Our Public Lecture series has been running since 2013. The College invites leading scholars and practitioners to share their latest research and experience covering a range of topics relevant to Islam and Muslims in Britain.
Venue: Cambridge Muslim College, 14 St. Paul’s Road, Cambridge CB1 2EZ from 18:00 – 19:30.
All lectures are free and open to the public.
Winter 2019 Term (9 February – 29 March)
6 February 2019
Redrawing the Middle East: Sir Mark Sykes, Imperialism and the Sykes-Picot Agreement
Dr Michael Berdine
For many today, World War I in the Middle East brings to mind T.E. Lawrence and the 1962 Hollywood blockbuster movie “Lawrence of Arabia”. In it we see an eccentric Englishman racing across the Arabian desert on camelback, his native robes flying leading a band of bellowing Arab bedouin against the Turks, raiding their camps, blowing up their trains and telegraph lines. Since then, Lawrence’s exploits in the 1916-1918 desert war have become legend, heralded in numerous books, articles and movies. In contrast, the wartime activities of Sir Mark Sykes are virtually unknown, although his actions had far greater consequences during the war and its aftermath. Redrawing the Middle East: Sir Mark Sykes, Imperialism and the Sykes–Picot Agreement was written to correct that.
6 March 2019
Between Kadyrov and ISIS: What is Russian Islam today?
Dr Dominic Rubin
The geo-political factors shaping Russian Muslim identity include the Chechen wars of the 1990s, Russia’s alliance with Syria and Iran, Central Asian migration and the ‘new cold war’ with the West. Focusing on these global mega-trends, some analysts classify Muslim identity as caught between the poles of extremism (support for ISIS) and assertive pro-Kremlin loyalty (exemplified by Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov). However, the situation on the ground is more complex.
In this talk, Dominic Rubin, author of Russia’s Muslim Heartland: Islam in the Putin era (Hurst 2018), will explore the deeper nuances of Islam in the modern Russian context, showing how a religion whose presence in the region predates Orthodox Christianity is still adapting energetically and originally in ways that defy easy generalizations, and producing new cultural forms that combine elements of the Muslim, Soviet, Russian and Turkic past, while at the same time trying to map these forms onto evolving Russian ‘ideologies’.
13 March 2019
A Sublime Way: The Path of the Sages of Makka
Dr Hisham Hellyer, Ma’an Al-Dabbagh and Abdal Hakim Murada will discuss the Sufi way of Sayyid Muhammad b. Alawi al-Maliki, as received by ‘ulama of the Muslim minority of Cape Town, against the backdrop of apartheid South Africa. They will highlight some of the unique characteristics of that Sufi order (tariqa), via a book co-written by Shaykh Seraj Hendricks, Dr Hisham A. Hellyer, with Shaykh Ahmad Hendricks. The Hendricks brothers are two of the recognised khulafa’ of Sayyid Muhammad al-Maliki, and resident shaykhs of the Zawiyah Masjid of Cape Town.
27 March 2019
Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition
Professor Omid Safi
Love-based devotion and poetry have always been at the heart of the Islamic tradition. With the development of the school of Islamic spirituality known as Mazhab-e ‘Eshq (Path of Divine Love), these were elevated to an even higher zenith. This lecture will present some of the masters of this sacred path, with special attention to Mawlana Rumi, ‘Attar, Ahmad Ghazali, and Kharaqani. The Path of Divine Love Muslim mystics began with a bold claim: that there is ultimately One Love, a love that emanates from God’s own being, brings us here, and will deliver us back to our celestial home.
