the ContemporaryMuslim World

Chair: Azizah al-Hibri

Abdallah Schleifer Traditional Islam in the Modern World: The Problematic

Ironies of Islamization

Jane Smith Seyyed Hossein Nasr and the Muslim-Christian Encounter

Ejaz Akram

Unity Vs. Uniformity: Seyyed Hossein Nasrs Views On the Political Unity of Muslims

Waleed al-Ansary Seyyed Hossein Nasr's Contribution to Environmental

Economics

Discussant: Abdallah Schleifer

4:45-5:00 Coffee Break


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5:00-6:00 Reflections: SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR

6:00-6:15 Concluding Remarks and Presentation of AppreciationPlaque to Professor Nasr By his Students.

6:15:7:30 Dinner 8:00-10:0 0 Concert: Traditional Persian Music

Marvin Center Amphitheatre (1 st floor)


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ABSTRACTS

Ejaz Akram, Unity Vs. Uniformity: Seyyed Hossein Nasrs Views On the Political Unity of Muslims

This paper examines the works of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Allamah Muhammad Iqbaland Jamal-al-Din Asadabadi (al-Afghani) to demonstrate similarities and/or differences of opinion among Muslim thinkers regarding Muslim unity. Views of these authors on unity range from political unity, to economic or functional unity, tospiritual unity. In the post World War I period, the idea of nation-state took firm rootin the non-Western world. Muslims had separate political entities and identities for centuries, but nationalism as an ideology was completely new to them. In the 20 th century, nationalism became the slogan of nation-states in the Muslim world to rallyfor independence on the one hand; and on the other, it locked Muslim peoples in small

political and economic units that were to become too weak as actors at the systemiclevel. Leading Muslim intellectuals and scholars have dealt with how to bestovercome the fragmentation of Muslim regions. Seyyed Hossein Nasrs views on thisissue are unique because he calls for intellectual and spiritual unity in all walks of Muslim life upon which rests the contingence of other forms of unity.

Mehdi Aminrazavi, Mantiq al-mashriqiyyin: Whose Logic and Which Orient?This paper discusses the controversy concerning Ibn Sinas Oriental Philosophy .The controversy concerning this book stems from Ibn Sinas use of the wordmashriqiyyin and what he means by it. Whereas such figures as Henry Corbin and

Seyyed Hossein Nasr argue extensively for an ishraqi reading of what Ibn Sina mighthave meant by mashriqiyyin , some other scholars who oppose this view have arguedagainst the presence of an Oriental Philosophy in its ishraqi sense. The purpose of this paper is neither to present an exhaustive discussion of how should al-Hikmah al-mashriqiyyah be understood nor to settle the controversy, but to present a summary of the history of the debate and offer a rapprochement to the problem. It will be arguedthat the discussion among the two opposing views has become so interrelated withdifferent ways of reading Islamic philosophy in general, and Ibn Sina in particular,that a more simple analysis and solution to the problem has been ignored.

Osman Bakar, Seyyed Hossein Nasr as a Traditional Philosopher of Science Seyyed Hossein Nasr is a philosopher of science in the real sense of the word asdemonstrated by his invaluable contribution to a wide range of philosophical issues

pertaining to science and scientific thought. In philosophizing about scientificthought, not only does Nasr dwell on the different meanings and appreciation of science across cultures, but also draws clearly the legitimate epistemological

boundaries that separate science from other branches of knowledge. He offers a powerful critique of modern science, its philosophical worldview, and its verycharacter that arises from its methodological limitations and intellectual pretensions.

Nasr delivers his critique of modern science based on his conviction that there existsanother conception of science far superior to the modern one that is more harmonious


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with other domains of human thought. He maintains that science should be cultivatedwithin the conceptual framework furnished by traditional cosmology. Nasr presentshimself as a traditional philosopher of science to be distinguished from the majority of contemporary philosophers of science. This paper discusses the main elements of his

philosophical thoughts on science that have propelled him into the internationallimelight as a leading traditional philosopher of science and as the greatest Muslim

philosopher of science to have lived in the last one century.

Laleh Bakhtiar, Traditional Psychology and the Concept of the Self A fundamental premise of traditional science of the soul is that we are what we think.The modern world tries to change our God-given nature ( fitrat Allah ) by chippingaway at the human beings innate beliefs. The contrast between the traditionalunderstanding of the human soul and modern theories of the self is unmistakable andonly a return to traditional psychology and the concept of the self will ensure thesurvival of traditional Islam. David Cain, Seyyed Hossein Nasr has been a pioneering figure in the arena of interfaith dialogue and religious pluralism. An appreciation of the brilliance, breadth,and depth of the reflection of Seyyed Hossein Nasr in the context of Muslim-Christiandialogue and in regard to religious diversity and unity will be discussed.

William Chittick, The Real Shams-i Tabrizi

The mythic aura surrounding Rumis teacher Shams-i Tabriz appeared already duringhis own lifetime, and it has only increased since his death. Now that Rumi has become almost a household name in North America, the myth-making has been takingus even further from the real Shams. A look at some of his own sayings as recorded inhis Maqalat can help clarify his position in relation to Rumi.

Emma Clark, Symbolism of Traditional Islamic DressMuslim intellectual community and those involved in studying and teaching Islamicand traditional art owe much to Dr. Nasr for writing about the spiritual in art, and itsinward dimension, not just the historical, archaeological and aesthetic data collected

by most Western art historians. All this has begun to change very recently and is inlarge part due to Dr. Nasr - building upon such prominent thinkers as T. Burckhardtand A. K. Coomaraswamy. This paper examines aspects of the symbolism of traditional dress, in particular traditional Islamic male dress. I was inspired by a pointthat Dr. Nasr made in a lecture on Islamic Art and Spirituality given in London severalyears ago at the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture. In outlining the hierarchyof the Islamic arts, he suggested that after psalmody (the chanting of the Qur'an) andcalligraphy (the visual representation of the word of God) could be placed the art of Dress, above architecture even, since not only does clothing both veil and reveal our souls, but also it is, along with language and the upright posture, a prerogative of man.

The paper will focus on the sacred meaning of traditional dress in general and thequintessential Islamic dress in particular - the jallaba - which symbolizes the spiritual


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vision of al-Islam more than any of the other traditional garments from the Islamicworld.

Keith Critchlow, Geometry as the Symbol of "Permanence" in an Impermanent World Geometry is the Study of the Eternally True (Plato). Geometry is central to theIslamic genius and thus its arts. The night sky for desert peoples is not onlyfundamental to the geometry of light but also the symbol of "permanence" in animpermanent world. It is necessary to have certainty to posit uncertainty - a simple

point lost on the modernist mind but central to the wisdom of all human traditions. AsPlato spoke of the necessity of studying geometry in a healthy society, Ibn Arabi madeit central to his emanational theory of the created order. No philosopher or visionaryhas done more than Seyyed Hossein Nasr in bringing authoritative theosophical and

philosophical understanding to the contemporary mind. The modern mind, locked asit is into a parody of a religion with a Quantum Mechanic at the helm, and uncertaintyand evolution as axioms, has been consistently challenged for its naivet by Dr. Nasr.If the whole magnificent array of the Natural Order was the result of a random "BigBang", from where did order, let alone the human intellect, come from? There isnothing in the actuality of our experienced universe that is causeless, so what causedthe "Big Bang"? Such questions Dr. Nasr has consistently posed and not having beenadequately answered, he has posed them again and again with adroit heroism.

Caner Dagli, On the Possibility of an Islamic Philosophical Tradition in English

This paper explores in a preliminary way the possibility of creating a new conceptuallanguage in English within the Islamic philosophical tradition. The recent work of thelate Mahdi Hairi Yazdi on epistemology was a major step in introducing the insightsof Islamic philosophy to the West in a language that was more than mere translation.However, there is an even further possibility of philosophical exposition, which is totake the most fundamental insights that Islamic philosophy has to offer, especiallywhat might be called the school of wahdat al-wujud , and forge an authenticallyWestern conceptual hierarchy that places itself firmly in the Islamic tradition. I willexamine possible conditions that must be fulfilled in order for such a system to becreated, as well as the criteria by which it could still be called a traditional Islamic

philosophy. I will also discuss the advantages of embarking on such a project takinginto account the current state of philosophy in general.

Waleed El-Ansary, Seyyed Hossein Nasr's Contribution to Environment EconomicsNeoclassical environmental economics argues that negative externalities such as

pollution can be corrected by creating additional markets that trade pollution rights.According to the neoclassical view, differences of opinion regarding the right levelof pollution can be resolved in the market without the need for ethical analysis anddiscussion. Neoclassical theory has therefore attracted a great deal of criticism frommany environmentalists. These critics often object that neoclassical economic theoryis based upon pure greed, and excludes ethical concern for the environment.


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However, economists respond that the neoclassical approach does not ( necessarily )assume that individuals are self-interested, and that neoclassical economic theoryaccommodates any set of values and tastes. In this debate, economists have, by andlarge, prevailed. This paper examines the writings of Seyyed Hossein Nasr as theycontribute to this debate, alter its outcome, and transform the nature of environmentaleconomic education .

Amirah El-Zain, Poetry as Unveiling the Sacred Poetry is the quintessential art of gathering what is ramified in the microcosm and inthe macrocosm, hence it is the Center of the heart of human being. Seyyed Hossein

Nasrs poetry is at the heart of all his writings. This paper deals with his concept of poetry in general, and focuses on his Poems of the Way , in particular. It will bedemonstrated that Nasrs poetry is a synthesis of all his works, a kind of testament inthe sense that it condenses the essential themes that he expounds in his books, such assacred nature, the Edenic origin of human beings, the whirling cosmos, the unity of existence, and the union with the Beloved. To find how this poetry unifies his wholework, this paper will ultimately look at the correlation which exist between Poems of the Way and the rest of his work, especially Knowledge and the Sacred , Religion and the Order of Nature , and his many articles on Sufi poetry in general, and on Jalal al-Din Rumi in particular.

Mohammad H. Faghfoory, Iranian Identity: S. H. Nasr and the Concepts of Iraniyyat and Islamiyyat Since the Arab conquest of Persia in 16/637, Iran has been an important member of the Islamic community. Iranians accepted Islam, but unlike Egyptians, they kept their Persian identity. This situation created a permanent tension in Persian culture and

society between different components of Iranian identity. With the emergence of modern nationalism during the nineteenth century the debate about Iranian identityintensified and became a serious intellectual and political issue There are two extreme

positions regarding this question. While one group of Persian thinkers attempted todefine Iranian identity within the context of Pre-Islamic Persia, the other seeks thisidentity only in the context of Shiite Islam. There is also another approach, which hasits roots in the historical realities and experiences of Iran. What does it mean to be anIranian, and what is the role and place of Islam and more specifically Shiism in thisidentity. Professor Nasrs entire intellectual career has centered around creating

balance between different components of Iranian identity by highlighting the essentialconnection that has existed in Persian culture between man and God before as well asafter the arrival of Islam in Iran. This paper examines S.H Nasrs treatment of thissubject as reflected in some of his writings, speeches, and personal interviews, andwill attempt to demonstrate the historical validity of his argument.

Alan Godlas, Surrendering to God: The View of Ruzbihan and Early Sufi Qur'anicCommentators And Its Importance Today

While one can glean from the Qur'an and hadith a foundational understanding of surrendering, Ruzbihan al-Baqli of Shiraz in his Ara'is al-bayan -- along with pre-Ibn

'Arabi Qur'anic exegetes such as Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sulamiand his ninth and


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tenth century AD sources-- builds upon this foundation and expresses a number of aspects of the act of surrendering to God. In these disturbing times in which we live,when the consequences of resistance to surrendering are made uncomfortably clear tous, it is particularly important to shed light on surrendering and especially its

relationship to knowledge and love of God.

Ramin Jahanbegloo, The Concept of Truth in the Thoughts of Rabindranath Tagoreand Seyyed Hossein Nasr: A Comparative Study

In developing the creative outlook of the dialogue of cultures and religions I intend toexamine the two conceptions of truth expressed by Rabindranath. Tagore and SeyyedHossein Nasr. For Nasr, the universal conception of truth that has alwayscharacterized Islamic philosophy is not bound by the limits of reason. For him

philosophy turns from an attempt to describe man and the cosmos through a rationalsystem to the possibility of a vision of the spiritual universe. In other words, for Nasr the problem of truth is related to a philosophical position whose perspective is nothing

but one Reality expressed by the eternal sophia . This ideal of Unity and universalitydeveloped by Seyyed Hossein Nasr in his philosophy can be found in the humanisticapproach of Tagore in his idea of creative unity of humanity and divinity as perfectlyrealized and manifested through the idea of S piritual Union . For Tagore the truth of man is the unity or harmony in human life. As a result of this, the truth as universalunity is to be realized in the process of developing peace in human life and societyand fostering unity in diversity. Both Tagore and Nasr believe in religion as man's

concern for the goal of life. This wider view of Universalism based on the unity of truth in both these thinkers can be considered as the fundamental basis of unity of human culture and dialogue among civilizations. Ibrahim Kalin, Reading the Book of Nature: Science and Beyond Many attempts have been made in the last two centuries to recover the vision of science as a way of reading the book of nature. Those who have argued against the

philosophical claims of modern science have been insistent on articulating a philosophical framework for the justification and operation of natural sciences. S. H. Nasr has been a pioneering figure in establishing a discourse conducive to thearticulation of such a framework. This paper will seek to critically evaluate Nasrsattempt to move the current discourse from the level of the philosophy of science inwhich discussions of methodology take prime importance to the level of themetaphysics of science in which science can be construed as a way of reading the

book of nature. Seen under this light, the traditional conception of science defended by Nasr goes beyond the confines of the modern definition of the term and presentsitself as a metaphysical Weltanschauung , blurring the distinction between philosophyand science. In this regard, Nasrs approach to science can be compared toHeideggers critique of modern science and technology. This paper will explore the

implications of this approach for the ongoing debate on religion and science in boththe Islamic and Western worlds.


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Patrick Laude, Seyyed Hossein Nasr in the Context of the Perennialist School:

Esoterism and Tradition.This paper is an attempt at defining and situating the originality of Seyyed Hossein

Nasr's intellectual contribution within the context of the Perennialist School. Thefocus is on the writings of Nasr that directly pertain to the universalist dimension of the perennial philosophy, more specifically as it is expressed in Frithjof Schuon'sworks. In this connection, this study is primarily centered upon Nasr's magnum opusKnowledge and the Sacred, as well as upon his own introduction to and edition of theEssential Writings of Frithjof Schuon. The meaning and implications of the two key-notions of Tradition and esoterism are closely examined in the works of both writers.Seyyed Hossein Nasr's work is envisaged both as a brilliant continuation and as aspecific approach of Schuon's intellectual and spiritual perspective.

Oliver Leaman, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and the Defense of Traditional ScienceOne of the leading contributions that Dr. Nasr has made to contemporary thought ishis attempted vindication of what he has called traditional science, and his critiqueof positivism in science. This has been connected to his attack on forms of philosophywhich do not acknowledge the significance of the mystical and what is beyondexperience, and also on a limited concept of knowledge. Islamic philosophy, at its

best, is regarded by him, as incorporating a far more rounded version of humanthought than the narrow forms of Western philosophy and knowledge. How plausibleis this idea, and what arguments are there that traditional science, in its widest

sense, incorporates where science ought to be going? Finally, how distinctive is hisIslamic philosophy and science as compared with other cultural forms of knowledgein representing the traditional?

Luce Lopez-Baralt, The Philomene of St. John of the Cross: Virgils Sorrowful

Nightingale, or the Sufis Singer of Ecstasy?Saint John of the Cross ornithological symbols are among the most mysterious inRenaissance Spains mystical poetry. Miguel Asin Palacios and myself have traced animpressing number of the Spanish poets symbols to Sufism. I am happy now to add anew symbol to our ever increasing list of shared spiritual metaphors: the nightingale .In his Spiritual Canticle, St. John alludes to the famous bird under the Greek name of Philomene: el canto de la dulce Filomena that is, Philomenes sweet song . TheWestern reader, used to the melancholic bird of Virgil, of Petrarch, of Camoens, andof Garcilaso de la Vega--among so many European poets--is tempted to think that heis rewriting the old poetical leit-motiv . Philomenes song is tragic in Westerntraditional poetry because according to Greek mythology, she was both profaned inher honor and robbed of her nest. Thus, she sings eternally her sad nocturnal song. Tothe readers' surprise, St. John's nightingale, a symbol of the soul, sings the joy of mystical ecstasy. Her song is so powerful that trees and flowers of the garden join her

in enraptured dance. This cosmic music associated with nightingale, unheard of in theEuropean classical tradition, is however, a commonplace of Sufi poetry. Rumi,


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Ruzbehan Baqli, al-Kubra, among many others, celebrated the same ecstatic bird asSt. John of the Cross. Thus, we are forced to conclude that despite her Greek name,St. Johns nightingale is really the very same bolbol of Sufi tradition.

Muhiaddin Mesbahi and Farhang Rajaee, A Muslim Paradox in the New MillenniumThe life and career of Seyyed Hossein Nasr presents a puzzle to outsiders. How couldhe manage to have the impact and achieve the respect and following he has in a periodwhere the odds were against the multidimensional heritage he represented?He began his career in the West just as he had lost whatever he had made --a career,home, and a rich library-- to the revolution that swept his homeland in 1979. Then hemoved into an environment that, to say the least, was not friendly to the two importantcomponents of his national and religious identity, Iran and Islam. This was all themore detrimental as he publicly professed and openly defended both. Ironically,though the richness of these two sources may have helped him most for building hisfuture, his successful working of the triangle of Islam, Iran and Nasr points to thesecret of a rich and sophisticated legacy. To be so effective and yet to shun Islameither as ideology , conventional orthodoxy , or liberal apology , is a rare feat in theannals of Muslim intellectual achievements; converting without proselytizing,consolidating without ideologizing, explaining without apologizing. Each angle of this triangle is multi-layered, comprehensive, dynamic and with contrary dimensions.Here we concentrate only on one of them, namely the complexity of Seyyed Hossein

Nasr as a Muslim intellectual in the new millennium; unitarian, traditional, mystic,modern and indigenous, on stage locally and globally.

Sachiko Murata, Origin and Return in the Islamic Philosophy of ChinaTien-fanghsing-li or The Philosophy of Islam a book published in 1704 by Liu Chih,is commonly considered the most influential text on Islam in the Chinese language. Insetting down the basic themes of Islamic thought, Liu Chih focuses on tawhid and themanner in which it demands the two complementary movements of manifestation andreintegration. Although the basic scheme can easily be understood in terms of Islamiccategories, it is presented in the language of Neo-Confucianism .

Latimah-ParvinPeerwani, Abu Htim al-Rzi on the Essential Unity of ReligionsThis paper discusses the public debates that occurred between the 10 th century Ismili

philosopher Abu Htim al-Razi, and his contemporary Muhammad Zakaria al-Razi,the famous physician and philosopher. What prompted the debates was al-Razisfierce attack on prophethood, his condemnation of all prophets as evil souls who set

people against each other and caused wars in the world. The basis of his view was thatall the revealed books, i.e., the Bible, the New Testament, the Zoroastrian divine

book, and the Qurn contradicted each other. If the message in those books was fromthe one and the same God, then there would not have been such inconsistency in themessage. So his conclusion was that prophecy and divine revelations were

superfluous and human reason was sufficient to distinguish between good and evil,true and false, and man could come to know God and organize his life by reason and


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philosophic way of life. In his response to Razi, Abu Hatim sought to show, throughtawil or hermeneutic interpretation, that man needs revealed guidance, and thediversity of religions is the Will of God. In order to grasp Abu Htims intention wasto show through tawil that one can understand the unity of all religions by

reflectively practicing the religious tradition in which one is born, and by studyingdifferent cultures and cultural symbols in which Divine revelation has ascended. This,in turn, can lead to a harmonious society whereby people can elevate themselves tothe higher goal in life, which is the service to God and His creatures.

Ibrahim Pourhadi, Public and Private Libraries in the Islamic World In this paper, I shall discuss the development of public and private libraries in theMuslim world in general and in Iran in particular, and demonstrate their impact on theconcept and the process of learning in that part of the world from the pre-Islamic

period until the present century. Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasrs role in and contributionto the development of academic libraries in Iran during his tenure at differentuniversities in Iran in the 1960s and 1970s will be dealt with in the conclusion todemonstrate change and or continuity in the nature of the development of libraries inPersian-speaking parts of the Muslim world.

Abdallah Schleifer, Traditional Islam in the Modern World: The Problematic Ironies of Islamization

This paper considers Islamization not only as an inescapable reaction to external pressures which are manifest in the modern global culture that increasingly and

significantly incorporates the umma within its structures and institutions but also asmanifestations of global modern culture absorbed and at work in an emerging neo-Islamic consciousness. Applying a Modern/Contemporary Differential adopted fromthe writings of Seyyed Hossein Nasr (specifically from Traditional Islam in the

Modern World ), the paper notes the grave implications of this situation and the paradox posed to an Islamization that by failing to take note of this fundamentaldifference, risks aggravating and often promoting the very problem it theoreticallyseeks to solve.

Jane Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and the Muslim-Christian Encounter Over the course of his long professional career Seyyed Hossein Nasr has been one of the most visible partners in formal and informal interaction and dialogue amongmembers of the Muslim and Christian communities. His training in Christian theologyand philosophy, combined with his remarkable depth of knowledge of the range of Islamic sciences, has made him uniquely positioned for this important work. Thisessay will treat some of the many substantial contributions Professor Nasr has madeto this interfaith engagement, focusing on three areas: (a) better mutual understandingand appreciation of the basic worldviews of the two faiths; (b) identification of themost important theological issues that need to be addressed in Muslim-Christian

dialogue; and (c) pursuit of a common acknowledgement of the reality of the sacredas a grounding principle of the both Islam and Christianity.


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Mary E. Tucker, The Emerging Alliance of Religion and EcologyWhile religions have been late in becoming involved in issues regarding thedeteriorating state of the global environment, there are signs that religions are

awakening to this serious problem. The resources of the world's religions may beessential in the emerging interdisciplinary discussions seeking solutions to theenvironmental crisis. Indeed, the United Nations Environment Programme hasrecognized this and in June sponsored the Tehran Seminar on Religion, Culture andthe Environment in conjunction with the Iranian government. Clearly the spiritual,symbolic, scriptural, and ethical resources of the world's religions need to beidentified as traditions find new expression in relation to current problems. TheHarvard conferences and book series on World Religions and Ecology havecontributed to this emerging field of study building on the significant contributionsthat Professor Nasr has made in this area for some four decades.

John Voll, Understanding Sufism: Nasr's Contribution Beyond Orientalism and Area Studies

In the 1960s, the scholarly study of Sufism was in a state of major transition. The oldOrientalist tradition continued to dominate the field in terms of approaches and texts.The Orientalist approach provided an important foundation for study in terms of development of texts, editions, and translations, but it tended to be based on theassumptions of the positivist rationalism of the Western disciplines in the socialsciences and especially in the humanities. By the 1960s, Orientalism was beingreplaced or superceded by the more social science based area/regional studies

perspectives. In the United States, this transition can be seen in the "conversion" of

some of the major Orientalists, like Gibb and von Grunebaum, to the new regionalstudies approach. Area studies tended to ignore the study of Sufism, since mystical religious experience was not seen as having direct policy relevance. What wasmissing in both of these perspectives was a sense of Sufism as a living and dynamicexperience of humans. It is in this context that Seyyed Hossein Nasr began to makehis life-long contribution to shaping the scholarly awareness of Sufism in ways thatdid not lose the vitality of the faith experience. He has been able to combine thevaluable contributions of the classical Orientalists and the area studies scholars with a

profound awareness of the importance of faith commitment and cosmic experience. Inthis paper, this will be concretely shown through an analysis of Ideals and Realities of

Islam , Three Muslim Sages, and essays like those contained in Sufi Essays. Nasr'sapproach and scholarship provide a key for how contemporary scholarship can (andsometimes does) go beyond Orientalism and area studies. Gisela Webb, Themes of Wisdom in Dialogue: Pedagogical Possibilities of

Metaphysics in Undergraduate Teaching One question I deal with as a religious studies teacher of undergraduates in theincreasingly global (inter-cultural and inter-religious) university is How do I teachissues of traditional Islamic metaphysics in a manner that is understandable, critical,and relevant? This paper will deal with pedagogical possibilities in angel narrativesand wisdom traditions of Islam that serve to illuminate issues both historical and

existential.


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Hossein Ziai, Dialogue and Suhrawardi's Philosophical AllegoriesSuhrawardi's philosophical allegories, written in Persian, have seldom been analyzedfrom the purely philosophical perspective. In this paper, I propose to examine the

structure and philosophical themes of a number of his allegorical treatises. I willattempt to show a distinctly Platonic "attitude" in the allegories, and will probe their Peripatetic dimension (if any).

SPEAKERS Ejaz Akram is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at theCatholic University of America. In addition to numerous articles and book reviews

published in scholarly journals, Mr. Akram is affiliated with the International Instituteof Islamic Thought and the managing-editor of the Journal of Muslim SocialScientists to which he contributes regularly. Mehdi Aminrazavi was educated at Temple University and the University of Washington and is currently associate professor of philosophy and religion at theMary-Washington College. His main area of interest includes non-Western

philosophical and religious traditions, especially the school of Illumination and itsfounder Shaykh Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi. Dr. Aminrazavi is the author of numerous

articles and Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination (1997). He co-edited TheComplete Bibliography of the Works of Seyyed Hossein Nasr (with Zailan Moris) andthe multi-volume Anthology of Persian Philosophy (with Seyyed Hossein Nasr). He isalso the editor of The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia by S. H. Nasr.

Nasir Assar graduated from the faculty of Law and Political Science at the Universityof Tehran and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1945. Between 1949-1964, heserved as a career diplomat at Irans embassies in Germany, Turkey, and the United

Nations. After serving a year as the Director-General of the Prime Ministers Office,Mr. Assar was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister and the Director of the Officeof Pious Endowments (Sazman-i Awqaf). Between 1972-1975, Mr. Assar served asIrans Ambassador to Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) where he also served asthe Secretary-General of that organization. Before the 1979 revolution he wasUndersecretary for Political and Parliamentary Affairs at the Ministry of ForeignAffairs and lecturer University of Tehran where he taught collective security andregional defense pacts.

Osman Bakar , a leading figure of Malaysian intellectual scene, is associate professor of philosophy of science at The University of Malaysia and specialist in Islamicthought and the Malay intellectual tradition. He is the author of Classification of

Knowledge in Islam , Science and Tawhid , al-Farabi: Life, Work, and Significance ,

and Critique of Evolutionary Theory (ed.), and numerous articles on Islamic


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philosophy of science and Sufism. Currently he is a visiting professor at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Laleh Bakhtiar studied history, law, Islamic philosophy, and mysticism, counseling,

and educational psychology. She is a certified national counselor, and author of several books including Sufi Expression of the Mystic Quest , Gods Will be Done , TheSense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture (together with Nader Ardalan). Currently, she is the president of the Institute of Traditional Psychology andGuidance, and the editor of the Kazi publications in Chicago. David Burrell , currently Theodore M. Hesburgh C.S.C. Professor in Philosophy andTheology at the University of Notre Dame, was born in Akron, Ohio (in 1933). After completing high school in Akron at St. Vincent's, he went to Notre Dame in 1950,enrolling in a new program modeled after St. John's (Annapolis) and the "GreatBooks" program at the college of the University of Chicago. He studied with BernardLonergan in Rome. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University in1965. Prof. Burrell is a major figure in the comparative study of Islamic andThomistic philosophy and the author of numerous books and articles including

Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions, Knowing the Unknowable God: Ibn Sina, Maimonides, Aquinas , Aquinas: God and Action , Exercises in ReligiousUnderstanding , and Analogy and Philosophical Language . David Cain , Former President of the Soren Kierkegaard Society, is Distinguished

Professor of Religion at Mary Washington College and Chairman in the Departmentof Classics, Philosophy, and Religion. Dr. Cain has won many awards and honorsincluding the Colleges Grellet C. Simpson Award for Excellence in UndergraduateTeaching. He is a theologian, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, anda Kierkegaard scholar. He the is author and photographer of An Evocation of

Kierkegaard / En Fremkaldelse of Kierkegaard (in English and Danish).

William Chittick , a world-known authority on Ibn al-Arabi and his school, is professor of Comparative Studies at the State University of New York in Stony Brook.He spent over twelve years in Iran where he studied Islamic philosophy and Sufism.Dr. Chittick has published extensively in the field of Islamic intellectual tradition andis the author, among others, of The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of

Rumi , The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-Arabis Metaphysics of Imagination , TheSelf-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-Arabis Cosmology , Imaginal Worlds:

Ibn al-Arabi and the Problem of Religious Diversity , The Vision of Islam (withSachiko Murata), and A Short Introduction to Sufism .

Emma Clark is a lecturer and tutor in the Visual Islamic and Traditional ArtsDepartment at the Prince's Foundation in London. She specializes in teaching the

principles of sacred and traditional art, based primarily upon the writings of SeyyedHossein Nasr, Titus Burckhardt, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Frithjof Schuon, and Martin


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Lings. In addition to several articles on Islamic and traditional arts and two children's books on Muslim heroes, she has published a book on Islamic Garden. Recently shehas embarked on garden design, specializing in gardens based on Islamic principles.She also acts as a consultant to Christie's on European, Islamic and Oriental costumeand textiles.

Keith Critchlow is a world-renowned lecturer, teacher and practitioner of sacredgeometry. He is also a practicing architect and the author of several books on sacredgeometry, proportion and related subjects. He founded the Visual Islamic andTraditional Arts Department (known as VITA) at the Royal College of Art in Londonin 1983, which is now flourishing under the wing of The Prince of Wales' Foundation.VITA specializes in the teaching of the practice of the traditional arts, particularly theuniversal language of geometry, which underpins the sacred art of all the great worldtraditions. Professor Critchlow has unlocked the doors of sacred and traditional art for so many students, colleagues and many others who turn to him for inspiration andwith tremendous gratitude. Caner Dagli completed his Masters in Religion at George Washington University.Currently he is a doctoral candidate in the Near Eastern Studies Department atPrinceton University. His main areas of interest are Islamic philosophy and Sufimetaphysics.

Waleed El-Ansary is a Ph.D. candidate in the Human Sciences Program at GeorgeWashington University where he specializes in Islamic economics. He has taught classes onIslamic economics and related subjects. His publications include "Recovering the IslamicEconomic Intellectual Heritage: Problems and Possibilities," and "Linking Ethics andEconomics: the Role of Ijtihad in the Regulation and Correction of Capital Markets.

Amira el-Zein is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Arabic at GeorgetownUniversity where she teaches Arabic Literature, Francophone literature, and Sufism.She is a well-known poet with two anthologies of poetry in Arabic and coeditor of thequarterly journal Jusoor . Professor el-Zein has published many articles in Arabic,French and English on Arabic literature, Comparative Literature, Sufism, andcomparative Religion, and has translated into Arabic works by French authors such asGenet, Malraux, and Artaud. She has two forthcoming books: The Seen and theUnseen: Jinn Among Humans and Sufi Discussions: Dialogues with Seyyed Hossein

Nasr.

John L. Esposito received his Ph.D. from Temple University and taught at theCollege of the Holy Cross at Worcester, Massachusetts. He is University Professor of Islamic Studies and Director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding atGeorgetown University in Washington, DC. Dr. Esposito is an internationally knownauthority on Islam and the modern Middle East and has published and edited many

books and articles including Islam: The Straight Path, Islam and Democracy (withJohn Voll), Islam and Politics, Islam in Asia, Political Islam: Radicalism, Revolution,or Reform, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the

Modern Islamic World (ed.) , and The Oxford History of Islam (ed.).


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Muhammad H. Faghfoory , formerly professor of history at the University of Tehran,has been a visiting scholar at the University of California-Los Angeles, IslamicManuscripts Specialist at Princeton University, and at the Library of Congress.

Currently he is a lecturer at the George Washington University and research fellow atthe Institute of Ismaili Studies in London where he is conducting research on Shiiand Sufi commentaries on the Quran. He has published numerous essays and book reviews, translated several books, and has contributed chapters to such publications asthe Encyclopedia of Modern Middle East , the Encyclopedia of Islam and the MuslimWorld, and An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia . His translation of the Kernel of the

Kernel (on Sufism) by Allamah Sayyid Mohammad Husayn Tabatabai is in press atthe State University of New York Press. Peter Felsenthal and Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr met as undergraduate studentsin their freshman year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Felsenthalis a physicist, electrical and mechanical engineer, and a published poet. He was a

pioneer in the use of computers in health care, and contributed immensely by his work and his original research for the scientific expeditions to the moon. For over thirtyyears, he has headed a manufacturing firm. Since his undergraduate years, Dr.Felsenthal has written and published poetry and given poetry readings.

Ali Gheissari was educated at the University of Tehran in Law and Political Scienceand Essex University and the Oriental Institute at Oxford University in sociology. Dr.

Gheissari has taught in Tehran and Oxford. He has been a member of the GoverningCouncil of California Sociological Association, a member of the NominationCommittee of Society for Iranian Studies, and the Book Review Editor of Iran-

Nameh. In addition to numerous articles in Persian and English, his publicationsinclude a Persian translation with Hamid Enayat of Immanuel Kants Fundamental

Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics and Iranian Intellectuals in the 20 th Century .He is currently associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of San Diegoin California. Alan Godlas received his Bachelor of Science degree in Ecological Psychology fromthe University of California at Davis in 1972. He continued his education at TehranUniversity, the American University in Cairo, Bosphorus University in Istanbul, andthe University of California-Berkeley where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1991. Hewrote his dissertation on the 'Arais al-bayan , the mystical Qur'anic commentary of Ruzbihan Baqli Shirazi, the translation and critical edition of which he is currentlycontinuing. In addition, he is working on the life and teachings of the 18th centuryAfghan Sufi, Sufi Islam of Harat, as well as continuing to update his award winningwebsite, "Islamic Studies, Islam, Arabic, and Religion." He is an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic in the Department of Religion at the University of Georgia.

Azizah Y. al-Hibri studied philosophy and law at the American University of Beirutand the University of Pennsylvania. A former professor of philosophy, currently she is


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professor of law at the T. C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond. She isthe author of many books and articles including Islamic Jurisprudence and Critical

Race Feminism (forthcoming), and Islamic Law and Muslim Women in America inOne Nation Under God (1999). Dr. al-Hibri is thefounding editor of Hypatia: A

Journal of Feminist Philosophy , and founder and director of Karamah: MuslimWomen Lawyers for Human Rights. She is also a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Law and Religion , the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences ,Contributing Editor of Second Opinion (The Park Ridge Center), and member of theBoard of Advisors, The Religion and Human Rights Series (Emory University).

Ramin Jahanbegloo studied in France where he earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees inPhilosophy, History and Political Science, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from theUniversity of Sorbonne in Paris. In 1993 he taught at the Academy of Philosophy inTehran. Dr. Jahanbegloo was a researcher at the French Institute for Iranian Studies inTehran (1994-1996), visiting scholar at the University of Toronto (1997-1998), Fellowat the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University (1998-1999), andAdjunct Professor in Political Philosophy at the University of Toronto from (1999 to2001). Currently he is a Senior Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy.His writings include Conversation with Isaiah Berlin , Entretiens avec George Steiner (in French) , Gandhi: Aux Sources de la Nonviolence (in French), Penser la

Nonviolence (in French), and Iran: Between Tradition and Modernity (forthcoming).He is preparing a series of interviews with Seyyed Hossein Nasr, which will be

published in English.

Ibrahim Kalin is a Ph. D. candidate at the George Washington University andspecializes in Islamic philosophy. He has published articles and book reviews onIslamic philosophy and science in the Islamic world. He is co-editor, with Muzaffar

Iqbal, of the web based Resources on Islam and Science Project ( www.cis-ca.org ).Currently he is completing his dissertation on Mulla Sadras concept of the intellect.

Patrick Laude is Associate Professor of French at Georgetown University. He is theauthor of several books and numerous essays dealing with poetry and mysticismincluding a study on Louis Massignon in French. He has translated Nasr's Knowledgeand the Sacred into French, and is currently preparing two major volumes on Frithjof Schuon. Oliver Leaman was educated at Oxford and Cambridge and has taught at Liverpool

John Moores University and University of Khartoum. His main interests includemedieval Islamic philosophy, Islamic spirituality, and Jewish philosophy. His

publications include An Introduction to Medieval Islamic Philosophy , Averroes and his Philosophy , and History of Islamic Philosophy (edited with Seyyed Hossein Nasr).Currently he teaches Islamic and Jewish philosophy at the University of Kentucky,Louisville.

Luce Lopez-Baralt is a world -known scholar in the field of comparative literatureand an expert on Sufi texts in relation to Spanish mystical literature. She is anauthority on Spanish mystical literature as well as Persian and Arabic Sufi poetry. Shehas published extensively in Spanish and English. Among her works are Spanish
http://www.cis-ca.org/http://www.cis-ca.org/


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Mysticisms Debt to Sufism: Mystical Imagery of St. Teresa of Avila , IntroductoryStudy to the Spanish Translation of Abul Hasan Nuris Maqamat al qulub , Asedios alo Indecible: San Juan de la Cruz canta al extasis transformante, Poems of the Way:Poetry of Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1999) and many other works. Currently she is

professor of religion and comparative literature at Universidad de Puerto Rico.

Muhiaddin Mesbahi is Professor of International Relations at Florida InternationalUniversity (FIU), Miami, Florida, and was Senior Visiting Scholar at OxfordUniversity in 1999-2000. He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies of the University of Miami (1988) and conducted post-doctoralresearch at Oxford University in 1992. In addition to numerous articles published inCentral Asian Survey, Middle East Journal and Middle East Insight, Dr. Mesbahi isthe author of Russia and the Third World in the Post-Soviet Era, Central Asia and theCaucasus after the Soviet Union . He is a member of the editorial board of Central

Asian Survey (London), Journal of Political Ideologies (Oxford), and The Iranian Journal of International Affairs . He has been a speaker in major internationalconferences in Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, UnitedArab Emirates, Canada, and France, and has been interviewed by BBC, Voice of America and several European national radio stations pertaining to the Middle East,Iran and Central Asia.

Sachiko Murata is professor of Religious Studies at the State University of NewYork at Stony Brook. She spent many years in Iran before the revolution where she

studied theology and Persian literature. She is the author of The Tao of Islam: ASourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought and Chinese Gleams of Sufi

Light . Sanford Nemitz s friendship with Professor Nasr goes back to 1946 when they were

both in the Class of 1950 at the Peddie School. After graduation, Dr. Nemitz went toPrinceton, then the U.S. Army, IBM and finally chose a career as a venture capitalistworking in Europe, the Caribbean, Central America as well as the United States. Hehas served four presidents as a representative on the White House Commission onPresidential Scholars and founded the Presidential Scholars Foundation. In addition,he serves on the Northeast Region Board of the Boy Scouts of America, and directsthe organization of Humanities Centers for High School Students. He is a ClassOfficer for his Princeton Class and serves as Schools Committee Chairman for BucksCounty PA for the University. He is also a member of a number of corporate boards of directors. Latimah-Parvin Peerwani studied at the American University of Beirut and TehranUniversity. She was associate professor of Islamic Thought and Persian Studies at theInstitute of Ismaili Studies in London. She has published widely in the area of

Ismaili and Shiite philosophical thought, and is now preparing the annotated


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translation of some volumes of al-Asfar al-Arbaah of the seventeenth century Iranian philosopher Sadr al-Din Shirazi. She teaches at Fort Worth, Texas. Ibrahim Pourhadi was educated in Iran and the American University of Beirut and

has been an analyst and the Head of Iran Section at the Library of Congress inWashington D.C. since the early 1950s where he has been developing the Persiancollection. In addition to numerous articles in scholarly journals and chapters to many

books, Mr. Pourhadi has compiled several bibliographies including the Persian and Afghan Newspapers in the Library of Congress: 1871-1978 .

Farhang Rajaee is an Associate Professor political science at Carleton University.Between 1986 and 1996 he taught at the University of Tehran, the Iranian Academy of Philosophy, and Beheshti (National) University. In 1990-91, he was a fellow at St.Antony's College, Oxford, and in 1996 a research fellow at Zentrum Moderner Orient,Berlin, where he conducted research on Globalization and the Islamic World. Inaddition to many articles, Dr. Rajaee has published in Persian The Battle of Worldviews ( Ma'rekeye Jahanbiniha) The Development of Political Ideas in the

Ancient East (Tahavol Andisheye Siyasi dar Sharqe Bastan ), and Globalization onTrial. Abdallah Schleifer is an American scholar who has lived and taught in the Islamicworld for over thirty years. Currently he is the Distinguished Lecturer in MassCommunication and director of the Adham Center for Television Journalism at the

American University in Cairo. He is the author of The Fall of Jerusalem and has published many articles on Jerusalem as well as on Islamic political thought, Islamicart and architecture, Sufism and the impact of mass media upon traditionalconsciousness. Mohsen Shirazi received his education in Iran and graduated in Petrochemicalengineering from the Abadan Institute of Technology. He has been trained in variousdisciplines including management and economics. He has a wealth of over 40 years of experience in the international oil and gas industries, including 15 years at the WorldBank as a senior specialist and consultant, working for over 20 countries withemerging markets, four years as Director of Frontier Projects for the PhillipsPetroleum Company, as well as 23 years with the National Iranian Oil Company andthe National Iranian Gas Company. In addition to a number of key positions in the oilindustry that he held in Iran, Mr. Shirazi served as a Member of the Board, Chairmanand Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company, Chairman of the GasCommittee of OPEC (1975-1977) as a member of the Council of the International GasUnion (1983-1987).

Jane I. Smith is Professor of Islamic Studies and Co-Director of the Macdonald

Center for Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary. She has done extensivework on Muslim communities in America, historical relations between Christians and


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Muslims, Christian theology in relation to Islam, the role and status of women inIslam, and Islamic conceptions of death and afterlife. Dr. Smith is the co-editor of The

Muslim World , area editor of Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures and editor of Islam section of The Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions . Among Dr. Smiths

recent publications are Visible and Invisible: Muslim Communities in the West, Islamin America , Islam and Christendom in The Oxford History of Islam , ChristianMissionary Views of Islam in the 19 th-20 th Centuries in Islam and Muslim-Christian

Relations , and the co-edited volumes of Muslim Communities in North America and Mission to America: Five Islamic Sectarian Communities in the United States .

Mary Evelyn Tucker is a professor of religion at BucknellUniversity in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D. from ColumbiaUniversity in the history of religions, specializing in Confucianism in Japan. Her

publications include Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism ,

and she is the co-editor of Worldviews and Ecology , Buddhism and Ecology ,Confucianism and Ecology , and Hinduism and Ecology . She is currently co-editing with Tu Weiming two volumes on Confucian Spirituality which will be

published in 2002 by Crossroad in the series on World Spirituality. She and her husband, John Grim, have directed a series of ten conferences on World Religions andEcology at the Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions from1996-1998. They are the series editors for the ten volumes which are being publishedfrom the conferences by the Center and Harvard University Press, and of a book series on Ecology and Justice from Orbis Press. In addition, they are nowcoordinating an ongoing Forum on Religion and Ecology (FORE). Mary Evelyn has

been a committee member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) since 1986 and is Vice President of theAmerican Teilhard Association. She was a member of the Earth Charter DraftingCommittee from 1997-2000.

John O. Voll is Professor of Islamic History and Associate Director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. He received his Ph.D.from Harvard University and taught Middle Eastern and world history for thirty yearsat the University of New Hampshire before coming to Georgetown University in1995. He is a past president of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). He hasauthored many articles and books including Islam: Continuity and Change in the

Modern World and Islam and Democracy and Makers of Contemporary Islam (bothco-authored with J. Esposito).

Gisela Webb was a student of Professor Nasr at Temple University between 1980-1989 when she received her Ph.D. in Islamic Studies. Currently, she is AssociateProfessor of Religious Studies and Director of the University Honors HumanitiesProgram at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. She is the Director of the UniversityHonors Program and Faculty Fellow in the School of Diplomacy and InternationalRelations. Dr. Webb has published in the field of Islamic studies, women andspirituality, and womens issues. Her most recent book, Windows of Faith: Muslim


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Women Scholar-Activist in North America, was published by the Syracuse UniversityPress in 2000.

Hossein Ziai is a leading scholar on Islamic philosophy and an authority on Shaykh

Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi and the Illuminationst tradition. His publications include Knowledge and Illumination: A Study of Suhrawardis Hikmat al-Ishraq andnumerous articles in Persian and English. Currently he is professor of Islamic

philosophy and Director of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatureat the University of California-Los Angeles.

beacon of knowledge 2001

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