Person

In the Research Portal you can search and find information about all active researchers, units, publications, projects, infrastructures, and more, to get an overview of Lund University research.

PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
-Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow at Department for the Study of Religion, the University of Toronto and Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University, (October 2021-Current)

-Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow at the University of Göttingen (Secondment in August 2021-October 2021)

-Assistant Professor of Shiʿi Studies and Relations between Islamic Schools of Thought, (Endowed Chair) Duncan Black MacDonald Center for the Study of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, Hartford International University, USA (2017-2019).

-Teaching Fellow, University of Durham (January 2017-June 2017) Teaching Assistant, University of Durham (2012-2015)

GRANTS

▪ $24,980 Canada Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Connection Grant (2022).

▪ 251,000 Euros from the European Commission’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie IF scheme for the project on the Textual Integrity of the Qur’an (2021).
▪ £300 conference grant from Durham University (2013).
▪ £10,000 travel grant from Orison Charitable Trust (2012).
▪ £1000 award from the London School of Economics towards the tuition fees for a Certificate in International Human Rights Law and Practice (2008).

PUBLICATIONS

Books:

In Search of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib’s Codex: History and Traditions on the Earliest Copy of the Qurʾān, (Berlin: Gerlach Press, 2018). (Reviewed in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies and Review of Quranic Research.)

In Progress:
The Textual Integrity of the Qur’an: Sunni and Shiʿi Historical Narratives on Falsification (Under contract with Edinburgh University Press. )

Peer-reviewed publications:

▪Seyfeddin Kara and Arzu Merali, “Is “vicarious Vicarious Retribution Model” Sufficient to Analyse Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes?” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (2020), 40/4, pp. 1-24.

▪“Between Salman Rushdie and Ayatollah Khomeini: Kalim Siddiqui and political Islam in Britain in the last quarter of the 20th century,” The Muslim World (2017), 107/3, pp. 375-400.

▪“Suppression of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib’s codex: Study of the traditions on the earliest copy of the Qur’ān,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies (2016), 75/2, pp. 267-289.

▪“The Collection of the Qurʾān in the Early Shīʿite Discourse,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (2016), 26/3, pp. 375-406.

▪“Use of transmission patterns in contemporary Shī’ite ḥadīth studies,” Journal of Shia Islamic Studies (2016), 9/2, pp. 144-164.

Published ▪“Contemporary Shi’i approach to the textual history of the Qur’ān,” in New Trends in Qur’anic Studies, ed. Mun’im Sirry, Atlanta, Georgia: Lockwood Press, 2019, pp. 109-124.

▪“The rational-analytical tafsīr in modern Iran: The influence of Uṣūlī School of Jurisprudence on the interpretation of the Qur’an,” in Interpretation of the Qur’ān in Modern Iran, ed. Alessandro Cancian, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019 pp.19-39.

▪“Muslim Youth at University: A Critical Examination of the British Higher Education Experience,” In Muslim Youth: Challenges, Opportunities and Expectations, eds. Mohammad Siddique Seddon and Fauzia Ahmad, 144–62. UK: Continuum (Bloomsbury Publishing), 2012.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

University of Toronto:

-Major Themes in the Study of the Qur’an (UTM) Islamic Intellectual Tradition (U of T) -Introduction to Islam and Muslim Civilisation (UTM)

-Muhammad to the Mongols: Islamic History 600-1300 (UTSC)

Hartford International University:
▪ Introduction to Shiʿi Islam

▪ The Textual History of the Qur’an

▪ The Life of the Prophet Muhammad

▪ Introduction to Islamic Law

▪ Islam and Human Rights

University of Durham:

▪ Islam, State and Government (second year, BA)

▪ Islam and Muslims in the Modern World (third year, BA)

▪ Contemporary Socio-political Issues in Muslim Religious Thought (MA)

▪ Introduction to Islam (BA)

CONFERENCE ORGANISING
-Towards A Holistic Study of Islamic History: Re-evaluating Methodological Trajectories in the Academic Study of Islam, Hosted by Department for the Study of Religion, (in-person) University of Toronto Date: 27-29th of April 2023

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

▪ Fellow of the Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Toronto (October 2021-present).
▪ Board Member at American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies (October 2020-present).

▪ Member of Editorial Board, New Middle Eastern Studies Journal (January 2018-present).
▪ Fellow of the UK Advance HE (2015-present).
▪ Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (2013-2015).