Aziz al-Azmeh

Professor Aziz Al-Azmeh B.A. Hons. (Licence ès Lettres), M.A., D.Phil. (born 24 July 1947) was born in Damascus, Syria. He received a D.Phil. in Oriental Studies from St Anthony's College, University of Oxford (supervised by Albert Hourani), having previously attended the University of Tübingen, and the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses (though latterly focusing on postgraduate teaching and research) across the whole thematic range of Arab and Islamic historical studies, medieval and modern, at the Central European University, the American University of Beirut, Yale University, Columbia University, the University of Exeter, Cornell University, the University of Oxford, the University of California, Berkeley (where he was the Sultan Visiting Professor), Georgetown University, and more recently at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations of the Aga Khan University. He has served on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including the Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies. In addition, Professor Al-Azmeh has been invited all over the world for various conferences, talks, seminars, lectures and symposia, including in the following countries: the United Kingdom the United States of America, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Hungary, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan, Japan, Singapore, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia.

Fellowships

• 1993-94 Nuffield Foundation Fellow in the Social Sciences.
• 1994-5 Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute of Advanced Study), Berlin.
• 1996-8 Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute of Advanced Study), Berlin.
• 1998 Fellow of the Swedish Collegium of Advanced Studies, Uppsala.
• 1999 Visiting Scholar, Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge.
• 1999 Directeur de Recherches Associé, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris.
• 2000 Resident Scholar, Rockefeller Foundation Study Center, Bellagio.
• 2001 Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge.
• 2001 Directeur de Recherches Associé, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris.
• 2004 Visiting Scholar, Cornell University.
• 2005 Fellow of the Collegium Budapest (Institute for Advanced Study).

Previous Appointments

• 1980-81 Fellow of the Centre for Near East Studies, American University of Beirut.
• 1981-83 Lecturer in the Faculty of Letters, Kuwait University.
• 1983-December 1984 Research Fellow, University of Exeter.
• 1985-1996 Sharjah Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter (on leave at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, 1989–90, 1993–94 and at the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, 1994–95).
• 2000-2002 Zayed Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of History, American University of Beirut.
• 2002 - 2004 Distinguished Visiting Professor, Humanities Center, Central European University, Budapest.
• 2004-2007 Professor, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University.

Visiting and ad hoc Appointments

• 1993 Professor at the Doctoral Summer School of the Arab Sociological Association (Tunis).
• 1995 Visiting Professor, Center for the Study of Islam and of Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, Michaelmas Term.
• 1996 Professor at the Postgraduate Summer School of the Arbeitskreis Moderne und Islam (Berlin).
• 1997 Professor at the Sostgraduate Summer School of the Arbeitskreis Moderne und Islam (Berlin).
• 1999 Visiting Professor, Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University, New York, Michaelmas Term.
• 2000 Visiting Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University, Hilary Term.
• 2000 Professor at the Mediterranean Studies doctoral summer school, Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence.
• 2001 Sultan Visiting Professor, University of California, Berkeley, Hilary Term.
• 2002 Cleveland Dodge Distinguished Visiting Professor, American University of Cairo, Hilary Term.
• 2004 Professor and Course Co-Director at the Summer University Course on Reconsidering Islamic Reformism, Central European University, Budapest.
• 2004 Professor at the Summer University course on Changing Landscapes of Late Antiquity, Central European University, Budapest.
• 2005 Professor and Course Co-Director of the Summer University Course on Bookish Traditions: The Authority of the Book in Scripturalist Religions, Central European University, Budapest.
• 2008 Visiting Lecturer, Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations, London.
• 2009 Visiting Lecturer, Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations, London.

Books

Some of his books:

• Ibn Khaldun
• Secularism in Modern Arab Life and Thought
• Islams and Modernities
• Ibn Taimiyya
• Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab
• Monotheistic Kingship

Publications

Monographs:

• 1981 Ibn Khaldun in Modern Scholarship, London, Third World Centre for Research and Publishing, pp xxix, 333.
• 1982 Ibn Khaldun: An Essay in Reinterpretation, London, Frank Cass, pp. 176. Paperback edition: London, Routledge, 1990; paperback impression: Cairo, American University of Cairo Press, 1993; 2nd. ed. (hardback and paperback), Budapest, Central European University Press, 2003, pp. 163. Arabic translation by A. Nasif, Beirut, Dar al-Tali‘a 1983; 2nd ed., 1987.
• 1983 Historical Writing and Historical Knowledge: Introduction to the Craft of Historical Writing in Arab-Islamic Culture (in Arabic), Beirut, Dar al-Tali‘a; 2nd ed., 1995; pp. 151.
• 1986 Arabic Thought and Islamic Societies, London, Croom Helm, pp.xii, 295.
• 1991 Arabs and Barbarians: Medieval Arabic Ethnology and Ethnography (in Arabic) - London: Riad El-Rayyes Books, pp. 246.
• 1992 Secularism in Modern Arab Life and Thought (in Arabic) - Beirut, Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-`Arabiyya. pp. 378; 2nd edition. *1998; 3rd. ed. 2008. Translations into English (London, al-Saqi books) and French (Paris, Actes Sud/Sindbad) are now in process. Extracts printed in Kitab fi jarida, a syndicated supplement to a number of Arabic newspapers, September, 2008.
• 1997 Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred in Muslim, Christian, and Pagan Polities, London: I B Tauris. pp. 296; paperback. edition, 2000. Arabic translation published as al-Malakiyya al-Islamiyya, Damascus, Qudmus Publishers, 2008, p. 374.
• 2000 Secularism: A Dialogue (in Arabic—with `A. al-Masiri), Damascus, Dar al-Fikr al-Mu`asir, pp. 334.
• 2003 Constantine Zureik (in Arabic), Beirut, Institute for Palestine Studies, pp. 297.
• 2004 L'Obscurantisme postmoderne et la question musulmane, Paris, Sindbad-Acted Sud, pp. 55.

Collections of Articles:

• 1987 The Politics and the History of 'Heritage' (in Arabic), Beirut, Dar al-Tali‘a and Casablanca: Manshurat ‘Uyun; 2nd. ed., 1990. pp. 174.
• 1993 Islams and Modernities, London, Verso, pp. 157. A second edition, incorporating two further chapters, appeared in 1996; 197 pp. Third, expanded edition 2009 (pp. 234). Electronic version: New York, Questia Online Library, 2001. German translation by Ulrich Enderwitz as Die Islamisierung des Islam, Frankfurt, Campus Verlag, 1996; 244 pp. Turkish translation by Elcin Gen as Islamlar ve Moderniteler, Istanbul, Iletisim, 2003 (Politika, 45); pp. 278. A French translation is being commissioned by Actes Sud, Paris.
• 1996 Religion and Society in the Contemporary Arab World, (in Arabic) Beirut, Dar al-Tali‘a, pp 232; 2nd revised edition, 2002, pp. 255.
• 2007 The Times of History, with a Foreword by Hayden White, Budapest, Central European University Press; pp. 310.

Edited Books:

• 1988 Islamic Law: Social and Historical Contexts (London: Routledge); 2nd. impression, 1989. Turkish translation by Fethi Gedikli as Sosyal ve Tarihi Baglami Icinde Islam Hukuku, Istanbul, I¤ Yayincilik, 1992.
• 1989 (with Elizabeth Hallam et al.), The Chronicles of the Crusades. Eye-Witness Accounts of the Wars between Christianity and Islam, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson; repr. Godalming, Bramley, 1996; repr. New York, Welcome Rain Publishers, 2000.
• 1995 (with Fawwaz Trabulsi) Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq: Unknown Works, with an Introduction (in Arabic), Beirut, Riad El-Rayyes Books; pp. 420.
• 2000 Ibn Taimiyya: An Anthology, with an Introduction (in Arabic), Beirut, Riyad al-Rayyes Books; pp. 499.
• 2000 Al-Mawardi: An Anthology, with an Introduction (in Arabic), Beirut, Riad al-Rayyes Books; pp. 333.
• 2000 Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab: An Anthology, with an Introduction (in Arabic), Beirut, Riad al-Rayyes Books; pp. 151.
• 2000 Ibn Khaldun's History: An Anthology, with an Introduction (in Arabic), Beirut, Riyad al-Rayyes Books; pp. 297.
• 2001 Abu Bakr al-Razi: An Anthology, with an Introduction (in Arabic), Beirut, Riyad El-Rayyes Books, pp. 203.
• 2001 Al-Mas`udi: An Anthology, with an Introduction (in Arabic), Beirut, Riyad El-Rayyes Books, pp. 419
• 2002 Ibn al-Rewandi: An Anthology ,with an Introduction (in Arabic), Beirut, Riad El-Rayyes Books, pp. 139
• 2004 (with Janos Bak), Monotheistic Kingship. The Medieval Variants, Budapest, Central European University Press. pp.
• 2007 (with Effie Fokas), Islam in Europe: Diversity, Identity, Influence, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. pp. 223.

Articles (Arabic, with approximate titles)

• 1981 "Considerations on Contemporary Islamic Movements", Dirasat ‘Arabiyya 17, no.6, pp.48-58.

"The Notion of Cultural Authenticity", Al-Karmel 1, no.2, pp. 80–98. "The Expression of Orientalist Notions", Al-Mustaqbal al-‘Arabi 32, pp.43-62. "The Notion of the Political in Islamic Thought", Al-Fikr al-‘Arabi 3, no.22, pp.281-291.

• 1982 "Religion, Culture and the Concept of Ideology", Al-Fikr al-‘Arabi al-Mu‘asir 20-22, pp.25-36.
• 1983 "The Politics and History of 'Heritage'", Dirasat ‘Arabiyya 19, no.8, pp.60-92.
• 1985 "Objective" Marxism and the End of History: A Discussion of the Ideas of Abdallah Laroui', Dirasat ‘Arabiyya 21, no.3, pp.3-27. Reprinted in Autour de la pensée de Abdallah Laroui, ed. B. El Kurdi, Casablanca, Le Centre Culturel Arabe, 2000, pp. 35-62

[All the above articles were reprinted in The Politics and History of 'Heritage'].

• 1986 "The Discourse on the Nation and the Politics of Discourse", Dirasat ‘Arabiyya 23, no.1, pp.52-59.
• 1987 "The Historicity of the Reason and the Critique of Reason", Dirasat ‘Arabiyya 23, no.5, pp.3-20. Reprinted in The Politics and History of 'Heritage'.
• 1990 "Myth, Text, and History", Islam and Modernity (in Arabic - London, Al-Saqi Books), pp. 259–284. Reprinted in Religion and Society in the Contemporary Arab World."Authenticity and its Cognates", Dirasat ‘Arabiyya 26, no. 12, pp.31-52.
• 1993 "Religion and the World in the Arab Present", Dirasat ‘Arabiyya 29, no. 5-6, pp.3-17. Reprinted in Qadaya Fikriyya 13/14 (1993), pp.346-355. French translation as "Le religieux et le temporel dans le present arabe", Revue d'Etudes Palestiniennes 49 (1993), pp. 65–80; German translation as "Imaginäre Welten des Islamismus: Das Religiöse und das Weltliche in der arabischen Gegenwart", Merkur 49, no. 7 (1995), pp 582–594; English translation as “The Religious and the Secular in Contemporary Arab Life”, in the second edition of Islams and Modernities, pp. 458. The Arabic original is reprinted in Religion and Society in the Contemporary Arab World.

"Secularism in the Mashriqi Nahda", Al-Ma‘rifa (Damascus) 32, no.360, pp. 8–27. "The Islamisation of Knowledge and the Politics of the Irrational", Qadaya Fikriyya 13/14, pp. 407–414.

• 1994 "Secularism and the Transformation of Arab Societies: A Response to Critics", Dirasat ‘Arabiyya 30, no. 11-12, pp 3-19. Reprinted in Religion and Society in the Contemporary Arab World.

"Arab Societies and the Question of Democracy", Al-Nahj 11, no. 37, pp 197–208. Reprinted in Religion and Society in the Contemporary Arab World.

• 1995 "Irrationalism in Modern Arab Thought", Abwab, 4 (Spring), pp 22–35. Reprinted in Religion and Society in the Contemporary Arab World.

"The Renaissance Outsider" (with Fawwaz Traboulsi), Introduction to our edition of Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq: Unknown Works, Beirut, Riad el-Rayyes Books, pp. 7–47.

• 1996 "Tradition and Globalisation", Al-Nahj 6, pp 86–100; reprinted in Religion and Society in the Contemporary Arab World, pp 33–48, and in The Arab World and Alternative Projects for Integration, Beirut, Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-`Arabiyya and Cairo, Arab Society for Economic Research, 1997, pp. 87-102.
• 1997 "The Limits of Reformist Discourse", Dirasat ‘Arabiyya 33, no. 9-10, pp. 2-12. Reprinted in Religion and Society, 2nd. ed., pp. 125-138.
• 1998 "History, Arab Nationalism, and Secularism: Constantin Zureik in Counterpoint", Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyya 35, pp. 3–22. Reprinted in al-Tariq, 60/4(2001), pp. 100–115.
• 1999 "Whither the Nahda ? Politics and the Attrition of Modernism", in Abwab 21, pp. 9–28; also in `Asr al-nahda: muqaddimat libaraliyya lil-hadatha, Beirut. Rene Mu`awwad Foundation and al-Nadi al-Thaqafi al-`Arabi, 2000, pp. 75-95.
• 2001 " Religion, Culture, Political Culture: An Investigation of Current Concepts and Distinctions" (in Arabic), in Abwab, 29, pp. 9–27, reprinted as "Religion, Culture, Political Culture: An Investigation of Concepts and Distinctions" in Religion and Society, 2nd. ed., pp. 66–79. Reprinted in M. Qassis (ed.), Challenges of the New Millennium and the Horizons of Development in the Arab World, Bir Zeit, Bir Zeit University, pp. 22–31.
• 2001 "The Global Environment" (in Arabic) in Towards an Arab Civilisation, Beirut, Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-`Arabiyya, Beirut, pp. 167-188 (Discussions and comments: pp. 189-228).
• 2001 "Westernisation and the Emergence of Arab Encyclopaedism in the Nineteenth Century: Butrus al-Bustani", in Al-Nudwa (Amman), 12/2, pp. 32–38.
• 2004 "Ambiguties of Modernity" in Modernity and Arab Modernity, Damascus, Dar Petra, pp. 269–301
• 2007 “Secularism and the Question of Civilisation”, in Secularism in the Arab East: Conference on Secularism in the Arab East. Damascus, May 2007, ed. L. Hussein, Damascus, Petra and Atlas Publishers, pp. 95–107; repr. in Al-Adab, 55/7-9 (2007), pp. 5–12.

Articles (European languages)

• 1976 "What is the Islamic City", Rev. of Middle Eastern Studies 2, pp. 31–52.
• 1976 "The Progressive Forces", in Essays on the Crisis in Lebanon, ed. R. Owen, London, pp. 59–72.
• 1979 "The Muqaddima and Kitab al-‘Ibar; Perspectives from a Common Formula", The Maghreb Review 4, no.1.
• 1981 "The Articulation of Orientalism", in Arab Studies Quarterly 3, pp. 384–402.
• 1984 "L'annalistique entre l'histoire et le pouvoir: Une conception de l'histoire sous-jacente aux chroniques, biographies et gestes dans l'aire culturelle arabo-islamique", Histoire et diversité des cultures, ed. UNESCO, Paris, pp. 95–116. (A Spanish translation appeared under the title Historia y diversidad de las culturas, Barcelona, 1984), pp. 118–143.
• 1986 "Histoire et narration dans l'historiographie arabe", Annales, Economies, Sociétés, Civilizations 41, no. 2, pp. 409–430.
• 1986 "Wahhabite Polity" in Arabia and the Gulf; From Traditional Society to the Modern States, ed. I.R. Netton, London, Croom Helm, pp. 75–90. Reprinted in Aziz Al-Azmeh, Islams and Modernities. London 1993.
• 1987 "Islamic Political Thought" and "Ibn Khaldun", Blackwell's Encyclopedia of Political Thought (Oxford, Blackwell's); Hungarian translation, Budapest, Kossuth, 1995.
• 1988 "The Middle East and Islam: A Ventriloqual Terrorism", Third World Affairs 1987 (London, Third World Foundation), pp. 23–34.
• 1988 "Islamic Legal Theory and the Appropriation of Reality" in Islamic Law: Historical and Social Contexts, ed. A. Al-Azmeh, London, Routledge, pp. 250–265. Turkish translation as "Islam Hukuk Kavrami ve Gercekligin özgülestirilmesi", in Sosyal ve Tarihi Baglami Icinde Islam Hukuku, ed. Aziz El-Azme, translated by Fethi Gedikli, Istanbul, Iz Yayincilik, 1992, pp. 317–336.
• 1988 "Islamism and Arab Nationalism", Review of Middle East Studies 4, pp. 33–51. Reprinted in Islams and Modernities . Turkish translation as "Arap Milliyetiligi ve Islamcilik" in Toplum ve Bilim, (Istanbul), 29/30 (1985), pp 29–43.
• 1988 "Orthodoxy and Hanbalite Fideism", Arabica 35, pp. 253–266.
• 1990 "Utopia in Islamic Political Thought", History of Political Thought 11, pp. 9–20. Reprinted in Islams and Modernities.
• 1991 "The Discourse of Cultural Authenticity: Islamist Revivalism and Enlightenment Universalism", Eliot Deutsch (ed.), Culture and Modernity. East-West Philosophic Perspectives, Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, pp. 468–486. Reprinted in Islams and Modernities.
• 1991 "Islamist Revivalism and Western Ideologies", History Workshop Journal 32, pp. 44–53. Reprinted in Islams and Modernities.
• 1992 "Barbarians in Arab Eyes", Past and Present 134, pp. 3–18.
• 1992 "Muslim Genealogies of Knowledge", History of Religions no. 3, May, pp. 403–411.
• 1992 "Mortal Enemies, Invisible Neighbours: Northerners in Andalusian Eyes", The Legacy of Muslim Spain, edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Leiden, E.J. Brill, pp 259–272; Arabic translation in Al-Hadara al-‘Arabiyya al-Islamiyya f¬'l-Andalus, Beirut, Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-‘Arabiyya, 1998, vol. 1, pp. 398-410.
• 1993 "Muslim "Culture' and the European Tribe", in Islams and Modernities, pp. 1–17.

"Islamism and the Arabs" in Islams and Modernities, pp. 18–38.

• 1994 "Populism Contra Democracy: Recent Democratist Discourse in the Arab World", G. Salamé (ed.): Democracy without Democrats, London, I.B. Tauris, pp. 112–129; French translation in Démocraties sans démocrates, Paris, Fayard, 1994, pp 233–252; Arabic translation in Dımuqratiyya min dun dimuqratiyin, Beirut, Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-‘Arabiyya, 1995, pp 207-228; German translation in Die Islamisierung des Islam, pp 145-175; Persian translation in Goftegu, 14 , 1375 [1997], pp. 85-107.
• 1994 "Chronophagous Discourse: A Study of the Clerico-Legal Appropriation of the World in a Muslim Tradition", Religion and Practical Reason. New Essays in the Comparative Philosophy of Religions, ed. Frank Reynolds and David Tracey, Albany, State University of New York Press (Chicago Studies in the Philosophy of Religions), pp 163–212. Reprinted in The Times of History.
• 1995 "Rhetoric for the Senses: A Consideration of Muslim Paradise Narratives", Journal of Arabic Literature 26, no. 3, pp 215–231; French translation in La Virilité en Islam, eds. by Fethi Benslama and Nadia Tazi, Paris 1998, pp. 75–90; reprinted, Paris, L’Aube, 2004, pp. 121–146. Reprinted in The Times of History.
• 1995 "Nationalism and the Arabs", Arab Studies Quarterly 17, no. 1-2, pp. 1–18; reprinted in Arab Nation, Arab Nationalism: The Antonius Lectures, ed. D. Hopwood, London, Macmillan, 2000, pp. 63–78. French translation as “Les Arabes, la nation, et le nationalisme”, Revue d’Etudes Palestiniennes, n.s., no. 3 (Spring, 1995), pp. 81–93.
• 1996 "Culturalism, Grand Narrative of Capitalism Exultant", in Islams and Modernities (second edition), pp 17–40. Reprinted in Cross-Cultural Conversation, ed. Anindita Niyogi Balslev, Atlanta, Scholars Press, 1996 (American Academy for Religion, Cultural Criticism Series, no. 5), pp. 77–100.
• 1996 "Muslim Modernism and the Canonical Text”, in Islams and Modernities, 2nd. ed., pp. 101–127; reprinted in Islam and the Challenge of Modernity: Historical and Contemporary Contexts, ed. Sharifa Shifa Al-Attas, Kuala Lumpur, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1997, pp. 391–428.
• 1998 "Geschichte, Kultur und die Suche nach dem Organischen", Die Vielfalt der Kulturen: Erinnerung, Geschichte, Identität 4, eds. J. Rüsen, M. Gottlob and M. Mittag (Frankurt/M., Suhrkamp), pp. 74–114. English version as “History, Culture and the Quest for Organism”, in Time and History. The Variety of Cultures, ed. J. Rüsen, New York and Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2007, pp. 109–134. Revised version printed in The Times of History.
• 1998 "Muslim History, Reflections on Periodisation and Categorisation", The Medieval History Journal 1/2, pp. 195–231.
• 1998 "Afterword" to Mushirul Hasan (ed.), Islam, Communities, and the Nation. Muslims in South Asia and Beyond, New Delhi, Menohar Publishers, pp. 491–506.
• 1998 "The Muslim Canon from Late Antiquity to the Age of Modernism: Typology, Utility, and History", in Canonization and Decanonization, ed. A. van der Kooij and K. van den Toorn, Leiden, Brill (Studies in the History of Religions—Numen Book Series, vol. LXXXII), pp. 191–228. Reprinted in The Times of History.
• 1998 "Ibn Khaldun", "al-Mas‘udi", and "Muqaddima", in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, eds. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey, London, Routledge.
• 1999 "Die Kohärenz des Westens: Eine nüchterne Romanze", in Westliches Geschichtsdenken, ed. J. Rüsen, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, pp. 106–116; English version in J. Rüsen (ed.), Western Historical Thinking: An Intercultural Debate, New York and Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2002, pp. 58–64.
• 1999 "Genealogie, Typologie, und Organismus: Islamische und andere. Geschichtsverläfe", in Kontinuität und Wandel: Geschichtsbildern in verschiedenen Fächern und Kulturen, eds. E. Schulz and W. Sonne, Zürich, Hochschul Verlag an der ETH Zürich, pp. 453–478.
• 2001 “Civilisation, Culture, and the New Barbarians”, in International Sociology, 16/1, pp. 75–93; Arabic translation as "Al-Hadara wa'th-Thaqafa wa'l-Barbariyya al-jadida", in Al-Thaqafa al-`Alamiyya, 113(2002), pp. 6-27.
• 2001 "Civilization, Concept and History of", in International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Oxford, Pergamon Press, pp. 1903–1909.
• 2001 "Islamic Fundamentalism", in International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Oxford, Pergamon Press, pp. 7931–34.
• 2003 "Postmodern Obscurantism and 'The Muslim Question'", in Leo Panitch and Colin Leys (eds.), Fighting Identities: Race, Religion and Ethno-Nationalism (The Socialist Register, 2003), New York and London, Monthly Review Press and the Merlin Press, pp. 28–50. Republished online in Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 5(2003), pp. 21–47.
• 2004 "Une question postmoderne ?", in Nadia Tazi (ed.), Les mots du monde: l'identité, Paris, La Découverte, pp. 11–24; English. version as "Identity in the Arab World", in Keywords: Identity, New York, The Other Press, pp. 47–64; Arabic translation in Mafahim `Alamiyya: Al-Huwiyya, tr. `A. Qinnini, Casablanca and Beirut, Arab Cultural Centre, pp. 13-30.
• 2004 "Islam and the History of Civilisations", in Tidskrift för Mellanöststudier, no. 2, pp. 61–87. Reprinted in The Times of History.
• 2004 “Monotheistic Kingship”, in Monotheistic Kingship, ed. J. Bak and A. Al-Azmeh, pp. 9–29. Reprinted in The Times of History as “Monotheistic Monarchy; French translation as “Monarchie monothéiste”, Penser/Rêver, 15: Toute-Puissance, Paris, Éditions de l’Olivier, spring 2009, pp. 175–202.
• 2004 “God’s Chronography and Dissipative Time: Vaticinium ex eventu in Classical and Medieval Muslim Apocalyptic Traditions”, in Medieval History Journal, 7/2, pp. 199–225. Reprinted in The Times of History.
• 2006 "Preamble", Mapping the Gaze: Vision and Visuality in Classical Arabic Culture, ed. Nadia al-Bagdadi—special issue of the Medieval History Journal, 9/1, pp. 17–36.
• 2007 "Epilogue: Romancing the Prose of the World", Reflections on Europe. Defining a Political Order in Time and Space, ed. H.-A. Persson and B. Stråth, Bruxelles, Peter Lang, pp. 249–276.
• 2007 “Human Rights and Contemporary Islam: A Matter of Dialogue?”, in The Universal of Human Rights: Precondition for a Dialogue of Cultures, ed. Hamilton Magalhães Neto, Rio de Janeiro, Educam, pp. 65–81.
• 2007 “Islamic Political Thought: Current Historiography and the Frame of History”, in Al-Azmeh, The Times of History, pp. 185–266.
• 2007 "Afterword", Islam in Europe: Diversity, Identity, Influence, ed. A. Al-Azmeh and E. Fokas, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 208–215.
• 2009 “Pluralism in Muslim Societies”, in Third Frame: Literature, Culture and Society, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–13.
• 2009 “The Genesis of Islam in the Light of History” Medieval History Journal, 12.1, pp. 1–12.
• 2009 “History, Arab Nationalism and Secularism: Constantine Zurayk in Counterpoint”, Configuring Identity in the Modern Arab East, ed. Samir Seikaly, Beirut, American University of Beirut Press, pp. 121–137.

Dissemination of Research

Delivered the following named lectures:

• The First Annual Lecture of the Medieval History Society, supported by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi, 2008.
• Annual lecture (in the series “Keywords”) at the Orient-Institut der Deutschen Morgenländichen Gesellschaft, Beirut.
• The Second Carl Heinrich Becker Lecture at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (together with the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin), 2008.
• The Regents' Lectures at the University of California, Berkeley (2001).
• The Cleveland Dodge Distinguished Visiting Professor lecture at the American University of Cairo (2002).
• The 19th George Antonius Lecture at St. Antony's College, Oxford (1994).
• The Distinguished Arabist Lecture at New England College (1991).
• Ringvorlesungen: in the series Kontinuität und Wandel: Geschichtsbilder in verschiedenen Fächern und Kulturen (Zürich: University of Zürich and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule – 1998).
• The Berliner Festspiele and the Einstein Forum lecture in the series ‘Erbschaft Unserer Zeit’ at the Staatsbibliothek Berlin (1996).
• The Free University, Berlin (1996) and at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau (2007).
• Plenary speaker at Fourth Global Forum, Marrakesh (The United Nations and the Government of Morocco).

Delivered lectures, addresses or seminar papers at:

University of Cambridge (School of Divinity; Centre for Middle Eastern Studies), University of London (Birkbeck College, Department of Politics and Sociology), University of Oxford (The Oriental Institute, the Race Relations Seminar, The Near East History Group), University of Essex (Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Social Sciences and Humanities), University of Exeter (Institute of Arab and Middle East Studies; Centre for Medieterranean Studies), University of Hull (Department of Sociology), University of St Andrews (Department of Arabic), University of Marrakech (Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Science), University of Damascus (Faculty of Letters), University of Lund (Faculty of Theology), University of Toronto (Religious Studies and Middle East Studies); University of Uppsala (Faculty of Theology); University of Balamand, Lebanon (Faculty of Letters); The International University of Japan; The Aga Khan University (Karachi); The American University of Sharjah; Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), Jamia Millia Islamiya (New Delhi); India International Centre (New Delhi); Central European University, Budapest (the Rectorate); Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-`Arabiyya (Beirut), Markaz Dirasat al-Wahda al-`Arabiyya and The Cultural League (Tripoli, Lebanon), Centre for Women's Research (Amman); American University of Beirut (Center for Behavioral Research); Lebanese American University (Beirut); Free University, Berlin (Institute of Politics, Institute of Islamic Studies, Institute of Ethnology), Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest), University of California, Berkeley (Mellon Foundation Symposium), University of Virginia, Charlottesville (joint invitation from the departments of Government, Philosophy, and History), University of Chicago (Divinity School), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture), Harvard University (Centre of Middle East Studies), Princeton University (Department of Near Eastern Studies), Yale University (The Witney Humanities Centre), Tunisian University (Faculty of Letters and Social Studies), Zeitouna University (Tunis), Faculty of Letters of the University of Sousse, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), the Collège International de Philosophie (Paris), Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Nantes), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (Madrid), The Einstein Forum (Potsdam), Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (New Delhi), The Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (New Delhi), The Arbetermas Bildnings Forbund (Stockholm), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), The International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (Kuala Lumpur), Singapore Management University (Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences), The Royal Institute of International Affairs (London), Centre d'Etudes et de Documentation Economique, Juridique et Sociale (Cairo), Arab Lawyers' Union (Cairo), The Shoman Foundation (Amman), The Royal Cultural Centre (Amman), Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain (Rabat), the Goethe Forum (Munich); Transfuse Association/Bosch Stiftung (Sarajevo), The Cultural and Scientific Association (Dubai), the Zayed Centre for Heritage and History (al-`Ayn).

Honours and Distinctions

1993 The Republican Order of Merit, for services to Arab culture, was conferred by the President of Tunisia in May.

2005 An international conference was held at the Central European University, Budapest, to mark the tenth anniversary of the publication of book Islams and Modernities. The proceedings, papers delivered and transcript of discussions, are in preparation for publication.

Sources

• http://www.colbud.hu/mult_ant/Thyssen-Participants/AzizAl-Azmeh.htm
• http://www.aku.edu/ismc