2026
Material Culture lecture series
11 & 12 June
The IMBOD team organized the Leiden Workshop The Social Dynamics of Communal Affiliation in Early Islam
18 & 19 May
Leone Pecorini-Goodall and Adam Ramadhan presented at BRAIS 2026.
12 May
Adam Ramadhan gave a paper at the Shii Fiqh Workshop in Lausanne.
22 April
Zahra al-Azhar presented at the one-day conference Manumission in the Islamicate World: Theory and Practice hosted by the University of Leicester and co-organized by the Royal Historical Society.
6-8 April
Aila Santi presented at the conference From the ground up: The politics of burial and memory in the early Islamic world
23 January
Meeting with Harry Munt
2025
Material Culture lecture series
Online lectures available on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@EmbodiedImamate
20 November
Researching the Materiality of Early Shi’ism: Approaches, Challenges, and Future Perspectives’ by Aila Santi at the Explorations in Islamic Archaeology Book Launch, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, Netherlands.
27-29 October 2025
17 October
AMMEM 2025 conference organised in Leiden, with contributions of Adam Ramadhan and Aila Santi.
9-10 October
‘Shrines as Sites of Identity: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry into the Sacred Landscape of early Shiʿism’ by Ed Hayes and Aila Santi at the ‘Arabic Pasts Workshop, Aga Khan University, London, UK.
1 October
Meeting: Discussion with Sean Anthony (Ohio) on the estates of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. Online.
29 September – 2 October
Visit Sheida Heydarishovir (Leicester). Topic: slavery and sexual exploitation in early Islamic society. Universiteit Leiden.
7 July 2025
The IMBOD team took part in and presented at the Leeds International Medieval Congress 2025 https://imc-leeds.confex.com/imc/2025/meetingapp.cgi/Session/7646
30 June
‘The Imāmī Imāms and their Non-Imāmī ‘Companions’ in Bio-Bibliographical Works’ by Adam Ramadhan at the ‘British Association for Islamic Studies Conference, University of Cambridge, UK.
20 June
Meeting with Gianni Izzo (Seldon Institute, Chicago) on prayer texts and amulets. Online.
10 June
Visit I-Wen Su (Taiwan) on hadith studies and isnad-cum-matn analysis. Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands.
4 June 2025
Motherhood and Unfreedom in the Islamicate World
2-7 June
ICAANE. ‘Contextualizing Oases in the Archaeology and History of Arabia’ by Aila Santi and Jennifer Swerida at the International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE), Université Lumière Lyon 2, France.
10 april
Meeting with Erin Dailey (Leicester), PI of the DOSSE Project on domestic slavery and sexual exploitation in Late Antiquity.
3 April 2025
The Historical Topography of Medina: Faith, Power, and Memory in Early Islamic Arabia’ by Aila Santi for the ‘LUCIS What’s New?! Series,’ Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands.
26-27 March
Discussion with Ali Aghaei (Berlin) about Imāmī hadith and rijāl studies and network analysis.
13 March 2025
Lecture Aila Santi: The Historical Topography of Medina: Faith, Power, and Memory in Early Islamic Arabia
Lecture Leone Pecorini Goodall: Ummahāt al-Khulafā’: Mothers of the Marwanid and Abbasid Caliphate
27-28 February
Presentations by Zahra Azhar, Aila Santi, and Adam Ramadhan at the ‘Policing the Prayer in Sectarian Islam: Spaces, Temporalities, Coercion (7th–15th Centuries),’ Università di Napoli L’Orientale, Italy.
21-22 February
‘Provincialising Sunnism in the History of Islam’ by Ed Hayes at the ‘What is Islam About: Concept and Conceptualization of Islam from an Interdisciplinary Perspective’ Workshop, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
6 February
Discussion with Said Reza Tawoosi (Tehran) about Rijāl al-Najāshī. Online.
28-29 January
Presentations by Zahra Azhar, Ed Hayes, Leone Pecorini Goodall, and Adam Ramadhan at the Zaydī Networks in the Early Islamic Period Workshop, Universität Hamburg, Germany.
14 January
‘Legitimate Punishments in Early Islam: Execution, Exile, Excommunication (with Special Attention to the Imami Shiʿa)’ by Ed Hayes as part of the SCORE Lecture Series, Universität Hamburg, Germany (Online).
2024
20 December 2024
Meeting: Discussion with Simon O’Meara (SOAS) about the term ‘ahl al-bayt’ in texts and on material objects.
18 December 2024
Discussion with Jonathan Ouellet (Leiden) about ʿAlid numismatics. Leiden.
15 November 2024
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.
4 October 2024
AMMEM Meeting co-organized by Ed Hayes. With attendance and talks of team members Adam Ramadhan, Aila Santi and Birte Kristiansen.
27 September
Discussion with Leor Halevi (Vanderbilt) about his book Muhammad’s Grave Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society. Online.
25 September 2024
Leone Pecorini-Goodall organized a lunch talk about his PhD research for collegues
18 September 2024
Online guest: George Warner. topic: ziyara
16-20 September
‘Granada Prosopography Course’ attended by Leone Pecorini-Goodall. Granada, Spain.
19-30 August
‘Philology and Manuscripts from the Muslim World Summer School’ attended by Adam Ramadhan. Leiden University.
9 July
Discussion with Natalie Kontny-Wendt (Hamburg) about issues of inheritance in early Islamic law. Online.
24-29 June
‘Barcelona Past Networks Summer School’ attended by Adam Ramadhan. Universitat de Barcelona
22-23 May
‘When is a Group not a Group? Thinking Sociologically about Abbasid-Era Muslim Religious Divisions, with Special Reference to the Imamiyya’ by Ed Hayes at the Muslim Group Formation in the Abbasid Period Workshop, Aga Khan University, London, UK.
20-21 May
‘Maternal Lineage and Political Legitimacy in the Medieval Shii context’ by Zahra Azhar at the British Association for Islamic Studies Conference, University of Leeds, UK.
11 May
‘Unveiling the Untold Exploring Female Narratives in Early Shi‘a Collective Biographies of the Imams’ by Zahra Azhar at the Shiʿi Studies Conference, Islamic College for Advanced Studies, London, UK.
2 May
Informal workshop for Leiden’s historians of early Islam organised by the project.
10 April
‘Hadith as Responsa: Is the Question-and-Answer Format in (Shiʿi) Hadith a Product of Underlying Social Institutions or Literary Efficacy?’ by Ed Hayes at the Princton Responsa Workshop, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
12-13 February
‘Compiling a Tradition: The History and Development of the Early Imāmī Hadith Corpora,’ Al-Mahdi Institute, Birmingham, UK. Organised by Haidar Hobballah with the assistance of Adam Ramadhan.