PI: Edmund Hayes
Edmund Hayes is a historian of Islam and the medieval Middle East. His particular focus has been the social history of early Shiʿa Islam, especially in its Imami and Twelver strands, giving rise to his 2022 monograph, Agents of the Hidden Imam: Forging Twelver Shi‘ism, 850-950 CE, and numerous articles on the institutions of Imami Shiʿism, including alms tax collection, agents, epistolary culture, pilgrimage and excommunication. He has also written on topics relating to the social, cultural and intellectual history of the medieval Middle East, including sexuality and the body, ethnic and cultural identity, and the history of water management.
Post-doc: Leone Pecorini Goodall
Leone is a historian of early Islam with a focus on the role of bilateral kinship ties (mothers and fathers) amongst the dynastic families of early Islam. In the ImBod team he will focus on kinship ties of the Imami family – both amongst themselves and with local powerbrokers and even the caliphal families in Damscus and Baghdad – using, amonst others, prosopography, classical Arabic poetry, and historiography in Greek, Armenian and Arabic. His other research interests include the role of Armenia and Armenians in early Islam and inter-cultural transmission in Late Antiquity.
PhD: Adam Ramadhan
Adam Ramadhan is PhD candidate working on the social and intellectual history of early Shiʿi Islam. His research focuses on the networks of associates of the Shiʿi Imāms. He is interested in the role these individuals had on the emergence and functioning of the institution of the Imāmate, and what the diversity of these networks can tell us about the demarcation of communal boundaries in early Islam. Aside from this, Adam also maintains an interest in Islamic legal studies.
Aila Santi is an archaeologist and historian of early Islam. Her research focuses on the development of the monumental and visual language of the early Muslim elite, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between architecture, ceremonial practice, and the conceptualisation of caliphal authority at the Umayyad court. As an ImBod postdoc, Aila will investigate the role of space, architecture, and material culture in shaping and crystallising Imami communal identity and in mediating the representation of Imamic charisma. Additionally, her interests span antiquarian trends in early Islam, the emergence of sacred topographies and associated devotional iconographies, and the narrative of the development of early Islamic urbanism in historical sources.
PhD: Zahra Azhar
Zahra, a PhD candidate at the Leiden Institute for Area Studies, delves into socio-historical studies of the female household of Alids. With a prior PhD in Public Law from Shahid Beheshti University and ongoing studies in the ḥawza program at Al-Mahdi Institute, her focus lies on the dynamics of power, slavery, and gender in early Islamic history. Her current research explores the agency of slave women within the context of concubinage of Imam’s mothers, shedding light on the issue of legitimacy and the influence of other wives on political dynamics. Through her work, Zahra challenges traditional portrayals, highlighting the pivotal role of Imams’ umm walads in shaping legitimacy and identity. Beyond her dissertation, Zahra’s research interests span Islamic legal studies, contemporary Iranian studies, and ḥadith and rijal studies within the Imāmī Shiʿi tradition.
Project support: Birte Kristiansen
Birte Kristiansen has an MA in Middle Eastern Studies and has worked for many years as a librarian and project manager at Leiden University.