Histories of the Unseen

This workshop endeavors to expand understandings of invisible entities in Islamic cosmology and Muslim societies across the longue durée. It will bring together historians, scholars of Islam, and anthropologists whose work spans the geographic and temporal scope of Islamic history from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century with a focus on regional connectivities between Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The goal of the workshop is to generate a methodological and theoretical framework arguing for the importance of Muslim understandings of the universe that shape how believers articulate their social and political lives.

Convened by

• Terenjit Sevea, Assistant Professor of South Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania
• Erin Pettigrew, Assistant Professor of History and Arab Crossroads Studies, NYUAD
• Scott Reese, Professor of History, Northern Arizona University