Suha Taji-Farouki

Biography

CurrentAcademic Posts

Lecturer in Modern Islam, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter

Research Associate/Faculty Member, The Institute of Ismaili Studies (London)

Previous and Visiting Academic Posts

Lecturer in Modern Islam, University of Durham (1994-2004)

Lecturer in Contemporary Islam and Arabic, University of Durham (1991-1994)

Visiting Fellow/Faculty Member, The Institute of Ismaili Studies (1999-2003)

Visiting Fellow, The Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies, Amman, Jordan (1997)

Visiting Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (1996)

Education

PhD in Modern Islam and Middle East Politics (Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami - History, Ideology and Organisation, 1952-1993), University of Exeter (1993)

BA (Honours) in Classical Arabic and Islamic Studies with Persian, University of Durham (1987)

Publications

Monographs and edited volumes

ed., Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the Qur’an (Oxford and New York: OUP in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2004). Persian translation: Rawshanfikran-i mutijaddid-i musulman (Farzan, Tehran, 2006)

with Basheer M. Nafi, ed., Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2004)

with Ronald L. Nettler, ed., Muslim-Jewish Encounters: Intellectual Traditions and Modern Politics (Reading: Harwood, 1998)

with Hugh Poulton, ed., Muslim Identity and the Balkan State (London and New York: Hurst/NYUP, 1997)

A Fundamental Quest: Hizb al-Tahrir and the Search for the Islamic Caliphate (London: Grey Seal, 1996). Turkish translation: Hizbu’t-Tahrir ve Hilafet (Istanbul: Yonelis, 1998)

Journal articles

‘al-mujtama‘at al-Islamiyya al-Britaniyya: lamha ‘an hayatihim wa usulihim wa ihtimamatihim al-haliyya’, al-Mustaqbal al-‘Arabi 286 (2002) pp. 41-52

‘Sadiq Nayhum: An Introduction to the Life and Works of a Contemporary Libyan Intellectual’, The MaghrebReview 25: 3–4 (2000) pp. 242-273

‘Muslim-Christian Co-operation in the 21st Century: Some Global Challenges and Strategic Responses’, Islam and Christian – Muslim Relations 11: 2 (2000) pp. 167-193

‘Islamists and the Threat of Jihad: Hizb al-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun on Israel and the Jews’, Middle Eastern Studies 36: 4 (2000), pp. 21-46. Reprint in Bryan S. Turner, ed., Islam: Critical Concepts in Sociology (London: Routledge, 2003) vol. IV, pp. 236-260

with Quintan Wiktorowicz, ‘Islamic Non-Governmental Organisations and Muslim Politics: A Case from Jordan’, Third World Quarterly 21: 4 (2000) pp. 685-699

‘A Case-Study in Contemporary Political Islam and the Palestine Question - the Perspective of Hizb al-Tahrir’, Studies in Muslim-Jewish Relations 2 (1995) pp. 35-58

‘Nazariyyat al-Dawla al-Islamiyya wa al-Waqi‘ al-Mu‘asir: Hala Dirasiyya’, Qira’at Siyasiyya 5 (1995) pp. 83-99

‘From Madrid to Washington: Palestinian Islamist Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Settlement’, World Faiths Encounter 9 (1994) pp. 49-58

‘Islamic Discourse and Modern Political Methods: An Analysis of al-Nabhani’s Reading of the Canonical Textual Sources of Islam’, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 11: 3(1994) pp. 365-39

Chapters

Modern Intellectuals, Islam and the Qur’an: the example of Sadiq Nayhum, in Taji-Farouki, ed., Modern MuslimIntellectuals and the Qur’an (Oxford and New York: OUP, 2004) pp. 297-332

Thinking on the Jews, in Taji-Farouki and Nafi, ed., Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century (London and New York:I. B. Tauris, 2004) pp. 318-367

Zur Einrichtung einer professur fur islamische theologie in Hamburg, in Islamische Theologie (Hamburg: Korber-Stiftung, 2002) pp. 37-61

A Contemporary Construction of the Jews in the Qur’an: A Review of Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi’s Banu Isra’il fi’l-Qur’an wa’l-Sunna and ‘Afif ‘Abd al-Fattah Tabbara’s al-Yahud fi’l-Qur’an, in Nettler and Taji-Farouki, ed., Muslim-Jewish Encounters - Intellectual Traditions and Modern Politics (Reading: Harwood, 1998) pp. 15-37

Islamic State-Theories and Contemporary Realities, in Sid Ahmad and Ehteshami, ed., Islamic Fundamentalism (San Francisco: Westview, 1996) pp. 35-50

Forthcoming

with Youssef Choueiri, ‘Sayyid Qutb’, Encyclopaedia of Religion (Macmillan, 2005)

Beshara and Ibn ‘Arabi: A Movement of Sufi Spirituality in the Modern World (I. B. Tauris, 2006)

‘A Prayer of Ibn ‘Arabi: Contemporary Use, History, Critical Edition and Translation of al-Dawr al-a‘la’, Journal of the Muhyi al-Din Ibn ‘Arabi Society (2006)

ed., On Reading the Qur’an: Language, Culture and Interpretation in Twentieth Century Tafsir (OUP, 2007)

Chapter: ‘From Washington, D.C.: Muhammad al-‘Asi’s Tafsir in English’

Chapter: ‘Islam and Other Faiths’, in Roberto Tottoli, ed., Islam and Modernity (Rome: Einaudi, 2007)

Research

My research interests focus on aspects of the interface between Islam and modernity, particularly the impact of the modern experience and the cultural transformations associated with modernity on Islamic thoughtin its methodologies, central concerns and relation to historical textual and intellectual traditions. Current and planned research projects address both Sufism and Salafism, the former through the legacy of the great 13th century Andalusian mystic Ibn ‘Arabi, the latter as a highly influential modern Islamic intellectual tradition encompassing a wide range of intellectual trends, thinkers and movements.

Courses

Modern Islamic Thought

This course explores the evolution and diversification of Islamic thought during the modern period, mapping shifting modes of religious-intellectual authority and their implications, and key debates and concerns. It encompasses the spectrum of ideological/intellectual/political positions as well as a wide geographical scope reaching beyond the Muslim world to include thinkers based in the west.

Modern Islamic Thought: Arabic Texts

This course (a companion course to ModernIslamic Thought) examines a representative selection of influential Arabic texts by modern Islamic thinkers, from Islamists (radical and moderate) to their opponents, modernist, liberal and sufi.It provides an opportunity to engage in detail with original sourceswhile helping to develop Arabic language research skills.

Islam and Politics

This course explores the theoretical debate concerning the interface between Islam and politics, discussing issues such as the Islamic state, democracy and human rights, nationalism, trans-nationalism and globalism. Theoretical issues and debates are illustrated through examples drawn from the Muslim experience on the groundin governments, Islamic movements and international Islamic organisations, for example.

Islam beyond the Muslim World: Europe and the USA

This course examines Muslim communities outside of majority Muslim countries, focusing on Britain, Western Europe and the USA and considering religious, political, legal and sociological dimensions and contemporary debates.