Posts in category: Islamic Studies

Saad Alrashid was born in 1946. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history in 1969 from King Saud University. He was granted a scholarship to the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom to study Islamic archaeology. During his academic journey, he conducted field studies in several Arab, Islamic, and European countries to collect information related to his field. He also undertook extensive expeditions along the historic pilgrimage route (Darb Zubayda) from Iraq to Mecca and Medina. ‏Professor Alrashid presented a comprehensive research study titled: Darb Zubayda: The Pilgrimage Route from Kufa to Mecca: A Historical, Civilizational, and Archaeological Study, which earned him a Ph.D. in Islamic Archaeology from the University of Leeds in 1977.

Professor Alrashid worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at King Saud University and contributed to establishing the first Department of Archaeology in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and Yemen in 1978. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1982 and later to Full Professor in 1992. He held several administrative positions at the university, including Vice Dean of the College of Arts, Dean of Library Affairs at King Saud University, Head of the Department of Library and Information Science, and Head of the Department of Archaeology and Museums. He also supervised archaeological excavations at the Islamic city of Al-Rabadha for 25 years. These excavations uncovered features of an early Islamic city associated with the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Rightly Guided Caliphs, extending into the early Abbasid era. Discoveries included architectural features such as the main mosque, the residential mosque, remnants of palaces and houses, water facilities, and a variety of artifacts. These findings provided insights into the characteristics of early Islamic cities in the Arabian Peninsula and served as a training ground for the first generation of Saudi archaeology students, who benefited from the hands-on experience to work in the Saudi Department of Antiquities. Professor Alrashid also led scientific and exploratory expeditions within and outside the Kingdom. He was appointed as Deputy for Antiquities and Museums at the Ministry of Education from 1996 to 2005 and later served as an advisor to the President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage. The Ministry of Culture selected him as one of the curators for the Islamic Biennale.

Professor Alrashid has actively participated in numerous conferences, seminars, and scientific associations both within Saudi Arabia and internationally. He has authored many publications and scientific research articles featured in academic journals, as well as Arab and international encyclopedias. Among his notable works are Darb Zubayda: The Pilgrimage Route from Kufa to Mecca – A Historical, Civilizational, and Archaeological Study, Al-Rabadha: A Portrait of Early Islamic Civilization in Saudi Arabia, Unpublished Islamic Inscriptions from ‘Rawwa’ in Medina, Islamic Inscriptions from Mecca – Study and Analysis, Studies on Early Islamic Archaeology in Medina, Manuscript Inscriptions on Stone from the Asir Region: An Analytical and Comparative Study, and Al-Suwaidra (Formerly Known as Al-Tarf): Its Archaeology and Islamic Inscriptions. In addition, he published an English-language book titled Medieval Routes to Mecca: A Study of the Darb Zubayda Pilgrim Trail (revised by Peter Webb), (Gilgamesh Publishing/King Abdulaziz Public Library), 2020.

Professor Alrashid supervised several academic theses and was selected as a member of various councils, associations, advisory committees, and scientific bodies in his field of expertise. He received many awards, honors, and medals, including The King Khalid Medal (Third Class), The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Award for Excellence in Studies and Research on the History of the Arabian Peninsula, The King Abdulaziz Medal (First Class), The Amin Madani Prize for Research on the History of the Arabian Peninsula, and The Award of His Excellency Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Naim for Service to the History and Archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula.

Said Faiz Alsaid earned a Ph.D. in Semitic Civilizations and Languages from the University of Marburg, Germany in 1994. He served as the Head of the Department of Archaeology, Dean of the College of Tourism and Archaeology, and Dean of the King Abdullah Institute for Research and Consulting Studies. He is the Secretary General of the King Abdullah International Translation Award, a member of the Board of Directors of the Heritage Commission, and a visiting professor at the University of Marburg, Germany (2001), the University of Nancy, France (2007), and the German Archaeological Institute (2015).

Professor Alsaid authored and translated 91 scientific papers on the archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula, all of which were published in 15 books and peer-reviewed scientific journals in Arabic, German, English, and French. Professor Alsaid took part in several archaeological excavations at various sites across Saudi Arabia, including Al-Faw site, Field supervisor for the King Saud University excavation team at the Dadan site (2004-2010), Co-chair of the Saudi-German excavation project in Tayma (2004-2010), and Co-chair of the Saudi-French project for documenting and studying archaeological inscriptions in the Najran region (2007–2014). He also conducted several archaeological surveys at sites such as Al-Birk site in Jazan, Tayma, Tabuk, Najran, Al-Ula, Madain Saleh, Hail, Thaj, and Al-Quwaiyah. The results of these surveys were published in books and peer-reviewed scientific journals. Professor Alsaid also contributed to navigating and identifying King Abdulaziz’s route to reclaim Riyadh and aided in preparing the archaeological content for the National Museum and Al-Murabba Palace. Furthermore, he was involved in the establishment and preparation of academic programs in archaeology, including Chair of the Scientific Committee for establishing the College of Tourism and Archaeology at King Saud University, Chair of the Scientific Committee for developing the curriculum for the Archaeology program at King Saud University, Chair of the Scientific Committee for developing the curriculum for the Heritage Management program at King Saud University, Chair of the Scientific Committee for the international accreditation of the Archaeology program at King Saud University, and Chair of the Scientific Committee for developing the specialized standards and learning outcomes document for the Archaeology program, a readiness project with the Saudi Education and Training Evaluation Commission.

Since 2019, Professor Alsaid has been selected as a member of Saudi Arabia’s team of accredited experts for the World Heritage Committee (UNESCO). He has also supervised 16 master’s and doctoral theses in the fields of archaeology and heritage management. He served as the Secretary of the Saudi Archaeological Studies Association from 1998 to 2008, Vice President of the Saudi Archaeological Society in 2021, and Chief Editor of Archaeological Studies journal, the journal of the Saudi Archaeological Studies Association (1998–2006). He was also the Editor of the annual book of the Department of Archaeology, Studies in Archaeology (2006–2013).

Professor Alsaid received several prestigious awards, including King Abdulaziz Prize for the Book in 2014, The King Saud University Deanship of Graduate Studies and Scientific Research Award for Distinguished Scientific Publication in 2011, The Shoman Award for Arab Researchers in 2003, The German Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship in 2000, a Certificate of Appreciation from the Arab Awards Forum in 2021, a Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute since 2006, and a Certificate of Appreciation for Pioneers in Archaeology from the Ministry of Media in 2012.

He graduated from the University of Haifa in 1978, then earned a masters degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1979. Hallaq joined McGill University as an assistant professor of Islamic law in 1985, after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1983. He became a full professor in 1994, and was named a James McGill Professor in Islamic law in 2005. In 2009, he moved to New York, to become the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he has been teaching ethics, law, and political thought since 2009. Hallaq is considered a world leading scholar in the field of Islamic studies, and has been described as a foremost authority on the Sharia. His research and writings have shaped the Western academic education on Islamic law, and have extended over many periods and subjects, ranging from the formative period of Islam to modern history. He lectured in universities across the world, from Japan, Singapore and Indonesia, to the Middle East, Europe and North America. He has published over eighty articles and numerous books on topics including law, legal theory, philosophy, ethics, political theory, and logic. In 2009, he was listed among the 500 most influential scholars in the studies of Islamic.

Hallaq gained prominence for his doctoral work challenging the notion of the so-called “the closing of the gate of ijtihad,” a narrative that was for long accepted in the field as paradigmatic. His major works include Restating Orientalism: A Critique of Modern Knowledge, and Reforming Modernity: Ethics and the New Human in the Philosophy of Abdurrahman Taha, Authority, Continuity, and Change in Islamic Law, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law, Shari`a: Theory, Practice, Transformations, and Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Usul al-Fiqh. Professor Hallaq’s work is widely debated and translated, with several books and dissertations, and numerous articles, devoted to the study and analysis of his writings. His life and work have been featured in many interviews, symposia, talk shows, and documentaries by major media outlets.

In 2015, his Impossible State (2013) won Columbia’s distinguished Book Award for the two years prior, and since it appeared in Arabic in 2014, it has commanded much attention in academic circles and mass media in the Muslim world. In 2020, he won the Nautilus Book Award for Reforming Modernity, and in 2021, he was awarded the TÜBA Prize, given by the Turkish Academy of Science in recognition of innovative and path-breaking scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Later in the same year, he was elected an Honorary Member of this Academy. Dozens of his major articles and all his books have now been rendered into Arabic and Turkish, and many are translated into several other languages including Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Urdu, Hebrew, Italian, German, French, and most recently Albanian, Russian, and Bengali.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Robert Hillenbrand was educated at the universities of Cambridge (English Literature; B.A. 1963) and Oxford (Oriental Studies; D.Phil. 1974). Between those dates he worked in the Administrative Class of the Civil Service in London and began to undertake research for his doctorate. He taught at the Department of Fine Art in the University of Edinburgh from 1971 and was awarded a chair of Islamic art there in 1989. His travels have taken him throughout the Islamic world. He has held visiting professorships at Princeton, University of California at Los Angeles, Bamberg, Dartmouth College, Beirut and Groningen. From 1992 to 2004 he held a short-term visiting professorship at Leiden. In 1993 he delivered the Kevorkian Lectures at New York University, and in 2004 he was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the American University in Cairo. He delivered the Runciman Lecture at King’s College, London, in 2010. Prof. Hillenbrand scholarly interests focus on Islamic architecture, painting and iconography. He work with the following languages: German (native speaker), French (excellent), Italian (reading knowledge), Spanish (reading knowledge), Persian (colloquial) and Arabic (for epigraphic purposes). He lectured in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India, China, Japan, Russia, Canada, and throughout Europe and the United States.

Professor Robert Hillenbrand has written the following twelve books: Imperial Images in Persian Painting; Islamic Art and Architecture (translated into German and Turkish in 2005, Danish in 2008 and Persian in 2009; revised and expanded ed. 2021); The Architecture of Ottoman Jerusalem: An Introduction; Studies in Medieval Islamic Architecture (2 vols.); the prize-winning Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning (translated into Persian in 1998 and 2000); The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque; Studies in Islamic Painting; The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. A landmark of modern Islamic architecture; Studies in the Islamic Decorative Arts; An unknown masterpiece from Mongol Iran; and Islamic Architecture in North Africa (co-author). In addition, he has edited seven books and co-edited five more. He also published some 190 articles on aspects of Islamic architecture and art.

In 2006 he was awarded the Book of the Year prize for The Visual Language of the Book of Kings. In 2008 he received the Iris Foundation Scholar’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Decorative Arts in New York. In 2013 he was appointed Ehrenmitglied (Honorary Member) of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft. In 2018 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Iranian Studies in California, and in 2019 he received, with his wife Carole, the Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Society’s highest award, given periodically in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of Asian studies.

A Festschrift for him appeared in 2005: The Iconography of Islamic Art. Studies in Honour of Robert Hillenbrand, ed. B. O’Kane, and a second two-volume Festschrift for him and his wife Carole, ed. M. Gibson and A. Ansari, is to be published in London by Gingko Press in April 2022. In 2006-7 he served as Director of the newly-established Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World, which comprises a consortium of the universities of Edinburgh, Manchester and Durham.

Professor Robert Hillenbrand was Slade Professor of Art at the University of Cambridge in 2008.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Mohammed Ghosheh obtained in 1994 a Bachelor’s degree in Media & Mass Communication from Yarmouk University, Jordan. In 1994, he earned a Master’s degree in Archeology and Islamic Architecture from the Higher Institute of Islamic Archeology, Al-Quds University. In 2002, he received his Ph.D. in Modern History from the Cairo-based Institute of Research and Arabic Studies (First-class Honors).

Dr. Ghosheh worked as a teacher at both Al-Quds University and Al-Quds Open University. He also served as a lecturer in a number of universities, forums, and academic institutions in several countries. He later assumed the deanship of the Islamic Heritage Revival and Research Institution hosted in Al-Quds.

Dr. Mohammad Ghosheh has made myriad intellectual and documentary contributions to more than 150 research works and studies on Al-Quds and its Arabo-Islamic heritage. He has also authored some 37 historical and documentary books on Al-Quds Al-Sharif in light of its historical, intellectual, architectural, and heritage value. Dr. Ghosheh has tapped historical documents to serve and protect the Arab and Muslim rights in Al-Quds.

His book, titled The Holy Dome of the Rock, documents all the architectural, decorative, mosaical, Qashani, and geometric elements of the holy Dome of the Rock. The book ensures, for the first time, an accurate reconstruction or restoration of the Dome of the Rock shrine as it stands today in line with the description laid forth in the book. Dr. Robert Schick, an American archaeologist, describes the book as the most important publication on the Holy Dome of the Rock. As for the book The Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque that was published in 2014, it is considered the largest documentation of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque that is based on field research, architectural and photographic documentation, records of Sharia courts and Ottoman archives for each and every vestige, stone, engraving, decoration, and landmark existing in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

His Encyclopedia Palestinnica comprises 24 volumes. It is the largest illustrated documentary work on Palestine and Al-Quds. It consists of about 7000 pages and is based on thousands of historical documents and original photos (most of which are published for the first time) and sources going back earlier than the nineteenth century in various European, Latin, Persian, Hebrew, and Arabic languages. The Encyclopedia also features thousands of historical documents, maps, drawings, inscriptions, seals, and photos based on Ottoman, Egyptian, British, French, Spanish, and other archives.

Dr. Ghosheh received a number of international awards, shields and honors, most notably is the Abdul Majeed Shoman International Prize for Al-Quds in 2006, the Kuwait Award for Heritage Research on Al-Quds in 1987, and the French Sorbonne University Shield in recognition of his contribution in documenting the history of Al-Quds and its architectural heritage.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Bashar Awad graduated from primary and secondary schools in 1960. He enrolled in the Department of History at the College of Arts at Baghdad University, from which he graduated in 1964. In that same year, he enrolled in the Master’s Program of History and Archeology at Baghdad University. Professor Marouf was appointed in 1967 as a teacher at the College of Shari’a Studies at Baghdad University. He later earned his Ph.D. from the College of Arts at the same university in 1976. His doctoral thesis was titled Ad-Dahabi’s Approach in ‘History of Islam’.

Professor Awad worked at Baghdad University and advanced through academic work, eventually earning professorship in 1981. He has been keenly interested in studying and minutely scrutinizing the Prophet’s Hadiths. He has been particularly devoted to studying biographies, narrators, and the ‘hidden defects’ of some Hadiths. He taught as a Professor of Hadith in several universities.

Many of Awad’s studies have been published in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Beirut, Amman, Tunis, and London. Notable among his publications are The Impact of Hadith on the Emergence of Muslim History, Al-Mundhiri’s and His ‘Al-Takmila’, Baghdad’s Biographical Histories, Ad-Dahabi’s Approach in ‘History of Islam’, A Journey through Thought and Heritage, The History of Islam and the Concept of the Arab Leadership of the Islamic Ummah [community], Explanation of the Ruling on Chanting the Quran, A Selection of the Prophet’s Hadiths, The whole Musnad [collection of Hadith] (22 volumes), and Classified and Verified Musnad (41 volumes).

Among the many books Professor Marouf verified are Al-Wafayāt by Abu Masoud Al-Hajji, Ahlu Al-Mi’a and Upwards by Al-Hafiz Ad-Dahabi, Postscript to the History of Baghdad, City of Peace by Ibn Al-Dabaythi (5 volumes), The Grand Mosque by Imam Abu Issa Al-Tirmidhi in six volumes, Sunan Ibn Majah by Imam Muhammad ibn Yazid Al-Qazwini in six volumes, The History of the City of Peace by Hafiz Abu Bakr Al-Khatib Al-Baghdadi in seventeen volumes, The History of Islam and the Deaths of Celebrities and the Famous by Al-Hafiz Shams Addeen Ad-Sahabi in seventeen volumes, and many other publications.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.

Ridwan Al-Sayed received his Alimiyyah Certificate (equivalent to Bachelor) from the College of Usul Al-Din in Al-Azhar University in 1970, and a State Doctorate in Philosophy from the Department of Religious Studies at TÜbingen University in Germany in 1977. He joined the academic staff of the Lebanese University for the next forty years, advancing from lecturer to Assistant Professor and becoming a full Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the College of Arts in 1989. He served as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Islamic Studies at Sana’a University in Yemen (1989-1991), the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the College of Law at Harvard University (1993-1994; 1997; 2002), and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago (1994; 1995) in the USA, the College of Theology at Salzburg University in Austria (1994), the Department of Comparative Theology and Anthropology at the University of Bamberg in Germany (2001), and the Institute of Islamic World Studies at Shaikh Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates (2012-2014). He is currently a professor emeritus at the Lebanese University.

Professor Radwan Al-Sayed is an eminent scholar, who has enriched the Arabic and Islamic libraries with his books, studies, and research that reflect his insights and thorough knowledge of Arabic and Islamic religious heritage, deep knowledge of modern research methodologies, and ability to pursue detailed analysis and coordination between the origins of Islamic political thought and contemporary Arabic/Islamic reality. He verified nine books pertaining to Islamic heritage and authored twelve other books, of which he translated five.

Professor Al-Sayed owns an imposing teaching experience both at the undergraduate and the postgraduate levels. This includes teaching the: origins of Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic theology, Qur’anic studies, Islamic history and sociology, Islamic philosophy, interpreters’ methods, modern Islamic thought, orientalists input, etc .

Apart from serving as a Professor of Islamic studies at the Lebanese University, Professor Al-Sayed held several other tasks during his career. He was an Acting Director of the Arab Development Institute in Beirut (1982-1985), and a Director of the High Institute for Islamic Studies (1985-1988; 1994-2000). He also served as an Editorial Secretary of the Islamic Thought journal (1970-1972), a Chief Editor of Arab Thought magazine (1979-1985), and a Co-editor of Al-Ijtihad journal (1988-2004). He has also made significant contributions in many conferences and seminars in the Arab World, Europe and the USA, in addition to his translations, journal articles and contributions in many cultural dialogues in various mass media.

He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Arab Thought Foundation, a Founding Member of the Deanship of Shari’a College in Beirut, an Active Member of the Royal Jordanian Al-Albait Academy, a Member of the German Orientalists Society, and of the Board of Directors of Al-Maqasid Islamic Society in Lebanon, and the Lebanese Universities’ Council.

Professor Al-Sayed was awarded Abdulhamid Shoman Prize for Islamic Studies in 1985, Abdulhadi Al-Dibs Prize for Distinguished Research in the field of Islamic Studies in 1997, and Al-Khwarizmi Prize for the best contribution in Islamic Studies in 1998.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.